Happy memories from your childhood

[Miss Chicken]

This is the thread to talk about happy event in your childhood, so no sad stories, please.

I have fond memories of collecting eggs with my grandfather. He had dozens (maybe even 100 or more) of free range chickens and after Sunday lunch he would take hold of my hand and we would go down to the yards and gather the eggs. I was allowed to carry the wicker basket down to the yard.

Most of the time the hens would have laid their eggs in their straw-lined boxes but we would occasionally find some eggs in some odd places. Often the eggs would still be warm. My grandfather would always carry the egg-filled basket back.

 

[Sparky]

Dr Who nights.

Up here in Calgary we received KSPS, a PBS station from Spokane. One evening in 83 or 84 my father stumbled across an old (even at that time) episode of Dr Who and recognized it from when he was younger. He called us into the room while excitedly explaining that he had watched this show years ago and that we would love it.

I remember seeing a black and white Jon Pertwee trying to escape from people in a wheelchair. Every evening Monday to Friday they would show a half hour episode at 6pm and that's how i remember first watching it.

Eventually they switched to editing the serial together and airing the entire story on Saturday night. This is where the happy memory comes in.

Saturday nights were a treat. We were allowed to stay up later than usual because they didn't air Dr Who until around 10pm and the stories lasted about and hour and a half to two hours. Pledge nights were great because they started really early and showed multiple Dr Who stories with a "rare" one thrown in like the 5 Doctors.

We started a tradition of buying this large 99 cent bag of popcorn and a 2 litre bottle of Coke from the local 7-11. We poured the coke into these large plastic cups that were tall and skinny and my brother an I each got one.
So we had a big glass of Coke and a bowl of 99 cent 7-11 popcorn every Saturday night. That is how i watched almost every Dr who ep from Troughton to Colin Baker. It didn't matter what we were doing at the moment...if Dr Who was on we were there. Of course my brother and I grew older and things changed but we still faithfully watched Dr Who on Saturdays until we were old enough to be doing other things on Saturday nights

Now the family only gets together once or twice a year but for the last couple years we have had the Dr Who Christmas special to watch. Just like old times we fire up the Dr Who and have some popcorn (microwaved). My parents still have the plastic cups though. While they are not as large as i remember i can still feel the carbonation on my lips and i can still hear the distinctive somewhat amplified fizzing noise that would happen with those cups. Best of all its an hour and a half or 2 hours of all of us enjoying new Dr Who while being able to talk about old times and good memories. I know it's nostalgia influincing me but a glass of Coke always tastes better from that plastic cup...nothing else even compares

 

[backstept]

watching TNG on Friday nights with my family
Friday was also my family's 'Candy Night' so my brother and I would get to have a candybar

 

[john titor]

Getting a sega mega drive 2 with Sonic 3 and Streets of Rage 2, played those games endlessly, then getting a 32x with Doom and later Virtua Racing, followed by the sega saturn with virtua cop and the virtua gun, renting out sim city and playing it for days on end or aliens vs predator.

 

[ByrdMan]

watching TNG on Friday nights with my family
Friday was also my family's 'Candy Night' so my brother and I would get to have a candybar

Same story, except Friday was our "Pizza Night".

Watching SCTV on the little B&W TV in the kitchen while my mom baked cookies.

Our Yearly 4th of July Camping trip

Pretty much every winter. We lived right across the street from a skating rink, and about a block from a monster sledding hill.

 

[kathryn i am]

Summers at my grandparents' cottage. Playing "cops and robbers" with my cousins, using these gold coloured guns that had previously held perfume, and still had a faint scent to them.

 

[kustirider2]

I can't remember any 'happy' ones as such, I do remember some ones that the family thought were hilarious.

I got spat at in the face by a llama and I used to run around the streets with my underwear on my head... I was a strange child

 

[Kestra]

Having my parents both home at the same time, and having a family game night where we played some sort of educational game. My dad and sis would be on a team, my mom and I would be on a team, and my brother was always on his own. And would win hands down every time.

Spending time with our caretaker/nanny/housekeeper/grandmother figure. And her husband. Going over to their house and knowing that there was a bag in the pantry that had three sets of candy and stickers just for us. Spinning around endlessly in some ancient green chair of theirs. Making cookies and getting to eat some of the batter. I miss him so much sometimes.

Countless memories with my brother and sister. Arguing over anything and everything, and then forgetting it all a few minutes later. Running around outside playing TMNT. Building sets of the Enterprise-D with LEGOS. Drawing huge murals with my sister. Singing and dancing until one of us shouted the alarm that my parents were coming home, and then scrambling to get to our desks and open up books. Trading food at dinner when my parents weren't looking.

 

[ShimmeringFacet]

I liked to hide in the tall grass. I'd watch how alert our pets were. And so I tried to see as the cat saw, and know what the cat knew.

 

[Australis]

Childhood seems to be all happy memories, now.

Holidays at Surfers Paradise in the 1960s, when it was commercial but not overly commercial, as it is now (I saw it last year, made me sad). While there one year, I got to see this new scinece fiction show, something Trek. My local station didn't show it then.

We lived on a wheat property that is still in my memory as the flattest place I have ever seen. there was a mountain range low on the horizon, hardly noticeable, everywhere else was tabletop. Could ride my bike for miles. Watch the shearers shear. Watch the harvesters going through the enormous paddocks in staggered formation. Learning to swim at the pool in the nearby town, which meant time off school at the end of the year.

Many, many happy memories. Then we moved to a different place and puberty arrived. Not so happy. A tale for another thread.

 

[Jono]

Can't help but miss those carefree days when you didn't have to do anything for yourself.

Travelled a lot when I was a kid and on one flight when it was going in to land it hit some turbulence and I started to excitedly chant, "We're going to crash! We're going to crash!" as if it was the most fun and exciting thing to do. That's right up there with me yelling abuse at an angry armed mob...totally stupidly fearless.

I remember playing tag at recess, trespassing on a property of some guy through a hole in the fence, riding my bike across town, playing in sport comps with friends, playing with lego, GI Joes, Transformers, listening to the crazy tales and stories from one of my favourite teachers. I had a good childhood, I got to travel and I've probably spent a longer time overseas in my first 10 years of life than most of my friends would have in their entire lives up to this point.

 

[Sparky]

These further responses bring up more happy memories. TNG was a weekly staple for us, we watched and discussed that show as a family every week. But for a great memory we have to travel back to Christmas 1987. The NES was out and a few friends had it. It was ok but we were captivated by the Sega Master System. We wanted the Sega Master System. Oh we wanted that system so bad we could taste it. It was our holy grail. We looked at the games in the stores and we told our parents quite often exactly what we wanted.... Come Xmas day. I honestly do not remember what we got that Xmas day....2 things stand out. Sega Master System games and Hardy Boys hardcover books are about the same size and shape.

Dad handed each of us a gift....it looked the same shape as a book and it felt like a book but all of a sudden my mom yells No Bob!...those are the wrong ones! We looked at each other in a moment of pure clarity and we both knew instantly what we held in our hands. We ripped open those gifts before they could be snatched away and we were rewarded with Choplifter and Astro Warrior for the Sega Master System.
Those Nintendo 64 Kids had nothing on us except a video camera to record it. We went ballistic and my mom went upstairs to grab the one present that they didnt put under the tree because they wanted it to be a surprise. The y planned to surprise us with a gift that was not under the tree at the time....but how it played out is far far better than the original plan. It is something we all look back on with great fondness and it puts a smile on all our faces when we talk about it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The happiest memory in my childhood was almost 20 years ago, on my 10th birthday. We had some friends of our family round for my birthday, and we just spentthe whole day in the local forested park, which was this self-contained hilly park where you could just run up and down the sloiped paths all day. That day was also the sunniest day of the year, without a cloud in the sky. When we came back home there was a chocolate cake in the shape of a "10". Best birthday ever.

I also had fond memories of staying with my cousins during some summers. They lived in south-east England, which was a completely different world from home to me. Often we'd spend summer there, although we did also spend Christmas 1989 down there too. My cousins were musicians too, and sometimes we'd play duets together. They also had cats, which were adorable but annoying, but which I loved (this was before I developed my cat allergy). We'd also watch the cricket on the TV - this was back in the days when the West Indies won everything - and I'd learned the basics of cricket from them. One side effect is that when I came back home, everyone would notice that I'd picked up a very strong London Estuary accent.

 

[Australis]

One of the few happy memories I have of my teens is Friday night (in Australia) was Dr Who night, and later the same night was 'The Two Ronnies', which was in its day an hour of sharp comedy and variety, which the whole family could watch, and did. Good times.

 

[1001001]

I have many happy memories from childhood.

The ones that sprang to mind first were the sunny, crisp fall Saturdays at Exposition Park with my family. Having a picnic (always had KFC), tossing the pigskin around, watching the early games on the first generation portable TV. Then heading inside the Coliseum for some Trojan football. After the game we'd head back to my grandparent's house for a party.

Those were great days.

 

[Jayson]

Going to Lawton Speedway race track with my Grandpa. Watching GiJoe and Transformer's everyday after school. The time me and my neighbor went in the back yard and explored our bodies. I think she kissed my wee wee and I forget what I did. I saw her boobs or private area. Something like that. I then recall being embassed for awhile whenever I would see her.

Jason

 

[sidious618]

My aunt used to live upstairs and I fondly recall going up to visit her. She introduced me to all the sci-fi stuff but even when we weren't watching that I loved playing board games with her or whatever other activity she had planned.

I remember once that the sci-fi channel was airing the original BSG series and we'd watch it together but it was on during the day so I'd have to tape it. She left instructions on her VCR and everyday I'd go up and do it. One day I forgot, though, and it wasthe first time my parents every hard me say, "Oh, shit!" It's been a while since I've thought of that and it brings a smileto my face.

 

[FPAlpha]

As a kid i always spent most of the summer in my birthtown in Bosnia with my big family.. i'd go swimming in the river with my cousins, stay up late and tell stories together and do all the stuff kids do.

One thing i hated was bringing in the hay off the fields of my grandparents.. the entire family would gather and work on the fields and at noon the women brought in the food. Fresh baked bread, meat pies, baked potatoes, salads.. the entire family sat down and ate, talked and made fun of each other. I hated the work (i was on vacation dammit! ) but i loved the sense of family back then.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Husker football games

My grandpa showing me how to use his farm machinery

 

[Zeta]

Growing up in the early/mid 70’s in Boston, I have fond memories of Saturday morning cartoons. My siblings and I would get up early, fill our bowls with Count Chocula, Freekies, or Quisp cereal and watch such “classics” as the Saturday Superstar Movie, Super Friends, Ark II, Land of the Lost or Shazam (to name a few). Our parents would usually start yelling at us at noon to get dressed and play outside…good times

I have no doubt that I would be terminally disappointed if I watched any of those shows today, so I have actively avoided all of them on YouTube, et al, content to remember them through the eyes of a little boy…