BellaOnline Forums Family Senior Living Do you have a favorite childhood memory?

Mine is riding on Dad's back while he swam out to the deep water. He gave me a deep love of the ocean and swimming.

There are so many that it's hard to choose a favorite.

*Sitting high in our lychee tree with my sisters, peeling the juicy fruits and trying not to fall off the limbs.
*Sitting in my daddy's lap as he read picture books to me.
*Playing with my china set and serving my grandpa some "tea" and cake in those tiny dishes. He'd leave pennies for me as payment and a tip.
*Sitting on a surfboard with my cousin as my uncle paddled us out to sea near the rocks so he could dive for seaweed.
*Family picnics where the adults would play cards, grill teriyaki chicken and snooze while the kids played tag.
*Playing in the Hawaiian surf where the water was clear and warm.
*Blowing bubbles on my front porch and wishing I could sit inside one and float away.
*Collecting pukka shells on the sandy beach.
*Seeing rainbows in every directions at the same time.
*Smelling the exquisite island florals when we rolled down the car windows and drove to the "country."
*Watching my mom and dad dance in the kitchen.
*Huge family luaus where everyone rushed around to help lift the pig from the underground oven/imu.
*Mochi pounding at my uncle's. We'd have an open fire and roast oysters, too.
*Going fishing with my father who didn't let me go anymore when I squealed when he put some live bait in my hands. And hearing how he forgot to pull up the anchor so he rowed and rowed until he realized he was going in circles!
*Reading books all by myself in my bedroom.
*Talking to God and hearing Him answer.

Those are wonderful Lori! It brings back lots of fond memories although our sights and smells were far different. The big family memory were all the cousins cracking open the crabs. Mom made the best crab patties. My uncle was a shrimper and we ate loads of shrimp.

Sitting in my father's lap while he read the funnies to me. We may have been on the other side of the world from Lori and her father, but the memory is the same, and equally cherished.

Sitting in the branches of our cherry tree stuffing my face with my favourite fruit. Then shouting to my grand-dad, who we lived with, to come and get me down.

Peace

Oh YES!

I always loved horses and always wanted one. My parents were really poor so it was just a dream.

One day, my mom took me across town for a pony ride. I was on the horse, being led slowly around a riding ring when my mom asked � Would you like to have that horse Lynn?�
Of course I said yes. The next thing out of her mouth was, �Then I think we should take him home.�

It is bar none my most favorite memory. My mom paid $40 for him. His name was Gingerbread. He was 15 years old but to me he was the best horse in the world.

I was sure that I was just dreaming.
I will never forget how that day felt.

In this photo I am the one on the ground, giving pony rides to friends. What a day that was.

I actually have to say that I have three favorite childhood memories and I even know the dates. 5/10/70 Billy was born, 12/7/72 Jeffrey was born and 10/29/75 Jason was born. My three little brothers, who drove me crazy, but regardless they were my best friends. Sometimes I wish that they could have stayed little boys, they were so much more fun.

Oh, Lynn! What a great mother! I got goosebumps reading your memory. I could feel her love for you as well as your joy. Thank you for posting that wonderful photo.

These are sweet memories, people. Please keep sharing! I love reading them and they uplift me.

Siblings are such a big part of childhood memories. No brothers here. I can't imagine what it would be like growing up with boys in the house.

There is a saying - can't remember it exactly - but it boils down to the fact that we only have one childhood. I try hard to keep that in mind when I deal with my children.

I remember the Sunday drives we used to take. I remember my parents making it a day trip to drive from New Jersey to the National Zoo in DC. That was a 3 hour trip one way.

I remember our parents taking us to Disney World when we were small. At the time, people of color were not welcomed in many motels. My dad would get out hotel after hotel looking for a place for us to sleep each night, but finally he would come back to the car and say, lets camp in the car tonight. He made it sound like an adventure. It wasnt until we were in our late 20's that we realized what happened and how he never let on what he faced trying to find rooms for us.

The times spent together as a family, playing board games during the holiday visits - tons of fun!

Wow, Dianne. Being Japanese, my family has experienced some racism, too. We moved to the mainland US to live in an area that was mostly white. I used to get flak from people young and old about Pearl Harbor and such. But that was decades ago and it has gotten much better...

Although my mother and sister traveled to the South and a restaurant waitress refused to serve them. The manager rushed over to apologize and he served them himself.

Anyway, Alice, I grew up in a household of only girls, too. No boy siblings. Boys were fascinating to us because they were so novel. My daughter grew up sandwiched between two boys and she is not impressed. They're pains to her and she can't imagine any other boy being any different. LOL.

I remember walking to the Country Club Plaza on Christmas day during my 7th grade year. We were all wearing sweaters in the Missouri winter, and it was so mild. We saw Kings of the Sun-an exotic film for the time. We walked home sharing the wonder of the film and the weather. Our laughter must have been heard by many.

Dianne - it sounds like you had a great Dad.

My parents had their faults but they were good at keeping stress out of our lives. I'm not sure how they did it considering we moved every year.

This thread is making me homesick. (:

Me, too! Keep the memories coming!

Here's another of mine...

Midnight noodles. My mother, who stayed up late doing crossword puzzles, would get hungry in the middle of the night. I'd wake up to the smell of delicious Hawaii saimin noodles cooking on the stove. I'd stumble into the kitchen, rubbing my eyes until they grew accustomed to the light, while my sisters soon followed.

My mother would end up making saimin with green onions, char siu, kamaboko and even won ton, if we were lucky! My father laughed and we'd go back to sleep with warm, satisfied tummies.

That horse picture reminds me of one in my album. The horse was bucking and I'm swinging a cowboy hat. The horse was fake and my sisters have identical pictures. It's my favorite childhood picture even though I can't remember the day.

The Hawaiin foods are all Greek to me! My favorite food memory is the bologna, cheese, and white bread sandwiches we had while driving across country. Our secret ingredient was potato chips in the sandwich. Great travel food and we traveled alot.

Thank you Alice for this great question. It is so nice to read the memories here.

One of mine is sitting beneath the magnolia tree at my Grandmother's house watching my brother chase after the butterflies in the flower garden, and then seeing my Grandma's beautiful smiling face pop out of the door to tell us, "Dinner's ready!"

The magnolia trees must have smelled wonderful. Like the flowers in Japan.

Yes many of them. They come and go at times when I am not even expecting it. Who knows what are subconcious stores as far as our memories go. I can be working on a project or housework and a childhood memory will come to me like the time I was in a Christmas play in the 3rd grade. Or when I was 12 years old I received my first stereo. I remember some things we fondness and other times not so much.

Isn't that life, tina? Fond times and not-so-fond times. If I thought of the not-so-great times, I'd relive all of the bad feelings that I have moved beyond.

So, I like to look back on the times that made me smile. Here is one that is not-so-fond but not really a bad memory either:

In elementary school, all the classes performed Christmas songs. It was festive and nerve-wracking at the same time. I looked forward to the end of the program when we all rushed back to class to get a pretty Christmas tree cut-out cookie with green sugar sprinkles and a candy cane. You see, most people think of them as ho-hum holiday treats but being Japanese, we didn't bake or buy those traditional American icons. How I looked forward to getting my own little Christmas tree cookie! It would be perfect to go along with the "Oh, Christmas tree!" song we sang in the show.

But each year, I never ran back to the classroom fast enough and all the other kids had grabbed all the cookies. Sometimes, I got a small cracked corner of a cookie and maybe the cracked candy cane, but never a whole sugar-sprinkled Christmas tree! The crumbs I got tasted sweet and crunchy, but I was always disappointed to see the empty box.

As a mother, I baked holidays cookies for my children and decorated the house with all the Christmas trimmings a child could want. Stockings, wreath, candles, and plenty of colorful sugar-sprinkled cookies!

Wouldn't it be great to go back in time and give that little girl a sugar cookie.

I love hearing your memories of Hawaii. My family spent a week at a military base in Hawaii when I was in 4th grade. Dad had been in Vietnam and he met us there. I remember Mom and Dad pushed their twin beds together. My sisters cracked up over it and since they thought it was funny so did I.

Oh, Alice! Thank you for your kindness and good heart. When I read your statement, it felt as though you *did* go back in time to give me a sugar-sprinkled cookie!

I'm so glad you started this thread because it brings back the warm feelings we had in childhood. And it's interesting to read how life unfolded for people...

Here's a funny memory:

One hot summer afternoon, the telephone repairman came to fix the wiring that ran from the house to the telephone pole out back. My mother, being kind, usually offered refreshments to service workers. She just made us tiny vanilla ice cream cones with these cute miniature cones. So, she made the repairman an ice cream cone, too, only she used a big, regular-sized cone for his. She packed in a lot of ice cream, piling it up high, and told my little sister and me to go and take it to him.

On the way out, we marveled at this gigantic ice cream cone and we couldn't resist. We both took a big lick from it before we went outside to hand it to a very grateful and unsuspecting repairman.

The guilt got to us later and we finally confessed but my mother only laughed loud and hard.

One of my favorite memories was when we went floundering. My uncle drove his pick-up truck along the beach and we waded along in the water with spears. The light would shine on the water and you could see a dark spot that was a sleeping flounder. I don't remember spearing any but we'd be right near them before they woke up and swam off. Exciting stuff for a kid.

Hi Claybird, You stirred a memory for me only it was my great grandfather's lap on which I sat at the ripe young age of 2yrs. I do remember him reading the funnies in the Sunday paper to me and then he would say " There once was a girl with a curl right in the middle of her forehead and when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid." I loved my great grandpa and have never thought until now about the impact of that message had on my little girl mind. I'll have to think about this. Wynne

Sitting on the doorstep at age 7 in our mining village eating fresh chips with malt vinegar from a newspaper watching the stars dance in the inky black sky.