If You Could Give a Memory
#21
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Corpus Christi, Tx.
Posts: 16,105

Loved spending the night at my maternal grandparents. They loved to pull their bed onto the back porch in the warmer months and sleeping outside. Many thought they were crazy. They would make a pallet on blocks so I could sleep there also. We would just lay there and be lullabied to sleep by the night sounds. One night a skunk woke us up. Grandpa didn't know just how near he was so we ended up going inside to be on the safe side. If they had a hard time sleeping in the winter, they would crack a window about an inch or two so they could get to sleep.
#22
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Prescott Valley, AZ
Posts: 1,329

The question started "if you could give a memory". Are you giving memories? Every Sunday my Mom (97) starts the week (besides going to church) by sending an email to all her off-spring - 5 generations and over 120 people. She wishes happy birthdays to each person having a birthday in the following week, gives the general news of the week, gives an inspirational thought for the week, and shares a family story (she's a genealogist) or a personal story from her life. I have learned so much about my mother and my family history. We all treasure these emails and get very nervous if we haven't heard from her by noon! Some of us "reply all" every week and some reply occasionally. Though we are scattered all over the nation/world these emails keep us close. Maybe this would work in your family.
#24
Power Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Long Island
Posts: 24,820

I'm 55 and no grands here. but I remember playing outside till the lights went on and being able to roam the neighborhood without a care of someone snatching you. I remember when I was 8, my mom leaving my sister outside the grocery store with the other carriages of sleeping babies. You'd have your kid stolen now or the cops called. that's how it was back then.
#25
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: West New York, New Jersey
Posts: 1,673

Several have already written what I thought of first - playing outside, no adults, just being with friends. And I lived my first 9 years in New York City! We were safe, everyone on the block knew every kid. My father had a car, always a spot in front of our building, and if it rained my friends and I would just get in the car to play, it was never locked. The freedoms of childhood continued when we moved to NJ. Kids would be somewhere in town with their friends, parents never worried, and when the 8 p.m. siren went off that meant time to start for home. Parents walking you to and from school? Maybe the first few days of kindergarten. After that, you walked with your friends.
#26

The days the majority of families went to church, believed in God and prayer started the day at school. Being able to say grace or pray in public without being stared at or made to feel ashamed. Knowing you could trust others and close a deal with a handshake. Seeing people helped others in need without being asked and not expecting anything in return. Seeing the younger generation show respect their elders and for each other.
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Live Oak, Texas
Posts: 6,133

Walking up a country road picking and eating wild black berries and huckleberries. Playing all day all over town without worry. Spring days in my mothers yard with rows of blooming lilacs with every color of butterfly's fluttering around and the sweet smell floating in the air.
#28
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 6,430

Let me recommend a book by the renowned author Katherine Paterson called "Stories of my Life". She grew up in China, went to Japan as a missionary and then became world-famous as a multi-Newberry award winner with many other international awards. A friend took her idea and wrote stories about her own growing-up experiences (67 pages) for her grandchildren. It might encourage you to write down those precious stories! Good luck.
#29
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695

I would give every child 1 solid week with nothing electronic, so they could learn what childhood should be, fun and innocent.
My best childhood memory was climbing my DU yellow plum tree, and eating sun warm plums....mmmmmm! He also had a huge Collie dog, that would keep everyone away from the tree, because I would throw him plums. I did not know until many years later, that DU never figured out why eveytime we visited, his big collie spent the next two days with diarhea! Lol!
My best childhood memory was climbing my DU yellow plum tree, and eating sun warm plums....mmmmmm! He also had a huge Collie dog, that would keep everyone away from the tree, because I would throw him plums. I did not know until many years later, that DU never figured out why eveytime we visited, his big collie spent the next two days with diarhea! Lol!
Last edited by madamekelly; 04-15-2015 at 02:51 PM.
#30
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 851

Sleeping under line dried cotton sheets that were starched and ironed.
Gathering corn as a family, cleaning and freezing it for winter. That corn moved from field to freezer in less than an hour with a big pot cooked on the stove for us to eat in celebration of a job well done and anticipation of good winter eating.
Pond or river fishing with fish for supper.
Watermelon on the picnic table outside. Pass the salt please!
Picking blackberries for jelly and a cobbler if we were lucky.
Doing yard work every Thanksgiving when we finished cooking and waiting for the men to come home from hunting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting!
Learning to sew on Mama's treadle.
Gathering corn as a family, cleaning and freezing it for winter. That corn moved from field to freezer in less than an hour with a big pot cooked on the stove for us to eat in celebration of a job well done and anticipation of good winter eating.
Pond or river fishing with fish for supper.
Watermelon on the picnic table outside. Pass the salt please!
Picking blackberries for jelly and a cobbler if we were lucky.
Doing yard work every Thanksgiving when we finished cooking and waiting for the men to come home from hunting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting!
Learning to sew on Mama's treadle.
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