What Do and Don't you miss from childhood?

[Karen]

Thought of this loooking at Kirsten's pictures from the abandoned houses that now hold the art exhibit ...

What is one this you do miss from childhood or your hometown
and
What is one thing you do not miss?

I do miss penny candy's existence - my teacher didn't believe any place still sold penny candy, but the store up the street from me did, so he'd give me money to buy penny candy he could give out as prizes!
(I am sure that would never happen now, a teacher giving one child a prize and not the other students ...)

I do not miss my asthma medicine (Tedral) that tasted so bad it made my tongue want to curl up and die if it so much as touched it on the way down!!

What are yours?

Thought this might be fun, whether your childhood was 5 years ago or 60 years ago! Time moves on, things change!

[Lady's Human]

Funny you should bring this up....

When we were driving down Sutton ave to the cemetery, I pointed out to the kids where the old apple orchards were (that are now Mcmansions.....grrrrr) and pointed out where the country store was that we went to.

I miss the candy they used to selll that I haven't seen since, molasses sponge candy......and I just found recipes for it! :)

[cassiesmom]

I miss... a supermarket that is a reasonable size (not as huge as an airplane hangar). It seems like the things I usually need (milk, cat food, bread, produce) are usually toward the back of the store -- so it takes longer to walk back there and select the few things I need.

A corded telephone ... future generations will never know the fun of wrapping the cord around their wrist and hand while they talk on the phone!

I don't miss ... always being sure I had exactly 20 cents for the pay phone at school (or at the mall) and knowing their locations. I don't miss carrying around an enormous first generation cell phone, either. I like always having a phone with me.

[Catty1]

I miss the long car drives with "Wolverton Mountain" and other golides playing on the radio; walking on snow so hard it never broke and the sun twinkled millions of the tiniest diamond sparks on it; going places with mom and dad and knowing they were always there...

I don't miss always adjusting to a new school cause my dad got transferred a lot and not being in the same class as my sister when we moved; always having to fit in all over again.

Today, life is good! Cause when I was a kid I couldn't have gone on the totally amazing mountain hike yesterday! :D

[Kirsten]

Well, I can't say I actually miss anything from my childhood because today I'm a much happier person than I used to be when I was a child, but there are a few things I like to remember.. For example the time I spent with my grandma when we were watching birds and the feral cats in our backyard. I enjoyed the fall season when my mom and I were collecting chestnuts and acorns; and later at home, I was making little animals out of them... I loved helping my mom or my grandma making cookies in the Christmas season. I also have fond memories of me and my childhood friend (who, btw, is still one of my best friends today) playing in the park or in our backyard.

What I definitely don't miss is anything sport-related! I hated it, especially since I grew up in a sporty family which always gave me the feeling I was a big failure! And I hated the endless walks when we were visiting my aunt who lived at the edge of town. My mother doesn't have a driving licence, so we always had to walk. Also, I hated to be an only-child, so I was more than happy when - at the age of eight - I got a little baby sister! :)

My sis and I washing the dishes. This must have been around 1975 or 1976.
Seeing this makes me realize that I have always detested this odd seventies look - even when it was modern! lol

http://www.catmom.de/2013/me8a.jpg

[robinh]

Very interesting thought come up with this.....

Things I miss
- Living in a time and place where leaving your house and walking all the way across town was safe. I lived with my dad's parents and would walk better part of 2 miles to my other grandparents house and back. No one every thought anything about it.
- Laying in my bed at the house and hearing the train come through town on the track 1/2 a block away. Loud, but a soothing sound.
- My mom's parents had a huge garden. I would go there, take a salt shaker out and eat fresh vegetables right off the plant after brushing the dirt off. I can still remember the taste.

Things I don't miss
- Moving from the small town to a large town - the noise of the traffic outside our window and the scary amount of people I would see every day.
- Moving 4 times in 4th grade. Took forever for me to learn that people don't always go away.
- Being the awkward, gangly child that was always picked last for sports because I was so unathletic.

[Kirsten]

(...)

- Being the awkward, gangly child that was always picked last for sports because I was so unathletic.

Oh, I can relate! It used to be the same for me! :o

[Alysser]

Thing I do miss:
-I miss playing with my animal figurines with the neighborhood kids and playing basketball, going out on the trail behind our houses and jumping off the dirt mounds with the bikes....if you didn't wear a helmet you were "cool". I miss playing outside and a lot of the nieghborhood kids who have long since moved away.
-Elementary School: We had fun class parties and we were all friends. No one ever made fun of anyone as far as I can remember. Getting books from the school library...those were the days
-Going Birding every weekend with my dad.

Things I don't miss:
-Being told I can't do any sports because of the heart condition.
-Being in the hospital and having surgeries to correct the heart condition.
-Hearing my parents fight and thinking they were gonna get a divorce (but I guess every kid thought that!).
-Being bullied, especially in 6th grade. I walk weird, so people like to make fun of me for it. Funny how you're judged as a person simply because you walk differently. Never would I have thought it would matter so much before 6th grade. I never noticed it until people decided to make fun of me. :( I am in college now, and I sort of grew out of it, but from time-to-time people will still say something. I will always remember what people said about me simply because of that. It was 8 years ago, and I STILL recall it.

[snakemama]

I miss ... my mom's cooking every evening. :) She is an AMAZING cook, and I only get to enjoy that occasionally now!

I don't miss ... living in terror of something setting off my dad, resulting in a beating. I never had a safe place.

[catnapper]

I miss: Riding round and round the block on my big wheel. What a big adventure!

I do not miss: Having my hair washed and set in pin curls. Torture!

[redbird]

I miss not having to worry about anything, not bills or any other adult issues. I miss sitting on the stoup with other kids from the apartment and telling ghost stories and just hanging out without a care in the world except of course getting good grades.

I don't miss having a curfew and all the rules in the household and of having a very strict Father.

All in all tho, I had a pretty good childhood.

57302

[Casper]

I do miss...
My dad. I was a daddy's girl and very tomboyish, so I did everything with him. Helped him in the workshop, watched Star Trek, went camping.... I think one of my very favorite things to do was lay on our tummies on the bed and he would teach me to read. I still have my favorite book from that time, which was also one of my dad's favorites from when he was a kid. :)


I don't miss...
The summer of '98. I was in daycare and had tubes in my ears, so whenever we got to go to the city pool once a week I had to wear this ridiculous hot pink band around my head. On top of that, I frequently got into chiggers so all the other kids deemed me unapproachable due to a "contagious case of cooties". I might as well just went to daycare every day holding a giant sign that said "freakshow". :( Oh, and I can't forget the fact that I also had tiny squinty eyes so on the playground everyone would call me a spy and run away from me. Seriously, the list goes on and on. Now I can kind of laugh at the things that were done to me, but at the time it was the worst feeling in the world to be an outcast.

[lolli94]

I do miss...
hours and hours of playing with my sisters and our 20+ toy horses. Riding my real horse. Biking to the grocery store for my mom. Going to the hardware store with my dad.

I don't miss...
Well...I can't think of anything I didn't like about my childhood... :)

[Alysser]

Seriously, the list goes on and on. Now I can kind of laugh at the things that were done to me, but at the time it was the worst feeling in the world to be an outcast.

Courtney, I think that's why we both like Spock so much....:D

[robinh]

Originally posted by Casper

Now I can kind of laugh at the things that were done to me, but at the time it was the worst feeling in the world to be an outcast.

I'm amazed there were that many of us out there. I felt the same way.

[Karen]

I guess I was lucky - I am pretty much a klutz, but was usually picked not last, but next-to-last for any athletic endeavors. I always was very friendly to everyone, so we all knew I was a klutz and would probably fail miserably at most anything - if I hit the ball fair, I'd still be likely to trip on my way to base ... but enough people liked me anyway.

For any sports activity, even *I* would pick me last! I am strong, and willing to try, but that's it for positives attributes in athletics! My only sports victory of note ever was I did beat the captain of the football team at croquet the one time we played that in gym! I was so used to playing on our course at home, which had various slopes and hazards naturally, that playing on a perfectly flat field was a breeze!

I do not miss getting wheezy as a kid - now thankfully medications have improved enough that I rarely need an inhaler!

I do miss being able adn willing to eat almost everything! (My food allergies did not kick in until much later into adulthood!)

[lolli94]

I also miss...
my mom's pink applesauce, made from cold, crisp NY apples. I miss the beautiful, bright leaves around the lakes in the fall. We've lived in IN for years now, but I won't forget the beauty of the north-east.

[cassiesmom]

I miss... playing in the band- I'm hoping to join the community concert band after the new year. (It's too late now to join for the fall concert.) I miss living in a neighborhood where people know, trust and look out for each other. When I was little, there were a bunch of kids on my block; and if any of us screwed up, no matter whose house we were at, it always got back to your parents. On the other hand, though - if something happened and your parents weren't available, someone else's parents would always let you stay at their house till your mom or dad got home. They would call and say, "Elyse is at our house, we ate an after-school snack and she is going to stay and do her homework with us, and then we will walk her home."

I don't miss... being the constant target of a bully (two girls and a boy who were in kahoots).

Snakemama--- ((((HUGS))))).

[pomtzu]

Things I miss:

Ice skating at night on the pond at the end of my street. A man that lived right on the banks would turn a flood light on to shine out over the ice, so we could all skate safely. When he turned the light out, we knew it was time to go home.

Hot fudge sundaes at the drug store ( not called a pharmacy back then ) that had a soda fountain.

Riding the bus with my mother when we would go shopping in all the big stores in Providence. Of course we always ate lunch out too when we went, and that was always a real treat.

Saturday afternoon high school football games,, and the BIG game each year ( Warwick vs Cranston ) which was on Thanksgiving morning. I know Gretchen remembers that too! In the afternoon it was off to Aunt Milly's house for a huge Thanksgiving dinner - Italian style - with enough food to feed an army.

The long drive ( or so it seemed ) to Lexington to visit Aunt Lilly, and the fun I had exploring in her old house - especially in the attic, and also "playing" her piano.

Going out on Dad's boat in Narragansett Bay and digging for clams with our toes at low tide.

Visiting my Uncle Vinny's hobby shop in Providence. I never walked out the door without some trinket or craft to make, that he would give me before we left.

And of course, going to Uncle Archie's pizza shop in Pawtucket and feeling special because I could go in the back and watch him at work in the kitchen. And of course there were always pizzas to take home too.

Washing and drying the dinner dishes with my brother. Yup - the days before there was ever an automatic dishwasher in the house. We would alternate each week - one week I'd wash and he would dry, and the next week we switched. I always liked to dry, since when my brother dried, he'd wait till the towel was nice and damp, then chase me all around the kitchen, snapping the towel at me. It stung like crazy when he connected, but it was all in fun.

I could go on and on with what I miss, but you can see it's just about all family related. They are all gone now, and I'm the lone survivor.



Things I don't miss:

Walking to school in nasty weather. Yes - we WALKED to school if we lived under 2 miles from the school we attended.

My mother telling me that I did something that I didn't do. To this very day, if anyone says I said or did something that I didn't, it makes my blood boil!!!

My high school English teacher constantly comparing me to my brother. I think the old bird had the hots for him. One day she started in about my "brother John" and what a wonderful student he was and yadda-yadda-yadda. Before I realized it I came right out and told her "I'm not my brother John". Oops - I thought my butt was headed straight to the principal's office, but she never said or did anything.

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of much right now. That's a good thing - the good far outweighs the bad! :)

[sparks19]

I miss:

our trailer. We had a huge trailer in a really nice campground for YEARS and we would go every weekend in the spring/summer and fall and some years my mom and I would spend the entire summer there. Riding my bike there and riding to the beach that was less than a mile down the road, the huge pool with a big water slide, the store that had TONS of penny candies... you'd get a little paper bag and we'd stuff it full lol. All the events they had like dances, kiddie bingo, hula hoop contests, pet day, scavenger hunts, etc. Sitting around the campfire at night singing songs and making s'mores or firepit pizzas. It's seriously the thing I pine away for the most. It was my favorite place in the whole world. I had my first kiss there (totally awkward lol), my first boyfriend... my first REALLY BAD sunburn lol complete with blisters and being sick as a dog for over a week because of it. We spent the entire day at the pool... from the time we got up until the time the pool closed at dusk. SO sick lol. Just so many memories. it truly was my happy place.

I don't miss:

School. I NEVER liked going to school. I did fairly well in school (except math... I really struggled with that. seeing numbers backward and such really made it hard for me) and I wasn't picked on or anything but I NEVER enjoyed it. I would have been perfectly content being homeschooled lol.

[Catty1]

snakemama - prayers that you are safe now and can heal from that abuse. :love:

sparks19 - I too remember the days when all you needed to do for a whole day's fun was have a beach or a pool and other kids to play with!:)

[Kirsten]

I miss not having to worry about anything, not bills or any other adult issues. (...)



You're so right about that!!

[Bonny]

I miss a lot of things my dad playing his accordion all the polkas, & waltz's.

We sure did have fun as kids growing up. We had those clamp on steel wheel roller skates with a key to adjust the front piece onto our good old saddle shoes, we would roller skate over at the tennis court, there were no sidewalks on our dead end street. There was a huge groove of pines we would play hide & seek in. During the summer we would slide down a hill on cardboard, fly kites in March one time we had a kite up over night tied the string to a clothes line pole, played marbles at school with big holes up near the building to shoot the marbles into, played soft ball with no parents around made up our own rules, walked in mud puddles when it rained, climbed trees, swung from grape vines in the woods, went to the sandpit when the workers were gone & collected agates & still have them, danced to rock & roll music in our basement & wore out three record players, still have those 45 records. In the winter it was skating at the ice rink, or down on the Mississippi River, sliding down the neighborhood hill on runner sleds & hooking up our feet on the other persons sled & making trains flying over the bumps. I used my cousins ski's & would climb the sand pit fence & ski down the hill in the evening with the street light to help me see where I was going. Fun Times For Sure.

I don't miss my mom & aunts giving me a Toni home perm. I came out with the first Afro look before it was even in style. They would leave the rods in to long & burn my hair. Our schools never closed in the winters so we walked to school in really cold weather & back then the girls had to wear dresses or skirts, very very cold on the legs. I didn't like going to Sunday school it was like a big dress up contest, there were girls that actually wore party dresses to Sunday school. I liked school & I didn't like school it depended on the teacher & the class, recess was always fun :). I don't miss taking cod liver oil every morning. I don't miss my folks smoking cigarettes when I was growing up it eventually did them both in.