Childhood memories - do you have any?

Marnie That's sad. I'm sorry you feel so alone. Perhaps your children don't realise that you would have preferred to see more of your family but it wasn't your choice. Perhaps they think you like an independent and self-contained lifestyle? Do you think you should tell them how you are feeling - not just for your own sake but also for theirs?

My earliest memory is as a 2 year old, feeding corn to the chickens on my grandparents farm in Tuscany. Probably sticks in my mind because I lived in a back to back slum in Birmingham. Tuscany was somewhat different!
I agree with the other posters who suggest writing down memories whilst we can. If writing seems too much of a chore, try recording your memories and saving them on a CD. Then your nearest and dearest can still hear your voice long after you've gone.

My memories are not happy ones regarding my mother, but the ones I have of my gran and grandad, and my aunt's, uncles and cousins are good.

I have loads of clear memories from childhood. The earliest I remember is when I was 2 years 4 months and sent next door for breakfast, which was strange - you went to neighbours for tea, not breakfast. When I came back home, there was a new baby brother.

I've a mix of happy and sad memories. We were fairly hard up so luxuries were few. I remember the fridge arriving which helped so that Mum didn't have to use a 'meat safe' in the cold pantry anymore. The milkman delivered orange squash, potatoes, etc and would take your shoes for mending. A chap called Geoff delivered veg on Saturday mornings - he liked to bet on the horses so would sometimes ask Mum if he could watch the race - he'd stand by the door to see if his horse had 'come in'.
The TV when were were about seven was exciting, it was enormous with a small screen and had to be switched on five minutes or so before the programme to 'warm up.' Remember 'vertical hold'? Sometimes one of us had to press it (no remote controls) and wait for someone to shout, "Yes, you've got it!" Muffin the Mule, Andy Pandy, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Tinga and Tucker Club.
Grandma lived round the corner, we visited twice a week. Almost all of us walked to and from school. During a sudden heavy shower many mothers would wait by the gates to hand us our mackintoshes so we didn't get wet on the way home. The summer break seemed endless and sunny, looking back I don't recall feeling bored but I must have been sometimes. We were so innocent then and the world seemed a much safer place.

Watched this on tv! Part of the brain stores the past and the other stores the present. Good or bad incidents are insignificant when it comes to which part of the brain they are in. It is when it happened.
As we grow old it is not uncommon to forget what we did yesterday as that part of the brain has less capacity for storage.

My FIL started writing his memoirs when MIL passed away and he was also terminally ill so sadly didn't finish them. His writing is very good and parts are very funny even though he didn't have a very good childhood back in the 20's. He does 'get lost' in the moments sometimes but I do wish he'd managed to get further on than he did. Many years ago I interviewed my own parents on tape for a project when I was at college (adult learning). I have searched all over for it since they passed away but have never managed to locate it - they were both reminiscing about their childhoods and I would so love to hear that again. Having read so many different recollections you have inspired me to start putting my own memories down for family to read in the future. My husband traced his family tree some time ago and was able to ask his parents about things before they died but both of mine developed dementia so all those memories were lost long before they passed

There were a lot of things in my childhood that I would rather not remember, but my lifesaver was being able to get out of the house and ‘adventure’ with my friends. We also had a lovely next door neighbour whose son was the same age as me. At the weekend we would often spend time at his dad’s allotment and when we weren’t being a b****y nuisance, he would let us help. It was from him that I learned, and acquired my lifelong love of gardening. Of course, when we were being a b****y nuisance he would dismiss us to the neighbouring woodland to get us out from under his feet! You could do that in those days!

I remember having anything I wanted that money could buy , I remember lots of lovely friends, lots of piles of pressies at Christmas, I remember going to stay with a very old grandma for the summer holidays, I remember lots of fun at school, however I don’t remember doing ANYTHING with my parents, i don’t remember my parents being at my birthday parties, I don’t remember ever being allowed to eat Christmas lunch in the dining room with my parents and their guests ( I remember eating in the kitchen with my lovely sisters) I remember not being with my parents at all during the school holidays, I remember missing my sisters so much because we were all farmed out to different relations. As I grew older and got married to my wonderful hubby I remember thousands and thousands of happy times with him and our children ( never had 2 pennies to rub together) but ask both my children and hubby and they don’t remember being unhappy. I remember my dad dying but my mum not having the decency to tell me, she sent the police round to tell me and for me to tell my sisters, I clearly remember that neither of my sisters, myself or my children giving a s@@t. I remember my darling darling sister dying from leukaemia 10 years ago, I remember the most beautiful letter she sent to me telling me how much she loved me, I remember the very honest, heartfelt letter she sent to my mum by my sister telling her very very honestly how she and dad ruined our childhoods. Now hubby and I are home alone enjoying our time together, both children settled and seriously happy and content and we have a wonderful wonderful grandson. However much I remember the past and unforgivable things done by my parents, I now remember how it’s turned and how I could be the same to her, every year when she wants to come for Christmas, every birthday when again she would be all alone but I’m never never going to lower myself.

Wow sorry about the essay but I cannot believe how much better that has made me feel offloading to a group of strangers

fiorentina; I might have lived in the house that backed onto yours in Brum!

I have lots of lovely memories of my childhood, brought up in the country, born in 1955, fairly poor but we grew a lot of our own veg & some fruit, always had food, some of it hated like tripe & corned beef.

No electric until I was 5, first TV when I was 8 (BBC1 only until BBC2 came on line & new transmitter built. ITV what joy 3 channels). No central heating, scraping ice of the insides of the windows in winter

Camping holidays every year from 5 to 11 years old, different parts of Great Britain, great fun. Sunny Sunday afternoons going off for a picnic, always a mystery tour.

I had a great childhood, learnt to play card games & developed an abiding love of books.

In 1966 my Parents bought the barn attached to our cottage & extended our home. My beloved GP came to live with us, garden became bigger & we grew more fruit & veg.

Loved my teens although I had to rely on my Parents for transport until I passed my test at 17 & got my own car.

I suppose I really should start & write a book even if it's just for DD & DGSs. I have done some family tree research & DM has lots of old photos.

This thread has made me think of writing something too. But would the younger generations be interested enough to read it?

* Eloethan * - I was born in my grandmother's house in one of the roads off Clapham Common - the address was actually Battersea. I remember that house so well, although I never lived there after the age of 10 days. But we used to visit - it was one of those tall terraced houses on may floors - a cellar, a basement, ground floor, then what seemed endless layers - we slept in the attic room when we went there for Christmas and could look out of the window over the rooftops - as in Mary Poppins.

My childhood memories are tainted by my parents' poor relationship - but I do know that my first ever memory (must have been about 3.5) was stepping out into to the garden early one morning and being entranced by a dewdrop in a nasturtium flower.

jocarter - glad the offload did you good.

Tegan2. Now wouldn't that be funny! ?
Was your back to back in Lady wood?

Luckygirl Like you, I was born in my grandparents' house (my Mum was terrified of doctors and hospitals) - in Grandison Road.

My recollection is that it was very much as you describe your grandma's house - I do recall there being three floors.

My first memory (must also have been around 3 years old) is looking out the top bedroom window and seeing a very large cat (probably not that large but I was small) striding along the grass at the base of the wall at the bottom of the garden.

I have just tiny little snippets of good memories; my mum and dad holding hands on holiday (I rarely saw them out together to know if it was normal) but it was lovely.
Yes, all of my childhood years give me an overall sense of happiness. The only slight blight is that my mum was really a bit too strict, I think. I was frightened of her.

Oh! I forgot. I had my much loved Nan living 6 doors away, and my Godparents living next door to her, 5 doors away. So I could wander from house to house.

I have lots of memories. I've kept quite a detailed diary for many years but I'm planning to buy a beautiful large notebook with 90gsm paper that will take ink and write a sort of autobiography.

I think I could write lots and lots more reasons why my childhood was happy, so I realise now how lucky I've been really. None of it material stuff, but just having a nice clean bed, and my slippers warming by the fire when I came in from school.

Eleothan - I was born in Tregarvon Rd - they are just around the corner from each other - I looked it up online. These houses are worth about a million now!!!

I've also kept diaries through the years but when I look back at them most of the entries wouldn't exactly set the world alight. Although I put in some momentous events (such as the evening I walked out of my school gates after an open evening and heard the people behind me saying that Kennedy had been shot), most of the stuff is so mundane that it's difficult even for me to find it interesting.

Luckygirl Quite a coincidence really.

fiorentina; no Hockley!

Jo - so glad that you have had such happy times with your lovely husband, to compensate for the awful childhood you endured.
My enduring childhood memories include the chats I used to have with my angelic maternal granny. She was born in 1889, so had a long memory of a lost world. Brought up in wealth by nannies and governesses, she was one of the first women to drive in Devon, taking her father shooting in his 1906 Wolseley. I still have her linen dust coat. She played the violin in an orchestra, wearing gorgeous black silk, velvet and jet-beaded dresses. She ran away to join the Red Cross and become a VAD nurse in Malta. She sailed to the other side of the world in 1919 to marry her handsome ANZAC soldier. She then lived in the most primitive, pit-sawn hut in the mountains on their sheep station, having to ride many miles on dangerous narrow clay roads to have her babies. The babies were carried back pikau, slung across the saddle, balanced by a sack of sugar. Washing and bathing were done in an icy mountain stream. There was a camp oven over a fire for cooking for a long time, and she had to learn fast how to cook, scrub the shearers' clothes, grow all their own food. These memories are so precious, and I have passed them on already to my own grandchildren. Don't underestimate how little anecdotes of a distant past will engage the young.