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

reply to post by cody599


Thanks Cody,

It's good to be back and see so many shared personal stories... I star all posters...

I'm on and off all week as pretty busy period at work right now so bare with me...

Kindest respects

Rod

I can remember climbing the trees in our garden with my brother and neighbour kids and having to be cleaned with brasso to get all the sap off our skin and playing with the clay that was dug up when they were biulding a road nearby.

reply to post by Onami


Hi Onami and welcome to ATS by the way.
Yeah we used come home covered in mud in our new school shoes. It would make her go ballistic
Man that was fun
Cody

Originally posted by pheonix358

Originally posted by snowspirit
reply to post by pheonix358

 

Hugz anytime.

We're in an interesting universe. We know so little about it, we just know there is so much more than we see.
I think my mom was right, there are adventures still to be had, after this one.

Your Mum is right. The difficulty sometimes is staying in this one. No, I can't, my children keep me firmly here. I could not, would not and will not voluntarily leave. It would harm them enormously. Sadly, that is all that keeps me here.

Thank you. I have been thinking of writing a short story on ATS just to give some idiots the idea of how bad childhoods affect the adult. Still thinking about it.

P

Hi, hope you will write a short story or start a thread on this topic Pheonix...it's an important subject...I would participate....not so much about my own childhood.....but how I think Divorce hurt my child...too my shame..

TY for the cute doggie pic........

Ill share 3 quick ones since I was just last night telling the kids about their great great grandmother....

Well, the women in my family live forever... and get more cantankerous as we age. When I was a kid we were all out swinging on vines beside the creek and poking fun at grandma because she couldn't swing anymore. She told us to do something or another.. so we ran off and started swinging. Grandma got mad, came over to the other side of hte creek.. grabbed a vine.. swung
and broke her arm.
We still swear she broke her own arm on purpose so we all would have to stay with her and do her chores while she "recuperated".... for a VERY long time.

This same old woman refused to join the century and had a KICK START washing machine that had a wringer on the top. When we were little we thought it was really neat to kick start it and do her laundry. We got a little older and discovered that it was a really nice motor. So nice that we could more than likely use it to make a car of some sort. It located in a shed beside the house, so she didnt hear us when we were taking her washing machine apart to steal the motor for our big plans. When she did find out... OMG we were in trouble. My grandpa was dead, but she still had his cane by the front door.. and she was a deadly cane striker. Fast too or an old raisin! Especially since we had no idea how to make a car to use the motor in. My dad bought her a regular washer and dryer.. and we had to spend all summer doing her laundry ( for which she made more than usual) and her chores with the animals for punishment.

Way back when.. we didnt have a lot of TV, games, or other things to keep us out of trouble. Summer was trouble time... always. My grandma had cows.. and a bull. We got the bright idea to ride them. I had an even brighter idea ( cause I fancied myself a genius) to tie my bike to the side of a cow and use the handle bars to guide the cow. We actually DID get my bike tied to the side of the cow. As in wheels off the ground tied to its side with ropes. The bull didnt like the commotion and came over.. everyone started running and I hopped on the cowbike to escape the bull.... you know, casually drive away... and the cow went NUTS. Grandma went nuts. Dad went nuts.. and when he ran into the pen to get ME he got run down by the bull but did get the gate open.. the cow ran out.. I jumped off... and got the whoopin of my life.

..... funny thing is.. even at my age summer STILL brings out the mischievous kid in me.

Originally posted by Onami
I can remember climbing the trees in our garden with my brother and neighbour kids and having to be cleaned with brasso to get all the sap off our skin and playing with the clay that was dug up when they were biulding a road nearby.

I had very large big leaf maple trees in my backyard as a teen. LOVED climbing trees. Although I was a teen, that was my favorite roost on nice days, lol. Took me a while to "grow up" but truth be told, if I could still do it, I'd be climbing trees. Will is there, body isn't.

Originally posted by pheonix358

Originally posted by snowspirit
reply to post by pheonix358

 

Hugz anytime.

We're in an interesting universe. We know so little about it, we just know there is so much more than we see.
I think my mom was right, there are adventures still to be had, after this one.

Your Mum is right. The difficulty sometimes is staying in this one. No, I can't, my children keep me firmly here. I could not, would not and will not voluntarily leave. It would harm them enormously. Sadly, that is all that keeps me here.

Thank you. I have been thinking of writing a short story on ATS just to give some idiots the idea of how bad childhoods affect the adult. Still thinking about it.



P

That would be an interesting thread,
Although i had a very happy childhood I know how badly my divorce affected my kids.
Well my daughter the most.

I'd happily contribute to it
And you just made my friends list pheonix358 as did you MountainLaurel

I'll remove you if you'd prefer

Cody

Here's a few more memories I have (your thread has got me reminiscing!)

As a small child - the air-raid sirens were very near my grandparents' house, and the sound of those (now used for emergency broadcast weather alerts) made my blood go cold. That was scary.

Thunderstorms did scare me. I'd hide under the covers.

I remember the day Kennedy got shot. I believe I was watching the Flintstones or perhaps Mighty Mouse on TV (my first crush was Mighty Mouse. Once I dreamed I was Minnie Mouse and was going to marry him; I woke up with the sheet pulled over my head!! I was about 4.)

In school, we had regular Duck and Cover drills. These continued for many years...and fire/tornado drills, of course, forever...

My dad would go out on the front porch when those sirens went off, while my brothers and I would grab the pets and run downstairs, terrified. My dad wanted to SEE a tornado. He never got to. (I did, many years later...and told him all about it)

The game "Slug Bug"

We played with Jarts! That's right, the huge metal spikes with 'wings' that you threw at the opposing team's "target hoop" on the ground. We had slides made of steel that burned your bum when it was a hot summer day, and concrete playground surfaces.

We didn't wear bicycle helmets.

We didn't have hovering parents.

My dog got run over by one of those old, huge yellow taxis while my brothers and I were playing outside on a Mother's Day...right in front of us. Horror. He survived, somehow...his tag got caught under a wheel, and his jaw cracked in two, but otherwise he was unscathed.

Watching The Monkees and Batman on TV - I remember getting our first color TV when I was about 7.
When I was 10, my mom took me to my first 'concert' - it was The Monkees on tour, opening act was the Fifth Dimension.

Mom and Daddy loved to watch "Star Trek."

We went to drive-in movie theatres much more often than the town auditorium theatres.

We went to the public library twice a month-ish, and I systematically read EVERY book about animals or magical stuff in the kid's/youth section.

I remember when FM radio first came on the air.

I remember the riots on campus during the Vietnam war protests and unrest. I do recall being worried then that my brothers would be drafted.

The 3 of us got a paper route (flinging papers from a bicycle when I was 11 (they were 9 and 8). We saved up our money so we (I) could buy a horse. (Mom and Dad pitched in, but we got one - a soured buckskin rental horse......but we didn't know any better. I named him "Huckleberry Heart o' Gold", and got laughed at by my entire family. We wound up just calling him Huck. Lots of stories about Huck.......

I had learned to ride on Shetland Ponies (some were docile as could be, others were horribly recalcitrant). A quarter an hour...no helmets, no adult supervision...just me and my junior high friends. Later that was the place that we boarded Huck. He kept getting out and running to the county fairgrounds; everyone in that part of town knew who he belonged to. We always got him back to the barnyard, though. My Dad thought he was a pill, and dangerous (he was both, but I loved him anyway).

As a very little girl, I played pretend "Caspar and Wendy" under the willow tree out back. (need I explain who they were?)

We used to cut people and furniture and clothes out of the Sears catalogue and play paper-dolls with them.

As an older little girl, I tried to make a 'snail farm' under an evergreen at the very back of our acre of yard....they lived there anyway, but I decided they needed ramps and corrals and things.
(They weren't very cooperative.)

In Fourth grade, I was poking a stick down a hole in the schoolyard and a Giant Cicada juvenile crawled out of it, time to shed it's shell. I screamed so loud!!! Jumped back and fell over.

My dad and brothers used to shoot bibi guns at the Cicadas singing in the trees. I could NEVER spot them.

We had an old stone fireplace/grill in our back yard....one year it had Giant Cicada Killers living in a swarm in it. Those are hornet-type things about 3 inches long. Holy moly those were scary!

Mom did flower beds, and Dad grew a few stalks of corn and tomatoes. Nomnomnom....fresh off the stalk/vine. So good!

That's enough for now. I'm sure more will be flooding in. I'm sure it's rather dull reading, too, but it's fun to put it out there anyway.
Thanks again, cody!

Oh wait! One more for now...

Swimming lessons every summer at the public pool. My mom would always enroll us in the earliest morning class. The water was ALWAYS freezing cold. Our lips would turn blue before the lesson was over.

reply to post by wildtimes


That was Great ! I have alot of similiar memories...you just brought back some good ones !

I don't remember when JFK was shot I was born just before or after in 1963...but I do remember when Nixon resigned......and I remember the Vietnam War ending........in Junior high when John Lennon died...

Drive-in Movies Rocked.....we loved them when we were little and as teenagers too...I remember they had this little playground right below the movie screen...very fun...lol...and as I think I already said, one of the few times our parents let us eat junk food.....that was a big treat in our health food freak family !

p.s. Cody happy to be on your friend list.....

reply to post by wildtimes


I can relate to the swimming class memories - but not the cold part. We lived in southern Florida... so the community pool was basically .50 cent admission daycare for my mother.

After the first two summers I ended up being a lifeguard so, for the last year or two she didn't have to cough up the fifty cents.

reply to post by cody599


Thank you. I like friends on my friend list. Cool.

P

reply to post by MountainLaurel

Drive-in Movies Rocked.....we loved them when we were little and as teenagers too...I remember they had this little playground right below the movie screen...very fun...lol...and as I think I already said, one of the few times our parents let us eat junk food.....that was a big treat in our health food freak family !

Yeah, we rarely 'ate out'. It was home-cooked meals my whole life. (I still do that....home-cooked, rather than fast-food). My parents were quite frugal....I recall us begging for 'McDonalds', and them saying: Erm, no.

www.youtube.com...

lol.....just kinda felt it......

reply to post by MountainLaurel


For this thread the Cat says it all!





P

reply to post by cody599

Hi cody, fun thread/topic. I have lotsa memories. I made my own childhood. I, too, have PTSD because of childhood but I was always a lil dickens and made my own childhood and memories. I used to love and catch tadpoles back then...you could drink the water from a spring fed stream back then too, and not get sick. I had a pair of those roller skates that you would screw onto your shoes. What a blast. I loved those things. Next on my favorites list was paper dolls...loved "dressing" them and making up my own style ideas. Most favorite of all...crayons and coloring books and sketch pads...got so good with drawing and use of color and shading that I was actually able to sell some art works of mine in my later years.

Always made lil gardens no matter what cold water flat we lived in....sold the fresh flowers at a homemade stand and then went to the movies and learned the lines of every actor in every movie I saw and then went home and organized the kids and we made our own "shows"...was great fun! I still do gardens today...huge ones for all to enjoy. As a child, loved watching the butterflies and hummingbirds that would visit. Would pretend they were my own personal fairies. Was always scared of trolls that might be under the bridge on the way home from free movies we had at the park on summer evenings. Now the only trolls i have to fear are the ones on the internet. Hugs to you and everyone!

reply to post by MountainLaurel


Hi MountainLaurel and Phoenix, I have often thought of writing a short story or some such relevant to my chilhood as well. Will see...if you have ever seen the movie, "Sybil" (sp)?, well, nuf said...it was kinda like that only many family members involved. Don't wanna go off topic or ruin thread...just wanted to say hi and say I feel your pain. In many ways, I managed to have fun and develope coping mechanisms. I got one heck of an imagination and sense of humor somehow anyways. Hugs.

reply to post by cody599


Childhood memories...I remember when it cost $1.00 at the movie
theater,ticket,popcorn,pop,candy and 10 cents to call dad when the
movie was over.
.

Originally posted by MountainLaurel
reply to post by wildtimes

 

That was Great ! I have alot of similiar memories...you just brought back some good ones !

I don't remember when JFK was shot I was born just before or after in 1963...but I do remember when Nixon resigned......and I remember the Vietnam War ending........in Junior high when John Lennon died...

Drive-in Movies Rocked.....we loved them when we were little and as teenagers too...I remember they had this little playground right below the movie screen...very fun...lol...and as I think I already said, one of the few times our parents let us eat junk food.....that was a big treat in our health food freak family !

p.s. Cody happy to be on your friend list.....

I thought Id never see a for real drive in again... and we moved to this town about 7 yrs ago.. and it has a 2 screen drive in! We all of course donate extra to keep the darn thing open. I recall a drive in where we had a playground too when I was a kid.. those horrible horses on the springs and gravel in your sandals! The one we have here, you set your radio to a station and you get it through your own speakers. We tried to tell the kids about those awful speakers that were never long or loud enough... and sneaking our friends in in the trunk to get by the godawful high 1.00 fee each extra passenger... we left the booze part out!

reply to post by cody599


I spent 2 hours on the phone today with a guy named Cody, so I guess I will take a moment to share two memories of mine from my childhood. Where I grew up I remember going to the first McDonald's with my parents, french fries and a coke and a hamburger for 50 cents. I, also, remember Shaky's Pizza parlor, where you could watch the old guys flipping pies and play the old sing a long piano for hours and pay 1 penny a song. Man am I old.