Your Favorite Childhood Memory

[LSN80]

For many, childhood is the best time of their lives. Those of us who've grown up with loving families, good siblings, and nice provisions caan think back to that day and time when we didn't have the cares of today. Worrying about paychecks, paying back college loans and deciding on futures is a thing of the far away future. But there are some who grew up without those things. Unsupportive/abusive families, physical or mental illness, and financial problems amongst others permeate so many homes in the United States and all over the World today. Id like to think that all of us great memory that sticks out to us, regardless of the day-to-day circumstances surrounding our childhood years.

I grew up in a loving family with two parents, which Im thankful for to this day. Most of my friends had parents who were divorced, and I saw the toll it took on them. My family didn't have much, as my dad was a teacher and really didnt have a choice but to have my mother stay home with my sister and myself, as I had a twin sister. My dad had to take a tutoring job aafter work and eventually a telemarketing job as a third just to provide for us. It was tough essentially only seeing my dad on weekends, even if we understood the circumstances why.

There was a Christmas when I was 12 where my parents sat us down and told us they couldn't afford much that year. They spent $100 between the two of us, and I sincerely believe that was all they could spend. I remember opening my presents that year and how thoughtfully they were picked out. Unlike before or after, none were household needs, all were things I wanted. What my parents lacked in funds they made up with creativity and listening to what we truly wanted. Even if some of the things we were given were used, I didnt care much at the time. My parents had truly listened to the things I had told them I wanted. That was(almost) as good as them having an abundance of resources to spend on us. When I told my dad that it was the "Best Christmas Ever", I truly meant it. In the 18 years I lived with my parents, none were as enjoyable or as meaningful. Not only was it the best Christmas I had with my parents, it's one of my favorite memories from childhood.

What is one of your favorite memories from childhood? Why?

 

[Paralyzer Z]

Well my dad works in a high position in a bank so we have always had a lot of money.

My favorite childhood memory is going on the Disney cruise a couple of years ago. It was an enormous ship with free pizza whenever you want! Pools, theaters, and whatever you van think of that is fun! We spent a day at the Atlantis resort in Nassau island in the Bahamas and the people on the island looked very poor but the resort was one of the best in the world. They had an colossal vertical water slide that some lifeguards did flips into. I went down with my bro (both). The food was top quality and we got our own waiter that followed us from restaurant to restaurant and made origami out of the menu for us. We also spent a day at castaway Cay a private Disney island in the Caribbean and for the first time in my life I saw crystal clear water in the sea on the beach.

One day I dream of going on another cruise! Only next time to a Pacific island.

 

[lenguy]

Props once again LSN, you always make the best threads.

Well, my favorite childhood memory is more of a bunch of collective memories rather than just being one singular event. I grew up in a well off house, both my parents were employees at the Mining company Inco and were making good money. As the loving parents they were, my favorite childhood memory does not stem from them. Growing up in a small northern Canadian town, we were surrounded by a vast forest in all directions. It was in that forest that my best friend and I found our sanctuary.

Unlike me, my best friend wasn't so well off. He grew up in a rough house hold with parents struggling to make ends meat, had a brother that was later diagnosed with a mental illness, and he was very often picked on at school. So he spent a lot of his time at my place and with me in order to escape all that. But every time he would walk over, he would be tantalized with the giant city of tress that lay just at my houses footsteps. Needless to say, I was always curious myself. But being only 6 or 7, I was always told to avoid the forest and never go near that or the river that also lay just beyond. My parents words often never unhinged me or could lure me away from my uninhibited curiosity of this whole new world that was just a few steps away from us.

Being only 7 or so, our tiny little brains were just flowing with all sorts of crazy ideas that could possible be conjured up with what could possibly lye beyond those tress. A lost kingdom? Valuable treasures? New and exotic creatures? Sasquatch? Yes I said Sasquatch, our school library was load with Bigfoot books, and its what initially drove us to finally explore the place. So after finally caving to our growing interest, we finally went in.

What we found were...just tress and sticks and old junk. Now, you would might think that whats so special about just trees and sticks? Well, when you are only 7, everything is special about trees and sticks! We spent the better part of our childhood exploring the vast place, just being kids, having adventures and giving meaning to otherwise insignificant places. We even had our own domains,The clearing...which was as the name suggests..just a vast open clearing devoid of trees. The Rocks..just a massive elongated stretch of Rocks that run out from the edge of the forest into the river(a great place for fishing and swimming). The Cliff(because we were also so very creative on naming these places...lol), which was basically a giant elevated rocky highland overseeing the entire river and forest on the other side(great for bring girlfriends for watching the sunset ). This was where the best moments of his and my life took place, still fresh in my mind as if it were only yesterday. Even as we grew older and the years grow and these memories pass us. We would still visit these places just to forget and get away from everything. It is where I would visit just to clear my head whenever I would have a bad day and to also get away from all the humanly burdens and dilemmas presented in ordinary adolescence life.

So many pure memories, even a decade later it still holds value and meaning. I just sucks since I moved that I could no longer visit these places. Some of the best memories I have, hell, not even losing my virginity tops these memories. One day, I will go back just for nostalgia purposes and perhaps relive some of those fond memories.

Oh happier days....

 

[Dagger Dias]

One of my favorite childhood memories was back in 2nd grade when a friend from school came over to spend the weekend at my house. We had been talking about Final Fantasy 4 at school and how we should do a run through the game together, neither of us had beaten it at the time. Once he came over we immediately knew what the agenda was. FF4. Non-stop. We renamed each of the heroes after classmates and mutual friends, and took turns being the voice-overs for various characters during talking scenes, switching up who was the good guys and who was the game's bosses. We literally played the whole weekend. The only breaks we took were to eat or go outside with the dogs for a little, and even when we did that the dogs got to play the parts of a couple of the bosses from the game while I was Kain and he was Cid.

The first night we made it all the way from the beginning to the Dwarven Castle right before you fight the Calcobrena. Then we started again the next day and got to the Sealed Gate when you fight the Evil Wall when my mother ruined our fun by announcing that my friend's parents were there to get him. Several inside jokes between us were spawned from that weekend. We tried the following year to do something similar with both Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 6, but neither were as fun as our FF4 run.

I don't keep in touch with that guy anymore, we had a huge fight about how he had "changed" for the worse by 9th grade, but I remembered the inside jokes as well as the fun we had playing our favorite game that weekend. I told that story and was able to pass the inside jokes along to new friends I made along the way.

My best friend (at the time) staying at my house for the weekend, doing nothing but playing our favorite video game the entire time. This remains one of my favorite memories because at the time my 2nd grade self could honestly not have possibly asked for anything more epic or awesome. It helped fuel my inspirations for Division Blade, that maybe some day someone similar to me can have a fun time with their friends similar to my friend and I in my story.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I would probably have to say back in the day when I would go visit my cousins who live up in Northern California. Whenever we got the chance to go there I loved it because living in the city and being fascinated with the outdoors going to Humboldt County was always the highlight of my year because of the beautiful redwoods and all the open space. The trip took about 5 hours but once we got there it was well worth it, we would always be greeted first by their German Shepherd Gabby as she would follow us up the driveway on her side of the white picket fence.

When we'd pull into the driveway my cousin's Marta and Andrew would come running out to greet us followed by my Aunt Carol and Uncle David. We'd take our bags inside after saying our hellos and either head inside if it was late or start our time together off by playing football or hide and seek tag outside.

My cousin Andrew and I are huge football fans and have been ever since we were little, so i'd have my Brett Favre jersey on and he'd pull out his Rich Gannon jersey and we'd play football for hours pretending we were in the NFL playing with our heros. When we got tired of football we'd pick up the BB guns and run their massive property in hopes of finding a Gopher, Quail, or Squirrel to snag.

When it got too dark outside or the weather was poor we had just as much fun inside the house because their house is quite big as well. We'd play hide and seek, play Cops and Robbers or Big Game Hunters with our cap guns and on occasion we'd sneak into the kitchen and find some candy to hide away in our fort's made out of blankets, chairs and couch cushions. Usually the night would end with a traditional Defner movie as we have several movies in our family that we all love watching when we're together such as The Parent Trap, Mrs. Doubtfire, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and many more.

Leaving would always be hard, we would usually stay for a long weekend or during the summer or winter break sometimes we would pull off a week. But we're so close that my Aunt and Uncle are like a second set of parents and my cousins are like an extra brother and sister. I still love visiting them and going on trips with them but there was something so much more special back when we were kids, back then we didn't have to worry about work or money and when we were told that those were the best years of our lives we didn't believe it. If you asked me now though, if those were the best years of my life i'd say they were definitely some of the best in my life.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

The Islands Of Adventure theme park was still pretty new, when I was younger. I think I was about 11 or 12, and I was sooooo excited, when my parents decided to take me and one of my cousins to the new and extravagant theme park. Usually, I enjoyed the Universal Studios theme park more (I could never get enough of the Back To The Future ride and Jaws), and I enjoyed MGM Studios sometimes.

I had at friend at school, who couldn't stop talking about Islands Of Adventure. He would always talk about how much he loved his experience in theme park, and this would drive me absolutely nuts, because I wasn't able to go just yet. The drive up to Orlando was the longest car ride I ever endured. I couldn't wait to arrive at the park, and everyone in the car was annoyed after a while, because I couldn't stop looking out the window, and I wouldn't stop talking about Islands Of Adventure.

The theme park was great. My parents took it easy, buy my cousin and I enjoyed every inch of Islands Of Adventure. We ate all the junk food we could (cotton candy, pizza, and those monster-like turkey legs), and we LOVED the rides. But there was one ride that scared the shit out of both of us.....the Incredible Hulk Coaster.

The coaster itself was a breathtaking sight. We were awestruck, as we passed by it throughout the day, but I always had this enormous fear of roller coasters. I would see them, and quickly walk in the other direction. Roller coasters scared me, but we decided to take a chance. My cousin wanted to ride the roller coaster, I wanted to roller coaster, so we stepped in line. My father deiced to go with us, and we were fine at first. But my cousin and I turned into nervous wrecks, as we got closer to the front of the line. Our hearts were beating so fast, and I was sweating. Well, we reached the front of the line, and my cousin bailed. He freaked out, and jumped out of line, but my father took his seat on the coaster. I almost joined my cousin, but something changed my mind. Another coaster just pulled up in front us, and this older lady stepped out. She was so excited. She was smiling, and she returned to the back of the line, because she wanted to ride the coaster again. At this point, I felt like I had to do it. If some older lady could take a chance on the thrilling roller coaster, then there really was no excuse for me to bail out. Seeing this older lady made me feel like a chicken, and I couldn't walk away. I eventually took the seat next to my dad, and I loved every second of the ride. It was fast, thrilling, and my head was spinning when it all ended. I had a great time, but my cousin was kind of bummed out. He still didn't want to take his chances with the coaster, but he knew he missed something special. We continued to enjoy the park for the rest of the night, but I couldn't stop thinking about the Hulk Coaster. It was one of those great experiences you want to relieve over and over again, and I will never forget that day.

I was able to conquer my fears, and I was proud of this. I still visit Islands Of Adventure every now and then, and I always ride the Hulk Coaster first. This has become my favorite theme park ride ever, but the Jurassic Park water ride is a close second.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

This is tough as there were a lot of good childhood times that I fondly remember, but I'm going to go with my budding sport career!

I've always been into football (soccer) since I was young enough to kick a ball and one of my earliest memories of seeing the London contingent of my family was during the 1994 World Cup. McDonald's were giving away free blow-up footballs so I probably made a bit of a scene to make sure we would go and get at least one, I think we got 10.

My Grandad was the main reason I got into football and last year was quite sad as his health is not as good as it once was so he had to give up his season ticket for Aberdeen FC.

Onto the memory now. When I was at school I was part of the football team, starting off on 7-a-sides playing on smaller pitches then moving up to the proper 11-a-side team when I was 10 or 11, can't really remember. At first I started off as goalie for the 7s and nearly got hypothermia in my first game whilst I let in 6 goals. The next game I maintained a good body temperature but still let in 4 goals. After that, I was moved outfield and scored on my debut with what in my mind was an amazing chip!

When I moved to the 11s, I found myself at left-back despite being right-footed, but as the only other left-footed player in our team was a fantastic winger and I could somewhat use my left to punt the ball clear when needed, the position was mine. That first season was great as we powered through the league constantly winning games and only losing once and drawing once all season. Until 3/4s of the way through the season we hadn't really thought much about it as we all just loved playing together and winning games. We then beat the team who were at the top of the league in a convincing style and had games in hand to over-take them. It went down to the last game of the season, as we only had to grab a draw from the team in 3rd to win. Within ten minutes we were 1-0 down and could easily have been 2 or 3 down. What's strange is I can barely remember the 2 goals we scored to win, but I can clearly remember a moment in the lead-up to the first goal where a ball was fired through the middle from the opposition and our sweeper did a nonchalant kick/flick thing to hit the ball back where it came from and our coach going tits on the sideline. Ah, those were the days!

Over the summer, there was a competition called Champions Street which I had played in the year before where we got knocked out in the first round after the group games. We knew how strong the competition was and we finished 3rd in our group of 8 which put us in a secondary knock-out phase below the other teams who came 1st and 2nd. (Weird, I know.)

In the quarter finals we came up against a team who had royally given us a kicking the year before, both physically and in terms of result, so we weren't overly optimistic about our chances against them. After 5 minutes it became apparent there had been some kind of division within the team and they were already in-fighting over minor things but they were still a dangerous team. About 10 minutes in, their frustration was growing and they were using dirty tactics to try and stop us from playing and double-teamed our best player (and my best friend), our goal-keeper and me a few times. From there, the tide changed.

It was my first man of the match performance as they kept playing through the middle which meant I could come in to steal the ball from the side, lay it off to one of my guys then doubleback out to the wings and stretch them on the break. Me and our left winger combined for 2 of our goals and I rattled both the crossbar and the post from our combo work. I also got a wee bit of revenge for the double-teaming by laying in some hard but fair challenges that their players weren't expecting.

The final was played at a local club's ground and there were hundreds of people there in attendance for both finals. The only sad note about the final is that one of our friends from school was playing for another team due to his catchment zone. It was a tough match and we were down 1-0 at half-time, but went on to win with the winning goal in the last 5 minutes.

We won a final again the next year for a different competition, but it did not quite compare to our double winning season and it's a fond memory for me, my mum and grandad to rekindle on occasion.

 

[jmt225]

My best childhood memories revolve around Christmas and my Birthday.

I'll never forget... when I was 4, waking up on Christmas morning, walking into the Living Room, and the couch being surrounded by wrestling action figures, plus a ring. My mom did a beautiful job that year. A couple of years after that she got me this Red Power Ranger that I so badly wanted, and back then man those things were fucking TOUGH as hell to get, but my mom bust her ass and got me one (and that was also the year I found out about Santa not being real, because my mom wanted the credit she deserved for getting me that doll, lol). She was a single mom with two kids, so money was always an issue, but she always tried to get me and my sister whatever we wanted for Christmases and Birthdays, which is why they're memorable.

But, those are the only things that stand out. I fucking hated my childhood. I mean, sure, it could have been way worse, but it still sucked for various reasons I won't get into. Regardless, God bless my mother for making holidays special, and if I ever have kids, I really hope I'm able to make Christmases and Birthdays as meaningful to them as my mom did for me. These days all they mean is me being another year older and a new year about to come, but in my childhood I lived for them.

 

[hatehabsforever]

One of my fondest memories of childhood involves my 13th birthday. For this birthday, as a surprise, my dad took me to Montreal to see a couple of hockey games. I live in eastern Canada, where there are no professional sports teams in any sports, so to see a MLB, NHL, NBA, or NFL game, you have to travel, so it's not a regular occurrence, especially for a kid. Even though I am not a fan of the Canadiens (who I hate forever), this trip was special for me because it was just me and my dad. My mom and my sister stayed home, and it was just us. Both games were very lopsided in favor of the home team (9-1 and 10-2 against the Nordiques and the Penguins, or something like this). But in terms of a bonding weekend, which I never forgot and still remember fondly, this was a pretty special childhood memory.

Next weekend, my son turns 12, and we are heading to Boston for a Bruins/Lightning game and a Patriots/Jets game as well, just the two of us. I cannot wait, my son has no idea we are going, I'm not telling him until that morning when I wake him up and tell him we have to go to the airport. Hopefully this will be a memory for him like the one I experienced, and he'll be telling guys on wrestlezone about it at some point in the future