Thinking Back

[Giaour]

My dad is a carpenter like his dad and his dad before him.

My dad had 4 daughters so I was taught the trade.

I remember when I was very little, like 4 or 5, my dad would pound nails into a chunk of 2x4 and sit me on the floor with a hammer.

He told me he needed the board but couldn't use it until the nails were out.

So I would sit on the floor and TRY to pull out the nails for him.

(It kept me out of his way).

I remember one day when I finally got the nails out ( I was about 7 years old), I gave dad the board so proud of myself.

He was proud too.

He then turned away from me and preceded to pound more nails in the board and told me the same story.

I caught on by about age 8 and he started to teach me the other skills needed.

Kids are so gullible.

At least he never sent me inside to fetch a cold drink, like he did my sisters.

[RustyAngeL]

All the good times I had with my Dad. I rememder the first time I 'helped' him fix the car. Going to see movies. We were huge movie nuts. Star Wars, Grease, Love at First Bite, Lady and the Tramp, BattleStar Gallactica. Oh the days. He would comfort me when I was sick. And he was so full of love. YOu could feel him from a mile away. I would beg my Mom to take me to pick him up at work. And we'd hug like no huggers you ever hugged before. And if you ever meet me in person. You'll see what I mean.

I remember as a kid going to the movies and my friends mom telling us to say inside the movie theater until she pulled to pick us up. She told us that alot of "rif raff" hung around the theater. We had no idea what rif raff was so one day we went out side looking for rif raff. When she came to get is we told her the reason we were outside is we wanted to see some riff raff but didn't know what it was. I thought she was going to have to pull over for laughing.

[Giaour]

On the way back from a volleyball match my mom was driving me and a few of the girls from the team home.

We got pulled over by a policeman for having a headlight out.

Us girls decided to give mom a hard time with the cop.

We said things like "We told you not to have wine with dinner", "Dad said the reckless driving conviction would come back to haunt you", "Do we have to sleep in the closet again tonight", "If we clean your house, will you feed us this week"

We were all cracking up.

Mom was so embarrassed.

The cop was even laughing.

He was playing around and threatening to give mom a sobriety test.

Mom only got a warning for the head light.

[EricH]

Most of my favorite childhood memories center around my grandparents. They were wonderful folks, as were my parents

[darkest_red]

All the good times I had with my Dad. I rememder the first time I 'helped' him fix the car. Going to see movies. We were huge movie nuts. Star Wars, Grease, Love at First Bite, Lady and the Tramp, BattleStar Gallactica. Oh the days. He would comfort me when I was sick. And he was so full of love. YOu could feel him from a mile away. I would beg my Mom to take me to pick him up at work. And we'd hug like no huggers you ever hugged before. And if you ever meet me in person. You'll see what I mean.

I remember as a kid going to the movies and my friends mom telling us to say inside the movie theater until she pulled to pick us up. She told us that alot of "rif raff" hung around the theater. We had no idea what rif raff was so one day we went out side looking for rif raff. When she came to get is we told her the reason we were outside is we wanted to see some riff raff but didn't know what it was. I thought she was going to have to pull over for laughing.

On the way back from a volleyball match my mom was driving me and a few of the girls from the team home.

We got pulled over by a policeman for having a headlight out.

Us girls decided to give mom a hard time with the cop.

We said things like "We told you not to have wine with dinner", "Dad said the reckless driving conviction would come back to haunt you", "Do we have to sleep in the closet again tonight", "If we clean your house, will you feed us this week"

We were all cracking up.

Mom was so embarrassed.

The cop was even laughing.

He was playing around and threatening to give mom a sobriety test.

Mom only got a warning for the head light.

Genius!

[Giaour]

Well God has a way of returning to us what we did to our parents.

My son screamed "Child Abuse" in walmart when I told him he couldn't have a toy.

My dad was the real genius.

We were at pizza hut in the winter and it was cold inside the restaurant.

Dad asked the manager to turn the heat up and he said no because the oven makes the kitchen too hot for the employees and they needed the air conditioner on.

Dad took an ashtray and filled it with napkins and started a campfire to warm his hands.

The manager turned on the heat after dad asked him for marshmellows.

[Guest torahdelight]

The greatest gift my parents gave their 7 grown children and one who is now with Jesus, is that LOVE is what makes a home. We didn't have much financially, but G~D always provides. Indeed we were surrounded with LOVE. I also remember how creative we learned to be since toys and extras were not easily available to us. We had our own soft-ball team because we couldn't afford to play professional sports. In addition, we would host weekly talent shows and invite the neighbors, we'd also play for hours, the game of hide and go seek. Simple things, but full of LOVE. Blessings.

Edited March 9, 2006 by torahdelight

[darkest_red]

Well God has a way of returning to us what we did to our parents.

My son screamed "Child Abuse" in walmart when I told him he couldn't have a toy.

My dad was the real genius.

We were at pizza hut in the winter and it was cold inside the restaurant.

Dad asked the manager to turn the heat up and he said no because the oven makes the kitchen too hot for the employees and they needed the air conditioner on.

Dad took an ashtray and filled it with napkins and started a campfire to warm his hands.

The manager turned on the heat after dad asked him for marshmellows.

That is great!!! That's the kind of thing my dad would do too!

[Iryssa]

My memories of my childhood, though it wasn't all that long ago, I suppose, are more in feelings than anything...I'll be reminded of it when the light streams through my window a certain way, or when I smell lavender or lilacs or pine trees...I do have experiences I specifically remember, of course, but they don't seem quite as important in my own mind compared to how it felt. I remember the feel of the grass under my feet as I ran half-wild around the summer village our cottage is in, how cold the minnows were as they flipped away from my hand in the net I'd used to catch them out of the lake. I remember the smooth-solid feel of the rocks my cousin Kristine, her brother, my brother and I retrieved from the shore. I remember the lapping of the boat chop against my legs while Kristine and I sat on the dock, dangling our feet in the cool, clear water. Such were my summers...

I also remember the fall and winter...being at school...which mostly felt miserable. The smell of floor polish still bring it back sometimes, getting picked on, those glasses I hated wearing so much (they became the scapegoat for my problem of being unpopular). Then there were those moments of relief, which I mostly experienced by myself or with one or two others: We lived in a mountain town, and the school grounds were kept very natural apart from the soccer field...there were a lot of pine trees which left their roots sticking out of the hard soil, creating natural seats and hollows. I had my own secret place, right on the far corner of the grounds. There was a sharp, somewhat far (to a child's eyes) drop into it (the reason most people avoided it -- they didn't all have a young ballet-dancer's agility), but the hard roots that grew out of the side of that little "cliff" allowed me to climb out as easily as I jumped in. The roots made the perfect place to lean up against the sheltering tree, because they were above the wet ground and perfectly sloped in a very comfortable position (well, at least they were for me...I doubt, being much bigger than I was then, that I would find those roots comfortable today). I would sit there and read my books during recess and lunch, eating my lunch right there on warmer days, bringing my thermos full of hot chocolate on colder days. I was even more content there than in the library.

Basically, I've been a bit of a geek all my life

[jesussaves]

I was thinking back last night about my growing up years in Michigan. I now live in California but love to think back on my childhood in a time when when you could walk home from your friends house at night in the summer time and you were safe. We had pizza parties and beach parties at night and never once did anyone get out of hand. We were not worried about someone kidnapping us and we loved and respected our parents. Our favorite time is our house was Christmas. My dad and I would start looking for decorations on my birthday ( Dec 12th) then spend hours putting them up. We always picked the coldest day to hang the lights outside but we still had a ball doing it. We had three trees in our home. One in the living room, one in the family room in the basement and one on the porch that my dad and finished and made into a beautiful room. Our home was full of color and wonderful smells the tree had dozens of presents all wrapped my mom and I and it's a time I looked forward to every year. I'm wondering what are your memories while you were growing up?

I enjoyed reading about your childhood memories. One of the most precious gifts in life are those jeweled memories of our childhood. I was just sharing with my son a couple days ago about my mother scouping up fresh snow to make snow cream. What a delight it was when she did those special things for us. I always remember cold winter days being special because mom warmed the house and made things we loved on a shoe-string budget.