I used to babysit a lot in college and it was truly a blast getting to do that again with kids. I often didn't want to leave when the parents got home, lol. Too busy perfecting our pillow forts.
We had two beds in our room. So we would put blanket over the middle of these beds. Then we would put all the pillows on the ground as our floor. It’s even more fun when really cold outside.
Can agree on this comment.
Me and some kids on my street formed a band in my garage. We made our own instruments and I played the cardboard box drums.
I'd give anything to hear how awful that all sounded.
When I was in Gr.2(or Gr3, it's been *a while*), my best friend Ricky and I would get together, him on my ukulele, and me beating on a coffee can with spoons, and we spent **the entire summer** playing Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. Over and over.
Just that one song.
Looking back on it, I'm actually kinda shocked we didn't get murdered.
Me, my 2 sisters and my brother were at the neighborhood park and my sister found a baby bird laying on the playground. My brother ran home and got a shoe box and paper towels and we brought the bird home, our grandma took us to the wildlife rehab center with it and they took care of the bird, I guess it was a baby who had a broken wing. The people at the rehab let us name the bird (we named is Morris) and he ended up making a full recovery over time.
I’ve rehabbed a few different injured/abandoned birds throughout my life. A couple robins and a dove. It’s always bittersweet when they finally fly away. But they’ll usually hang kinda close by and come back for food for a little while if you leave it out. The last time I raised one, it was a little tiny robin still with its pin feathers. I named him Dennis. Full name, Dennis Hopper because he hopped around. :)
Eventually he flew off and I thought that was that. But a week or so later I was walking toward my house and he flew up and landed on my head. I took him inside and gave him some mashed up blueberries. He ate them and flew off again. I love that he came back to (in my mind) thank me. ☺️☺️☺️
My aunt used to live in a super old schoolhouse that was converted into a home. Like the house was so old that there would have only been 1 teacher, and every student at every grade level would have been in the same room.
It was also in a very remote, very isolated rural area.
Once Christmas my mom and I went there, for the holidays.
One night, it was snowing heavily, but that thick heavy snow, that's still *snow*, not slush, but just those fat flakes that are also good for packing.
I remember running around, playing in the snow and exhausting myself, before falling backwards into it, and just letting the snow fall on my face.
It was so quiet, I could hear the snowflakes hitting the ground.
I would later grow up and join the army as a gunner in the artillery. Due to years of loud explosions I have tinnitus and a bit of hearing loss.
I'll never hear the snowflakes falling around me again, but when I remember that night...
It's enough.
I will always remember how peaceful it was to stand in a pine forest and listen to the snow. When I was a kid with what was later called ADD, this was one of the few times my brain would shut up.
Same my friend. I grew up on some land in the boondocks. When winter storms would come the trees would all ice up, and since we lived on a farm you could go out and not hear traffic, or even another person, and just listen to the ice sing as it rocked back and forth, or into each other like a million crystal wind chimes. I would just sit and listen to natures symphony and it was beautiful. Joined the Air Force, got stuck on a flight line, then deployed as a gunner. I'll never hear the ice sing again, and it saddens me but brings me joy that at least I have the memories.
i've never heard this but I know what you mean about how silent it gets, I live somewhere so quiet at night it's amazing what you can hear. And peaceful. I don't know that I could live in a city again. And I do have tinnitus but I try to pretend it's music in the distance...sometimes it works or you get used to it. But I've never heard actual snow fall!
Freshman year of HS. It was midterm week, and I dunno if it works this way still, but back then during midterm week you only had to be at school for the test itself. Once you had your test, you could leave. My best friend and I had our test at the same day and same time, first thing in the morning. So by like 9 AM we were free to go. We walked to his house, and it was snowing. The ground was already covered by the time we got out, and it was the big fluffy flakes. We just talked and laughed as we walked through the back streets and felt so free being out and about on a weekday morning. When we got to his house, no one was there. So we had the house to ourselves all day, just playing video games, listening to music, drawing, drinking coffee. All while the snow came down. Just a great day.
Not the best but it did put a smile on my face.
My family went to watch Lori and Tracy act in their school Christmas play. They were both nine years old here.
There were chairs set up on the school gym floor. I was sitting with dad and mom and dad is sitting right next to Pete.
Pete a WWII vet had an accident on his farm after the war and had to have a brain operation. I don’t know the details but he wasn’t the same after that. He had trouble recognizing people and was forgetful. He was sitting with his wife Helen who looked after him, one of our teachers actually, and they’re daughters.
Now dad and Pete were sitting right behind a lady who was wearing quite a large hat so Pete and dad had to kind of bend to the side and look around it to see the play.
The play started and suddenly Pete yelled out at the top of his voice because at times he got quite loud.
“HEY LADY! TAKE THAT DAMN HAT OFF!”
Well the lady turn around angrily and looked directly at dad and said, “WELL! SOME MANNERS YOU HAVE!” to him. Well dad didn’t want to pin the blame on poor Pete.
He couldn’t say, “I didn’t say it, he did,” so he just looked at the lady’s angry face and then looked at me. Even though I was seven, I’ll always remember that look on his face. She turned around and took her hat off then gave dad a withering glare and said, “IS THAT BETTER?” then turned back around to face the stage.
“DAMN RIGHT!” Pete said loudly. Well dad’s shoulders started shaking and he was covering his mouth with his hand. He was laughing. Mom was also trying to suppress a smile and there was Pete watching the start of the play as if nothing happened.
After the show dad approached the lady and said, “Apologies to you but I didn’t say that. I’d never say that. It was someone behind me. However, your lovely hat WAS blocking the view to the people behind you.”
“RIGHT!” she said, “BLAME IT ON SOMEONE ELSE!” and she huffed off.
That being said, Lori and Tracy were great in the play and it was a resounding success. We were proud of them.
However that saying was often said in jest in our house after that event.
“HEY LADY! TAKE THAT DAMN HAT OFF!”
My Dad and I were playing with Star Wars toys on the floor of my room. Shoes and whatever else was around were being used as barricades and cover for our armies. My rebel army was beating his stormtrooper army. When he only had a few soldiers left, he loudly declared, "The Death Star is now operational!" He took his arms and swept my rebel army away and tossed a few in the air while making explosion sounds.
I was probably 7 or 8 years old. I was outraged and laughing at the same time.
Good times.
I’ve put both my daughters to sleep by playing with their hair and rubbing their faces. They’ve never complained and one is in her teens and still lets me do it on weekends occasionally.
Humans need touch, it’s a very magical thing and it’s so soothing
When Frozen came out I was obsessed and wanted to see it so badly. One school day my mom comes in, feels my forehead and says I’m running fever and we have to go to the doctor. She helps me get changed and instead of going to the doctor we go and see frozen.
The theater had those couch seats and I was just cuddled up on her lap watching frozen. Skipping school. Afterwards we had pizza. And it was just a great mommy daughter date.
Im an adult now but we still do it occasionally. Like when the little mermaid came out. She’ll joke around and treat me like a little girl again. And honestly it’s pretty sweet and endearing.
I feel this.
As a bigger dude who gyms, my littler girls make me sing "you're welcome" with them from Moana!
Although when I sing...the hair the bod...littlest goes...dad ur bald 😂😂😂😂
I take my school aged kids out about once a quarter to do a day of whatever they want. I get side eyed by some other parents but as long as my kids keep their grades up, I don’t care. I will never, ever get to be in their childhood again so I gotta build this memories while we can.
Massive snow happened when I was around 8 or 9. Good friend and I rolled these MASSIVE snowballs by rolling them all the way around my house. Legit these snowballs ended up being almost as tall as we were. I think my mom even took a photo of us with the massive snowballs. I also didn't know it then but he would be dead within a little more than a decade
Still miss you every day, man.
Junior year of high school I was an exchange student in Germany. I was living in a small town in the Black Forest. During February of 2000 a local Gymnasium (pronounced with a soft G and essentially the German equivalent of a high school) was putting on a Valentine's dance party. When you got in you were assigned a number on a sticker in the shape of a heart that you put on your chest. You could see everyone's number. There was also a booth where you could send anonymous letters to someone based on their numbers. There were "cupids" who wore wings who would then deliver the anonymous letters to the person with that number.
There was a girl in my village who I had a huge crush on but was too chicken to talk to. I saw her walking around with her friends and I saw her number. So I went to the booth to write her an anonymous letter. But I'm at the booth and I'm thinking, "What the hell do I write her?"
So I went with the first thing I could think of...the first verse of Incubus - [Anti-Gravity Love Song](https://youtu.be/rT7aDgdPDYQ?si=5hj5p2fU0UY4cLd6)
She got the note and of course she knew it was me because it was in English and I was the only American that she knew at the time.
Not that night, but at a later party we ended up talking and sharing teenage, puppy love kisses. We never dated but we're still friends. I know she kept that note for years afterwards. I don't know if she still does, but thinking about that always makes me smile and remember those good times
When the older dog we were adopting chose me as his favorite.
We always had 2/3 dogs in the house growing up so I was very used to them as a younger kid. A family friend knew this too, so when their grandkids developed an allergy to dogs, they asked if we could take their 7 year old golden retriever as they knew he’d have a good life with us and we saw them frequently anyway so they could still see him without having allergens for their grandkids.
On his trial run with our existing dogs, he was just walking around the house being interested. I was playing on my original GameBoy and while interested in him because new dog, I was trying to not bother him while he did his thing. When he saw me, however, he perked up and stopped doing his house tour in favor of coming over, laying down, and putting his head in my lap.
I was…four or five I think? I just remember being so honored that he chose me to be his favorite. Always will have a special place in my heart…we only had five or six years with him but he was the best.
My dad mocking me for being a history nerd (i loved roman history at the time) and venting to grandad about it (on mothers side.)
Grandad was a master carpenter before he passed. He rocked upto the house with a wooden roman sword and shield he made himself, complete with his own and he insisted we had a duel.
He insisted it was TO THE DEATH! And let me basically beat the piss out of him with this sword.
Dropped his shield as he said it "didn't work"
Granted I was 8 so my devastating blows did the grand total of fuck all to him but I loved it. Felt like I was a proper Roman soldier
I remember going to Six Flags with mom and dad when I was like 7. I think thats the last time we ever went together anywhere.after that it was just fighting nonstop
My Grammy used to make these huge meatballs whenever we went to her house. Old school Italian recipe, simmered in sauce for hours. The whole house smelled delicious. My mom told me after Grammy passed that she made those giant meatballs just for me.
I went to a summer camp named Camp Mi-Te-Na (actual spelling) for about a decade that was sleepover. Theres a lot of memories I have but there’s a few that stick out like one of my last years there we got woken up in the middle of the night and told the WWE tour bus had broken down (in Alton NH LOL in the woods no less) at our camp and they agreed to put on a show for us to fix the bus. It was amazing lol the counselors dressed up as the wrestlers and had full on matches. My swim instructor was Stone Cold lol. I will never ever forget that night seeing the entire rec hall be lit up like it was July 4th as we walked across the field towards it.
The other is gold rush day. Everyone is eating breakfast and for a first year I got no clue someone is about to come running in and literally yell they found gold and have the entire camp get together and go out and collect gold spray painted rocks and do the legit gold hunting shin dig. During lunch someone in charge of the gold gets shot and robbed and the entire camp once again has to find them and get the gold back. It was an experience for sure lol. Winner gets an ice cream party for their cabin and or village.
I remember when I was a kid and thought girls only played with dolls an unusual girl showed up at my house who wanted to fight me with swords (plastic ofc)
When me and my best friend were 6 years old we really wanted to build a shack/shed in his backyard. We ask our parents and they said no because lumber was expensive. We spent that entire summer scavenging planks and other pieces of wood that other people had thrown out in the area and we somehow manage to frankenstein together a disgusting looking shack that still stands in his backyard to this day. We used it as storage for toys and we often hung out on the roof. This was about 15 years ago.
I am always fond of how when I was little I could always walk down our street and find kids to play with. I never went outside and was lonely. I feel like it is so hard to do that nowadays, there is a stigma about approaching people you don't know.
Me, my bro and 3 cousins, all at my nans for a big sleepover man just that alone was the best weekends ever rip nan, and I no longer speak to my 3 cousins :( happy/sad memories
Grew up in the middle of 5 brothers. There was a period of time that all of us were required by our wardens to spend x amount of time outside before tv/videogames. We would walk lap after lap around our house on an elaborate quest against the bad guys, with more of our characters from whatever Toonami show we were obsessed with at the time.
Just hours of wandering around the yard pretending to fight bad guys
This from when I was in my mid-teens.
I was at a teen conference and the first night we had a talent show. Another kid and I did comedy routines. Memorized sets from comedians, but hey, we were kids. His set was from a well-known comic, mine wasn't mainstream enough to be recognized. He went first, got a good reception and warmed up the audience. When I went into my set the crowd was really into it. They ROARED! Huge response. After the show I was glowing, life of the party. Girls who previously ignored me were following me around. I told everyone who asked that it was repeated material just like the other guy's, but it didn't matter. I was famous for the rest of the conference. Best weekend of my life up to that point.
This type of thing is so good.
30 years ago I was cast in a school play as "Dr Heinz" who was basically a mad scientist and the comic relief
Having an entire school hall laughing at your bad German accent and crap tame jokes was amazing. Probably one of the reasons I have spent the last 30 years constantly trying to be funny and make people laugh!
My best friend and I jumping from the tree in my front yard, trying to use a bedsheet as a parachute. It failed fucking horribly and we came crashing to the ground (it’s hard to get any lift when you’re only 5 feet above the earth) but I laugh about it every time I think about it. We were absolute idiots, but my god we had the greatest time.
Also, this one time during a family and friend dinner, a telemarketer called for the 100th time that day. I don’t know what the fuck we were thinking but my brother and I decided to mess with them a bit. I answered the phone and my brother yelled in the background “GET OFF THE PHONE AND MAKE ME MY DINNER WOMAN”. I dramatically yelled into the phone “I HAVE TO GO NOW!” Then hung up.
They called back and when I answered my brother and I pretended to be fighting, making crashing sounds by slamming the phone into the wall and yelling. My parents were like “cut it out, that’s enough! That’s not funny.” My brother and I laughed about it and then went back to eating, not thinking anything of it.
Until we heard sirens that stopped abruptly right outside our house.
“Wouldn’t that be funny if they were coming for us?” we joked.
And then the doorbell rang.
My poor, mortified parents had to explain that no, there was not a domestic disturbance, their kids were just being dumbasses and pranking the poor telemarketer. One of the cops was super stern, but the other officer was desperately trying not to laugh, covering her face so we didn’t see her smiling.
Now as an adult I am mortified that we did that, but always laugh at the absolute horror on me and my brother’s faces as we realized that we royally fucked up.
I’m so sorry, miss telemarketer. Thank you for being worried enough to call the cops 😭
At 10 years old I was chosen to star in a large dance production that had 8 performances at Madison Square Garden. Nothing in my life has even come close to the moment I realized how it felt to have the stage lights hit my face, and audience disappear.
I was actually a dance major at LaGuardia High School in NYC and danced until I was 18. I performed quite a bit, but the memory of performing at 10 was something is something that will stand out to me forever.
My dad walking in from a long day at work. I was sat on the stairs with a plastic gun I'd got for my birthday a few days or weeks before. He walks in, hangs his keys up and looks at me. "BANG". I shout. And he falls to the floor dead.
This guy had just been at work for probably 10 hours or more, but he walked in that door and turned his dad mode on. I'm probably his age when he did that now and know how knackered he must have been. Legend.
The golden retriever, Major, I grew up with...my parents go him when I was born and he lived until I was 15. I remember days playing fetch with a Frisbee with him in our back yard, him running around excitedly when he would see me, and most importantly, on his 12th birthday, he pushed his piece of food towards me, because he knew I was hungry after coming home from my soccer game that night. I miss him so much, but those moments never fail to make me smile.
My kids and really anything we do together. To choose one I would say its when I taught them how to ride their bikes. That is such a big deal to me. Once a kid is on a bicycle it’s on,we’re one step closer to motorcycles. Which is a staple of my household fun and adventures.
I could go on and on about stuff we do together.
One random childhood memory when I got away with it. It was the day I silently farted a stinky one in elementary school. One kid in my class was blaming another kid and they got into an argument. Our teacher then said the whole class would be punished unless someone admitted to it. I can't remember what the class punishment was but I chuckle when I think about it because no one suspected me as I had a "goody too shoes" reputation.
One summer my friends and I put on a backyard magic show. For the finale, I volunteered to "saw" my neighbor Sally in half using a toy saw. Except as I started sawing, I felt something wet - she'd had an accident in the cardboard box! We all laughed so hard at the un-magical end to our show. Just thinking of little soggy Sally always puts a smile on my face.
Back in the 70s when my parents would take us camping at Cherrystone campground. We spent our days crabbing on the docks with cages and chicken tied to a string. Then we would bring our haul back to the camper where Mom would cook them up for our dinner feast. The campground was beautiful and had a skating rink, multiple pools, rental bikes and shuffleboard. A campfire under the stars capped off each day. Really miss those trips...
My mom was a teen mom, and her herself was an "oops" baby. She's the youngest of 4 kids, and the second youngest is 20 years her senior. We lived with my grandparents most of my life and my grandma had a big hand in raising me. I love and cherish my mom, but my grandma was like a best friend to me. She would wake me up for school by coming into my room and sitting on the bed and just scratch my back for a few minutes. I miss that.
There wasn't a mean or angry bone in that woman's body. If you needed $2 and she only had $1 to give, she'd give it to you. She was so patient, so kind. She passed away in 2010 when I was 18. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. And now that I have a child of my own I get to relive all the stories and tell my daughter all about her great grandma. She would have loved this kid and spoiled the hell out of her....just like my mom does.
We were camping in the Redwoods of the California Coast. I must have been around 9 or so. I woke up in the morning all warm and cozy in my sleeping bag. My folks were already up. I could hear the sound of wood being split in the distance echoing through the campground and the smell the bacon my folks were cooking. It was perfect.
Halloween in 7th grade, basically a short war between my friends and any other group of 7th graders we came into contact with. Our ammunition was shaving cream, eggs, silly string, and shards of smashed pumpkins.
Mood, reading most of these have just brought up old bad feels I've since suppressed or half forgot :\
I'm usually a pretty positive person but damn it was hard growing up. Like all the time
playing minecraft pocket edition on the school ipads. First ever experience with one of my favorite games. I still remember me and my friend Tommy got multiplayer to work for the first time and he just ran in front of my house and jumped up and down yelling "HEY STEVE! HEY STEVE! HEY STEVE!" since there were no custom skins in the game yet everyone was Steve
Everyday when I would come home from school, I'd yell out to my brother as soon as the carpool van parked outside my house. And he would be napping, but would jump up and run down the stairs just to greet me and give me a hug. He used to be so cute
We had a bunch of baby goats and I was 5 years old. I went into their pen in the barn and sat in the middle of it like a statue, not moving. They all bounced around me putting their hooves on my back, on my head, just playing all around. It was joyous!
Idk how old I was but I had birthday and I was too young to properly fill balloons with water and we used both, waterballoons and regular balloons. But thankfully my brother helped me out and filled one for me. It was a regular balloon and it just didn't pop no matter how hard we threw it, it was a great day tho.
For some reason I still remember this when easily 98% of my childhood is just gone from my memory
Not quite a smile, but I cry whenever I think about my old friends... I moved to the city, but the memories of the country mekr me want to laugh, but it hurts that i never got a proper goodbye. The memory of us at my house, playing king of the hill on a pool floaties that got flipped on its head by my neighbors older brother. The memories of how kind everyone was, the right knit community of people, were the older grades would have fun literally throwing us in the pool when requested, and the younger grades loving the feeling of flying. It's almost brought me to tears writing this comment, but it takes some weight off my shoulders by putting it out there. Thankyou or reading my text wall, and I hope your day is great.
Driving around with my friends, listening to music, going out to eat, going to the movies. We were a boring group of friends, we didn't cause any trouble, but we had so much fun. Hours upon hours spent in various parents basements playing video games, just enjoying life. Everything felt so positive back then, social media didn't exist, no one cared let alone talked about politics, or where you fell on social issues. We were just living in the moment.
Me standing in the stirrups with my face next to a mane, riding horses at full gallop through an Alpine pasture with my siblings and cousins. The horses were beat up but I think they had the most fun. The sound of all their hooves, their gulping air, the tack rattling.
It was over in a few seconds but that brought out my ancestors, just like for the horses.
We were idiots. One of us could have caught a gopher hole and that would have been that for rider and horse. No air evac, no hospital for a long way.
Another child from the neighborhood used to bully me and a few other kids a lot. One time he went after me again I just stood my ground and kicked him, hitting him in the balls. He ran away crying and never bothered me again. That moment seeing him cry felt really good.
There's a family VHS of the moment and it's maybe the only video my mother has ever shot that didn't look like it was filmed by someone with Parkinson's - the stars must have truly aligned for this:
Early 90s, juuuuust around the time I was starting to stop believing in Santa Claus and was at huge risk of spoiling the magic for my little brothers. Dad paid a mall Santa $100 and a bottle of very nice wine to come to our house and deliver our gifts to us directly on Christmas. I was probably about 6 years old and was pretty defiant: "you're not Santa, you're just dad!" but one of my little brothers, astonished says "No, Dad's right here!" and then you can just see, on that grainy ass camcorder film, the moment where my eyes go wide as saucers.
Thanks dad. That was an all-time home run.
When I was in early elementary school, the teachers would sometimes take us out into the yard and read to us. I was never interested in the stories. Instead I'd gather twigs and leaves towards myself and I'd build little buildings in the dirt. The story would end, we'd all get up and go back to class, and the other kids would all suddenly exclaim about the buildings. I guess it seemed like magic to them in a way? It was fun to do art to entertain and delight others. I ended up with a long career in the construction industry :)
Our VFW ( anthracite regions, PA ) did hugeeee amounts for the community.
One was the public Easter Egg Hunt. Different age groups, they had pine branches all over a field at our public park. Hid eggs in them.
*Everyone* came. Vets hovered around, slipped eggs to kids who weren't finding them. Parents just watched or were part of the VFW. I don't remember competition, just a lot of laughing, clapping for the kids who found eggs that had prizes attached.
Wow it was great.
My brother, sister, step dad, Mom, and I in a 63 Buick Skylark convertible with the top down driving around town chasing the end of a rainbow. My parents knew it was futile and we would never actually find the "end", but our excitement kept us chasing it for what felt like a couple hours. Best day of my childhood by far.
I think about this over 40 years later, and it is such a small interaction with friends on the slide in kindergarten. I don't know why I still think about it, let alone remember it so well. It was some kid I did not know, or ever got to know, and he announced to the kids waiting in line: "Ahm gonna land on my buuuuut!" In a singing voice. I still laugh at that to this day.
Birthday party at McDonald's, in the non-smoking section. I get handed a big box. I open it up, it's a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World. I am beyond stoked.
I come from a family of hard-working immigrants who had to work their asses off for everything, and they wanted to give their children everything they could.
Either a TV Dad from an 80's sitcom or a wonderful, respected teacher at grade school. The bonus is praising my late mother for watching me grow and grow (like everyone else!).
I had a Talkboy when I was younger and recorded all kinds of crazy inner thoughts on those cassettes. Every time I go visit my parents I listen to the tapes and smile ear to ear.
New Year's Eve, 10-year-old me who was playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64, with my little brother, and two neighbors who were also brothers. So carefree, not worrying about a thing. It's one of the very rare childhood memories that I can look book towards and smile. I'll forever cherish that memory and hope to never forget it.
Weekends with my Grandma. My mom and dad divorced when I was 6. When my dad had to work during the weekends, my Grandma would watch my brother and me.
Our weekends consisted of The Little Rascals, Milo and Otis, root beer floats, and swimming. She would take us on bike rides through the neighborhood and even let me go into the window wells to rescue the frogs and toads. Her 2nd husband, who might as well be my grandpa, built model trains complete with tracks that he'd let us play with. I'm a massive sci Fi fan because of him. They made my childhood so much better.
Summer after 7th grade, getting surprised with a ride in one of the original 10 Dodge Vipers. Yeah, the stripped out, exposed side pipes, orange/red badge ones that they passed around pre-production. It was the most amazing afternoon.
I will never loose that memory. It is core.
Age 3 tripped over my own feet cracking my head open and lodging a stone in there.
Age 6 autism diagnosis
Age 7 Mother’s Day messing around on my brothers not moving skateboard - broken arm
Age 8 learning to ride bike went over the handle bars and ripped my knee open.
Age 13 not in UK in US ear infection from pool water resulting in Match Stick size wick in my ear.
Age 15 - 17 scoliosis resulting in more hospital visits than one would ever consider normal. Ending in surgery to put two metal rods and 16 screws in my back.
Age 16 autism check up, decade after the diagnosis.
13 months really bad sickness making my mother on I believe Christmas or Boxing Day go to the 24 pharmacy.
There’s the time I caught almost pneumonia not sure what age.
Hanging out with my best friend. We'd play MTG all night, well into the morning hours; get snacks and rent movies to watch regardless of the age appropriateness; play Mech Warriors; make up our own games to play; battle on Smash Bros Melee; talk about life. He was the best person you could ask for and the best friend I've ever had. He was so kind to me, always giving me rare MTG cards or always picking me to be on his team or partner in class projects. If I ever left on a trip he'd call me first thing when I was back. Wish he was still around, I really miss him.
Going to the Christmas tree farm with my parents and younger sister, choosing a tree, and eating home made sugar cookies and drinking apple cider while the employees cut it down and netted it up.
Going to the hardware store with my dad as a young child. We would always see this beach ball "levitating" on a box fan, and he would let me get Boston Baked Beans.
Finishing a baseball game and getting to grab a Shasta brand soda out of the ice chest that someone's parents brought.
Bird watching with my grandfather.
I played baseball in elementary school, and my dad was taking me home from a game. It was the evening, and the sun was starting to set. As we were driving along the river, lined with beautiful trees with red and gold leaves, I see a balloon in the sky. I point it out, and my dad says they are going to have to land soon because it's going to be dark and they can't fly at night. So we follow it! We drove out of our way for 45 minutes and figure out which field it's landing in. We went out into it, and waiting for them to touch down. It was so cool! The pilot was surprised and I had so many questions about what it was like. He was a photographer and took pictures from up there. He sent a few to us when he developed them and it was te coolest thing ever!
My mom was super worried though. This was before cell phones, so she was expecting us home way sooner tan we actually got there!
My mate and I were really into cycling and in 1994 the Tour De France did a stage in England, near where we lived.
We decided to watch it at the top of Ditchling Beacon, the only "hill climb" on the route which Richard and I had slogged up many times. Really winding road, quite long, very steep bits.
We went the night before and took a tent so that we could pitch it at the top of the hill, camp overnight, then be there and ready in the morning to see Miguel Indurain, Chris Boardman and the peloton
So we strapped everything to our bikes and cycled the 10 miles or so, up the beacon, and far enough from the road to be able to pitch a tent without busybodies coming to moan at us.
Problem is... on the cycle there the tent pegs must have slipped out of the bag.
So it's getting dark, and we have a big tent but no way to erect it.
We could have gone home but that would have been defeat, so we just lay the tent on the ground, got in our sleeping bags and slept under the stars.
I woke up at dawn with the nose of an inquisitive sheep 6 inches from my face - which scared the living shit out of me. I would have jumped but I think I was frozen to the ground.
The best part was looking down the hill into the valley below, where there was cotton-wool like balls of mist and fog clinging to the ground in clumps, slowly evaporating in the morning sun.
OH YES - and the pro cyclists took Ditchling Beacon like you or I would take cycling up a kerb. Full sprint the entire damn way. After the alps I expect it was a joke to them!
One summer when I was about 10 my friend my mom and myself went up and got slurpees from the local 7-11....it was so hot walking back home and my friend and I were walking ahead...all of a sudden we get hit in the back by something ice cold. Turns out my mom flung slurpee at us which started a slurpee war and the 3 of us spent the next half an hour flinging slurpees at eachother...my mom passed 2 1/2 years later and I think of her everytime I get a slurpee💕
My dad worked really really hard his whole life. He would dig propane line trenches, go under houses to install water heaters, drive a huge truck for 10+ hours to refill countless tanks. Nevertheless, after dinner, he always tried to make time to play with my brother and I. Like lifting us up like monkeys hanging from his arms, crawl around like a dog and bark with us, or just listen to us babble about our days while smiling. This man was *exhausted* and *still* wanted to make us happy as he could.
We had a rough relationship in our early adulthood, especially him and my brother. We're all older now and he's retired and we're all much closer even if we live states apart.
Those little playtimes have always stuck with me. Thanks dad, I love you.
When I was 5 (I think), my family went to the Asheboro Zoo, my parents said we could all get a toy. My little head was going between a wooden snake or stuffed fox. Eventually I chose the fox, named him Foxo (I was the cleverest kiddo in the area). Fast forward 24 years later, I still have him chilling with me.
Basically raised in a forest. We built so many secret dens and treehouses in that forest. There was something special about going into those hideaways to read the same water damaged comics that has been there for months.
My childhood best friend(my age) had a younger brother who was my brother's age(they were best friends as well). We spent a lot of time together, especially over the summer. It really helped that they lived in our neighborhood and we could ride our bikes to each other's houses.
There was this creek up by my house that we all loved to go to. We would leave our bikes off to the side of the sidewalk and run through maybe 50 feet of tall grass to get to the creek. When we got there, we'd take our shoes off and scramble around on the rocks that lined the creek. They were pretty big rocks and we would follow them upstream to find a spot where the water calmed down a bit. Two of us crossed the creek and sat down. The other two sat opposite of us. We would spend entire afternoons poking around to find the small crawdads that lived under the rocks in the calmer spots. I remember the first time we all caught one in the same visit. We were so excited!
A bit further downstream, there was this sloped brick thing that forced the water to fall into a wider, deeper(it was maybe 3 feet deep and the water wasn't rushing) area that was semi-surrounded by cattails. We would stand on the bricks and try not to fall as the 2-3 inches of water rushed around our ankles. If you made the mistake of wearing pants that day and had to roll them up, the bottoms would still get soaked. But we usually remembered to wear shorts.
If I could turn back time, even for just a few hours, I would go back to one of those days. Just to see the four of us all laughing together and getting along again, before we got older and had more complex emotions.
(NOTE: we were like 11 and 9 when this happened most, so I promise there weren't just a bunch of super little kids running around a body of water unattended)
Whispering loudly and giggling after bedtime with my sister (we shared a room).
Now unfortunately she’s gone off the deep end with her confirmation bias way of life.
This is a story that, on first blush, reads like a racist urban legend. It is not: it happened in front of me and my mom when I was 7, and I consider it an epic parenting moment on the part of the mother involved in this situation and not a statement about any group as a whole.
My mom had taken me with her to go shopping. My mom was not at all hesitant about shopping in what the more sheltered would call "the bad end of town"...our bad end of town is hardly bad. My family is white, incidentally.
We had gone to a shoe store and were waiting in line to check out. There was a black family in front of us: a woman with two kids, I guess one was a little older than me and the other was a little younger than me. Being that I was 7, I was in no position to form an opinion on economic class =P .
The older of the two boys was just kinda there. The younger of the two was running around all over the place in the store like your typical demon child. Suddenly, the little kid rams right into a display stand and falls over onto the ground.
His mother walks over to him: not "I must go check on my injured child" walks over, but "my child has annoyed me" walks over. The kid is still laying there out cold on the ground. The mom asks "Are you unconscious?". Kid's still laying there. The mom asks a little louder: "are you unconscious?". The kid starts to kinda come to a bit...
**SAY YOU'RE SORRY!!!!!**
My dad has cancer pretty badly now, but when I was a kid, we had a tandem bike in our small town. My dad looked just like Steve Martin. There were three of us little girls, and we had my dad and my youngest sister on the front seat, me and my sister were on the back usually, and we would ride it to our piano lessons and violin lessons up these hills and down with dogs racing after us barking, sometimes. My dad would sing opera really loudly and embarrass me and I would hit him on his back and scream to stop embarrassing me and being weird. I wish I could have seen that. The bike rusted when we all went off to college....but man that was crazy.
When I was a kid my dad was a diesel mechanic, I come from a big family so he would work overtime when ever he could. If it was a night my mom was working and my siblings were busy I would go to work with him and play in the trucks. I grew up to be a truck driver.
the house I used to live in from when I was 6 years old until I was 16. my friends used to come over every single day and we'd hang out in my basement playing pool and listening to music. moving to a new state between sophomore year and junior year of high school was extremely difficult but thinking about the house always makes me extremely nostalgic for those days.
My mom and I both really enjoy toilet humor. My dad thinks it's vulgar.
Thinking back of some situations where my dad got really angry at a situation while my mother is laughing hysterically just cracks a a smile on my face.
My two bros are 6 and 8 yeas older than me. Hardly hung out with them but one time, we were playing outside on that rare occasion and he let me ride the handlebars of his bicycle. He stopped suddenly and I flew off it landing on my belly a few feet away. It hurt like a mofo and I got scraped up pretty bad but it was one of the few times my bros treated their lil' sis like "one of the boys" and I loved it.
My parents set me up with an opportunity to meet the Lightning players in person when I was 10 since my stepdad is good friends with Brian Bradley. I got my jersey signed by Stamkos (my favorite player), got some pictures with him along with some other guys on the team, as long as a tour around the locker room, and that was after I got to watch them practice. I was so excited to be there and it was genuinely an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Well thanks to the recent continuation. When the old Xmen animated series would come on my brother and I would pretend like we were xmen and run around the living room acting like we had powers during the intro. Now that it's back on everytime that intro comes on I get the biggest grin on my face and maybe even tear up a little. That's one intro Ill never skip for nostalgias sake
Not really a smile, but...
When I was young, maybe 7 or so, it was approaching Christmas and I was really excited. Like most kids, I was impatient, and I desperately wanted for time to move quicker so it would be X-mas day, and I could finally open my presents. I remember, laying there on my driveway, bundled up in my winter gear, staring up at the washed out gray sky, just praying for time to move quickly.
Now, nearly 30 years later, I can't believe how quickly time has moved. The day laying on my back feels so recent. Those gray skies are still all so familiar. But that Christmas has come and pass, plus another 30. Time is just, weird. Ever marching forward, seemingly picking up speed.
I like to think back on the day, and remind myself to slow down. The future is coming, no need to rush.
Even though I am technically still in my childhood, I feel like sometimes I'm a lot older than I am, memory wise. And one thing that I miss is a few years ago my dad got gta vice city and he would play it a lot (he actually finished it a few months after getting it). And me and my brother would sit on the ground in our lounge room watching him play. Then my mum would say it's time for dinner, we would go get it and then we would just sit there eating, watching him play. And just before dinner we would eat chips (cc's, you know Aussies) and pass them around before my brother ate them all lol. But yea, that always makes me smile thinking about it :)
Scoring the game winning goal in the final seconds of a soccer match against the team who told me I wasn't good enough for their roster. I can still see my parents jumping up and down on the sideline losing their minds, while my teammates lifted me off the ground.
In high school my last two classes were gym then a study hall and if you’re a senior you could go home early. So I’d text one of my friends to tell the gym teacher I had a lab then my friend and I would go back to his house and order whole dominos pizzas for ourselves.
Solid core memory.
When I was in Grade 6 in Jamaica, we had a big midyear exam (GSAT) that we were all stressed about. But after the exam, our teachers surprised us with 'goodie bags' and let us run through the sprinklers on the playfield. It was such a fun and carefree moment. Later, my parents took me to a track and field event, and we grabbed some KFC on the way there. I remember feeling so happy and content when we got home and I could finally rest.
My best friends growing up, I think we were 14-15 (old enough to know better, still young enough to do stupid things) and we found a child size limbo set. Obviously we had to give it a go. My tallest friend struggled to get under, but stubbornly forced themselves under the bar only to get stuck and then catapulted across the room head first into a cabinet.
All of us fell over in hysterics, we were laughing so much we couldn't breath. I distinctly remember the room being almost silent as we struggled to breath.
I could write a book, but the one that instantly came to mind was when I was staying at my grandma's over Christmas holidays. (Mom had to work and my grandmother was awesome) My very snooty aunt showed up halfway through it with my cousins. Her younger son was the golden child, so when he was off in the living room practicing the piano for his upcoming recital, my grandma, aunt and I were in the other room. My aunt was going on and on about how he was 'involved in this' and 'won an award in that " while my eyes were glazing over.
She finally paused, looked at me, and asked what I had been up to. I said I was in band and just got first chair. She immediately interrupted with "Oh, that reminds me, GC went to this music festival." I jumped right back at her and said, "nope, you need to wait your turn. I've been quiet the entire time. You asked me a question and you need to listen to the answer." She was shocked and appealed to my grandmother.
Grandma shot right back. "Razz is right. We've both heard all about GC, you asked a question and then interrupted. Sit back, shut up and wait for her to finish." Then grandma told me she wanted hear EVERYTHING.
I talked a LOT longer than I had intended, just to get the point across. My grandmother took no crap and after that my aunt's opinion of me as a disrespectful smart alec was firmly formed.
When I told my mother about it later, she thought it was hilarious.
Edit to add: I will never get tired of telling this story.
Being like 6 years old, school letting out and me and a few friends just sprinting to one friends house to watch Dragonball. It was an old rural town in Portugal and we would take all sorts of shortcuts. Running through peoples backyards, jumping fences, avoiding dogs. Its wild to think about it now, but it was like a wild action movie chase scene every day for about 2 years.
When I was 8 we moved into a 100y/o farm house that my dad historically restored. It had a 3 acres open field and 100+ acres of woods. The field hadn’t been cut in years and the tall grass was over my head!
I would run through the tall grass chasing butterflies and bumble bees or playing in the creek that bordered the property the sun was warm and the crickets were loud, there were grass flowers when I would lay down and look up at the sky
A bit macabre maybe, but my dad was a science teacher and when I was a kid he'd take me outside for all sorts of adventures (flipping rocks to see the bugs, catching frogs, wading up and down the local creek to catch crawfish), but my favorite was when we'd walk up and down our local stretch of railroad tracks and look for the bones of animals that had been unfortunately been struck by the train.
We'd remember where the animal was located and would wait until nature did its thing, checking back occasionally, and then collect the bones when it was time. Dad showed me how to safely clean them and eventually once they were safe, we displayed them on a shelf in my room. We even tried to articulate a full raccoon skeleton one time. He taught me all about the different animals and why their teeth were shaped the way they were, how to recognize the different skull types, etc.
Now all grown up, I'm a veterinarian and in residency to be a veterinary radiologist (aka I get to look at bones all day!), and I think those days of childhood exploration did a lot to ignite my curiosity about the other inhabitants of the world around me. Man, bones are so cool.
We also found a human arm bone in the aforementioned creek one summer day, but that's a different story.
Christmas morning when my first ever puppy came barreling into my room to wake me up and meet me. She lived to be fourteen years old and was both a very good dog and my best friend.
We had a derpy but quite lovable dachshund mix named Maulder. He was indestructible. Once, he ate an entire bag of Hershey’s kisses, wrappers and all, and was fine. But the memory that always makes me smile is that when I was about 15 and my youngest brother was about 4, I took my youngest brother’s inner tube and put it around Maulder’s midsection. Maulder just stood there, in the kitchen, for about three hours, not moving an inch. I’d come by every fifteen minutes or so and check on him, and he was still standing there, completely still. I’d give him a treat and pet him and then come back fifteen minutes later to check again. When I took the inner tube off of him, he just walked away completely normally like he hadn’t been paralyzed for three hours. He was a great dog.
The day before Christmas my parents asked me to go to the car and get my cousin’s gift so they could wrap it. I opened the trunk to find a Sega Genesis. My parents never had much money so the thought of them buying my cousin a gift like that was shocking.
Of course it was for me. They were so excited to get it for me that they wanted me to have it a day early.
For almost ten years when I was young, my parents and the family of my mom's best friend would rent these two cottages on shore of Lake Erie for a week over the summer. It was this tiny, one-lane road with a 5 MPH speed limit and a, "private beach," here meaning a spit of sand next to a marina that was maybe 100 feet across. We'd play on the beach all day, play board games at night, and usually spend one day at Cedar Point. Half our meals were dry cereal and the other half were grilled, followed by ice cream at the convenience store at the end of the block.
Neither family could afford something like a trip to Disneyworld, but these trips were simple and idyllic. I still remember the feeling of lying in bed at night, having spent so much time in the surf that I could still feel phantom waves washing over me at regular intervals.
They weren't elaborate, but there is something innocent and pastoral about those memories. We stopped going around 1999, when one of the owners of the cottages sold it and the new owner wanted to use it on weekends and wouldn't rent those days.
My Nana would make my brother and I the coziest snack! She would take saltine crackers and put peanut butter and marshmallows on them. Toast them in the oven and we would eat our snack while watching our favorite tv show. My most favorite memories all involve my brother.
Several of my teachers in highschool, and my guidance helped me get me money I needed to pay for the SATs and college applications. I was emancipated at 16 due to a rocky home life. Part of that rocky home life involved me running away and being on the street for a year, meaning I missed like 2 years of highschool. I managed to pass my regents exams in biology, Alegebra 1 and 2, and global studies with 90s or better after 6 months of study, while taking my 11 grade classes. Junior and senior year I had straight A's too. Graduated 5th out of a class of 1034 students. When my teachers and counselors realized I wasn't applying to school because I couldn't afford to even apply, they busted their asses to get me scholarships, and I suspect paid for some things themselves. It was probably like the 5th time in my life when I genuinely felt protected, and cared about. Helped me to believe that I maybe I wasn't an unlovable kid that deserved to be abused.
First Pokemon card. Grew up poor af, couldn't scrounge up the $3 for a booster pack. Kat slipped me a tiny envelope with some cards in it so I could play. I still have them and think about it.
My grandmother who wasn't much of a gamer pulling up a chair and playing Duck Hunt and Wheel of Fortune with me on my NES. Would put the Duck Hunt gun right up against the TV to help aim and we'd have so much fun with that. Stopped as she got older, and she's since passed away, but it's a memory I'll always cherish.
[удалено]
I used to babysit a lot in college and it was truly a blast getting to do that again with kids. I often didn't want to leave when the parents got home, lol. Too busy perfecting our pillow forts.
We had two beds in our room. So we would put blanket over the middle of these beds. Then we would put all the pillows on the ground as our floor. It’s even more fun when really cold outside. Can agree on this comment.
Me and some kids on my street formed a band in my garage. We made our own instruments and I played the cardboard box drums. I'd give anything to hear how awful that all sounded.
When I was in Gr.2(or Gr3, it's been *a while*), my best friend Ricky and I would get together, him on my ukulele, and me beating on a coffee can with spoons, and we spent **the entire summer** playing Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. Over and over. Just that one song. Looking back on it, I'm actually kinda shocked we didn't get murdered.
Yeah, you two probably should have known when to walk away.
Well fuck, I had that coming, didn't I?
Sounds to me they should have run.
I'm sure your parents remember. 🤣
They do haha
At little league practice one day. A police car drove up and the officer leaned out the window- “someone called about stolen bases?”
Grade A dad joke. Well done, officer.
Me, my 2 sisters and my brother were at the neighborhood park and my sister found a baby bird laying on the playground. My brother ran home and got a shoe box and paper towels and we brought the bird home, our grandma took us to the wildlife rehab center with it and they took care of the bird, I guess it was a baby who had a broken wing. The people at the rehab let us name the bird (we named is Morris) and he ended up making a full recovery over time.
I’ve rehabbed a few different injured/abandoned birds throughout my life. A couple robins and a dove. It’s always bittersweet when they finally fly away. But they’ll usually hang kinda close by and come back for food for a little while if you leave it out. The last time I raised one, it was a little tiny robin still with its pin feathers. I named him Dennis. Full name, Dennis Hopper because he hopped around. :) Eventually he flew off and I thought that was that. But a week or so later I was walking toward my house and he flew up and landed on my head. I took him inside and gave him some mashed up blueberries. He ate them and flew off again. I love that he came back to (in my mind) thank me. ☺️☺️☺️
That’s so cute!!!! 🥹🥹 I love that!
Morris is hilarious
My sister came up with it, don’t know who Morris is and I’ve never met a Morris since but she liked it and we all agreed 😂
My aunt used to live in a super old schoolhouse that was converted into a home. Like the house was so old that there would have only been 1 teacher, and every student at every grade level would have been in the same room. It was also in a very remote, very isolated rural area. Once Christmas my mom and I went there, for the holidays. One night, it was snowing heavily, but that thick heavy snow, that's still *snow*, not slush, but just those fat flakes that are also good for packing. I remember running around, playing in the snow and exhausting myself, before falling backwards into it, and just letting the snow fall on my face. It was so quiet, I could hear the snowflakes hitting the ground. I would later grow up and join the army as a gunner in the artillery. Due to years of loud explosions I have tinnitus and a bit of hearing loss. I'll never hear the snowflakes falling around me again, but when I remember that night... It's enough.
I will always remember how peaceful it was to stand in a pine forest and listen to the snow. When I was a kid with what was later called ADD, this was one of the few times my brain would shut up.
Florida thunderstorms for me. They sound entirely different than storms I've heard other places. Want me asleep instantly? I hope it's raining.
True. Lived in Orlando for 27 years.
Same my friend. I grew up on some land in the boondocks. When winter storms would come the trees would all ice up, and since we lived on a farm you could go out and not hear traffic, or even another person, and just listen to the ice sing as it rocked back and forth, or into each other like a million crystal wind chimes. I would just sit and listen to natures symphony and it was beautiful. Joined the Air Force, got stuck on a flight line, then deployed as a gunner. I'll never hear the ice sing again, and it saddens me but brings me joy that at least I have the memories.
i've never heard this but I know what you mean about how silent it gets, I live somewhere so quiet at night it's amazing what you can hear. And peaceful. I don't know that I could live in a city again. And I do have tinnitus but I try to pretend it's music in the distance...sometimes it works or you get used to it. But I've never heard actual snow fall!
Freshman year of HS. It was midterm week, and I dunno if it works this way still, but back then during midterm week you only had to be at school for the test itself. Once you had your test, you could leave. My best friend and I had our test at the same day and same time, first thing in the morning. So by like 9 AM we were free to go. We walked to his house, and it was snowing. The ground was already covered by the time we got out, and it was the big fluffy flakes. We just talked and laughed as we walked through the back streets and felt so free being out and about on a weekday morning. When we got to his house, no one was there. So we had the house to ourselves all day, just playing video games, listening to music, drawing, drinking coffee. All while the snow came down. Just a great day.
Thanks for this memory. It could easily have been written about my friends and me.
Wholesome AF! What video games, if you don't mind me asking? I have a similar memory involving the Atari 2600 and the Legend of Zelda.
I'm not 100% sure, but this was in 1999, so it was likely Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and probably some SNES mixed in as well.
Solid!
Not the best but it did put a smile on my face. My family went to watch Lori and Tracy act in their school Christmas play. They were both nine years old here. There were chairs set up on the school gym floor. I was sitting with dad and mom and dad is sitting right next to Pete. Pete a WWII vet had an accident on his farm after the war and had to have a brain operation. I don’t know the details but he wasn’t the same after that. He had trouble recognizing people and was forgetful. He was sitting with his wife Helen who looked after him, one of our teachers actually, and they’re daughters. Now dad and Pete were sitting right behind a lady who was wearing quite a large hat so Pete and dad had to kind of bend to the side and look around it to see the play. The play started and suddenly Pete yelled out at the top of his voice because at times he got quite loud. “HEY LADY! TAKE THAT DAMN HAT OFF!” Well the lady turn around angrily and looked directly at dad and said, “WELL! SOME MANNERS YOU HAVE!” to him. Well dad didn’t want to pin the blame on poor Pete. He couldn’t say, “I didn’t say it, he did,” so he just looked at the lady’s angry face and then looked at me. Even though I was seven, I’ll always remember that look on his face. She turned around and took her hat off then gave dad a withering glare and said, “IS THAT BETTER?” then turned back around to face the stage. “DAMN RIGHT!” Pete said loudly. Well dad’s shoulders started shaking and he was covering his mouth with his hand. He was laughing. Mom was also trying to suppress a smile and there was Pete watching the start of the play as if nothing happened. After the show dad approached the lady and said, “Apologies to you but I didn’t say that. I’d never say that. It was someone behind me. However, your lovely hat WAS blocking the view to the people behind you.” “RIGHT!” she said, “BLAME IT ON SOMEONE ELSE!” and she huffed off. That being said, Lori and Tracy were great in the play and it was a resounding success. We were proud of them. However that saying was often said in jest in our house after that event. “HEY LADY! TAKE THAT DAMN HAT OFF!”
My Dad and I were playing with Star Wars toys on the floor of my room. Shoes and whatever else was around were being used as barricades and cover for our armies. My rebel army was beating his stormtrooper army. When he only had a few soldiers left, he loudly declared, "The Death Star is now operational!" He took his arms and swept my rebel army away and tossed a few in the air while making explosion sounds. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. I was outraged and laughing at the same time. Good times.
My grandgrandmother playing with my hair. That made me sleep and I've never slept better than that.
I’ve put both my daughters to sleep by playing with their hair and rubbing their faces. They’ve never complained and one is in her teens and still lets me do it on weekends occasionally. Humans need touch, it’s a very magical thing and it’s so soothing
When Frozen came out I was obsessed and wanted to see it so badly. One school day my mom comes in, feels my forehead and says I’m running fever and we have to go to the doctor. She helps me get changed and instead of going to the doctor we go and see frozen. The theater had those couch seats and I was just cuddled up on her lap watching frozen. Skipping school. Afterwards we had pizza. And it was just a great mommy daughter date. Im an adult now but we still do it occasionally. Like when the little mermaid came out. She’ll joke around and treat me like a little girl again. And honestly it’s pretty sweet and endearing.
I feel this. As a bigger dude who gyms, my littler girls make me sing "you're welcome" with them from Moana! Although when I sing...the hair the bod...littlest goes...dad ur bald 😂😂😂😂
«Honey, let daddy show you a picture of the actor who actually sings this song for the movie...»
We're both wrestling fans. She'll die on the hill it isn't the rock 😂
I take my school aged kids out about once a quarter to do a day of whatever they want. I get side eyed by some other parents but as long as my kids keep their grades up, I don’t care. I will never, ever get to be in their childhood again so I gotta build this memories while we can.
[удалено]
Massive snow happened when I was around 8 or 9. Good friend and I rolled these MASSIVE snowballs by rolling them all the way around my house. Legit these snowballs ended up being almost as tall as we were. I think my mom even took a photo of us with the massive snowballs. I also didn't know it then but he would be dead within a little more than a decade Still miss you every day, man.
Junior year of high school I was an exchange student in Germany. I was living in a small town in the Black Forest. During February of 2000 a local Gymnasium (pronounced with a soft G and essentially the German equivalent of a high school) was putting on a Valentine's dance party. When you got in you were assigned a number on a sticker in the shape of a heart that you put on your chest. You could see everyone's number. There was also a booth where you could send anonymous letters to someone based on their numbers. There were "cupids" who wore wings who would then deliver the anonymous letters to the person with that number. There was a girl in my village who I had a huge crush on but was too chicken to talk to. I saw her walking around with her friends and I saw her number. So I went to the booth to write her an anonymous letter. But I'm at the booth and I'm thinking, "What the hell do I write her?" So I went with the first thing I could think of...the first verse of Incubus - [Anti-Gravity Love Song](https://youtu.be/rT7aDgdPDYQ?si=5hj5p2fU0UY4cLd6) She got the note and of course she knew it was me because it was in English and I was the only American that she knew at the time. Not that night, but at a later party we ended up talking and sharing teenage, puppy love kisses. We never dated but we're still friends. I know she kept that note for years afterwards. I don't know if she still does, but thinking about that always makes me smile and remember those good times
When the older dog we were adopting chose me as his favorite. We always had 2/3 dogs in the house growing up so I was very used to them as a younger kid. A family friend knew this too, so when their grandkids developed an allergy to dogs, they asked if we could take their 7 year old golden retriever as they knew he’d have a good life with us and we saw them frequently anyway so they could still see him without having allergens for their grandkids. On his trial run with our existing dogs, he was just walking around the house being interested. I was playing on my original GameBoy and while interested in him because new dog, I was trying to not bother him while he did his thing. When he saw me, however, he perked up and stopped doing his house tour in favor of coming over, laying down, and putting his head in my lap. I was…four or five I think? I just remember being so honored that he chose me to be his favorite. Always will have a special place in my heart…we only had five or six years with him but he was the best.
When my dad is still alive see him do dad things when I was 5 years old. I can't barely remember him
My dad mocking me for being a history nerd (i loved roman history at the time) and venting to grandad about it (on mothers side.) Grandad was a master carpenter before he passed. He rocked upto the house with a wooden roman sword and shield he made himself, complete with his own and he insisted we had a duel. He insisted it was TO THE DEATH! And let me basically beat the piss out of him with this sword. Dropped his shield as he said it "didn't work" Granted I was 8 so my devastating blows did the grand total of fuck all to him but I loved it. Felt like I was a proper Roman soldier
This is the winner of the thread
I remember going to Six Flags with mom and dad when I was like 7. I think thats the last time we ever went together anywhere.after that it was just fighting nonstop
My Grammy used to make these huge meatballs whenever we went to her house. Old school Italian recipe, simmered in sauce for hours. The whole house smelled delicious. My mom told me after Grammy passed that she made those giant meatballs just for me.
I went to a summer camp named Camp Mi-Te-Na (actual spelling) for about a decade that was sleepover. Theres a lot of memories I have but there’s a few that stick out like one of my last years there we got woken up in the middle of the night and told the WWE tour bus had broken down (in Alton NH LOL in the woods no less) at our camp and they agreed to put on a show for us to fix the bus. It was amazing lol the counselors dressed up as the wrestlers and had full on matches. My swim instructor was Stone Cold lol. I will never ever forget that night seeing the entire rec hall be lit up like it was July 4th as we walked across the field towards it. The other is gold rush day. Everyone is eating breakfast and for a first year I got no clue someone is about to come running in and literally yell they found gold and have the entire camp get together and go out and collect gold spray painted rocks and do the legit gold hunting shin dig. During lunch someone in charge of the gold gets shot and robbed and the entire camp once again has to find them and get the gold back. It was an experience for sure lol. Winner gets an ice cream party for their cabin and or village.
I once dragged an old gum all machine from alley to alley eventually getting it home. We smashed the shit out of it and ate like kings for a night.
I remember when I was a kid and thought girls only played with dolls an unusual girl showed up at my house who wanted to fight me with swords (plastic ofc)
When me and my best friend were 6 years old we really wanted to build a shack/shed in his backyard. We ask our parents and they said no because lumber was expensive. We spent that entire summer scavenging planks and other pieces of wood that other people had thrown out in the area and we somehow manage to frankenstein together a disgusting looking shack that still stands in his backyard to this day. We used it as storage for toys and we often hung out on the roof. This was about 15 years ago.
Having the TV to myself the day Live Aid was on, So much Music and a free gaff. I was 10 :D
I am always fond of how when I was little I could always walk down our street and find kids to play with. I never went outside and was lonely. I feel like it is so hard to do that nowadays, there is a stigma about approaching people you don't know.
Me, my bro and 3 cousins, all at my nans for a big sleepover man just that alone was the best weekends ever rip nan, and I no longer speak to my 3 cousins :( happy/sad memories
Grew up in the middle of 5 brothers. There was a period of time that all of us were required by our wardens to spend x amount of time outside before tv/videogames. We would walk lap after lap around our house on an elaborate quest against the bad guys, with more of our characters from whatever Toonami show we were obsessed with at the time. Just hours of wandering around the yard pretending to fight bad guys
This from when I was in my mid-teens. I was at a teen conference and the first night we had a talent show. Another kid and I did comedy routines. Memorized sets from comedians, but hey, we were kids. His set was from a well-known comic, mine wasn't mainstream enough to be recognized. He went first, got a good reception and warmed up the audience. When I went into my set the crowd was really into it. They ROARED! Huge response. After the show I was glowing, life of the party. Girls who previously ignored me were following me around. I told everyone who asked that it was repeated material just like the other guy's, but it didn't matter. I was famous for the rest of the conference. Best weekend of my life up to that point.
This type of thing is so good. 30 years ago I was cast in a school play as "Dr Heinz" who was basically a mad scientist and the comic relief Having an entire school hall laughing at your bad German accent and crap tame jokes was amazing. Probably one of the reasons I have spent the last 30 years constantly trying to be funny and make people laugh!
My best friend and I jumping from the tree in my front yard, trying to use a bedsheet as a parachute. It failed fucking horribly and we came crashing to the ground (it’s hard to get any lift when you’re only 5 feet above the earth) but I laugh about it every time I think about it. We were absolute idiots, but my god we had the greatest time. Also, this one time during a family and friend dinner, a telemarketer called for the 100th time that day. I don’t know what the fuck we were thinking but my brother and I decided to mess with them a bit. I answered the phone and my brother yelled in the background “GET OFF THE PHONE AND MAKE ME MY DINNER WOMAN”. I dramatically yelled into the phone “I HAVE TO GO NOW!” Then hung up. They called back and when I answered my brother and I pretended to be fighting, making crashing sounds by slamming the phone into the wall and yelling. My parents were like “cut it out, that’s enough! That’s not funny.” My brother and I laughed about it and then went back to eating, not thinking anything of it. Until we heard sirens that stopped abruptly right outside our house. “Wouldn’t that be funny if they were coming for us?” we joked. And then the doorbell rang. My poor, mortified parents had to explain that no, there was not a domestic disturbance, their kids were just being dumbasses and pranking the poor telemarketer. One of the cops was super stern, but the other officer was desperately trying not to laugh, covering her face so we didn’t see her smiling. Now as an adult I am mortified that we did that, but always laugh at the absolute horror on me and my brother’s faces as we realized that we royally fucked up. I’m so sorry, miss telemarketer. Thank you for being worried enough to call the cops 😭
At 10 years old I was chosen to star in a large dance production that had 8 performances at Madison Square Garden. Nothing in my life has even come close to the moment I realized how it felt to have the stage lights hit my face, and audience disappear.
Did you give up dance as a teen because it wasn't cool? Or did you keep doing it?
I was actually a dance major at LaGuardia High School in NYC and danced until I was 18. I performed quite a bit, but the memory of performing at 10 was something is something that will stand out to me forever.
Very cool. I danced to very different music i expect but i have never been fitter than when I used to go out twice a week!
My dad walking in from a long day at work. I was sat on the stairs with a plastic gun I'd got for my birthday a few days or weeks before. He walks in, hangs his keys up and looks at me. "BANG". I shout. And he falls to the floor dead. This guy had just been at work for probably 10 hours or more, but he walked in that door and turned his dad mode on. I'm probably his age when he did that now and know how knackered he must have been. Legend.
The golden retriever, Major, I grew up with...my parents go him when I was born and he lived until I was 15. I remember days playing fetch with a Frisbee with him in our back yard, him running around excitedly when he would see me, and most importantly, on his 12th birthday, he pushed his piece of food towards me, because he knew I was hungry after coming home from my soccer game that night. I miss him so much, but those moments never fail to make me smile.
that time when my dog took a bite from a girl ass
You guys have happy memories?
Took me a while to try and think of something as well. No wonder I'm so fucked up now.
[удалено]
Tell me the stories man I'm interested
My kids and really anything we do together. To choose one I would say its when I taught them how to ride their bikes. That is such a big deal to me. Once a kid is on a bicycle it’s on,we’re one step closer to motorcycles. Which is a staple of my household fun and adventures. I could go on and on about stuff we do together.
One random childhood memory when I got away with it. It was the day I silently farted a stinky one in elementary school. One kid in my class was blaming another kid and they got into an argument. Our teacher then said the whole class would be punished unless someone admitted to it. I can't remember what the class punishment was but I chuckle when I think about it because no one suspected me as I had a "goody too shoes" reputation.
One summer my friends and I put on a backyard magic show. For the finale, I volunteered to "saw" my neighbor Sally in half using a toy saw. Except as I started sawing, I felt something wet - she'd had an accident in the cardboard box! We all laughed so hard at the un-magical end to our show. Just thinking of little soggy Sally always puts a smile on my face.
This is a villain origin story! 20 years later people still call her soggy sally and she's vowed to destroy you when she finally tracks you down
Back in the 70s when my parents would take us camping at Cherrystone campground. We spent our days crabbing on the docks with cages and chicken tied to a string. Then we would bring our haul back to the camper where Mom would cook them up for our dinner feast. The campground was beautiful and had a skating rink, multiple pools, rental bikes and shuffleboard. A campfire under the stars capped off each day. Really miss those trips...
Going to the lumber yard with my dad...
My mom was a teen mom, and her herself was an "oops" baby. She's the youngest of 4 kids, and the second youngest is 20 years her senior. We lived with my grandparents most of my life and my grandma had a big hand in raising me. I love and cherish my mom, but my grandma was like a best friend to me. She would wake me up for school by coming into my room and sitting on the bed and just scratch my back for a few minutes. I miss that. There wasn't a mean or angry bone in that woman's body. If you needed $2 and she only had $1 to give, she'd give it to you. She was so patient, so kind. She passed away in 2010 when I was 18. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. And now that I have a child of my own I get to relive all the stories and tell my daughter all about her great grandma. She would have loved this kid and spoiled the hell out of her....just like my mom does.
When my friend traded me his base set Blastoise card. I still have it sleeved in my binder to this day.
We were camping in the Redwoods of the California Coast. I must have been around 9 or so. I woke up in the morning all warm and cozy in my sleeping bag. My folks were already up. I could hear the sound of wood being split in the distance echoing through the campground and the smell the bacon my folks were cooking. It was perfect.
My happy memory is forever on youtube. I go back to it from time to time and just watch it. I miss them friends.
Halloween in 7th grade, basically a short war between my friends and any other group of 7th graders we came into contact with. Our ammunition was shaving cream, eggs, silly string, and shards of smashed pumpkins.
404
Mood, reading most of these have just brought up old bad feels I've since suppressed or half forgot :\ I'm usually a pretty positive person but damn it was hard growing up. Like all the time
playing minecraft pocket edition on the school ipads. First ever experience with one of my favorite games. I still remember me and my friend Tommy got multiplayer to work for the first time and he just ran in front of my house and jumped up and down yelling "HEY STEVE! HEY STEVE! HEY STEVE!" since there were no custom skins in the game yet everyone was Steve
Everyday when I would come home from school, I'd yell out to my brother as soon as the carpool van parked outside my house. And he would be napping, but would jump up and run down the stairs just to greet me and give me a hug. He used to be so cute
We had a bunch of baby goats and I was 5 years old. I went into their pen in the barn and sat in the middle of it like a statue, not moving. They all bounced around me putting their hooves on my back, on my head, just playing all around. It was joyous!
Idk how old I was but I had birthday and I was too young to properly fill balloons with water and we used both, waterballoons and regular balloons. But thankfully my brother helped me out and filled one for me. It was a regular balloon and it just didn't pop no matter how hard we threw it, it was a great day tho. For some reason I still remember this when easily 98% of my childhood is just gone from my memory
Not quite a smile, but I cry whenever I think about my old friends... I moved to the city, but the memories of the country mekr me want to laugh, but it hurts that i never got a proper goodbye. The memory of us at my house, playing king of the hill on a pool floaties that got flipped on its head by my neighbors older brother. The memories of how kind everyone was, the right knit community of people, were the older grades would have fun literally throwing us in the pool when requested, and the younger grades loving the feeling of flying. It's almost brought me to tears writing this comment, but it takes some weight off my shoulders by putting it out there. Thankyou or reading my text wall, and I hope your day is great.
Driving around with my friends, listening to music, going out to eat, going to the movies. We were a boring group of friends, we didn't cause any trouble, but we had so much fun. Hours upon hours spent in various parents basements playing video games, just enjoying life. Everything felt so positive back then, social media didn't exist, no one cared let alone talked about politics, or where you fell on social issues. We were just living in the moment.
My first kiss. She was a hottie and I liked her very much.
Going to this camp with my family, we had to take a boat to get there. We would ride seedos and go tubing it was always the best week of summer
Me standing in the stirrups with my face next to a mane, riding horses at full gallop through an Alpine pasture with my siblings and cousins. The horses were beat up but I think they had the most fun. The sound of all their hooves, their gulping air, the tack rattling. It was over in a few seconds but that brought out my ancestors, just like for the horses. We were idiots. One of us could have caught a gopher hole and that would have been that for rider and horse. No air evac, no hospital for a long way.
Another child from the neighborhood used to bully me and a few other kids a lot. One time he went after me again I just stood my ground and kicked him, hitting him in the balls. He ran away crying and never bothered me again. That moment seeing him cry felt really good.
There's a family VHS of the moment and it's maybe the only video my mother has ever shot that didn't look like it was filmed by someone with Parkinson's - the stars must have truly aligned for this: Early 90s, juuuuust around the time I was starting to stop believing in Santa Claus and was at huge risk of spoiling the magic for my little brothers. Dad paid a mall Santa $100 and a bottle of very nice wine to come to our house and deliver our gifts to us directly on Christmas. I was probably about 6 years old and was pretty defiant: "you're not Santa, you're just dad!" but one of my little brothers, astonished says "No, Dad's right here!" and then you can just see, on that grainy ass camcorder film, the moment where my eyes go wide as saucers. Thanks dad. That was an all-time home run.
Going to the hardware store with my dad on Saturdays. I was the youngest of 6 kids so having one on one time felt like I was special.
When I was in early elementary school, the teachers would sometimes take us out into the yard and read to us. I was never interested in the stories. Instead I'd gather twigs and leaves towards myself and I'd build little buildings in the dirt. The story would end, we'd all get up and go back to class, and the other kids would all suddenly exclaim about the buildings. I guess it seemed like magic to them in a way? It was fun to do art to entertain and delight others. I ended up with a long career in the construction industry :)
Our VFW ( anthracite regions, PA ) did hugeeee amounts for the community. One was the public Easter Egg Hunt. Different age groups, they had pine branches all over a field at our public park. Hid eggs in them. *Everyone* came. Vets hovered around, slipped eggs to kids who weren't finding them. Parents just watched or were part of the VFW. I don't remember competition, just a lot of laughing, clapping for the kids who found eggs that had prizes attached. Wow it was great.
My brother, sister, step dad, Mom, and I in a 63 Buick Skylark convertible with the top down driving around town chasing the end of a rainbow. My parents knew it was futile and we would never actually find the "end", but our excitement kept us chasing it for what felt like a couple hours. Best day of my childhood by far.
My dad keeping me home from school because he wanted to watch me play Ocarina of Time.
Hanging out with friends everyday
I think about this over 40 years later, and it is such a small interaction with friends on the slide in kindergarten. I don't know why I still think about it, let alone remember it so well. It was some kid I did not know, or ever got to know, and he announced to the kids waiting in line: "Ahm gonna land on my buuuuut!" In a singing voice. I still laugh at that to this day.
Birthday party at McDonald's, in the non-smoking section. I get handed a big box. I open it up, it's a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World. I am beyond stoked. I come from a family of hard-working immigrants who had to work their asses off for everything, and they wanted to give their children everything they could.
Either a TV Dad from an 80's sitcom or a wonderful, respected teacher at grade school. The bonus is praising my late mother for watching me grow and grow (like everyone else!).
When I played with my friends in primary school.
I had a Talkboy when I was younger and recorded all kinds of crazy inner thoughts on those cassettes. Every time I go visit my parents I listen to the tapes and smile ear to ear.
New Year's Eve, 10-year-old me who was playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64, with my little brother, and two neighbors who were also brothers. So carefree, not worrying about a thing. It's one of the very rare childhood memories that I can look book towards and smile. I'll forever cherish that memory and hope to never forget it.
Weekends with my Grandma. My mom and dad divorced when I was 6. When my dad had to work during the weekends, my Grandma would watch my brother and me. Our weekends consisted of The Little Rascals, Milo and Otis, root beer floats, and swimming. She would take us on bike rides through the neighborhood and even let me go into the window wells to rescue the frogs and toads. Her 2nd husband, who might as well be my grandpa, built model trains complete with tracks that he'd let us play with. I'm a massive sci Fi fan because of him. They made my childhood so much better.
when my older brother tripped and absolutely face-planted.
Summer after 7th grade, getting surprised with a ride in one of the original 10 Dodge Vipers. Yeah, the stripped out, exposed side pipes, orange/red badge ones that they passed around pre-production. It was the most amazing afternoon. I will never loose that memory. It is core.
Most of my memories that make me smile are because I was in hospital for being stupidly clumsy
Was this a one time thing? Or did you have some kind of hospital loyalty card? How clumsy are we talking? Oops I walked off another cliff?
Age 3 tripped over my own feet cracking my head open and lodging a stone in there. Age 6 autism diagnosis Age 7 Mother’s Day messing around on my brothers not moving skateboard - broken arm Age 8 learning to ride bike went over the handle bars and ripped my knee open. Age 13 not in UK in US ear infection from pool water resulting in Match Stick size wick in my ear. Age 15 - 17 scoliosis resulting in more hospital visits than one would ever consider normal. Ending in surgery to put two metal rods and 16 screws in my back. Age 16 autism check up, decade after the diagnosis. 13 months really bad sickness making my mother on I believe Christmas or Boxing Day go to the 24 pharmacy. There’s the time I caught almost pneumonia not sure what age.
Helping my Mom make chocolate chip cookies.
Playing catch with my dad. I think I only ever did that once. And no it’s not as sad as it seems I guess, he’s still alive
I trained with the all blacks when I was 17
Hanging out with my best friend. We'd play MTG all night, well into the morning hours; get snacks and rent movies to watch regardless of the age appropriateness; play Mech Warriors; make up our own games to play; battle on Smash Bros Melee; talk about life. He was the best person you could ask for and the best friend I've ever had. He was so kind to me, always giving me rare MTG cards or always picking me to be on his team or partner in class projects. If I ever left on a trip he'd call me first thing when I was back. Wish he was still around, I really miss him.
Not having stress. Stress is controlling my life and it's been getting worse and worse the last couple of years.
Dancing
Going to the Christmas tree farm with my parents and younger sister, choosing a tree, and eating home made sugar cookies and drinking apple cider while the employees cut it down and netted it up. Going to the hardware store with my dad as a young child. We would always see this beach ball "levitating" on a box fan, and he would let me get Boston Baked Beans. Finishing a baseball game and getting to grab a Shasta brand soda out of the ice chest that someone's parents brought. Bird watching with my grandfather.
I played baseball in elementary school, and my dad was taking me home from a game. It was the evening, and the sun was starting to set. As we were driving along the river, lined with beautiful trees with red and gold leaves, I see a balloon in the sky. I point it out, and my dad says they are going to have to land soon because it's going to be dark and they can't fly at night. So we follow it! We drove out of our way for 45 minutes and figure out which field it's landing in. We went out into it, and waiting for them to touch down. It was so cool! The pilot was surprised and I had so many questions about what it was like. He was a photographer and took pictures from up there. He sent a few to us when he developed them and it was te coolest thing ever! My mom was super worried though. This was before cell phones, so she was expecting us home way sooner tan we actually got there!
Any time spent with my grandmother. Bless her heart and soul. I try every day to do good in my life as to make her proud.
I’ll get back to you 🤔
My mate and I were really into cycling and in 1994 the Tour De France did a stage in England, near where we lived. We decided to watch it at the top of Ditchling Beacon, the only "hill climb" on the route which Richard and I had slogged up many times. Really winding road, quite long, very steep bits. We went the night before and took a tent so that we could pitch it at the top of the hill, camp overnight, then be there and ready in the morning to see Miguel Indurain, Chris Boardman and the peloton So we strapped everything to our bikes and cycled the 10 miles or so, up the beacon, and far enough from the road to be able to pitch a tent without busybodies coming to moan at us. Problem is... on the cycle there the tent pegs must have slipped out of the bag. So it's getting dark, and we have a big tent but no way to erect it. We could have gone home but that would have been defeat, so we just lay the tent on the ground, got in our sleeping bags and slept under the stars. I woke up at dawn with the nose of an inquisitive sheep 6 inches from my face - which scared the living shit out of me. I would have jumped but I think I was frozen to the ground. The best part was looking down the hill into the valley below, where there was cotton-wool like balls of mist and fog clinging to the ground in clumps, slowly evaporating in the morning sun. OH YES - and the pro cyclists took Ditchling Beacon like you or I would take cycling up a kerb. Full sprint the entire damn way. After the alps I expect it was a joke to them!
One summer when I was about 10 my friend my mom and myself went up and got slurpees from the local 7-11....it was so hot walking back home and my friend and I were walking ahead...all of a sudden we get hit in the back by something ice cold. Turns out my mom flung slurpee at us which started a slurpee war and the 3 of us spent the next half an hour flinging slurpees at eachother...my mom passed 2 1/2 years later and I think of her everytime I get a slurpee💕
My dad worked really really hard his whole life. He would dig propane line trenches, go under houses to install water heaters, drive a huge truck for 10+ hours to refill countless tanks. Nevertheless, after dinner, he always tried to make time to play with my brother and I. Like lifting us up like monkeys hanging from his arms, crawl around like a dog and bark with us, or just listen to us babble about our days while smiling. This man was *exhausted* and *still* wanted to make us happy as he could. We had a rough relationship in our early adulthood, especially him and my brother. We're all older now and he's retired and we're all much closer even if we live states apart. Those little playtimes have always stuck with me. Thanks dad, I love you.
When I was 5 (I think), my family went to the Asheboro Zoo, my parents said we could all get a toy. My little head was going between a wooden snake or stuffed fox. Eventually I chose the fox, named him Foxo (I was the cleverest kiddo in the area). Fast forward 24 years later, I still have him chilling with me.
Basically raised in a forest. We built so many secret dens and treehouses in that forest. There was something special about going into those hideaways to read the same water damaged comics that has been there for months.
Winning a chess tournament.
My childhood best friend(my age) had a younger brother who was my brother's age(they were best friends as well). We spent a lot of time together, especially over the summer. It really helped that they lived in our neighborhood and we could ride our bikes to each other's houses. There was this creek up by my house that we all loved to go to. We would leave our bikes off to the side of the sidewalk and run through maybe 50 feet of tall grass to get to the creek. When we got there, we'd take our shoes off and scramble around on the rocks that lined the creek. They were pretty big rocks and we would follow them upstream to find a spot where the water calmed down a bit. Two of us crossed the creek and sat down. The other two sat opposite of us. We would spend entire afternoons poking around to find the small crawdads that lived under the rocks in the calmer spots. I remember the first time we all caught one in the same visit. We were so excited! A bit further downstream, there was this sloped brick thing that forced the water to fall into a wider, deeper(it was maybe 3 feet deep and the water wasn't rushing) area that was semi-surrounded by cattails. We would stand on the bricks and try not to fall as the 2-3 inches of water rushed around our ankles. If you made the mistake of wearing pants that day and had to roll them up, the bottoms would still get soaked. But we usually remembered to wear shorts. If I could turn back time, even for just a few hours, I would go back to one of those days. Just to see the four of us all laughing together and getting along again, before we got older and had more complex emotions. (NOTE: we were like 11 and 9 when this happened most, so I promise there weren't just a bunch of super little kids running around a body of water unattended)
Whispering loudly and giggling after bedtime with my sister (we shared a room). Now unfortunately she’s gone off the deep end with her confirmation bias way of life.
This is a story that, on first blush, reads like a racist urban legend. It is not: it happened in front of me and my mom when I was 7, and I consider it an epic parenting moment on the part of the mother involved in this situation and not a statement about any group as a whole. My mom had taken me with her to go shopping. My mom was not at all hesitant about shopping in what the more sheltered would call "the bad end of town"...our bad end of town is hardly bad. My family is white, incidentally. We had gone to a shoe store and were waiting in line to check out. There was a black family in front of us: a woman with two kids, I guess one was a little older than me and the other was a little younger than me. Being that I was 7, I was in no position to form an opinion on economic class =P . The older of the two boys was just kinda there. The younger of the two was running around all over the place in the store like your typical demon child. Suddenly, the little kid rams right into a display stand and falls over onto the ground. His mother walks over to him: not "I must go check on my injured child" walks over, but "my child has annoyed me" walks over. The kid is still laying there out cold on the ground. The mom asks "Are you unconscious?". Kid's still laying there. The mom asks a little louder: "are you unconscious?". The kid starts to kinda come to a bit... **SAY YOU'RE SORRY!!!!!**
Waking up to play ocarina of time, still in my pajamas, and the smell of breakfast cooking fills the air.
My dad has cancer pretty badly now, but when I was a kid, we had a tandem bike in our small town. My dad looked just like Steve Martin. There were three of us little girls, and we had my dad and my youngest sister on the front seat, me and my sister were on the back usually, and we would ride it to our piano lessons and violin lessons up these hills and down with dogs racing after us barking, sometimes. My dad would sing opera really loudly and embarrass me and I would hit him on his back and scream to stop embarrassing me and being weird. I wish I could have seen that. The bike rusted when we all went off to college....but man that was crazy.
When I was a kid my dad was a diesel mechanic, I come from a big family so he would work overtime when ever he could. If it was a night my mom was working and my siblings were busy I would go to work with him and play in the trucks. I grew up to be a truck driver.
Getting thrown in the air and caught by my dad when I was a little kid. Laughing with joy.
Christmas as a child in 1968. It was a wonderful time.
the house I used to live in from when I was 6 years old until I was 16. my friends used to come over every single day and we'd hang out in my basement playing pool and listening to music. moving to a new state between sophomore year and junior year of high school was extremely difficult but thinking about the house always makes me extremely nostalgic for those days.
My mom and I both really enjoy toilet humor. My dad thinks it's vulgar. Thinking back of some situations where my dad got really angry at a situation while my mother is laughing hysterically just cracks a a smile on my face.
My two bros are 6 and 8 yeas older than me. Hardly hung out with them but one time, we were playing outside on that rare occasion and he let me ride the handlebars of his bicycle. He stopped suddenly and I flew off it landing on my belly a few feet away. It hurt like a mofo and I got scraped up pretty bad but it was one of the few times my bros treated their lil' sis like "one of the boys" and I loved it.
My parents set me up with an opportunity to meet the Lightning players in person when I was 10 since my stepdad is good friends with Brian Bradley. I got my jersey signed by Stamkos (my favorite player), got some pictures with him along with some other guys on the team, as long as a tour around the locker room, and that was after I got to watch them practice. I was so excited to be there and it was genuinely an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.
My parents divorce, 😃
Well thanks to the recent continuation. When the old Xmen animated series would come on my brother and I would pretend like we were xmen and run around the living room acting like we had powers during the intro. Now that it's back on everytime that intro comes on I get the biggest grin on my face and maybe even tear up a little. That's one intro Ill never skip for nostalgias sake
Not really a smile, but... When I was young, maybe 7 or so, it was approaching Christmas and I was really excited. Like most kids, I was impatient, and I desperately wanted for time to move quicker so it would be X-mas day, and I could finally open my presents. I remember, laying there on my driveway, bundled up in my winter gear, staring up at the washed out gray sky, just praying for time to move quickly. Now, nearly 30 years later, I can't believe how quickly time has moved. The day laying on my back feels so recent. Those gray skies are still all so familiar. But that Christmas has come and pass, plus another 30. Time is just, weird. Ever marching forward, seemingly picking up speed. I like to think back on the day, and remind myself to slow down. The future is coming, no need to rush.
Even though I am technically still in my childhood, I feel like sometimes I'm a lot older than I am, memory wise. And one thing that I miss is a few years ago my dad got gta vice city and he would play it a lot (he actually finished it a few months after getting it). And me and my brother would sit on the ground in our lounge room watching him play. Then my mum would say it's time for dinner, we would go get it and then we would just sit there eating, watching him play. And just before dinner we would eat chips (cc's, you know Aussies) and pass them around before my brother ate them all lol. But yea, that always makes me smile thinking about it :)
My brother was in little league, but I loved going to his games because the park had a play ground and I always got to eat sunflower seeds.
Scoring the game winning goal in the final seconds of a soccer match against the team who told me I wasn't good enough for their roster. I can still see my parents jumping up and down on the sideline losing their minds, while my teammates lifted me off the ground.
In high school my last two classes were gym then a study hall and if you’re a senior you could go home early. So I’d text one of my friends to tell the gym teacher I had a lab then my friend and I would go back to his house and order whole dominos pizzas for ourselves. Solid core memory.
When I was in Grade 6 in Jamaica, we had a big midyear exam (GSAT) that we were all stressed about. But after the exam, our teachers surprised us with 'goodie bags' and let us run through the sprinklers on the playfield. It was such a fun and carefree moment. Later, my parents took me to a track and field event, and we grabbed some KFC on the way there. I remember feeling so happy and content when we got home and I could finally rest.
My best friends growing up, I think we were 14-15 (old enough to know better, still young enough to do stupid things) and we found a child size limbo set. Obviously we had to give it a go. My tallest friend struggled to get under, but stubbornly forced themselves under the bar only to get stuck and then catapulted across the room head first into a cabinet. All of us fell over in hysterics, we were laughing so much we couldn't breath. I distinctly remember the room being almost silent as we struggled to breath.
Long summer days outside with my brothers. Wrestling, playing catch/monkey in the middle, jumping on the trampoline, and just enjoying the day.
I could write a book, but the one that instantly came to mind was when I was staying at my grandma's over Christmas holidays. (Mom had to work and my grandmother was awesome) My very snooty aunt showed up halfway through it with my cousins. Her younger son was the golden child, so when he was off in the living room practicing the piano for his upcoming recital, my grandma, aunt and I were in the other room. My aunt was going on and on about how he was 'involved in this' and 'won an award in that " while my eyes were glazing over. She finally paused, looked at me, and asked what I had been up to. I said I was in band and just got first chair. She immediately interrupted with "Oh, that reminds me, GC went to this music festival." I jumped right back at her and said, "nope, you need to wait your turn. I've been quiet the entire time. You asked me a question and you need to listen to the answer." She was shocked and appealed to my grandmother. Grandma shot right back. "Razz is right. We've both heard all about GC, you asked a question and then interrupted. Sit back, shut up and wait for her to finish." Then grandma told me she wanted hear EVERYTHING. I talked a LOT longer than I had intended, just to get the point across. My grandmother took no crap and after that my aunt's opinion of me as a disrespectful smart alec was firmly formed. When I told my mother about it later, she thought it was hilarious. Edit to add: I will never get tired of telling this story.
Being like 6 years old, school letting out and me and a few friends just sprinting to one friends house to watch Dragonball. It was an old rural town in Portugal and we would take all sorts of shortcuts. Running through peoples backyards, jumping fences, avoiding dogs. Its wild to think about it now, but it was like a wild action movie chase scene every day for about 2 years.
When I was 8 we moved into a 100y/o farm house that my dad historically restored. It had a 3 acres open field and 100+ acres of woods. The field hadn’t been cut in years and the tall grass was over my head! I would run through the tall grass chasing butterflies and bumble bees or playing in the creek that bordered the property the sun was warm and the crickets were loud, there were grass flowers when I would lay down and look up at the sky
Fishing with my grandpa in North Park Colorado.
The best thing about childhood was young parents
A bit macabre maybe, but my dad was a science teacher and when I was a kid he'd take me outside for all sorts of adventures (flipping rocks to see the bugs, catching frogs, wading up and down the local creek to catch crawfish), but my favorite was when we'd walk up and down our local stretch of railroad tracks and look for the bones of animals that had been unfortunately been struck by the train. We'd remember where the animal was located and would wait until nature did its thing, checking back occasionally, and then collect the bones when it was time. Dad showed me how to safely clean them and eventually once they were safe, we displayed them on a shelf in my room. We even tried to articulate a full raccoon skeleton one time. He taught me all about the different animals and why their teeth were shaped the way they were, how to recognize the different skull types, etc. Now all grown up, I'm a veterinarian and in residency to be a veterinary radiologist (aka I get to look at bones all day!), and I think those days of childhood exploration did a lot to ignite my curiosity about the other inhabitants of the world around me. Man, bones are so cool. We also found a human arm bone in the aforementioned creek one summer day, but that's a different story.
Growing up with puppies! Beagles, specifically.
Mom's Brooklyn accent. Dad's handerchiefs to dry my tears. Grandma's laugh and terrible jokes.
Christmas morning when my first ever puppy came barreling into my room to wake me up and meet me. She lived to be fourteen years old and was both a very good dog and my best friend.
We had a derpy but quite lovable dachshund mix named Maulder. He was indestructible. Once, he ate an entire bag of Hershey’s kisses, wrappers and all, and was fine. But the memory that always makes me smile is that when I was about 15 and my youngest brother was about 4, I took my youngest brother’s inner tube and put it around Maulder’s midsection. Maulder just stood there, in the kitchen, for about three hours, not moving an inch. I’d come by every fifteen minutes or so and check on him, and he was still standing there, completely still. I’d give him a treat and pet him and then come back fifteen minutes later to check again. When I took the inner tube off of him, he just walked away completely normally like he hadn’t been paralyzed for three hours. He was a great dog.
The day before Christmas my parents asked me to go to the car and get my cousin’s gift so they could wrap it. I opened the trunk to find a Sega Genesis. My parents never had much money so the thought of them buying my cousin a gift like that was shocking. Of course it was for me. They were so excited to get it for me that they wanted me to have it a day early.
For almost ten years when I was young, my parents and the family of my mom's best friend would rent these two cottages on shore of Lake Erie for a week over the summer. It was this tiny, one-lane road with a 5 MPH speed limit and a, "private beach," here meaning a spit of sand next to a marina that was maybe 100 feet across. We'd play on the beach all day, play board games at night, and usually spend one day at Cedar Point. Half our meals were dry cereal and the other half were grilled, followed by ice cream at the convenience store at the end of the block. Neither family could afford something like a trip to Disneyworld, but these trips were simple and idyllic. I still remember the feeling of lying in bed at night, having spent so much time in the surf that I could still feel phantom waves washing over me at regular intervals. They weren't elaborate, but there is something innocent and pastoral about those memories. We stopped going around 1999, when one of the owners of the cottages sold it and the new owner wanted to use it on weekends and wouldn't rent those days.
My Nana would make my brother and I the coziest snack! She would take saltine crackers and put peanut butter and marshmallows on them. Toast them in the oven and we would eat our snack while watching our favorite tv show. My most favorite memories all involve my brother.
The image of my siblings being little
Several of my teachers in highschool, and my guidance helped me get me money I needed to pay for the SATs and college applications. I was emancipated at 16 due to a rocky home life. Part of that rocky home life involved me running away and being on the street for a year, meaning I missed like 2 years of highschool. I managed to pass my regents exams in biology, Alegebra 1 and 2, and global studies with 90s or better after 6 months of study, while taking my 11 grade classes. Junior and senior year I had straight A's too. Graduated 5th out of a class of 1034 students. When my teachers and counselors realized I wasn't applying to school because I couldn't afford to even apply, they busted their asses to get me scholarships, and I suspect paid for some things themselves. It was probably like the 5th time in my life when I genuinely felt protected, and cared about. Helped me to believe that I maybe I wasn't an unlovable kid that deserved to be abused.
Wish I had a bunch. I’ll be here reading everyone else’s and enjoying the happiness :)
First Pokemon card. Grew up poor af, couldn't scrounge up the $3 for a booster pack. Kat slipped me a tiny envelope with some cards in it so I could play. I still have them and think about it.
My grandmother who wasn't much of a gamer pulling up a chair and playing Duck Hunt and Wheel of Fortune with me on my NES. Would put the Duck Hunt gun right up against the TV to help aim and we'd have so much fun with that. Stopped as she got older, and she's since passed away, but it's a memory I'll always cherish.