What is your favourite childhood memory?

Walking along Sussex beaches, when the tide was out, holding hands with my maternal grandfather with him telling me all about sea cratures beneath the sand, hiding in rock crevices and those that lived in the water, I was about 4 or 5 and was fascinated by the sea, as was my grandfather, he was in the navy before and during the First World War My grandparents retired to the Sussex coast and I have many happy childhood memories when my brother and I stayed with them.

My other happy memory is my parents getting into The Beatles, they almost loved them as much as me, so it was a break from the interminable classical music and screeching opera that always seemed to be playing in the background, although I like some of that now, but not then I remember getting the first two Beatles albums one Christmas, ostensibly for me but for a kind of present to themselves as well!

My Gran, bathing me in front of her coal fire ( she did have an inside bathroom but it was freezing!)
Such a lot of lovely memories with our dear ones here, bet I'm not the only one shedding a tear. xxx

Walking to the beach through farmland and over rocky styles and scrambling down the Cornish cliff. The honey smell of the gorse, the sound of a stream splashing onto the beach rocks, the deep rock pools and hours spent trying to catch the blennys. The surf that brought us whizzing onto the Sandy beach. The peace and tranquility of an empty secret beach.

Christmas with the family, days spent with friends where we were out all day {the freedom!) and especially the first evening after we'd broken up for the summer holidays ... no school for 6 weeks! Precious memories.

My happy memories are of going to stay with a favourite aunt who lived at the seaside. She had a large English sheepdog named Snowy. The best part was that mother was 80 miles away and I wouldn't be seeing her for a week.

Waking up on Christmas morning and feeling something heavy on the end of the bed .... realising that Father Christmas had been! Going, with my brother, into mum and dad's bed to open our presents I remember twin dolls one blond and on brunette .... mum had knitted them both a complete outfit each in pink and blue wool. Best present ever!!

My father died when I was 5 but I have some happy memories of him.
Helping him to polish the family shoes using elbow grease -a strange concept.

Watching him cook porridge with the bubbles plop plopping in the pan

And best of all standing on his shoulders as he walked about the room and being told how brave I was. There's a photo somewhere of me on the back of his bicycle too.
Precious memories.

Being treated to a day out by my unmarried aunt who always spoilt me.
On a sad not my father died when I was 12 and I do not have a single happy memory of being with him. I have plenty unhappy ones but that is another story.

What a wonderful experience, Grandma70s!

My favourite memory is walking in our village (on the original A24 in Surrey) with my beloved father who delighted in sharing his love of cars with me. Having had no sons, he was very happy to share my enthusiasm for learning all the makes and models. I even collected Matchbox toys which I still have!

Being in a rowing boat on the river, smelling the mud and feeling the warm water flowing through my outstretched fingers when I put my hand over the side of the boat.
Also, aged about 4, rolling about in long unmown grass with my friends at the back of the church - looking up at the sky and feeling the warmth of the sun.
I think these memories of a childhood spent outside made me the outdoor person I am to this day.

Elusivebutterfly

Grandma70s -That must have been wonderful.

It was! I’ve still got the signed photo she sent me afterwards. That all happened over 70 years ago.

Grandma70s -That must have been wonderful.

I was a ballet-mad child, When I was 11, the great ballerina Alicia Markova was due to dance inLiverpool, our nearest big city. I wrote to the stage manager and asked if I could present a bouquet. I just meant send a bouquet, but when my mother and I arrived at the theatre (rather at the last minute because the bus hadn’t turned up) I found I was expected to go onstage with the the rather pathetic bunch of carnations we had bought. (My mother had been horrified at the price of florists’ flowers.)

I was taken backstage - the thrill - and watched Markova dance The Dying Swan from the wings. Then I had to cross the vast stage to give her the flowers, with my best curtsey. She kissed me, and I was in seventh heaven. I wasn’t at all nervous, just excited.

My parents were always more or less skint (at least when I was a child) so from very early ages we knew that it was no use asking for anything - (sweets, toys, ice creams etc.) when we were out at the shops - often a major weekend exercise with my father to do most of the carrying (no car then.).

I longed painfully for a pet, any pet! but knew it was no use asking. Our usual shopping trip took us through an arcade where there was a pet shop, where for a while there were a lot of baby tortoises in the window. (Yes, I know they’re not allowed now.)

I used to stop and look longingly, but never asked.,
But one day my father said, ‘Do you really want a tortoise?’
Oh joy!
Timmy cost 4/6d and the shopkeeper just put him in a brown paper bag!
I kept him for several years, until he died during hibernation during the very cold winter of (?) 1963. 😰

going into a wood with my parents aged about 6 and finding in a tree trunk hollow the silver goblets and plates that my mum had previously put there, .all made by herself out of silver paper. Then my dad, who was a member of the Magic Circle, producing chocolate from the tree.. a lovely memory of how much they cared for us children

I have a lot really but the one that springs to mind just now is this. We lived on the coast and every summer families would arrive from London and the Midlands to holiday here. So every year I had loads of new friends for the summer months.
One family came for years and always rented a tiny cottage, 5 kids plus parents.

There were 3 girls and 2 younger boys. I was friendly with the 2 older girls. We have reconnected thanks to Facebook and it’s been great sharing memories of 50 years ago. Swimming, mucking around, swapping clothes, going to the fair, meeting boys etc. we have met up a couple of times now and those years in between have just disappeared.

inishowen my maternal gran lived a few hundred yards from the Silverblades ice rink I went once but wasn't a fan!

When my mum went away to visit her sisters and my Dad and I relaxed and ate bacon and eggs every morning and just relaxed with no nagging and complaining!

Thank you all for your wonderful stories.

We moved from our grans house in inner city Liverpool in the early 1960s. We seemed to spend hours in a massive removal van all nine of us.
When the doors opened we had arrived in the countryside it was summer I was five at the time. I had never seen a tree or farmland it was surrounding our big new house.
It was the beginning of my adventurous childhood and my love of nature.

Sunday 's after dinner ,we'd all gather round the piano and Dad or Granny would play all the songs we knew and we would all sing .We always finished with a selection from The Last Night of the Proms .We had new neighbours once who asked mum why they hadn't been invited to the party and she laughed and told them it wasn't a party just a Sunday night tradition.
I miss them all there are only two of us left

My happiest childhood memories were created by my Grandmother :
She was a deeply religious woman , who was so loving , kind and funny .

I think that my parents treated her extremely badly and that her life was difficult .

I have friends , who had unloving parents and they have emotional problems .
I'm not claiming to be perfect , but I wonder how I would have turned out without her .

I'm really grateful to her for her love .

The times I spent sitting with my grandmother sewing or reading to her.

Holding my Dad’s hand and walking to school. I was the youngest of 9 and had an ‘older’ Dad .😘

I have lots of memories, I had a wonderful childhood.
Christmas evening at my Grandparents house was amazing.
My dad was one of 8... I was no 13 out of 15 grandchildren with the oldest cousin only being 3 years younger than my dad.
All my Aunties and uncles, cousins at diffent ages with us younger ones was great fun, my older cousins would bring their Records us all dancing in one of the sitting rooms.
Then my Nan sitting by the tree handed us all gifts, she wasn't the most affectionate woman but she did loved us.
After the gifts we all would troop off to the pub, after they kicked us out, back to Nan's for cold meat sandwiches and pickled onions that were almost black!

Eventually, wrap up warm and walk home.
I'm still fortunate that all us cousins still keep in touch, sadly we have lost 4 but those happy days will be always there.