What are fondest memories from childhood?

[blackandgold88]

What are the moments / experiences that stick out for you during your childhood that made you happy? I ask because, like most people, I am finding myself with less money every month. I still want to give my kids memorable experiences but need them to be relatively low cost.

Mine were playing out in street till late in the summer, my brothers and a few friends all loaded into my mum’s old Volvo (some in the boot!) heading down to the beach for a day of building castles and playing rounders, and our caravan holidays in Wales.

Any ideas / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Getting my first dkitten. Taking her home on the bus to our top floor flat. Just me, dm, ddog and now dcat....
A feisty tortie girl named Chippy..... As an only dc my furry siblings meant everything to me..

Seaside holidays in the UK caravan or cottage.
Camping out with friends in the garden and having midnight feasts.
Swimming on a friday night and taking a friend then chippy chips on the way home.
Sleepovers for friends and planning it all Saturday.
Nothing really out of reach there although I appreciate UK holidays are not the cheap option they once were.

We used to go camping every year and always travelled overnight, sleeping across the back seats and waking up as we were driving through Devon or Cornwall. Lots of bike rides with my dad and playing out with friends.

So many.
Fish and chips on Thursday’s with my nan.
My beautiful cat, who came to a whistle. Our neighbour had an orchard and she would let me play there and my cat would come 😆like a mini adventure.
We always had dogs, cats, budgies and fish.
A pub where there was a play area, chickens and donkeys.
The beach with all the family, we would be there all day. We would take a picnic, Sun loungers, I would go in the sea with my dad and we would all have strawberries and cream.
Huge family Christmases, with games, constant fun and so many laughs. Great memories.

I also think as you get older childhood becomes less about specific memories and more about a general feeling. Mine was safe, secure, loved. I'd say that's more important than any paid for experience.

Staying at dgm's on a Saturday.. The pop man coming and getting money back for the empties! And when I was old enough to share auntie's Indian take away!!

@Scaffoldingisugly I forgot that the pop man even existed! 😂

Playing out - something that my oldest is just starting to do.

Walks to the chippy on a summer night. Eating them out of the package on the way home.

Family games night with crisps and snacks. I REALLY have to persuade my Dh to get on board with this one as he is less keen…

holidays - camping/ferries/walking to get a French stick from a local baker. Beach picnics … lovely carefree times.

Going for walks together was lovely. Having mum and dad’s full attention with no distractions. That gift of feeling listened to and heard as though everything we said was important.

Being told stories (often made up and us kid’s would jump in adding details) or teaching us songs they’d sang as a child.

Watching silly tv programmes and laughing together or dancing round the front room.

My favourite thing was my dad coming home for lunch and spending most of it making mud pies with me in the back garden. Thinking about it, I spent big chunks of the summer with my sibs mucking about in the garden in a paddling pool, making up games or on the swing.

Holidays with Wales. On the beach all day then that glow of skin having had sun all day (and the smugness of looking at my sister who burned!) and knowing we'd be going down to the beach the next day too.

The first time I went out with friends (Mum was fairly over-protective - this was from a friend's house!) and walking up the road feeling a bit nervous, but adventurous and "like everyone else".

Trying to stretch the small amount of money I had (we didn't have pocket money, so it was the spare money from lunch saved up) at Christmas to get everyone I wanted a present.

On birthdays dm used to do me a treasure trail for presents. I used to do it two or three times before I finally gave way and opened the presents.

The waking on Christmas morning with a stocking at the end of the bed.

"Helping" my df doing DIY. I loved following him round and him showing me what he was doing. So wish I'd asked him more.

The time df was going golfing very early in the morning (I think he must have had a membership where he could go before 8am or something. Must have been cheaper or we'd never have afforded it) and I asked to go and he took me round, and into the clubhouse afterwards and I was given a sweet from a tin, which I thought terribly grown up. I must have been about 3yo.

Picking raspberries with granny, and watching the Antiques' Roadshow.

When the RAF man came to see my Grandad and was hanging on his every word because he was so excited to meet him.

Feeling sad or worried about something, then my mum coming up to my bed and explaining why everything would be alright. It left me feeling so happy I could hardly sleep.

Singing in the church choir and the beauty of the harmonies and the words and the light streaming through the stained glass windows.

Playing outside in spring with my brother, laying in bright green grass for the first time in months, listening to skylarks and feeling the sun warming us through our clothes.

Raking for ale bottles and cashing in for penny sweeties.

My grandad used to make a grated carrots dish for us. He squeezed oranges and mixed the juice into grated carrots, added raisins, and then put it into the fridge for the raisins to plump up. It was tastiest at room temperature.

If it was a weekend, so we were at home when he made this, he would call us to eat the orange pulp remaining on the peel. If grandad made this dish during school time, he would take it out of the fridge half an hour before we got home, so that it would at the right temperature when we ate it.

Grandad always had marshmallows and chocolate in his pockets. He didn't need to make anything for us. He certainly didn't need to make any effort with the timing. We could just have come home and gone straight to his pockets.

But knowing that he'd been thinking of us during the day and preparing for our return showed us how much he loved and cherished us - even though he never once said anything like that to us.

Gosh there’s so many but having a sick day off school and my mum making a bed on the living room floor for both of us, we watched films and I just remember feeling really safe and loved.

Going to get chips with my dad, just us two in the car with the music up loud and laughing and then having a chippy tea with the whole family.

Waking up on a hot sunny day and my mum had all the windows open, the music up loud and was setting up a paddling pool for me in the garden.

Having dance parties with my little sisters when our parents were out of the house.

About the only one that springs to mind right now is when we had a sleepover at Brownies (or Guides, it was a long time ago!). We had a disco then got into sleeping bags for the night. I’ve always liked the idea of camping in the garden for a few nights during the summer, but never done it. If you had something you could play movies on outside, snacks, drinks etc it could be quite fun?

Mine was that at Easter when we would be staying with our grandparents for the holidays my mum would come to visit and see us and we were allowed to eat all our Easter eggs in one day if we wanted. I remember sitting taking the colourful foil off the smarties egg and my brother, cousin and I sitting in the back big bedroom playing super Mario world and taking it in turns with the 2 controllers. Joyous times!

My mum died from a brain tumour when I was 7 and she was in hospital for a year before that so my only good memories are up to age 6. After she died I had to move to live with my hateful abusive father who I barely knew because my mum had left him after only six weeks of marriage so well before I was born. As well as then having to live with the disgusting evil shit I lost my country home, my friends, my lovely little village school and my much loved pet cat.
My good memories with my mum were feeding apples to the horses in the field behind our cottage, her home baking, warming my clothes on the range, running down the drive to meet her coming back from her work as housekeeper on a big country estate, her making my clothes from jumble bargains with matching dresses made for my tiny tears, reading Little Grey Rabbit and Orlando the Marmalade cat together.
My good memories of my mum shaped all my choices in later life. I always associated the countryside, animals, reading and home comforts with happiness so once I escaped the hateful father aged 18 these were my goals.