One of the best things from your childhood.

[rbnyc]

I posted in GD about one of the worst things from my childhood.

I wanted to come in here and post about one of the best things in my childhood and invite folks to share one of their favorite childhood memories.

Here's mine. When I was real little, my dad worked nights and my mom worked days. We lived in an apartment complex with no laundry. My dad would sleep until late afternoon and then, once a week he'd take me to the laundromat. He would always take me to this little newsstand first where I could get a Mad Libs and a Laffy Taffy. Then we'd hang out in the laundromat and do laundry for the rest of the afternoon. We'd talk, read, do mad libs, eat candy and do laundry. I loved laundry day.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear rbnyc!

That's a lovely memory!

Mine is a more general memory, about Christmas. My brother and I would make a wish list every year, and no matter how impoverished we were, that list was covered!

It was really something, getting up on Christmas Morning, and seeing all the wonderful gifts under the tree.

My parents always made sure that was a wonderful holiday!

My husband and I did the same for our kids too...

[rbnyc]

3. Good to see you.

That is beautiful. It's wonderful to think of kids who have a mom like you.

[clyrc]

2. Nice!

My grandma worked in a laundromat for a while, and I liked visiting her there.

There were lots of bad things I remember from my childhood, but I think the thing I liked best was when my family was in the right mood, and we laughed and laughed through meals. My whole family excluding me is hilarious, and my mom insisted we have our dinners together, at the table, and so many times I laughed until I cried at the table. When we get together we still laugh like that. Holidays were great in my family, and I remember loving the frequent road trips we took, but I now realize how nice it was being able to laugh like a maniac with the rest of my family so much of the time.

[rbnyc]

4. Sweet.

That is a great memory.

:hi:

[clyrc]

6. Thanks!

I didn't realize until I was much older that not everyone does that, and that I was lucky to have a family that did.

[Forkboy]

5. Kind of sad that I'm wracking my brain and can't really think of anything that stands out.

The only thing I can think of is watching Creature Double Feature every Saturday afternoon. For 3 hours each week I could not be moved from the tv. It's a big reason why I still love the Godzilla movies, because they bring me back to one of the rare comfort zones I can remember as a kid. Well, that and they're just frikkin' fun.

My parents got divorced when I was 8, and I'm sure I had some real good times as a little kid. I know my dad took me to hockey games, and I remember seeing the old Bruins player Rick Middleton make the most amazing goal against Toronto, where he slid the puck under a diving defenseman, jumped over the guy, collected the puck again and rifled it past the goalie. I'll never forget that one.

So it's Godzilla and hockey that stands out the most. At 43 it appears nothing has changed! :rofl:

I'm suddenly reminded of the song I Don't Wanna Grow Up. ;)

[rbnyc]

8. Creature Feature Rules.

This was my guy:

[Forkboy]

9. Pretty sure that's the guy.

I don't really remember. I just wanted the movies to hurry up and start. Bob Hope could have been the host for all I cared. :)

I'm still a total horror movie junkie, and I blame Creature Feature!! They despoiled my pristine mind!

[hailhydra]

12. Did somebody say...

BERWYN?!?!



lol I loved Son of Svengoolie too. One of my happiest childhood memories for sure was watching the old monster movies with my dad.

[rbnyc]

18. LMAO!

I was waiting for that!

[Luciferous]

41. Ha, Svengoolie is still on channel 26 WCIU in Chicago. My mom and sister

love that show.

[Deep13]

80. I know what you mean. nt

[mysuzuki2]

7. Christmas dinners at my grandparents

all the cousins, aunts and uncles and family friends. It was wonderful. Of course then there was the lutefisk ...

[frogmarch]

10. When I was 10,

on many evenings I’d go outside after supper and sit in my orange-crate “spaceship” in the alley behind our house and imagine myself a space-traveler. Often my dad would come out and sit with me and point out constellations, and we’d talk about stars and planets and some of the other amazing things he said were up there. Mom and my two sisters sometimes joined us, but they didn’t get into imaginary space travel as much as Dad and I did, and besides, my "spaceship" wasn’t all that roomy.

Here’s a song Dad wrote for me. We would sing it together to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” with a slight melodic variation in the middle. I didn’t fully understand the lyrics till I was older, but I knew them by heart.

Twinkle, twinkle, Cepheid star
How I wonder what you are.
Eta Aquilae is your name
Helium fusion makes your flame.
Twinkle, twinkle, Eta Aquilae
With Mags of 3.5 down to 4.3

You're a yellow-white supergiant pulsing bright
But 1100 light years obscure your might
Eons from now, Eta, you will morph
Into a smaller-than-Earth white dwarf
Though you are dying, Cepheid star
While you still burn and throw light afar
I long to know just what you are.

Twinkle, twinkle, Cepheid star
How I wonder what you are.
Far galaxies can see your face
Through the vast, dark realms of space
Twinkle, twinkle, Cepheid star
Your luminosity sets you apart
Far galaxies can see your face
Through the vast, dark realms of space
Twinkle, twinkle candle star,
Now I know just what you are.

~~

Soon my dad became ill and died, and so did my mom, but all I have to do is look up at the night sky to remember that my childhood wasn’t all bad.

[marzipanni]

28. Did your father's work involve astronomy,

or was it a hobby? It's sweet that you learned the song when you were ten, then learned what the words meant when you were older. I'm sorry you lost your parents when you were young. :hug:

My grandfather taught science and math at various colleges and private high schools, and astronomy was one of his favorite subjects. The next thing I'm doing on the computer today is email a science teacher at one of the schools where my grandfather taught in the 40's. In the school's online newsletter the teacher said there has been a renewed interest in astronomy at the school and that he knows there was interest in it in the past, but he would like to know who might have been there at the time.

[frogmarch]

62. I don't know much about his work.

I do remember that when I was about 5 or so, he went to China for a solar eclipse. He was a man of many interests, but he was largely self taught, so I am quite sure he wasn't a professional astronomer.

How neat that you're going to write to the science teacher who is interested in finding out who had taught at his school in the 40s. I hope your correspondence is rewarding for both of you!

[Rowdyboy]

11. Going to my grandparents house in town.....

My grandmother had flowers everywhere-magnolia, azalea, gladiola, wisteria, crape myrtle, banana shrub, and Turk's turban. Lots of butterflies and dragonflies and it usually smelled like heaven should. Gladiolas are still my favorite flowers.

My grandfather plowed the backyard of his city lot and grew corn, butter beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes and squash. I weeded and picked as a child and loved it.

Also remember being at their house sitting on top of an old fashioned hand cranked ice cream freezer. While it took an adult to turn the freezer, a child was needed to sit on it and keep it steady. God my butt would freeze but the ice cream was sooo good.

All this was early 1960's.

[Tabasco_Dave]

13. Steel Tonka Trucks

Made in the USA and almost indestructible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyorLSW41Ic :woohoo:

[ashling]

20. I was gonna' say that

Big honkin steel trucks

[marzipanni]

29. Good commercials!

My son, born in 1994, got his cousins' hand-me-downs, including several big Tonka trucks. Last summer I was going to get them out of the shed, fix them up, and give them to someone, but a black widow had taken up residence in the wheel well, and I didn't want to flush out a bunch of her sisters so I put it off. :o

[City of Mills]

53. Hahhaa great

Love the disabled vw bug riding a wheel on a tonka dump truck!

My favorite toys as a kid - I have no idea how I didn't end up in construction and excavation, I would spend many hours terraforming my parent's backyard with my tonka trucks!

[Heidi]

14. On Saturday nights, my dad used to take us kids to the A&W Drive-In for burgers

and ice-cold root beer in a frosted mug. He'd always tell knock-knock jokes or Aggie jokes while he drove. It was a nice time.

[denbot]

15. My dad would play "army" with my sisters and I.

One time we set up a fort in a hallway expecting our dad to charge us. He snuck around back, crawled through a window and surprised us from behind.
On Sunday's we would take a drive through the country to Riverside for grinders, and eat them at a big park next to a lake. Now it's all suburbs, where the oaks, grass, and cows used to be..

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. All day at the movies on Saturday.

Every Saturday my brother and I were given movie money ( a whole 50 cents!!! each) and rode our bikes to the movie theater, to sit thru previews and cartoons and a cliff hanger and then a movie.
We could buy sodas and popcorn and a candy bar with the remaining money.
Great financial decision making was required to get the best value for our remaining quarter at the concession stand.

At least 4 hours in the movie theater, once in awhile we managed to sit thru the movie twice, when we came out our bikes would always be there.
We watched anything that was on the screen. A whole movie theater of screaming kids, no adults that I was aware of.

Best part was this was during the 50's, so lots of invaders from space and radioactive ants type movies, as well as the usual westerns.

It took me years to figure out why my parents wanted us kids out of the house on Saturdays!

[mysuzuki2]

17. Yeah it took me a while to figure that out too

everytime my folks got horny me and my brothers and sisters got to see a movie! I ended up seeing a lot of movies and having a lot of brothers and sisters!

[trof]

33. Same here, but I did it on a quarter.

I think I'm a tad older than you.
;-)
I'd walk about 20 minutes to the neighborhood 5 Points Theater.
Saturday was always a western shoot-'em-up double feature with at least one cartoon and an episode of a cliffhanger serial.

Most all the shows were B-movies by Republic Pictures.
Roy and Gene, naturally, but I also remember The Durango Kid, Lash LaRue, Wild Bill Elliott as Red Ryder, and Robert Blake (then billed as 'Bobby) was Little Beaver.
And of course Alabama's own Johnny Mack Brown.

And the great comic sidekicks...Gabby Hayes was THE best.
He was actually from New York and didn't learn to ride a horse until he was in his forties and his movie rolls called for it.
Pat Butram, Fuzzy St. John, Andy Devine, Dub 'Cannonball' Taylor.

Anyway, I walked to the movie, 10 cents admission, 5 cent for popcorn and 5 cents for a Coke. The other nickel was for the bus home. Mom didn't want me walking home after dark.
Sometimes I blew the other nickel on a Hershey bar and walked home anyway.
"I just missed the bus and had to wait for the next one."
O8)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

19. Saturday afternoon (and evening) "Creature Features"...

...the old classic black and white horror flicks, plus more modern classics (at the time) like "Horror of Party Beach" and "Night of teh Living Dead."

Also, growing up back East, there used to be an old country & western variety program called "The Clyde Joy" show. This was real, extreme, no-budget hillbilly shitkicker music, and it was wonderful. What a menagerie that was. My parents never missed an episode.

I didn't know until just now, when Googling it, that Clyde passed on at the ripe old age of 92 in 2009:

Country music pioneer Clyde Joy dies at 92

By Maddie Hanna / Monitor staff
January 20, 2009



http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/country-music-pioneer-clyde-joy-dies-at-92?SESScb288d10c0e457f4ee117497f1b81177=gsearch

Clyde Joy, an old-time singer who helped popularize country music in New England and performed on WMUR for decades, passed away early yesterday morning. He was 92.

Joy, who performed alongside Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr., was at the forefront of country music as it developed a presence in New England. In the 1960s, he built the Circle 9 Ranch in Epsom, which became one of New England's most popular venues for country music.

"He's one of the real pioneers of country music up here," said Gordy Brown, who founded the New England Country Music Historical Society.

Joy was known as the "Grand Daddy of New England Country Music." Before him, nearly every country performance in the Northeast was a visiting act. "He was one of the ones who picked up," Brown said, "and made local country music something."

[trof]

34. I remember a country music bar/club in Boston.

The 'something' Ranch?
Went there a few times.
I think it burned down several years ago.

[Mopar151]

69. The Green Valley Ranch

I had the wonderful experience of working with a son of the family who owned it. Carl could tell some stories.....

[lunatica]

21. Every Friday night my family and the dog would jump in the car

and go to a drive-in movie. The dog would be the first one in the car by jumping through one of the open windows. We were a dysfunctional family but we always got along on Friday nights. I'm glad I have that memory.

[blueamy66]

73. love it

nt

[Tikki]

22. Being a kid on my own...there wasn't anyone around who would...

edit my reading or music listening or my day trips. I was free to peruse the library and watch what other
people read, listen to all the radio stations I could receive and do exploring in the desert and along the
river banks.

I still practice those behaviors to a certain extent as an adult.

Tikki

[blueamy66]

23. I've got so many...

swimming in the irrigation ditches

stealing Marlboros from the dairy hands and smoking while riding horses

buying 5 cent sodas outta the cotton gin vending machine...the BOTTLES

sliding down the cotton seeds on cardboard boxes

jumping fences and swimming in neighbors' pools

Kailua State Beach Park

sleeping in bed with my Mom and Dad

Christmas morning

playing doctor

gosh, the list could go on and on and on

[burrfoot]

27. Why is it that smoking on horseback is

SOOO satisfying?

Maybe the Cowboy feeling....or cowgirl...cowperson?

(cowgirls are hot, BTW)

Ok sorry. Kind of random. Smoking while riding- although I've only been been riding a handful of times...is one of my very favorite memories :)


:toast:

[blueamy66]

56. It was just the fact that I was misbehaving!!!

I was the straight A kid.....nohting like a Marlboro while on horseback!

[astral]

24. Gilligans Island and Sloppy Joes at the Livingroom Coffee Table

Sometimes we ate at the kitchen table but sometimes we just sat in the livingroom. I got to sit on the floor at the coffee table, and Gilligans Island just started, and I got my Sloppy Joe ready to eat in front of me, my favorite show and my favorite dinner, and I remember thinking to myself, "it doesn't get much better than this." : )

..... or was it catching grasshoppers in the back yard? ..... or lizards / garter snakes ..... or froggies in the pond but you had to just let them go afterwards cuz you knew otherwise they'd die.

yeah, there's more.

[JohnnyLib2]

25. Going to the Spudnut Shop.

I miss 'em, badly.

[nolabear]

26. My aunt and uncle's dairy farm.

Frankly, my childhood was really rough, a combination of a mean, narcissistic military father and a dying mother. Relaxed fun was just not a part of things.

But about once a year we would go to visit my (actually cousins but my parents' ages so we called them) aunt and uncle's dairy farm, slap in the middle of Mississippi. They had kids near my age, a girl just older than I am, and my parents would leave me there while they visited other relatives. We did things there that, frankly, made life worth living.

At ten, we drive the "Mud Buggy," the old ruck that everyone swore was only held together by mud. We built a fire in the bull pasture and roasted everything we could get our hands on. I watched a cow give birth in the field, stretched out on the grass beside my cousin and her father, who still seemed as awed by it as we were. I ate peanut brittle until I got so sick I couldn't eat it again for years. I pleayd Spin the Bottle for the first time while the grown-ups had a fais do-do. We caught lightning bugs and kept them in jars all around the badroom at night, while my cousin's 4-H lamb bleated outside the window and we sneaked her in to sleep with us.

In short, it was heaven.

[marzipanni]

64. You should write a children's book for that age group

Those little scenes would be fun for kids to imagine, and an artist would have material for great illustrations.
I had to google fais do-do! Is "do" pronounced like "dough" since its derived from dormir?

[RushIsRot]

30. My treehouse in the oak tree across the street.

My dad built it so it would be reasonably safe and sturdy for us to play in. It was about 3'x4' and had a slanted, shingled roof close to five feet overhead. Its wall went about half way up the sides. We would climb atop the house and build model planes. We even weathered a few rainfalls in semi-dryness under the cover of the roofing. Never got around to sleeping the night in it.

We went on a trip around the neighborhood with my wagon collecting scrap paper to trade for money to buy the materials. The word was out that we could get $8 per ton. We filled my front sidewalk with stacks of newspapers around 3' high. Some poor schlub's "porn" stash was mixed in with the pile. 50s porn consisted of women in rather unrevealing bikinis. Racy stuff!

We loaded the car and were driven to the paper recycler. We were certain that we had at least two tons. We got about $2 for all our work, but that and some scrap lumber from an old fence was enough for a dandy treehouse in which to play and dream.

[NV Whino]

31. Waiting with my grandmother n the kitchen for the donuts and creme puffs to be done

Trout fishing with my grandfather in the creek across the road. Hanging out with my father in the darkroom watching the magic happen.

[GoCubsGo]

32. That reminds me of one of mine...

My dad always did the grocery shopping. I used to love going with him on Saturdays. Part of it was because it got me out of some housework, but I just liked going with him. I still enjoy going with him when I'm visiting, and I'm 50 now!

My other favorite memories involve food, as well. Hmmmm.... One is having pizza and/or fried chicken from the local pizza joints on Friday nights for dinner. We would then watch "The Brady Bunch", "The Partridge Family", "The Odd Couple", "Love, American Style"... Then there was Grandma's cooking. She made the best Italian food. I miss it almost as much as I miss her.

[murielm99]

35. Driving to Minnesota for family holidays

I remember sitting in the back seat with my brother. My mother would pass sandwiches and apples back to us for our meal.

After dark, before we fell asleep in the back seat, I could hear my parents talking quietly. It made me feel secure.

[Duer 157099]

36. The pony rides at Beverly Park in LA!

I have many, many such happy childhood memories, fortunately.

[femmocrat]

37. I come from a big ethnic family, so there were many wonderful memories.

Holidays were always wonderful, especially Christmas Eve at Grandma's house with all the extended family. We always spent Christmas day at home, but then would visit relatives during the week between Christmas and New Year.

We always had a huge get-together on the Fourth of July that lasted well into the night. Everyone would bring some covered dish. We always had fireworks and sparklers. It was magical.

And Easter--- with all the wonderful ethnic food! Getting a new Easter outfit for church. Dyeing and hiding the eggs. Hidden baskets of candy on Easter morning. Lots of spring flowers. Such sweet memories.

[WinkyDink]

38. Sidewalk hopscotch with slate pieces. Bike-riding with "no hands." The library. Comics. THE POOL.

[Chan790]

39. I used to be mad skinny and cute.

I was like 9 or 10 (and looked 14) the first time I went to the beach and got hit-on by teenaged girls. :D
.
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No, make that
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:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[marzipanni]

65. Yikes! Mini Cougars! n/t

[Luciferous]

40. Spending time with my dad. We didn't have a lot of money

but my dad made sure we always had something to do. We would go camping, or go to the drive-in on summer nights. We would have bonfires out at our house and invite all our family members over to roast marshmallows. In the summer, we would go to Lake George and go swimming when my dad got off of work.

I think the best trips though were the ones we used to take to Madison. We would all load up in the car and we would stay at this place called the Aloha Inn. We would go swimming, or walk around Madison. I don't know if it's still there, but there used to be this huge used book store, and my mom and I would go look for books.

Oh, and another good memory I have was doughnuts from Oliver's Bakery. We had a bank with a big clock on it down the street from our house, and in the morning when we got ready for school if we passed by the clock by a certain time, Dad would take us to get a doughnut from Oliver's before we went to school. I always got a chocolate long john.

I also have some pretty bad memories from my childhood, but overall I think I was lucky because I have really awesome parents :)

[REP]

42. That it ended.

[rbnyc]

43. Ouch!

Wishing you all the best, always, from now on.

:hi:

[livetohike]

44. Lots of things

I grew up in a suburb, but our neighborhood was surrounded by woods. We would hang out there every day in the summer and swing on vines, build forts, use our imaginations and dream.

A neighborhood pool was built and then we all started spending the entire day there from the minute it opened until it closed with a break for going home for dinner. I'm sure this is the reason I am having so much skin cancer now, but I sure had a good time then.

My Mom played cards with other mothers in the neighborhood, or went to a bingo hall on Friday nights. My Dad would stay home with us and we would eat all kinds of snacks and watch "Twilight Zone" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" together. I really enjoyed those evenings then.

My Great Aunt lived in rural Ohio and we would make a couple of trips there in the summer (from PA). She always had a huge garden and there was a stream at the edge of her property. The next door neighbor's kids were our ages and we enjoyed playing tag and hide and go seek way after it was dark.

I was lucky to have both Grandmothers and one Grandfather live long lives and have many good memories of going to visit them

There were four garage bands in our immediate neighborhood when I was a teenager and I loved going to listen to them practice/singing with them and cheering them on at local "Battle of the Bands".

Growing up as a Baby Boomer, there were tons of other kids to play with and we made up games, always had enough people for a softball game, etc. Overall, it was a good childhood :-).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

45. The Jazzy Spies segments from Sesame Street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hsMK5rtalI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ILYzsqZePQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4WjrHk0Bo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uddJIs27lxE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZD0p-bwM1s

Dad coming back from errands bringing chocolate bars.

Matchbox cars.

The honk (instead of the mechanical music you Americans have) of the ice cream push cart (instead of the trucks you Americans have) coming down the street.

Fried sliced bologna. (Which for sone weird reason I called "et cetera et cetera".)

Being finally granted access to a chest full of my older brother's comics. (No Tijuana bibles, sorry.)

[marzipanni]

66. In our NoCal town we have 'ice-cream novelty' trucks usually owned by East Indians or Mexicans

and push carts with bike horns or a row of bells, selling paletas/ice cream novelties, and similar snack carts, owned by Mexicans.

[JTG of the PRB]

46. Summer vacation and the annual big family road trip.

Having three months off in which to just goof off, hang out at the pool, and sleep in was a magical experience. And every year, the family would pile into one of the cars and go on an extended road trip. We went all over the place and saw amazing things on those cross-country trips - Seattle, San Francisco, Yosemite, Four Corners, Mesa Verde, Glacier National park, Mammoth Cave, Washington DC, Great Smoky Mountains, Vermont's camping wilderness, Cooperstown, the Black Hills, the Badlands... All over the place.

Now all I get is a paid week off in late June for a staycation because nobody can afford to go anywhere. Being an adult sucks sometimes. Still very happy to have that paid week off, but it never feels like enough.

[applegrove]

47. My dad used to take us to a waterfall in the spring when the ice was breaking up. Seeing those ice

cakes go over the waterfalls was so exciting when I was small. We ooh and ahhh.

[Kali]

48. being able to eat ANYTHING in ANY quantity

and staying skinny as a bean pole.

now? :cry:

[rbnyc]

60. OMG!

I am now 60 pounds overweight and I am eating heathier than any other time in my life.

Here's my lifestyle in my 20s when I was fit and hot and felt great:

Wake up between noon and 1 pm.
Smoke a cigarette.
Get Cleaned up.
Smoke pot.
Est leftover take out - 90% chance of being fried meat.
Smoke another 10 cigarettes and more pot.
Got to work and smoke a pack of cigarettes while at work. (Bartender)
Drink 3-6 shots of tequilla at work.
Eat 2 friend pork chops at work.
Stay around in the bar drinking and smoking cigarettes and pot.
Go to 24-hour diner and order more fried meat.
Take home leftover fried meat.
Smoke another 5 cigarettes and some more pot.
Go to bed around 5 am.
Start over.

Here's my lifestyle now:

Get up at 6:30 am
Get my son ready for school.
Eat fresh fruit and a whole grain cereal or whole grain toast (dry) for breakfast)
Put my son on the bus.
Walk 1 - 2 miles.
Work 9-5 - salad for lunch
Walk 1 mile
Get home, make dinnner - locally grown fresh vegatables, whole grains and lean protiens
Clean house, get son to bed, veg out in front of TV/computer
Collapse

And in general I look and feel like shit.

[Fuzz]

49. Fruity Pebbles. Disgustingly delicious

[ChoralScholar]

50. Corn-Quistos!!!!

Don't you DARE say they're like Combos... You can't blow the cheese out of a Combo and hit someone across the cafeteria. :)

[csziggy]

51. Books and libraries - my family went to the library once a week

All of us together. But my love of books started earlier, with my Dad reading to us at bedtime. The first story I remember him reading to us was The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling. I'm sure there were others earlier, but that is the one I always remember my Dad's voice reading to us, "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees." I have that copy of The Just So Stories - it was Dad's as a boy and he gave it to me when I moved away from home.

From my earliest days the entire family went to the library once a week. That small town was fortunate enough to have a Carnegie library that they had supported well over the years so it had a decent collection. I devoured their collection. By the time I was ten I had read every children's book and was allowed to read the tiny "Young Adults" collection - it was less than a year later when I finished reading the last of those books.

At eleven I was the only child allowed unlimited access to the entire contents of the library. I believe I read nearly every book they had, though by the time I was fourteen they were leasing books and I don't think I read all the ones they leased. Books took me places I never had an opportunity to visit and gave me a wider perspective than my experiences in a small Central Florida town would have.

I love books!

[orleans]

52. my mom. my dad. nana.

i'd love to go back and do it all again. even the rough parts.

[GreydeeThos]

54. A stick and an ant's nest

(I grew up before video games)

[City of Mills]

55. Camping in the White Mountains in NH

Driving up from Massachusetts, I loved packing up our gear, hitching up the pop-up and heading up rte 3...passing through the tolls, tossing the quarters in the catch bin. Pointing out the mountain peaks as the land went from mostly flat to hilly and scenic. Arriving at the campground entrance, we'd get out, stretch our legs and take in the smell of the pine needles while my parents would check in. Setting up the tent with the radio playing 70s soft rock hits (one of the only radio stations that came in up there). Running around, playing and exploring (unsupervised, no cell phones) all day by ourselves while the parents did the adult things. Getting sunburned every day without noticing or caring. Taking hot showers in flip flops in the showers that operated on quarters...camp soap, mosquito bites, gathering firewood for the camp, then burning it all down while munching on linguica, hotdogs and marshmallows. Falling asleep in the tent, exhausted and content.

[Joe Fields]

57. no computers, so we actually went outside to play.

such a novel idea.

[rbnyc]

59. I have to FORCE...

...my son to go outside. He has a friend over now and they are having a great time outside, but you'd think I was sending them to the coal mines asking them to go out and play. The Wii is for rainy days.

Of course, where am I? In the kitchen, listening to music and catching up with the Lounge.

[JitterbugPerfume]

58. going blackberry picking with mom

the chiggers would eat us alive, but when we went home mom would make a blackberry cobbler pie with ice cream .



daddy would buy a watermelon and we would go out to the back yard and eat it We had watermelon vines growing all over the yard!

Stopping at the dairy queen on the way home from church .I still can see my long dead brother in his striped t shirt and brown short pants licking on that ice cream

climbing the apple tree and eating green apples


the rose bushes growing along the Chrysler plant fence that we passed walking to school.

these things do not thrill kids any more but I grew up in a much simpler time

[BarbaRosa]

61. That after all these years I've manager to forget most of it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

63. On Sundays,

while Mom would still be getting dressed for church, Dad and I would walk around the yard and talk about all the plants and he would tell me about them, what needed to done, if they needed to be pruned or weeded or watered or transplanted. He would hold my hand. It was just me and my Dad. We had a red rose bush and white rose bush, special for Mother's Day. We would cut the red because all our Mothers were still living at that time.

[Aristus]

67. Watching "The Krofft Supershow" on breezy Saturday mornings in Kentucky.

And seeing "Star Wars", first run, in the theater in that magical summer of 1977, and realizing you'd seen something game-changing.

Eating grilled cheese sandwiches at The Blue Steer restaurant (it had gone from restaurant to pawn shop the last I heard) while Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" played on the juke.

[wickerwoman]

68. The wood lot behind our daycare.

Really it was only about the size of a city block but it was huge when we were 5 or 6 and a bunch of trees had been knocked down by a storm so it was like a huge jungle gym. One tree had been knocked over exposing the entire root mass which stuck up at least nine or ten feet into the air and that was our fort. The people running the daycare would just set us loose and we'd spend the whole afternoon eating berries, throwing fern "spears" at each other and climbing around on dead trees.

Looking back, I can't believe they weren't sued into oblivion. But we had a lot of fun.

[Mopar151]

70. Going to the races and the library

Dad "worked" part-time as an offical at our local stock car track (started when they were called jalopies). When we were little, Mom, my Sister and I would go when they had fireworks for the 4th. Later, I got to go with Dad, and "help" him check engines after the races.
And we were readers - in spades. The library was a weekly visit at least, we'd check out books by the dozen. Dad got great car magazines - Hot Rod, Road & Track, Car&Driver. They had some outstanding writers, along with Dad's Playboy magazines. Hefner had odd ideas about literature - he found the best writers, did'nt restrict them much, and paid well. The river of booze and lots of pretty girls at the Mansion did'nt hurt his abilities to attract some of the best. Alex Haley (Roots) edited the Playboy Interview for years - fantastic journalisim.

[raccoon]

71. Self delete. nt

[raccoon]

72. My dolls and my cats. nt

[provis99]

74. 1977. After seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Me and my buddies lying on the front lawn drinking lemonade and using our binoculars to look for aliens landing at night.

[MilesColtrane]

75. I would run to meet Dad when he got home from work every day.

He'd lift me up above his head and "bump the ceiling" with me, at my insistence.

Also, Sunday night was peanut butter toast for dinner. (Young couple trying to make ends meet, but we kids thought it was the best.)

We'd have peanut butter on toast and watch "Let's Go to the Races" on TV.

[RedCloud]

76. Root beer kool aid!

[book lady]

77. My dad and I would go fishing on the pier in Milwaukee...

In those days, you could actually eat the perch and herring that came out of Lake Michigan.

[LynneSin]

78. My Dad

Just wish I had him longer than 14 years.

[1gobluedem]

79. The smell of my mother's spaghetti sauce simmering

My mother made her own sauce and cooked it for about eighteen hours. She'd start it the night before and we'd wake to the smell wafting through the house. I would be doubly excited because a) I knew we were going to have spaghetti for dinner and b) the odds were good that I would get to invite my best friend to dinner because she loved my mother's sauce so much. Even now she asks for it when she visits. :9

[Deep13]

81. Summers on Grandma's screen porch. nt

[givemebackmycountry]

82. I grew up in New York City, so there is a lot to remember.

One memory that has stuck with me (funny how this stuff works) is my Mom taking me to visit my Grandmother (her mother) who was a switchboard operator at Wickersham General Hospital in Manhattan.

I was like 4 or 5 years old.

I would sit on her lap as she answered call after call "Wickersham General Hospital, how may I connect you?" and "Hold please" and she would pull these wires from a big board and connect them to a loved one.
This was in the early sixties, and my Grandmother died in her early 50's as a result of several strokes.
She was so young and beautiful.
I have her hair I'm told. (All of it too!)

So one of my earliest memories of her is running a telephone switchboard and I have worked for a "telephone" company (as my Mom calls it) for 30 years now.

[hifiguy]

83. A few things come to mind

Coming home from school, grabbing a cookie and a soda and watching the local kids' show or vintage cartoons/Three Stooges every afternoon.

Cliquot Club Ginger Ale and Bonomo's Turkish Taffy.

Monster movies (usually classic Universals) on "Horror Incorporated" on Saturday nights.

The local "good neighbor" radio station: WCCO (home of the Twins, farm reports, local announcers I still remember like Franklin Hobbs, Joe McFarlin, Randy Merriman, Roger Erickson & Charlie Boone, Steve Cannon) almost always on in the background. Truly local media, period.

Riding my bike through the quiet streets of my little working class Minneapolis suburb on a Sunday evening and wondering who lived in all those houses and what they were doing.

Spending hours in the public library that was only three blocks away and the park which it sat in.

Monkeying with my slot car tracks in the basement while listening to CCR and the Beatles on the local top 40 station.

Above all, a strange sense of permanence and security that comes only with youth - that most things would remain just as they were.

[PRETZEL]

84. Getting up real early on Saturday mornings to go fishing with my dad

was always just him and I.

We spent alot of time in Raccoon Creek State Park.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

85. Smoking at Granny's house

I used to write myself notes for cigs while granny worked the swing shift at the sheriffs office. I was 10. I ate a lot of Spaghetti O's that summer too.

[KamaAina]

86. Cats!

Elizabeth, Rainbow, Sean Timothy Michael Murray, Kwan Yin and Anastasia, in that order.