What's your favorite childhood memory?

[derbstyron]

For me it was about my father, who I dont really have contact with anymore.

When I was a kid I would ask him to go out and toss the ball with me.
He would say no saying he was too busy, or watching football.

At 12, when I found out my parents were getting divorced and asked him, the next weekend at halftime, during the game he was watching, if he wanted to go out and toss the ball.

We stayed out in the yard for about two hours. :)

[mikehiggins]

1. Watching my folks drive away and leave me

It was a long story and I was only five years old but I never forgot the feeling of being abandoned by people I loved and trusted. The result was that I never fully trusted anyone again, which carried on into my dealings with politicians.

A life lesson that proved invaluable over the years.

[derbstyron]

2. something (sort of) similar happened to me.

My mother, when my parents were getting a divorce, took me in the car and asked me, "who do you want to live with?" Thats how I found out.

I always resented her for that.

[RPM]

3. playing under the kitchen table...

... nothing in particular - just playing under the big oak table on the linoleum floor.

:-)

[AngryAmish]

4. the smell of turf

If you have never smelled turf buring then you have missed out.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Waking up on my 5th birthday and finding oodles of toys waiting for me.

Lots of very cheap toys, a ping pong set, children's story books, plastic cars, board games, the works.

I learned the lesson. I always give lots of small toys to my kids instead of a big expensive badass over-advertised toy that gets broken and/or forgotten.

[Kellis]

6. Summertime

Balmy summer evenings outside playing with the neighborhood kids.

[cally]

7. I'm not sure it's a favorite, but it changed me

My two sisters looked very similar when they were younger. They both had dark curly hair but I had light, straight hair. I was very small and they were large for their age. I spent my childhood hearing 'jokes' that I was the milkman's kid or something like it. I really believed it. I didn't think I was my father's child. He adored and favored, still does, my middle sister. I figured out that was because I wasn't his child.

When I was about 12, I saw a picture of my Dad when he was about that age. His hair was black, but other then that he looked more similar to me than to my sisters. I realized that I was my father's daughter. I kept showing that picture to my family and none understood why it was so important to me. I often wonder how I'm so different from my family politically and with religion. I think it has much to do with my growing up and thinking I didn't belong.

[NightTrain]

8. During the summer, spending weekends on an island off the CT coast.

It was called Ram Island, and it was off the coast of Mystic, Connecticut. Two of my uncles had boats and often during the summer, we camped out on the island on weekends. And it wasn't just my family, either. Ram Island was a popular summertime hangout. It even had a snack bar on the beach that played a local AM Top 40 station over its sound system. One song I clearly remember from Ram Island was "Don't Pull Your Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.

Then, when I was about eight, Ram Island was sold. The new owner immediately put up a fence around the perimeter and dotted it with "KEEP OUT" signs.

Never again would Ram Island come alive in the summer. Never again would the tempting aroma of hot dogs and french fries waft across the water and caress my nostrils as I splashed around as I body-surfed to shore. Never again would dad and I play Frisbee as our feet sank into the soft white sand. Never again would the seagulls swoop down to catch the chunks of bread I tossed into the air. Never again would I wake up in a sleeping bag to the sound of laughter and merriment on the beach. All because of one misanthrope with a bankroll.

[Lenape85]

9. Visiting members of my mom's side of the family

We just don't have it anymore

We travelled to Maine, Florida, and all over the fucking place

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. My first earthquake

I was about 3 or 4 and dad grabbed me from bed carried me, 'like a princess' to a doorway. I thought the house shaking was scary until the attic shook open and all the toys I was missing fell out before my eyes. It was like Christmas, my Ms. Beasley doll was right there before my eyes! (I guess my mom rotated the toys so we didn't get bored, not sure.) Later, when it was over, I got to eat jelly beans for breakfast. :)

[Rowdyboy]

11. Hiding behind a door at age 7 or 8 and listen to my mother gossip with

her aunts about family scandals. I know thrash about my relatives that NO ONE living knows!

[AccessGranted]

14. So I Wasn't The Only Nosey Kid - Haha!

I used to do the same thing and I knew everybody's business. I was always sneaking around trying to see what the grown folks were talking about and trying to find out the gossip. Did you ever eavesdrop and hear your mother talking about you?!! Once when I was about 6, I overhead my mother tell my aunt that the only reason I was born is because the condom broke while she was having sex with father. How traumatizing is that??? That's what I get for being nosey!

[Rowdyboy]

15. Luckily, no.....I had it made as a child

I was her oldest child and her favorite-plus, I was the first grandchild on both sides of the family. Throw in blond hair and blue eyes and I was worshiped.

I was one incredibly lucky kid, considering we were moderately poor. My dad drove long-haul trucks, and my mom made rolls in the local elementary school lunchroom.

But I knew the dirt on everyone! Illegitimate births, suicide, insanity, rumors of witchcraft, homosexuality-all the scandal.

[yellowdogintexas]

12. anything that involved my grandfather

[AccessGranted]

13. Two Favorite Childhood Memories

The first is when I was around 4 or 5 years old and I used to take walks with my father. He had these really big hands and we used to walk along with me holding onto his thumb or sometimes I'd stand on his feet while he walked, so everytime he walked, I walked.

The other is playing Yahtzee with my mother when I was around ten or so. She used to get so excited whenever she got a Yahtzee she would scream, jump out of her chair and wake up the entire neighborhood.

I was lucky. I had a really great childhood for the most part. My parent's actually stayed together and were happy until they got old and then they couldn't stand each other, but they stuck it out. It didn't affect me much because by then I had already moved out of the house, so that was their drama and not mine!