What are your HAPPIEST and most VIVID childhood memories?

[FrannyandZooey]

Things that really stand out for you? Were they with your parents, other kids, siblings, by yourself? What were you doing?

Some of mine are:

sitting by myself under the willow tree in our front garden making designs for cars in chalk on scraps of paper

going for long walks in the woods with my parents

having sleepovers with friends, highlights including bouncing on the bed, 'streaking', and midnight feasts

looking at the stars at night with my dad

running along the beach by myself and exploring all the places around my home on my bike

The sheer joy of a game of rounders at my aunts cottage in the country

going strawberry-picking

racing winkles at the beach

the simplicity and freedom of wearing only a cotton dress, knickers and sandles

lying in the middle of a very quiet road in the country looking at the stars

Franny were you inspired to start this thread by that bit in the mn roundup? There's also a good chapter on the importance of letting children play with nature in 'Toxic Childhood', i let DD1 play with bugs in the flower pots and get dirtier since reading it...

Sunday mornings Helping mum prepare Sunday Roast. Bopping round the kitchen to Roxette and Dire Straits, and peeling veg. We used to fight over who got to kneed the Butter into the oats, or whatever it was , for the crumble.

I kill all things plant like, unfortunately. Luckily my mum has real green fingers and DD1 LOVES to plant and help in the garden with Nanna, so hopefully when she is older she will remember that fondly. She loves pootling in the teeny garden with her watering can, checking on the cabbage she planted.

The ice-cream van on a Thursday evening. I've yet to find ice-cream that matches up

My dad teaching me to ride a bike. I was half way across the school playground when I realised he was no longer holding the bike

Tucking my dress into my pants when we went to the beach.

Spraining my ankle the night before the school trip. I still went though.

Entering the WH Smith 'Win a pony' competition. - Remember that? and dreaming what I would call my pony when I won it.

Taping the Eurovision song contest off the telly and making a dance routine up to Save all your kisses for me.

Summer holidays in Devon and it was always sunny.

Making a 'dam' in a nearby river with a friend. We were about 9, waded knee-deep in fast-running water, and dragged piles of rotten wood and plastered it with mud and we did it all day until we were filthy and exhausted. Our parents had no idea where we were and I guess it would never be allowed these days. Making 'houses' out of a pile of old bricks we found on a building site is another special memory too.

Most of my best childhood memories involve being with friends well away from the parental eye and playing that kind of game (err I won't mention Doctors and Nurses with the boy from the pub down the road but that was fun too.) NONE of them involve the 70s equivalent of an expensive glossy plastic Fisher-Price toy, and none involve any of the after-school activites my dear mama forked out for, but all are to do with making things ourselves and getting dirty.

The same principle seems to run through other people's memories too, doesn't it? Note to self: give pile of old building bricks, cardboard box and cut-off branches to the kids this weekend instead of buying yet another screeched-for pile of plastic which they will play with once and instantly forget.

Sitting on the settee with my mum late one night, with the curtains open watching the best and most massive Thunderstorm and lightening that I have ever seen.

going round to play at Chonky's house and playing horses with her. and staying with her when my parents went away

the big garden at my junior school, exploring in all the jungly bit at the back

holiday to Denmark/Sweden when I was about 3, going to Legoland and also catching a fish in a lake at the summerhouse of my dad's friends

going to Midhurst to see family friends and going down the 'secret' path to the ruins

winning a dog show thing with my dog, and teaching her obedience and jumping

going to Canada for CHristmas and having PROPER snow and skating on the frozen over canal in Ottawa

playing sword fighting games with my friend Emma

going to the beach on holiday and all the country cottages we rented for holidays.

wow, I actually had a great childhood.

One really bad winter, walking through the snow and it being that deep it came over my wellies.

Eating baguette pizzas by a pool in Majorca when I was about 4.

Playing Snakes and Ladders with my mum.

Building tree houses with my cousins in the local cow fields.

Going to my parents friends house on a Saturday night and playing all night with their daughter and then having a suprise sleepover.

Going for a meal every xmas eve night at the same italiam restaurant.
Fab.

Dressing up and making plays with my sisters and friends
Tape recording ourselves doing stories/plays
Playing hare and hounds - running down country lanes
Training my pet sheep to jump
Lying in the orchard looking at cherry blossom
Cycling down hills with my feet out going whheee
Trying to make igloos
Making hay dens
Growing courgettes and picking the first one
Listening to the Archers when I should have been going to supper and Kaleidoscope when I should have been asleep - on my very own tiny radio
Hunting for 4 leaf clover for hours.. (clever mum I had!)

Oh God, the 'Win a Pony' competition! Mum, why couldn't it live in the washhouse and graze on our 5ft square lawn??

Making gymkhana courses out of buckets and broom-handles and doing jump offs against the clock with my little sister

Re-enacting the 'Summer Nights' video to an absurdly elborate degree with my best friend from school in our back garden the year Grease came out...

When I was about 4, expeditions to Mount Everest (the top of the stairs, with a washing line tied to the top newel post) making base camp on the half-landing with my brother and eating the jam sandwiches mum had provided for the trip

Camping with the guides. Staying up all night yakking in a tent with Cappy sticking her head through the tent at regular intervals screaming 'will you girls shut up and go to SLEEP!!' - poor cow, I really feel for her now!

The unexpected trips mum would suddenly take us on after mass if the weather was nice - instead of heading home for a roast dinner she'd produce a picnic (ham and egg sarnies and cheese & onion crisps) and we'd go to the park or the beach - no warning, it would just happen, that was incredibly special.

Going to the baths with a gang of mates when I was about 8 or 9 and eating chips on the way home

Rare car journeys to visit relatives, on the way back being allowed to sit in the front seat of the car, dad would always pull over somewhere and buy hot sausage rolls and we'd eat them watching the sun go down

The shops selling out of pop in 1976 and the heat so hot it was almost unbearable... and yes, the plague of ladybirds!!

Going for long bike rides with my sister (we'd have been about 12 and 8 when we first started doing it) down to the front and paddling in the 'sea' (the Mersey rivermouth - I remember being surprised the first foreign holiday I ever had that the sea was clear!)

Out for the day with mum at the beach and finding a whole reel of fairground ride tickets stashed behind a bench on the front - my mum was torn between honesty and poverty and in the end tore off about 20 rides' worth before handing back the rest of them - we had a fab time, normally we could never afford the funfair with there being 5 of us!

(btw, reading this back I may have given the impression my mum was a single parent, it was just that my dad worked nights throughout the 70's and was always asleep in daytime hours!)

I do feel bad that we currently live an hour and a half's drive away from the sea and wonder if I'm doing dd out of wonderful childhood memories, as most of mine seem to involve mucking about on the front at New Brighton with/without my parent(s)...

Have enjoyed reading this thread. For some reason only ever seem to remember the crap parts of my childhood, has been nice to focus on the good/funny that comes to mind Thank you.

-Trapping bees in jam jars with next door neighbour

• Playing with Cindy/Barbie/Ken in my friends bedroom. For some reason we were forever stripping Barbie and making her dance/do things with Ken [shame]
• Going to my part of the garden and pretending I was somewhere magical.
• Playing games with my imaginary friend - we played for points and I had to do lots of things that usually got me into trouble to gain mine.
• Playing with my dolls in the living room on a Sunday afternoon while my dad watched telly (as usual)
• Colouring in with my mum. She always drew a house with colourful curtains, pram outside the door, washing line and a few flowers. (Says a lot that does)
• Eating takeout with mum on a Friday night just as dad left for night shift and not being able to leave living room because we would watch horror films (WTH?)

Riding our bikes up to the local farm (were not allowed to ride this far)daring to ride across the cattle grid only to be met by a load of barking dogs. Quick exit (lots of screams and panic) and went straight into friend's bike on way back - we cried all the way to her house. Her mum came out thinking the worst and had to make a quick dash to the drinks cabinet

Playing in same friend's caravan - hours of fun in her driveway.

Dancing to 'Get into the Groove', dressing up and winning the local Youth Club competition

Waiting for milkman (boy) to collect the milk money on a Friday night.

Actually, thinking about it now, being left to get on with it (as an only child) i made my own entertainment, hence imaginary weirdo friend i'm sure) dad worked long hours and only wanted to watch telly and sleep when home (no friends allowed, dad is sleeping) and mum tried her best till i was a teenager but was suffering from severe depression most of the time, or at least until the bottles came out. This thread has really made me think about how i want to bring my kids up. Sorry if this is so long. Will be useful to copy it.

Singing carols in the car with my brother and parents on the way back from visiting my grandparents. We always had Heinz tomato soup when we got home from a week-end with them .

A bike ride with my Mum and brother to pick blackberries.

The summer we bought the house my parents are still in. Discovering the freedom of living in a village on our bikes, the sweet shop (and sherbert pips), pulling a huge sheet of ivy off the wall of the house that was so enormous we all four fell flat on our backs under it .

This thread is great .

The great thing about it is that it's the simple stuff that sticks in a child's mind - nature, animals, getting grubby, building things. It makes me feel that all this is within my reach with a bit of effort and imagination.

I'd been dreading getting the tent out this summer but now I'm looking forward to it!

so many memories!!! er....

eating a boiled egg in my highchair, aged 18 months, wondering where the dining room wall had gone (i had been to stay at nan's house while the dining room and lounge had been knocked into one)

sitting under the clothes airer in nan's back garden, aged 2. my brother had hung sheets all over it and we were hiding

racing snails in the back garden on a blisteringly hot sunny day, aged 3

being given a packet of Pacers for being so brave, after letting mum remove a splinter from my finger with a needle, also aged 3 - good and bad memory. i can still feel that splinter - ouch!

learning the words to Alouette, aged 4, and singing them to mum and dad. was very proud

anyone bored??? i could go on...and on and on