lswanson
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posted on January 25, 2001 09:44:08 PM
As I hurtle rapidly through middle-age, I realize how much I enjoyed my childhood. I try to pass on the love that was shown me as a child to my own kids and wonder if I stand a chance of being as good as my own mom and dad.
One of my favorite things was that when Dad was out of town on business, he would always bring me back a surprise, be it a box of "Magic Rocks" or a toy airplane. It didn't have to be anything big or fancy, it was just that he always remembered me.
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mauimoods
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posted on January 25, 2001 10:04:20 PM
My dad racing the dog to the back door when coming home from work...and laughing while pretending the dog won.
Riding my bicycle up and down the tree lined streets, waiting for the ice cream man.
Hearing the sound of my brand new shoes clump on the sidewalk on the way to sunday school.
Sitting under the tree in the front lawn, reading Nancy Drew and wishing I was her.
The sound of the water cooler on the roof during hot summer nights and Daddy not far away watching Red Skelton and laughing loudly at his antics.
The taste of corn on the cob with dripping butter, and laughing with Daddy as we drooled it on our chins.
Being reliant on Mom and Dad to take care of all my worries, pains, hurts, fears because I wasnt grown yet to know what awaited me.
New clothes when school started and showing off
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mybiddness
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posted on January 25, 2001 10:42:32 PM
One of the greatest joys of my life is watching my children with their dad. I think I read somewhere that the best gift that a father can give to his children is to love their mother. I'd add that one of the greatest gifts that a husband can give to his wife is to love his children.
Maui I loved reading your memories of childhood. I can relate to a few of those myself.
Not paranoid anywhere else but here!
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Kaffro
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posted on January 25, 2001 10:58:47 PM
Making snow angels (that's when I actually LIKED snow)
Family trips to the mountains in our old blue chevy malibu station wagon with the seat in "the way back" that faced out the back window.
My dad's 1970 Toyota Landcruiser that me and my brother used to play "trash truck" on.
Being a tomboy and playing tackle football with my brother and all his friends.
Sneaking into the peapatch in the garden for a little "snack" with my little sister
Putting up the train set around the christmas tree with the family.
sorry....I could go on and on, but I will stop here so I don't bore ya
Kaffro 
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nettak
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posted on January 25, 2001 11:11:07 PM
Rolling down the hill in a go cart with no brakes.
Playing cricket with the boys.
Breaking my thumbs a number of times playing cricket with the boys.
Sweltering hot days spent in the pool.
My best memory is one that I should not be proud of but here goes anyway. When I was about 6 years old and looking forward to christmas, I remember waking up early one christmas morning to find a lovely brown haired doll on the end of my bed. I got up to have a better look at her and spotted the blonde haired doll on the end of my sister's bed. I thought she got the better doll so I swiped hers and gave her mine. Of course I figured that I would get away with it because everyone else was asleep and only Santa knew which doll she was supposed to get, WRONG. I got sprung and it took me a lot of years to work out how my mother knew I had swapped the dolls. 
I loved all of my childhood, and wish I could relive it for a little while. Mind you my children tell me that I have gone back to childhood already. JUST A BIG KID AT HEART!!!!
mybiddness I agree with everything you said.
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Al
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posted on January 25, 2001 11:14:17 PM
Bubble gum,baseball cards,Saturday morning cartoons,Cheerios and the weekend break away from the nuns.Those were the days!
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brie49
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posted on January 25, 2001 11:58:24 PM
The delightful smell of a new rubber dolly on Christmas morning.
Summer break from school.
Lying in the grass on a warm summer day with a friend looking up at the clouds and pointing out those that looked liked people or animals.
Easter morning! The Easter Bunny always brought us our Easter Sunday clothes for church - including socks, shoes, panties, purse, gloves, hat and coat too.
After the big meal on Thanksgivng because the whole family always played boardgames together for several hours.
My first "brand new" bicycle when I was seven, being the third of five children I always got hand-me-downs. It was a white and pink Schwinn and I rode it like the wind!!!!
When my younger sister was born. I was 10 and since I was the only other daughter I got to choose her name. Made me feel like I had a part in the bringing of this child into the world since I named her.
Our first family vacation. We didn't have much money so our first "road" trip was to grandma and grandpa's, five hours from our home, was a real thrill for me. We stayed a week at their lake cottage. Went fishing every day, saw a turtle lay eggs in the beach and caught my first snake (by hand). Used an outhouse for the first time too. What an adventure!
First time we ever ate out at a restaurant - at McDonald's yet to boot! Remember this was in the early 50s and people just didn't go out eat much back then.
oops, edited my typo
[ edited by brie49 on Jan 26, 2001 12:00 AM ]
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roxw
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posted on January 26, 2001 05:10:23 AM
I was born and raised in a small mining town in SW Arizona. It was soooo hot in the summertime, but somehow we endured the heat, playing outside in our barefeet. (Oh, that rhymes!) Anyway, one of my favorite memories is playing outside then coming into a nice evaporative cooler cooled house for lunch. The smell of the cooler pads were so wonderful. My sister and I would eat a sandwich and bowl of soup and then lay on a pallet on the floor under the cooler and watch "UNDERDOG" before falling asleep for a nap.
We go back to visit our hometown now, and moan about the heat and gripe about how the cooler doesn't work.... we were such nicer people as children!!
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nettak
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posted on January 26, 2001 05:17:44 AM
Hi rox, we were all nicer as children, life was all a simple pleasure back then.
Netta
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december3
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posted on January 26, 2001 05:38:29 AM
New Sneakers When summer vacation started we got brand new keds. It felt like you were bouncing instead of walking. I remember walking down the street watching my feet.
Sitting on the front porch on summer nights while Mom and Dad visited with the neighbors.
Catching fireflies.
Spending time at my grandparents farm. There was a swimming hole,spring fed and icy cold. The smell of oil on the dirt road.
I had a great childhood.
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bearmom
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posted on January 26, 2001 06:37:29 AM
The hummingbirds that nested in our honeysuckle every year
Riding my bike-anywhere
rollerskating down my grandmother's sidewalk-they went up and down more than ours
sleeping on my grandmother's porch and listening to the trains
playing in the secret place the willow tree made under it's branches
camping out-
playing with the toy stashed in my mother's purse every Sunday, during the sermon. She always made sure to carry a book, doll, something for me in there!
sleepovers
SUMMER.....
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toomanycomics
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:01:36 AM
comic books
jumping on the puddles during the rainy day...
watching the rainbow appear...
walking in the woods with my family
building snow tunnels
watching Saturday cartoons... ("Spaaaacccee Ghooooost!"
on the floor with my coloring book, coloring within in the lines...
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hammerchick
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:03:20 AM
Riding my bicycle with my Barbies riding in the white plastic basket on the front with the big plastic purple and yellow flowers.
Making an indoor secret hideaway tent out of a card table and a blanket.
Going on a trip to my Grandparents' for Christmas and finding out that Santa Clause really could find me somewhere else.
Birthday parties where my mom made airplane favors out of a roll of life savers, a stick of gum for the wings, and two life savers for the wheels, held together with a rubber band.
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luculent
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:46:11 AM
Halloween!! When you roamed far and wide.
Homemade popcorn balls, cookies, caramel apples, big candy bars. And no one checked your stuff, there was no fear.
luculent
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bootsnana
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:51:30 AM
Getting my picture taken on a pony by some photographer who came around the neighborhood like an ice cream truck.
Riding my bike behind the DDT truck.(boy, does THAT explain a lot)
Breaking Bonomo's Turkish Taffy on the sidewalk.
Drum and bugle corps practices at the VFW post home.
Dinner at 6:00 every night with the whole family in our designated seats around the table.
Watching Lassie while eating my Mom's gingerbread.
My mother's hugs.
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njrazd
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posted on January 26, 2001 11:00:36 AM
I was the oldest granddaughter and spoiled rotten by my grandparents. We lived with them from the time I was 9 months old. I remember being only about 4 years old and would watch TV with grandpa and he would peel grapes for me to eat so I wouldn't choke on the skin. Picture a big hulking guy trying to get that thin skin off that little grape!
I also remember distinctly the smell of his pipe tobacco. He's been gone more than 30 years, but it seems like yesterday.
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maddienicks
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posted on January 26, 2001 02:26:23 PM
My sparkly dress and gogo boots I HAD to have when I was four.
The summer we "moved" from Albuquerque back to WV: my mom, aunt, grandma, me, and the neurotic dog. By the time the moving van got there, we hated it so much we told them to turn it around and we all went "home". ROFL!
And as part of that same surreal trip: we were on the highway someplace in the mid-west, had stopped for gas and treats. I wanted the Hostess cupcakes we had bought at the service station, and we looked high and low in the car for them...they were GONE. I was seven, and so upset. But not nearly as upset as I was when it was discovered that my mom had been sitting on them for miles and miles, and they were no longer cupcakes but pancakes. The harder they laughed, the harder I cried, until my aunt had to pull the car off the highway because she couldn't see through the hysterical tears.
I had an interesting childhood.
The Christmas that my Raggedy Ann doll (who had been through all my childhood surgeries and illnesses with me) came up missing in early December. I was devastated! Christmas morning, she was back, under the tree, with a new dress and new arms and legs, but the same face and heart. I learned years later that my aunt had done that, because all the stuffing was getting loved out of her.
Kris
[email protected]
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kiheicat
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posted on January 26, 2001 03:10:01 PM
Rolling down the sand dunes at Cape Cod.
Sneaking a rum swizzle in Barbados when my father had an assignment there.
Believing in Santa Claus.
Endless hugs from my Papa. (grandfather)
The smell of gnocchis cooking in my Abuela's (grandmother) house.
Road trips where I didn't have to drive... and my sister and I would drive our parents crazy trying stifle mad cases of the giggles.
Swimming in the ocean ALL day.
Easter egg hunts.
My Chatty Cathy doll.
My dachshund, Schmetzie.
Sitting in a walnut tree listening to the chimes of a nearby convent.
Learning to ride a horse.
Attending a bullfight in Spain.
Funland on the boardwalk.
Candy apples & chocolate bananas.
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gravid
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:01:28 PM
Going on long road trips with my aunt and uncle. We would pack toll house cookies and they would all be gone by Kansas.
Going to small towns out west that still had wood sidewalks and the men still wore guns and they would turn up their nose at paper mony in the stores. They wanted Silver dollars. Going out in the swamp alone all day and not coming home until you could see the stars. Walking down the outer banks in North Carolina and there would not be a house or person in sight. Watching water spouts out at sea. Throwing steel pop cans in the air and shooting them with pistols. Watching the surf in a storm. Baskets of soft shell crabs and hush puppys on the fishing wharf. Sliding down the river bank on pecans like roller bearings. Being close enough to a bear in the woods to smell his breath. Sneaking up above big horn sheep and having them climb up past you close on the rocks and freeze for a second when they lok at you eyeball to eyeball. Catching cutthrout trout by hand.
Making a salad of wild greens and fiddleheads. Having a star fish wrap around your hand and discovering how to get it off.
Stepping on a stingray and not knowing what it is. Having a school of barracuda part around you like a dock post.
Being above the tree line on the mountains in a thunderstorm and laying in the rain to escape the lightning with your hair all standing up from the electricity. Sliding down the glacier to come back down and ripping the seat of your jeans out and burning your butt on the ice.
Sleeping on the porch swing in the sun and having a new girl friend wake you up by kissing you. Getting in the car and going off overnight for the first time alone.
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gsomervillhotmailcom
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:35:02 PM
WOW. I want your memories.
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equestrian
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posted on January 26, 2001 07:52:18 PM
Wonderful summer holidays, when all six kids and Mom and Dad would pile in the car, and head into the interior of British Columbia, waking up in the tent with that 'canvas' smell, the bacon and eggs cooking outside on the coleman stove, and wondering which camp spot we'd reach that night. The smell of a new doll (with the saran hair) on christmas morning.
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nutspec
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posted on January 26, 2001 09:59:24 PM
Midwestern Memories.
The smell and sounds of a Summer thunderstorm in Arkansas and Nebraska. There is a smell when the rain hits the hot earth and new cut hayfields, and cools everything it touches. - Magic
Sitting on the front porch with my Grandpa after the supper dishes were put away - listening to the cicadas and tree frogs - and talking about his old friends, hoboing in the depression, good dogs of long ago.
You know that school doesn't start for another 2 weeks
And knowing with all the certainty that a young boy has - that everything is perfect in your little part of the world
Nutspec
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mimigigi
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posted on January 26, 2001 10:22:18 PM
so many things~but most of them were memories that I made for myself as I was pretty much neglected as a kid.
Favorite memory~packing up and moving away to college: life begins.
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gravid
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posted on January 27, 2001 01:05:18 AM
Yes the smells jog memory so much. The storm smell and the canvas were very good. My dog
a big black lab and when my aunt would make roast beef and homemade noodles. The smell of a new car,and the smell of saw dust and mortor building a new house. The resiny smell of the attic where I would go to read as a child. The smell of a baked potatoe when you bust it open. I have not seen my one little sister in law for 20 years but I hugged her with my eyes shut I would know her instantly.
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cariad
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posted on January 27, 2001 05:43:45 AM
lots of good memories!
The lovely sound of baseball cards on the spokes of my bicycle(yes, including the Mickey Mantle rookie card  )
At least one neighborhood street being blocked off for sled riding every day.
Tying june bugs on a string and making them fly
catching lightning bugs at twilight and giving them a new home in a glass jar with grass carpet.
13 hr layovers in the train station at Cinncinnati.
walking the 2 miles from home to downtown to see saturday matinee's.
our first color tv....the red to blue cellophane sheet that you put on the little b&w screen.
sitting on the sidewalk crankin up some homemade peach ice cream.
helpin "Big Momma" order from the jewel tea man.
waitin for the ice cream man to push his cart down the block, so you can get a sidewalk sundae or rocket.
Sounds:
Ollee, Ollee alls in free
Ice man's here
All Aboard
Foods:
dr pepper and frito's
nehi and moon pies
a sack of krystal hamburgers
Huckleberry cobbler
cornbread crumbled in buttermilk
fish on friday
Visuals:
Burma Shave signs
See Rock City
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bootsnana
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posted on January 27, 2001 05:59:04 AM
Oh
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bootsnana
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posted on January 27, 2001 06:00:16 AM
Yes
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bootsnana
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posted on January 27, 2001 06:02:04 AM
Burma Shave
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