Weird Childhood Memories (No, Not That Kind, You Pervs)

[sbr]

I remember being younger than 5 (like derspiess we moved when I was around 4) and getting "spanked" with a wooden spoon by my babysitter, I refused to cry and sat there on the bed and watched Speed Racer.

[Warspite]

I remember being on the airport-transfer helicopter from Freetown to Lungi airport, in Sierra Leone. It's a very intense memory of thumping rotor blades, and looking out the window onto the bright blue sparkling sea below and the near-white sand of the beach.

[Josquius]

I remember the weirdest and most minor stuff from when I was primary school age.
Like one time I was with my neighbour and some other older kids and they were telling me a load of stories about encounters they'd had with giants.
Another time at a Cub Scout visit to the beach and I found an interesting looking shell and left it with my dad. When I came back later he said it was a winkle and had come out to see him earlier... A bit later I accidentally stood on it and murdered the poor winkle. Still traumatises me.
I also remember one sleep over at my friends house where we planned to watch a show called eurotrash, I had never heard of it before but he promised it was amazingly bizzare; about a wacky Frenchman and lots of boobies. To our dismay the show never came on tv. The news was on channel 4 all night for some stupid reason- many years later I realised it was the 91 soviet coup attempt

[Syt]

Weird random bits from my days before school:

My granny sat down with me to teach me reading. But I don't recall that. However, I was standing with my Mom in front of a supermarket in the morning, waiting for it to open, when I realized I could read what was written on shop fronts, in ads etc. It was an odd epiphany.

In the first house I remember living in we had a rather large garden in the back. We had some fruit trees, some vegetable patches etc. There was also an old decrepit shack, separating the inner yard from the garden. Anyways. There was a large open area between garden and the shack, too, and my parents occasionally buried their junk there - an old refrigerator, car pieces, an old washing machine, that kind of thing. Cheaper than hauling it to the garbage place.

The house was pretty crap, and way below normal standards even in 1980. It had no bathroom, just an unheated toilet between the 1st floor where we lived, and the attic (there was another one in the ground floor). So once a week a huge tin bathtub was hauled from its resting place in the stairwell into the kitchen where my Mom painstakingly filled it with hot water from the boiler and cooking pots (it was emptied pretty much the same way).

Heating were coal ovens, and cooking was coal stoves. I recall we fried apples in the oven come Christmas time and they were awesome. However, someone (usually my older sisters) had to haul coal from the shack outside into the apartment.

In 1982(?) the anti-nuclear Easter Marches with thousands of participants passed our living room on their way to the army base where nuclear artillery shells were stored. My parents told me to stay away from the windows.

There was a little grocery shop across the street. I bought my first comics there ca. 1980 (Green Lantern, Superboy). On the way from that house to school there was a small shop, strategically placed at a traffic light used by many elementary school students, that sold stationery, school supplies and - most importantly - loose candy. So often we'd stop by, and get a bag that we mixed and matched ourself. The ladies were very patient when we were indecisive about what candy we wanted from the 20 or so drawers. The shop was also the place to go for sticker albums (football, movies etc.).

I recall a winter when the snow in our backyard reached above my waste (well, I was only 3 ...). Also, we used to let our planes fly. The candy shop also had "model planes", basically a styrofoam rump and wings, with a little plastic propeller at the front; the planes were loosely modelled after WW2 planes (Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs ... no Messerschmidts IIRC).

My sistrs had their rooms upstairs. When they weren't there, and my Mom was at her Mom's across the street, and my dad asleep in his armchair after a day of work I would sneak up and "borrow" a bunch of their comics (mostly old Disney comics, but also a great collection of the German equivalent of "Tales from the Crypt" which I loved).

I remember coming home from 1st or 2nd grade one day, and our big color TV was gone. My sister thought I was pulling a prank, but no, it was gone. The official explanation was that it was broken. I learned much later that it had been repossessed to pay for some outstanding bills.



We moved to a much nicer apartment in 1983, when I was in 2nd grade. Electric stove tops! A bathtub and shower! Heating in the bathroom! 

The old place has since been demolished. I may post some pictures in the back room if the fancy tickles me.

[derspiess]

Speaking of events, my memory of the outside world is a lot fuzzier until I was around 9 or 10.  I barely remember Carter being president (I was 7 when he left office).  I do remember the 1979 energy crisis and the Iran hostage crisis.  In second grade my teacher made us write letters to the hostages wishing them a Merry Christmas, which was a trick since she had no intention of mailing them

[Ideologue]

Strange early childhood memories? Self-worth is the big one, obviously.

[The Larch]

I remember clearly the day my mom came back home after my brother's birth, when I was 2 years and 9 months old. I came back from school with my dad and there were tons of people at home, family and friends, and my mom was resting in bed. I rushed there, climbed and snuggled next to her and asked her "Where's my baby brother?", because I couldn't see him, and I was told that he had to stay at the hospital but would soon be home (he had to stay there in observation for around a week because he was born with some kind of infant jaundice or something. Afterwards one of my mom's cousins showed me a lighter and taught me to use it.

[The Brain]

I recall a winter when the snow in our backyard reached above my waste

I just threw a little shade in my mouth.

[mongers]

I don't recall much of my early years, but then rarely actively try and recall it, it is after all the past.

I think there's a 'danger' with especially early memories or ones from a long time ago, that the act of remembering them, can distort or recast/retell the memories.

Off the top of my head, waiting with my sister for our brother to be born in the house, so that would be about 3 3/4 years.

I can remember a lot about my first school, also bits about kindergarten; I recently went to a meeting at a community centre in a large old town house, I climbed the stairs to the top of the building, the very same ones we climbed at kindergarten to go wash our hands, I didn't forgotten about it, but it's just something I don't spend time recalling.

In contrast I vividly remember a great deal of the events in the wider world from quit a young age, Vietnam in particular seems to have left an impression on me.

[Syt]

I recall a winter when the snow in our backyard reached above my waste

I just threw a little shade in my mouth.

Waist.

[Admiral Yi]

So Squeeze was a Cub Scout.  Not sure what to make of that.

[CountDeMoney]

I remember clearly the day my mom came back home after my brother's birth, when I was 2 years and 9 months old.

Yeah, I was right around that age when my little sister came home; got to hold her on my lap on a big pillow.  I remember a snapshot here or there of my mother pregnant, running my Matchbox cars across her belly, but that's it.

[Syt]

My Mom's story of my birth.

The contractions started at 5am. My Mom was unhappy because she wanted to make roasted duck that day. 12 hours of pain later, and still no baby Syt, the doctors performed a C-section (my Mom had three kids before me, and I'm the only one who was delivered that way).

I got my first name, because another lady in the hospital had a son by that name, and my Mom liked it.

When she came home a week later grandma - who had looked after the household - welcomed her back. They had a smoke and a cup of coffee. Grandma hadn't cleaned the place or done the dishes that day - she went home half an hour later and left the housework to my Mom.

[Martinus]

I know I was born at 2 a.m. or so. I was an early child and had seizure attacks 3 or 4 times (they suspected epilepsy) until I was 5 - then they went away. And I turned out just fine.

[Grey Fox]

I moved, also, when I was 4. I recall the moving day and the first night in the new house.

A mirror fell on me before the move, I don't remember it but I've got a scar to prove it (and pictures).

Do you know how much leg 15 suture point cover on a 4 year old? All of it.