When were the happiest times in your life? For me the happiest was when I was a young child.

[applegrove]

Grew up in a family where we played hard and had lots of fun at the cottage and such. Next happiest time in my life was when I was in my mid to late 20s. I had figured myself out a bit and wasn't taking myself for granted anymore. Next has to be the last few years. I feel self-actualized. It has come a little late in life but this in my time in the sun. I'm so glad I was born the person that I am. The flip side of what I saw as only weaknesses when I was young are great strengths. For sure I have ailments, like ptsd, that make life challenging at times. But I am so grateful for all I have and how I have been blessed in life. For sure I was very, very unlucky for a long time. Nothing makes you appreciate all that you have, and all the interconnectedness, more than having gone through bad times. You?

[nolabear]

1. Now. Isn't that amazing?

Not a good childhood. And a long time of not being brave enough to do what I wanted and was good at. And now I do. And my sons turned out really well and those heart problems haven't don Mr. Bear in and I think we'll have enough money to retire. I've had my share of troubles but honestly, I'm good. And lucky.

You sound pretty happy right now yourself. I'm glad. We need happy.

[applegrove]

2. You are so lucky to have sons. No doubt you got to do a 'redo' of childhood with your own kids. You

must of played a little harder with them, listened a little more raptly, and loved more ardently.

[nolabear]

3. Honestly, it was just kind of normal.

My mother spent most of my childhood dying and dead. My family did the best they could while being damned poor and kind of Southern downtrodden. I'm SO different from them that it was hard, but as I said I've managed to work my way into a life I always wanted, with a couple of professions I love, and a lucky draw in the husband and kids department.

And yes indeed, I love the hell out of them.

[applegrove]

4. Sweet!

[Chan790]

5. Well, this one time...

I was eating Madeleines and drinking tea when all of a sudden I got the inspiration to dip my Madeleine in my tea. All of a sudden this flood of memory came rushing back.



Oh wait, that wasn't me....that was Marcel Proust.


No, mine was the the day my mother filed for divorce from my father. He was a psychopath. She was tired of being hit. I was tired of being hit. Everybody was tired of being hit. So...fuck him and sayonara. That was right before he went to jail for 90 days and other than rare court-ordered visitation...I never had to spend time with him again.

[applegrove]

9. Oh man. You've come through a lot. And you've ended up here fighting to good fight for

regular people. You got your mom's heart.

[pinboy3niner]

15. Hell, I was expecting "...in band camp..."

Way to let us down!


But fuck him and sayonara!

[Aristus]

6. I'm pretty happy right now. My life is good.

But if I had to pick a specific time, it was my last year or so in the Army. I'll leave aside for this post the fact that I was an M1 tank crewman, which was very nearly the biggest kick of my life.

That was the year I got involved in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" Floor Show at the Vogue Theater in Louisville, Kentucky.

This introduced me to friends in the city's gay community, and really opened my eyes to the realities of hatred and prejudice gays face, then and now.

The RHPS enabled me to have a lot of naughty (but harmless) fun. I hung out with my friends at The Connection, essentially a gay bar, but really simply the best club in Louisville. To my friends, I was their pet gay-friendly Army guy. And for them, I got to be a 'protector' for the first time in my life. One night, before I had really got to be close to my friends, we were hanging out at Denny's after the show, when a couple of dumbfuck homophobic bruisers started threatening my friends. They asked me to walk them to their car after we ate, and I did. Nobody messed with them. As a guy who was bullied as a little kid, it made my heart soar to be able to defend someone else from a bully.

Without going TMI, I will say for a young, headstrong guy, it was a great time; you know who hangs out a lot with gay guys? Straight women! I had a lot of fun...

By and large, it was all about feeling popular and accepted for the first time in my life. A wonderful time...

[applegrove]

10. A wonderful time and you transformed the bullying in your life to help many in their vulnerable

time. Don't ya just love it when that happens. Saints transform events like that. You must be a saint!

[Aristus]

23. Not based on my romantic behavior at the time, I wasn't...

But thank you...

[HeiressofBickworth]

7. I think the happiest times of my life were the periods of time

I was not in contact with my mother. She was very critical of everything I ever did. After she moved to Australia, I remember the sinking feeling I got in the pit of my stomach every time I saw an envelope in the mail from her. She continually made demands on my time (which I didn't have to spare -- single mother working full time) and was nasty when I didn't perform at the drop of a hat on her demand. Since there were large blocks of time I didn't hear from her, much of my adult life was pretty good.

[applegrove]

11. I too had a hard time with my mother. I focussed on the wonderful men in my family instead.

Thankfully my relationship with her has changed over time. But I hear ya.

[HeiressofBickworth]

13. Unfortunately, my father was no prize, either.

I've always wondered, was my mother a bitch because my father was an alcoholic or was my father an alcoholic because my mother was a bitch. A question that will never be answered. And does it really matter anyway.

My mother died in 2006 and I hadn't seen or heard from her in 3 years. During that 3 years, I always had a feeling of dread that she was going to pull some other crap on me. I'm not saying I'm glad she's dead, but I sure don't have the feeling of dread any more.

[olddots]

8. the summer of 1967

but it seems so cloudy now .

[Art_from_Ark]

12. That was a great time for me, too

But then again, all of my elementary-school-year summers were great

Well, except for that one period when I wrote a long letter explaining why I was going to run away from home. Fortunately, I never carried out that threat.

[Ron Obvious]

14. Probably early married life...

We were 22 and eloped. All of her friends and family hated me. All of my friends and family hated her. We loaded up the stationwagon with our possessions, the dog and the cat, and headed west for 2500 miles to a place we'd never been before and where we knew nobody to make a new life with nothing more than a few hundred dollars in our pocket and the clothes on our back.

It all worked out fantastic in the end, and we're still happy together (what do friends and family know?), but there were many rough years to come first and it's as well we didn't know about that then.

Us against the world. Yeah, that was it.

My childhood was fine too, actually, though a bit lonely as we moved every year and my parents were ancient and didn't understand the first thing about me or the world I inhabited.

[quakerboy]

16. Right bloody now.

ok. Maybe last month. Or next month. A friend just died yesterday. But I ate good food in his honor, so maybe still this month.

My childhood wasn't really so bad, but it wasn't really good either. College had some good times, but a lot of (mostly self inflicted or personal growth related) pain too. After college was a bit of a blur of modestly stupid choices for a few years. And now its now. I am Content in virtually all things. Except politics, and being underemployed, really. And Ive been spending less time on the one and have a plan for the other, so really, life is pretty decent, and unless I have to wake up early, I look forward to each day as I wake up, and don't want it to end yet when I lay down.

[Tobin S.]

18. Amen, Mr. quakerboy

The best times of my life started in October of 2010 when I met the woman that would become my wife, and they continue.

I'm very busy right now with school and work, but I now see a reason to improve myself and my life. I was just kind of coasting along before now, following the path of least resistance and taking whatever life through at me instead actively engaging in matters and making things happen- good things.

[Jasana]

17. My happiest time were...

1) When I was a child and out on my Grandfather's fishing boat.

2) When I went on a driving cross country trip of the States.

3) When I went to Europe.

4) When I worked as an accountant for a multi-million dollar foundation dedicated to Social Justice.

Sorry, I can't say right now. I'm very sick. It takes the joy out of life.

[Locut0s]

19. From the age of 2 to about 6, travelling in Asia with my parents...

Of course my memories are fuzzy for the first part of this but most of the happiest memories of my life stem from the latter half of this period. I have a strong longing for the Malaysia of the 80s. Things went down hill from there when we moved over here to live.

[raccoon]

20. By far the happiest times of my life have been my late 40's, 50's and now 60's.

I grew up in a home with an alcoholic father, and even after he died the dynamics of an alcoholic family
still went on.

These days, sometimes thinking back about that time, I don't know how I ever survived it.

I know now I was depressed as a child and young adult.

[Populist_Prole]

21. Basically right now but there were other vignettes in years past

Not a very good childhood overall: A divorce that made us a poor single parent family with a mother that often took the pressure she felt out on us: Many many moves; many many times of being the introverted unathletic "new kid" over and over again before I could become acclimated. Didn't have much stability till my mid teens.

Even so;

-Spending time with my uncle and cousin doing cool stuff in the 70's

-Spending time with my grandparents

-My early 20s: Despite some knocks and setbacks due to my own youthful indescretions, they were perfect combination of carefree newfound freedom to develop and enough relative prosperity to enjoy it with.

-Mid 30's: Like my early 20's but with more stability and my apogee of prosperity

-Early 40's onward to today: Stability, Health

[Dash87]

22. Right now.

Being younger than 21 stinks. I'm 25 now.

I feel like I can be anything now.

I hated school. Hated the schoolwork and tests, and then having to go to work right after school. I especially hated working on the weekends for shit wages.

I hated being so young and naïve. It's why I think nobody's life never really starts until they're out of college. Anything before that can be forgotten.

[Myrina]

24. Between 15-18

I went from being a lonley, chubby smart kid to an attractive young lady & started to get out of the house and have a social life.
Met some pretty interesting people, did alot of cra-a-azy shit, and was basically oblivious to the everyday problems that adulthood would bring.