An acquaintance just posted a pic of them being absolutely delighted with building a snowman and I realized I haven’t done that in years. It also made me think about things I enjoyed doing as a kid, and (whether it be from mental issues or not) I can’t quite recall anything that brought me joy.
So I’m really just curious, what are other people’s happy memories of their childhood? Might help me remember mine, and “worst” case I get to enjoy some good memories second-hand!
Edit: Couldn’t be happier to have asked this question, not only are there some wholesome little stories, but I could also finally remember some of the good times of my childhood again!
running around with super soakers
I used to love digging holes in the beach and unearthing hidden treasures like cigarette butts.
Dicking around in the woods with my friends. Building forts, climbing trees, catching crawfish in the creek, playing war, ninjas, or wolf, riding our bikes off sketchy jumps. The woods were absolute freedom. It’s wild, we have a similar area of woods where I live now and my 11 year old daughter has zero interest.
I had a very similar experience and my kids are the same way. More than likely because the internet is their freedom, it’s the thing they can control.
I used to do the same thing. When I was in jr high the guy that owned it sold the property and the new people didn’t want us to play back there anymore.
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School plays! I got into a costume and acted on stage. There were some parts where I had to sing and I looked forward to those plays so much I would be giddy! The one I remember the most was when I had to dress up as a gold star.
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Building igloos out of snow. Rather than building snowmen we would build chairs, beds, etc. made out of snow!
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Drawing. I remember my mom and dad telling me about how I could just fill up an entire page with different things! My grandma was a painter for most of her life, and whenever we went to her house, she’d go upstairs to retrieve her art supplies and teach me how to paint.
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Swimming. I just love water in general and the tradition was that we’d go to a fast food place immediately after. If it was after a session at a public pool, I’d still smell like chlorine even after showering. The combination of the smell of the inside of a McDonald’s and chlorine is such a formative memory to me for that reason haha.
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Laser tag. I was really good at it!
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School trips! I went to this really cool science museum with my class once, I would love to say the name of it, but then that would reveal where I live. It was one of those museums where you could do practical things and it was really fun. I also loved it whenever we went go-karting even though I’d always end up with bruises on my inner thighs.
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Playing CS 1.5 to source everyday/every night with the exact same person for years…
After school? Running home and gaming till the morning
During vacation? Non stop gaming
During new year? Just a glass at 00:00 with family and gaming again till the morning…
This was the best time of my life and probably the best childhood memory, until I grew up, met my first girlfriend, went to highschool/university and now having a job…
I miss this good old days where you had nothing in between your fun and happiness.
Now it’s just a mess of disappointment…
When I was in early elementary school, my dad would take me & my sister to the local mall. He would get us all books at the Waldenbooks - he would get a scifi pulp novel, I would get a Garfield book, and my sister would get a Calvin & Hobbes book. Then he’d take us to a restaurant there in the mall, and we’d have a nice leisurely lunch while reading our new books.
Your dad and you sound like the protagonist of the book ‘Inkheart’ :)
Books so numerous, they are stacked in the hallways of the apartment/house
Things I loved but don’t do anymore: Climbing trees, building snow forts, making elaborate toy castles. Falling asleep on the floor in a sunbeam next to the cat.
Things I still do: eat chocolate chips out of the bag, walk barefoot in the grass, take mediocre pictures of random things that feel really profound at the time but are immediately forgotten
My childhood home had a skylight, and I would use the sunbeam like a blanket, with just my head poking out into the shade. It was wonderful.
Christmas morning at grandparents when everyone was done opening presents sitting alone in a corner building a Lego set with no worries about responsibilities or time constraints.
When I was a kid my parents would rent a beach house at the end of summer on the Oregon coast. Their friends from college would usually stay there with us, in the evening we would have a campfire on the beach. The smell of a campfire almost always brings back memories of those days even now that I’m in my 40’s.
Painting my grandma’s face with makeup. I thought she didn’t realize I was painting her like a clown with a red nose and all, and I thought it was hilarious. Was always mildly disappointed whenever she took the makeup off before leaving, but I never lost the hope one day she wouldn’t notice and would walk out with it.
Ah fun times.
Being able to play sports (baseball/football) with neighborhood kids. No organizations like today. No parents interfering. No one drove you to the field, you walked there. Everyone got along and there were no overweight kids because everyday you got plenty of outside exercise.
Not to derail this, but I think a lot about our zoning and residential housing now and how it killed these exact things. Your neighborhood is now only people in the same economic bracket as you. New builds only make bland open areas with nothing to do, and they’re built so far out that they’re essentially unwalkable. Then there’s only one exit or entrance so even if there is a city park nearby it’s minimum 20 minutes just to walk to the entrance of the residential zone. Then add on that any teens together are hooligans and Ms Jansen will call the police on them and 40 years of fear mongering has lead us to no kids can be unsupervised
Skipping stones over the local water reservoir.
I sucked at it, but it was still time away from my sisters.
I just want to say how much I love this question! Yes, I should think more often if the things that I really enjoyed as a kid :)
Thanks! When I noticed how long it’s been since I’ve done anything with that pure joy of a child I kinda felt sad. So I really wanna try to bring that back into my life a little bit!
Christmas dinner when my grandparents would join us, miss them loads
Looking out the window of a car as I was driven around town as a kid. I wondered at the layers of rocks in road cuts, the vastness of forest and what creeks and secrets it held. I would see someone in passing and picture myself as if I were them; mowing the lawn; walking in that store; speaking to someone else. I would imagine whole narratives based on the details I saw around them at a glance.
I was coping with the boredom in my own ways. That abstraction is one of the most valuable to me. The thoughts that streamed from staring out a window of a moving car are a big part of the base of the tree that became me. This is the mental structure that has kept me grounded through a decade of social isolation from physical disability and being forced to reinvent my sense of self nearly from scratch. It is how far back I had to go to redefine myself anew within the reality of my physical constraints. So while it may seem entirely mundane, I have been forced to reflect and redefine myself in ways most humans never confront.
There are many facets involved here, like how I am still able to talk about my past without causing myself harm by thinking about what I have lost, or how I’m purposefully turning within myself, because any other tangent of thought leads to vengeful anger at what was taken from me. In my cascade of abstract thoughts, my most pleasant and happiest is not really resolved to a specific moment or event. In truth, I can recall the exact moment I was looking at a rock cut on the side of a road and realized the layers were deep time, but it was more of a subconscious back burner thought than a solid moment of understanding. All of this abstraction has a root in that thought. It is an actual place in my mind, a small hillside rock cut on a highway between Cleveland and Chattanooga Tennessee with a limestone formation of very old rock. That abstraction has likely saved my life thus far, and continues to redirect me into my curiosities in moments of profound loneliness, boredom, and a lack of purpose. The only thing I cannot overcome with this thought is the burden I have become for others. Baring the thought of being a burden, my abstract curiosity; wondering about the world; exploring by turning within; is my basis for continuing day to day. I find great value in this abstraction and that makes me happy in the present.
