Members childhood memories. A thread for the whole of ATS to enjoy

reply to post by MountainLaurel




P

reply to post by pheonix358


Sounds to me like you've got a great deal to be proud of, and nothing to be ashamed of at all P. Given your path, you've managed to raise three well-sorted and well-functioning kids, not an easy task in this day and age. I've always been a strong advocate of people who go through the worst fires in life are destined to be the greater and stronger people once they emerge out the other side.

Like you, my life has been surrounded by death, I've lost friends in every manner from vehicle accidents to cancer to having a friend murdered when I was just a teen, along with witnessing suicides of friends also. It does have an effect on you, and even today I struggle to remember anything from my childhood as a result, good or bad. It's like a chapter you half watch but never really focus on, like background noise.

To me, I had a few good teenage years of mostly partying and friends, followed by divorces and other bad stuff that is also largely blocked out. I always say my life started at 25 when I cast off all the bad stuff that had happened and got right away from it, like other end of the country away. Of course stupidly I went back again after a few years, but something odd happened in my hiatus. One good decision set me up for ten years down the track. My new life (what I call my third rebirth) came only a year ago when I took the biggest leap of my life and uprooted everyone and everything and started again. Since then life is good.

Don't worry about soul mates too much, I tend to think the human condition today doesn't allow us to be eternally happy with one specific person, which is why long time relationships are on the outer. I met Ms. T on a very rainy Australia Day, and she honestly looked terrible that day, we had a five minute talk and moved on. But somehow fate just kept throwing us at each other. Is she a soul mate? I really don't think so, but all the fires I've gone through have taught me to be myself and don't compromise who you are for anyone. I would suspect you're very much the same kind of person, as is Ms. T. You'll find someone when you're not looking, so if you are, stop. Just enjoy being you, the rest tends to get into line behind you once that happens, trust me.

Good morning friends

I awoke a short while ago and am just having my traditional Cody time. This is when I take time out for me to just relax, listen to music, I mean really listen, and generally spend time with me. I like me

After a cup of coffee or two I logged on and started reading through the posts from last night.

Very touching

I'm Cornish by birth, Bude is my spiritual home. Mrs C asked if we could go there for a holiday last summer and so we did. We had a great time exploring the rock pools, watching the sun set from the break water talking of Arthurian legends, well me talking at least

About 3 days in I noticed my uncle's 2nd home was occupied, now I hadn't seen him for over 20 years, so on the off chance we went to knock on the door. As we approached I noticed children's clothing on the line and assumed he'd sold the place but, curiosity got the better of me so we knocked on the door anyway and fully expected to be told too bugger off by some stranger.

The door opened and there large as life was my uncle, of course he didn't recognize me so I had to explain who I was, watching his smile as the realization hit him was magical, we were invited in and plied with food and drink and told tales about the years gone by, I was bursting to ask about the kids clothes but manners dictated I wait until he was finished before I could ask.

Finally I got the chance and said "Uncle Peter who's are the kids clothes? "

Astonished he said you really don't know ? I confessed I didn't and he burst with laughter

They young man belong to Poppy your cousin (favourite cousin) Jackie's daughter.

At this point I should explain that most of my adult life has been spent abroad and pretty much out of touch with all but my immediate family.

I was, to say the least, elated at the prospect of seeing Jackie again and asked where I might find her, again he laughed and said to me I thought you were Cornish boy. I had my answer and took Mrs C on the adventure to find my cousin.

I'm Getting to the point bear with me.

Well there she was exactly where I would expect to find her but with a strange little creature all bouncy blonde curls and giggles and a killer smile. So introduced myself to Poppy much to the consternation of her mother, I have a wicked side, as Jackie opened her mouth to admonish me i said.

What ? Don't you recognize your favourite cousin. If only I' have thought to have my phone in camera mode for that face

Long story short we spent the afternoon gathering firewood and catching shrimps and crabs, collecting edible seaweed and setting up camp for the night like we used to as kids. We spent the evening amazing Poppy with our adventures as children, the pirates we fought off in our imaginations, the nights we'd spent in these caves ( actually man made shelters) and the dreaded sea monster legend of 1979.

Our parents used to do the same thing and their parents before them

It was magical, but what was even more magical was watching Poppy's ever so expressive face, a childhood memory was born and the next generation is assured of those same precious memories.

Cody

reply to post by cody599
Some of the stories of member's childhoods have been so sad. My favorite childhood memories are the fun kind. Playing pirate in my great uncle's old shrimp boat, making a real canoe with my friends by burning out a log and using our hatchets to "dig" it out, building what we nowadays call a "zip line" that went from high up in the tallest tree on one side of the yard to the bottom of a tree on the other side hanging from bike handlebars attached to a pulley wheel to fly across an acre.

We built forts in the woods and had BB gun wars, went fishing and swimming in the old "blue hole" out in the woods (dodging alligators in the hot months), went coon hunting and "swamp tromping", worked in the gardens and took care of the livestock, rode horses and jumped homemade bike ramps. We raced dirt bikes and go-carts and had contests to see who could swing the highest on tire swings.

We had neighborhood baseball and football games, ate fresh cucumbers out of the garden that we rinsed off with the water hose, got in fist fights and shook hands when they were over. We climbed trees and swung on vines and all carried machetes with us when we played in the woods. We all played "lets scare Momma half to death" with lizards and frogs and garter snakes- fortunately Momma was a good sport! We built a real covered wagon that we hitched up to two horses and I took all the neighbor kids for rides. We picked and ate dew berries off the sticker vines and ripe figs straight off the trees. Our Mommas let us roam free as long as we were all home by supper time, and everyone knew their own Mommas yell or whistle and could hear it no matter how far from home we were or how much noise we were making.

Yeah, there were bad and sad memories too, but I don't dwell on those. Life is too short to focus on things that weren't so pleasant. I prefer to focus on the good times, the fun times, the happy memories of childhood friends and adventures that will stick with me for the rest of my life!

Any chance I have to get to a lake or the ocean - I go. These are the only places I really feel at peace. I am not a whole person away from large bodies of water.

reply to post by Hefficide


You're right there Heff
My kids live in a different country in the dessert, my boy always says his best memories are when we were fishing on his visits and spending time in Bude shrimping and cooking up the catch on the beach.

Rivers and streams provided long summer days fishing, I'd bring books about nature and spend all day reading about, and searching out plants, rocks, insects birds and animals. It was my own natural university and set me up for life.

reply to post by HumansEh


Hi Humans long time no see. How's it going ?

Ireland huh ? Rain
You forgot the rain

We had neighborhood baseball and football games, ate fresh cucumbers out of the garden that we rinsed off with the water hose, got in fist fights and shook hands when they were over. We climbed trees and swung on vines and all carried machetes with us when we played in the woods. We all played "lets scare Momma half to death" with lizards and frogs and garter snakes

reply to post by littled16


Funny Mrs C was just telling me about her childhood in South Africa very similar

Knowing her bothers and sister I can understand my terrifying mother -in- law

Hi Cody, going fine and enjoying your thread (as always), we are all the sum of many parts aren't we?
Cocktails of emotions and experience.

Cool story about 'Poppy' and nicely told too.

Oh yeah the rain, funny that, As a kid summer rain was never as ubiquitous as it seems now, and when it came, it meant one thing...
Good fishin'


Did a quick search and whaddayaknow!
The Irish record for most sunshine in a day was....

Text The maximum daily sunshine was 16.3 hours on 18 June 1978.

www.met.ie...

Hi Cody, going fine and enjoying your thread (as always), we are all the sum of many parts aren't we? Cocktails of emotions and experience.

reply to post by HumansEh


Molotov cocktail sometimes

We certainly are a sum of many parts, the thing that never ceases to amaze me is how our formative years brought us all together

I love that we have friends the world over willing to share personal experiences.

That night with my cousin, Mrs C and the new light in my life the irrepressible Poppy was like a rebirth.

My favourite thing to hear right now................... Uncy Cody you're soooooooooooooooo silly.
And you'll love this

Imagine a six year old turning around with that stern face that only kids have (consternation personified), with the sun setting and the waves crashing, the fire giving itself over temporarily to cooking, and being told.

Uncy you need to grow up.

reply to post by pheonix358


Hmmm, yes, I've been told many a time that I should just put childhood things away. In fact, it's one of those phrases that would fall under the "if I had a dime every time someone said that, I'd be a millionaire." Those people who say such things ultimately do not know me, nor have they lived with me. They haven't seen me enter into a blind flashback that has me gripping onto whatever is close by for dear life and my teeth chattering so hard that it sounds as if they are going to break out of pure terror. And god only knows, I would give anything to not go through that. PTSD is a tricky beast. It causes permanent chemical changes to the brain. Childhood trauma, if prolific enough, can completely undermine the wiring in the brain and cause the right side (the emotional side) to become cut off. Toss in amnesia and well, that makes it awfully hard to identify and deal with one's demons. So, very hard to put childhood trauma behind one when it has such physiological effects. I'm a gruesome insomniac, too, and when I sleep, it's disrupted so that I rarely go into deep sleep--also due to childhood traumas. Won't even go into the defense mechanisms that get created. I'm a handful. So yeah, those who say to get over it really should stfu.

Hardest thing though? When your children ask what you were like when you were their age. That one always hurt so much. When I started remembering things, I was so excited to tell them what I had recalled from those little flashes. May not be able to tell them what I was like but I can at least tell them what I had and some of what I experienced even if it is all highly fragmented. Good enough for me. I share a little with them about the not so good stuff but that's because it helps them comprehend me and comprehend those who we all happen to share blood with.

Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes, with boats, and friends, and noodle salad. Just, no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but you're that p****d that so many others had it good. One of my favorite movie lines but I don't get mad really about the difference. It just makes me sadder to know what I missed out on but happy, too, that people had good times. And I remember playing with newborn puppies in the grass with that puppy smell so I can contribute to the good stuff, too. Just not very well and much.

Debbie Downer out.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


My adult life(23 to 37ish) was full of violence. I served in the IDF and saw more horror than any man should in many lifetimes.

However, I always had a safe haven, my childhood memories, I was nearly court marshaled for refusing a direct order to use live ammo on a riot that had kids line up at the front. I was not prepared to take that risk, even though they were angry and righteous, there was still innocence in their faces.

I couldn't imagine what it's like to never go back to my childhood and my heart bleeds for your lost innocence.

Rest assured your kids will thank you their whole lives, and that their memories will be love, grace and a happy childhood.

The best present a parent can give

Cody

reply to post by cody599


You absolutely get it, cody. Thank you. The biggest source of my joy is my kids, like Pheonix. Just last night, my youngest decided to take over my bed lol and we watched a silly program together. Every time she turned and smiled at me with a look of pure love and content, my heart absolutely burst with joy. I may have received the short end of the stick but protecting them, giving them what I know through experience is so incredibly important for a parent to give--that's my world. You can never spoil a child by loving them too much but you can destroy a child by not loving them enough. And to think I was terrified of becoming a parent myself because of the role models I had in parenting. I always tell my kids that I realized that I knew how to be a good parent--just do the opposite of everything that my own did, lol.

Glad your life is better, too. Tough times are tough, no matter the time period in which they are experienced.

Heya, cody!
Good idea for a thread. I've read through the entries, but my attention is sagging, so I thought I'd just post a quick reply.
I do want to say that I'm full of empathy and sorrow for those of you who had traumatic experiences as kids.

Mine was pretty "normal" in many ways.
I was born and spent my earliest years in Lake County, Illinois (tiny towns no one here has heard of). My mom's parents and my dad's parents lived a block and a half from each other - although neither of them were born there. Dad was born in Ohio, mom in Los Angeles.

Mom had me two months before she was 20 years old, I was the first born of the two first borns, and was doted on by my 4 Grandparents and my numerous aunts and uncles. My favorite Aunt was only 7 when I was born, and it was with her that I learned about sunbathing to AM battery-operated pop radio, going to the Taystee Freeze (the only ice cream place in town - a walk-up order at the window kind of thing. Music from the 60s always brings back memories of those days. Sometimes we'd go to the beach at one one of the numerous Lakes (Lake County, 'member?) and a few times to Lake Michigan - which might as well be an ocean from a little kid's point of view.

Got my first cat when I was 3, an orange and white spotted one, named him Sugar (like brown and white sugar, eh?). We had another cat named Schroeder but he didn't like kids (me). Once we went on vacation and left Sugar and Schroeder with our neighbors. While we were gone Schroeder ran away. I remember searching the "woods" behind our house, calling and calling for him. We never saw him again.

I remember birthday parties, nursery school in the Church basement, and beginning first grade. The teacher was an old spinster woman who had a student every morning "inspect" the other pupils for hygiene - seem to recall it being lice and brushed teeth as her pet issues. (I never had lice, and my teeth were always brushed )

I remember there was an English Sheepdog across the street, and I used to watch him through the front window. One day he was gone, too. I believe he had died. Thus began my life-long love for animals.

Then when I was 5 we moved to Wichita, Kansas and I had to adapt to a new school haflway through 1st grade. The house was on a dirt road - a typical 60s ranch house

At age 10 my family moved to a small Midwestern college town that was full of snobs and 'cliques', which applied to the children of the university types and the resident lawyers and doctors, etc. From there it was a battle to fit in. I never went to the same school more than 3 years.

My mom stayed home while Dad worked. I remember camping vacations through the Rockies to the desert of Utah, seeing Bryce and Zion and the Grand Canyon, and also going to Galveston, Texas and Six Flags. This, of course in a station wagon without seatbelts, my Dad smoking in the car, and his arm frequently coming across the back seat at us while he yelled at us to "Shut your mouths and look at the scenery!" We kids rode our bikes everywhere, swam at the public pool, played "spy" out in the huge wooded yards of our neighborhood. Walked to school, swam at the nearby lake, climbed trees, played tag football, and weren't afraid, ever, of anything.

Ah, good times. There were bad, trying times as an adolescent in school - but I don't want to talk about that now.

I'll visit the thread as it gets bigger.
Nice job, cody!!
~wild

reply to post by WhiteAlice

Every time she turned and smiled at me with a look of pure love and content, my heart absolutely burst with joy.

What can I say ?
I have a photo of my boy fast asleep on my dads lap after trying so hard to stay up and watch the grand prix with his old man and granddad.

He didn't speak english in public at the time and was asking me questions in hebrew to translate to my dad. My dad is old school and was getting annoyed with Elae (my boy) talking so much and asked me to tell him to be quiet. I said he was asking you dad because he wants your opinion.
At that point my old man grabbed him and held him in a way he never held me so far as I remember, there it was. My dad, my son, unconditional love. In that one embrace my heart burst with love.

It's a moment I'll never forget

Cody

My favorite Aunt was only 7 when I was born, and it was with her that I learned about sunbathing to AM battery-operated pop radio,

reply to post by wildtimes


Hi wild

I'd be the last one to reverse technology, as much as I struggle to keep up.

But it seems to me all kids that don't get it would benefit from, a healthy dose of a night on the beach/in the woods, building a fire, telling ghost stories and spending the night terrified of a non existent foe. Only to wake in the morning relieved and feeling a tad silly.

Hark at me waxing lyrical

I just wish some younger members had got involved, it would be interesting to read their insights.

Cody

The summer rain posts brought back a good memory. Give you some idea of intelligent logical thinking as a child back in the 70s

A bunch of mums having a get together at Mrs Ds house. Sorry can't remember the names, I'll make them up.

A pile of kids in the swimming pool having fun. It is a hot Australian day, but very cloudy. It starts to to rain softly. Mrs Bains runs out of the house in a panic and says to all the kids, "Get out of the pool, quickly." I looked at her and calmly asked, "Why."

Her reply, "Because it is raining and you will all get wet." I managed to not even smile and with my bestest angelic demeanor said, "We are in a pool, we are wet, the rain can't make us any wetter."

She glared at me and went inside. My foster Mum comes out with Mrs D and asks me, "What just happened?" So I restated the whole conversation. They both went inside. Nothing else happened so we all got back to playing in the pool.

10 minutes later there was a rumble of thunder so I hoped out, looked at all the kids and said, "We should probably go inside fairly quickly, unless you want to be in the pool if it gets hit by a bolt of lightening." Predictably everyone hoped out and went inside.

Mrs Bains says, "What, have you all had enough of the rain." One of the girls I didn't know at all, points to me and says, "He said we should come in on account of the thunder and lightening."

The only man present was Mr. D. He had an epic laughing fit while all the ladies helped dry the kids while trying to keep a straight face. Mr. D started to calm down so I looked at him and gave him my angelic smile which set him off again. My Foster Mum had really good laugh control. On the way home a bit later she tried to teach me something about politeness. She was laughing that hard that I really got mixed messages from that conversation.

P

Ohhh boy, well done Cody for another excellent thread and my upmost respects and bowing of the head to all who have posted here so far with so many memories and deeply touching stories.

I cannot really say much about my childhood as most of it was extreme violence on behalf of both my mother and my father as i was an unwanted child, (i choose not to talk about this here in order not to trigger for other survivors).

I too suffered from PTSD so cannot recall many of my childhood memories.

However, i was extremely fortunate to be fostered by a close family member at the age of 6 and what i do remember is the love and care that they literally poured on me even though they were very hard.

My family were not the richest in the world so we had to make do with what we had and hand me down clothes were a norm.

I did my part in the house as from the age of 7 (washing the dishes after the evening meal and making tea for my family members and wasn't allowed to go out and play on a weekend until i had done the housework and when i mean the housework it was hoovering and dusting of all rooms and cleaning the kitchen).

Although this was a pretty hard thing for a kid at my age, i earned 25 pence a week pocket money for which at the time was enough for me to go to the local news agents and purchase my 2000AD every Friday... then it was up to my bedroom under the blankets with a torch to find out the latest adventures of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog... If i remember correctly the "editor" of that comic was an alien sitting on a floating disk called Tharg the mighty and his greeting was "Borag Thung earthlings" or something around those lines?

I was also in the Cubs for a couple of years and earned a couple of badges and even became a "sixer" which is like a team leader. I always relished when we went away on summer camp for 2 weeks sleeping in the tent and playing mad maggots with our sleeping bags, having midnight feasts, fishing, cooking sausages on a stick over a camp fire (even if they were not completely cooked and half raw we would still eat them and they were delicious), collecting tapoles in the frog pond, going on hikes and leaving secret messages on the ground with sticks and stones...

Also did my share in the Air cadets and hated stomping around the drill parade ground every Tuesday and Friday night in the pouring rain but loved earning my Duke of Edinborough Bronze, Silver and Gold medals as this gave me a chance to work on my personal hobbies which were airfix model making and cross country running...

Strangely enough even after all that stomping around on the parade ground i joined the army and stayed for a couple of years with active service in Ireland and The Falklands before leaving and starting my studies fairly late in another country as a Vet (James Herriot eat your heart out!).... then of course adult life hit me and the chance of becoming a parent myself which brought upon Mrs Rodinus and myself 2 wonderful sons who have given me the chance to live out for real those happy happy memories that were so lacking when i was a child.

I could go on for hours and hours and hours... so i will leave it at that for the moment as i need to also get back to work...

To be continued...

Kindest respects

Rod

My earliest memory is of playing this game and of this theme in particular.


My childhood was deplorable due to circumstance out of my control but there was some moments of bliss.

I used to like exploring everything. I live in and around the forests so I was always off in nature.

Used to go the arcade quite a bit. Played a lot of hockey.

It's strange the amount of independence I had so young.

reply to post by pheonix358


I'm really happy you chose to join in the thread pheonix
Thanks
Cody

reply to post by Rodinus


Thanks Rod
Welcome back
Cody