To wonder what things you miss about your childhood?

[nurserywindow]

I miss old fashioned libraries where everyone had to speak quietly and there was no running around. Nowadays my local library is like a crèche and the elderly people who used to go in there to read the paper and keep warm just don't bother.

I also miss old fashioned Sundays with church bells ringing, and roast dinners, and no one playing out because it was family day, and cheese and toast beside the fire before watching the big Sunday drama.

Just wondering what other OPs remember and regret no longer exist regarding their childhood?

I miss snuggling up with my Nanna on the sofa on a Saturday night to watch re-runs of Tales of the unexpected. If there was any nudity she would cover my eyes and say "Ooh! Don't look Mabel!" (My name is not Mabel. )
I adored her so much, she died 12 years ago and I last cried for her about a week ago. I'd give anything to be back on that sofa with her.

This is such a lovely thread. It brings a tear to the eye. Such happy memories, and makes me envy my husband, my childhood was nothing like any of these. There was always an underlying threat and you knew the grown ups weren't telling you everything. Years later I realised they were all terrified. I remember my dad pointing out the black smoke hanging in the distance and saying,"the natives are restless again." I miss guava juice in big glass bottles, my mum speaking her own language to my granny and aunty. Playing out in the bush for hours and swimming in dams. Not realising that one day it would all end and we would have to leave very quickly.

The summer holidays seeming to last forever.

Going to stay with my grandma in her tiny "seaside" bungalow (actually it was quite a long walk to the seafront itself, but we never really minded), and the excitement of glimpsing the sea in the distance for the first time. Hearing the seagulls when we woke up in the morning, and not being able to quite believe that we were actually by the sea, and had a whole week ahead of us of playing on the beach.

We try and take the DC on traditional British seaside holidays. We can't afford it every year, sometimes it just has to be day trips. I hope they find it as exciting as I always did.

Loose dogs, nothing more exciting than a dog on the playground at school.

Oh yes to the NHS glasses lol

My grandmothers and aunts.
Grange Hill....Zammo, Roland,Robbie etc.
Jackie/Just 17.
Christmas anticipation.
Never having to drive.
Tennis lessons....Steffi, Martina, Gabriella, Andre, and Boris at Wimbledon.
Supermodels (later on).
Underage drinking at the local sixth-form hangout on a Friday evening (also later on lol).
Dallas and Knots Landing.
Getting a new Famous Five book every week.
Brownies.
Netball and rounders.
Chips in newspaper.
Traditional children's parties.
The heady excitement/anticipation of evenings out with my first proper boyfriend when I was 15.
Crisps and chocolate tasted better.
Logger chocolate bars.

Glitter advent calendars.
Eighties glam fashion (yes, yes I know).
The village's elderly WW1 survivors....I wish I'd talked to them more.
Gladiators and Blind Date.
Neighbours....Scott and Charlene, and Plain Jane Superbrain.

Long endless summers where every day seemed to be hot.
Going down the country lanes, the smells of the farms, the fields seemed to go on forever.
Going to bed especially early with an Enid Blyton book.
Watching my mum with her Singer sewing machine making me summer dresses.
The excitement of Christmas.
Going up town with my mum for the school uniform. The uniform shop had this lovely smell.
The lovely secure safe feeling, not a care in the world.
Lovely thread this, bringing a tear to my eye. One thing it tells you....it isn't money or material things that give happiness.....

Being outside from 9am to 9pm every day of the summer holidays. Eating penny sweets and 10p ice lollies.

Having no worries and complaining to my mum I was "bored". God how I miss those days.

And that innocence. I look around at the world and there's just so much hatred and corruption and danger which we are all oblivious to when we are younger.

(Sob)

My grandad making his homemade marmalade.
Swapping The Babysitters Club books with my best friend.
Choosing penny sweets for actual pennies.
The thrill of going to the adventure playground across the road.

I look around at the world and there's just so much hatred and corruption and danger which we are all oblivious to when we are younger.

Not all of us.

It's lovely how grandparents are mentioned by so many.

Watching Banana Splits on a Friday night after school, getting my weekly Mandy/Bunty before moving up to Fab 208 and Jackie, receiving letters from my Swedish penfriend, walking to the sweetshop - I believed the owner who told me After eight mints could only be eaten after eight, (not that I ever bought any), My Mum's meals and baking, playing out all day long, swimming baths and getting a lift home in my friend's father's fish van!!, buses with open doors and conductors, Enid Blyton, holidays to Bournemouth and Devon, visiting relatives and eating cakes, my Grandad's gravy, singing morning has broken at primary school assembly, having really long hair, days out, neopolitan icecream and tinned fruit on a Sunday afternoon, Australian children's tv.

Proper BBC dramas, especially the children's ones. Narnia, Moondial, 5 Children and It were all a real treat.

Loved Moondial.

DD2 was christened in part after its protagonist.

there are very few things I miss - I wasn't the childish type - but I loved that a library was a quiet place. I sometimes look back at the noise and flurry of being a child and wonder how I coped...but there was always the library....

I also miss the quiet half hour I used to spend reading, often sitting on the window sill, after school. It was before dinner, sis doing homework while I was still too little to have any and again, I think it was the quiet that was important.

oh, the other thing I miss is praise. Isn't that silly? I think at school you are encouraged a lot. At work, not so much!

A touching thread and it's just made me realise that nearly all of the things we would like back are inexpensive, money can't buy them, they are love, hope, cuddles, smells and simply time with those we loved. I for one will try to remember this with my own children and hopefully one day, grandchildren. It's not the expensive toys and gadgets our children will remember, it's the love, time and fun they will remember.

I've been reminded of Brownies today. I must add Brownie Guides to my earlier list.

DD (4 in November) is staying with her Nana for a few nights. She'd never been away from me before so I wasn't sure if she / I would be ok. She is having the time of her life and it's lovely to read how many of us have lovely memories of staying with our grandparents. It's helping to know she is making similar memories of her own right now.

I miss playing on the roundabout at the playground. The tire swing too - just spinning and spinning and spinning...

I miss riding around on my bike for hours on end and being fit and healthy as a result.

I miss not being so worried, so fearful, so restrained - all the things you can't appreciate when your young.

I also miss going swimming at the pool and giving no thought at all to how clean it was.

I miss going to the fair and not wondering how safe the rides are.

I miss buying a straw full of sugar at the shop with my pennies and not thinking gee - this is so unhealthy.

I miss my courage and my easy-going nature thats for sure.

This thread makes me happy and sad all at once.

I miss me and my brothers play-fighting on the floor in the living room, and bumping really fast down the stairs sitting inside sleeping bags. I miss the excitement me and my brothers had at being allowed to buy a Wham Bar.

I miss waking up and not thinking about what to wear - my mum always put my clothes out on the bed for me, usually just a simple colourful cotton t-shirt and a pair of shorts, no complications - all I needed to think about was what to play that day and what fun we were going to have.

I miss coming home from school and spending half an hour on my own reading in my bedroom with the smell of chips wafting up the stairs and feeling all cosy and relaxed.

Rural Norfolk in the 70's
Cottages still inhabited by elderly farm workers, women always in their pinies and the men out hoeing massive fields - three small men on the horizon
Stables where they kept the shire horses not yet 'barn conversions'
Wandering for hours on my horse with cow parsley as high as my head, endless freedom to roam with my friends, climbing into derelict farm buildings and building rafts on ponds
And yes all those people who have gone, auntie may with the purple hair who could never have children. Uncle Sid in his blue suede shoes
Miss it all a lot - I've got so old!

What a lovely thread

I miss going to Blackpool with my Grandma, and trips to the lake district with her and GDad (in a huge white van with no seatbeats, me and about 7 friends in the back!)
Miss going to the shop to return glass bottles, and being able to spend the money on sweets
Leaving for the day with a backpack with some sandwiches in, 20p for the phone if needed, and enjoying the day out with my friends.
feeling quite sentimental now

whsmith win a pony

I miss the excitement I used to feel on friday afternoons when school finished and the whole weekend was ahead.

I miss the feeling that everything was ahead of me and all things were possible.

I miss going out with my mum and dad and nothing being my responsibility. Someone else had to think about food shopping and paying for stuff and planning.

I miss sitting in my room, reading mizz or trashy novels, listening to music and eating sweets. I could read for as long as I wanted and didnt have to stop and make dinner!