It can be tricky looking back on your childhood without rose-colored glasses. Sometimes things from the past can be misconstrued and misremembered as wrong or unfaithful to the joy of our past. However, there are those memories that never fade or dimmer in our hearts, that light up our souls, and keep us going into adulthood.
Reddit user, u/James_T_Hart, wanted to know what to memory makes you want to go back when they asked:
What's your best childhood memory? Why?
One Perfect Day
There was one day in the summer of 2003 when me and all the neighborhood kids just hung around outside. We flew kites, played sports, got ice cream from a truck, etc. We spent the whole day outside doing fun stuff. I remember going to bed thinking that it was a perfect day. I still think about it sometimes.
Who Needs Money To Have Fun?
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Growing up I didn't realize how poor we were. My parents were amazing at providing for us. We loved watching baseball games and I wanted to go to a game so bad. We never could afford it.
To make up for it, while we were at school, my mom made up tickets to that night's game and money for us to "spend". When we got home she had set up chairs in front of the TV and numbered them. Gave us the tickets and money and told us to go clean up before the game. Come game time we lined up at the doorway, my dad took our tickets and told us how to get to our seats. After the game started my parents went to the kitchen and had a tray of hot dogs, candy and soda. "Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs!" We got out the money my mom made and bought whatever snacks we wanted.
Best baseball game I've ever been to.
A Night Full Of Stars
Being a farm kid, sitting behind my older sister on a horse, ambling around our yard in the dark, looking up at the stars while my sister sang with the softest most beautiful voice I've ever heard. I fell asleep leaning on her back as she sang.
Epilogue: The next day at school I tried to eat a stick of chalk to make my voice softer like my sister's. It was a terrible failure.
A Thought And A Blessing
8th grader Amanda, my first hard crush, telling 5th grade me that I was cute on the school bus... I don't know if I've ever been quite that happy again in the entire rest of my life. Don't tell my wife and kids I said that.
Bringing Work Home With You
My step father designed theater sets and installed a jungle design in my room, after the play was over
We'll Find A Way To Make Room
Family vacation to Colorado to ski. They piled all the grandkids (me and 7 of my cousins) in the back of the van and removed the bench seats, replaced them with air mattresses. They hooked up a TV and VHS player and we all watched the original scream movie while eating road trip snacks and annoying the life out of our grandparents.
We stopped the moment we got to where there was snow to have a giant family snowball fight. We took pictures the whole ride on disposable cameras. I think my older cousins mooned a few unsuspecting strangers. 18 hours there and 18 hours back and the ride was just as good as the actual vacation.
A Backyard Is A Wonderland
My parents house had a huge prairie field beyond its backyard. There was a lot of wild life, giant ponds, and tiny forests scattered throughout a giant plain. As an introverted child I remember going on so many adventures here until the sun came down.
One particular moment that sticks with me was sitting on my fence, overlooking the fields watching the sun set with my dog after a long day of playing. It's not a particularly eventful moment but I remember thinking that moment was perfect.
As a kid that grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes, I feel so fortunate I got to grow up in the area I did. It was like I was living the life of my favorite comic.
Let's go exploring!
You Don't Need A House To Make Home Memories
Probably the time when my dad was building our house. In the summer me, my mom and dad would sleep in a trailer. My mom would drive to work from there and I was always either playing around, try to help my dad or annoy him ( I was 10).
A lot of times I was at my aunt's house that was across the street, there I would play with her dogs and cat. Sometimes my grandma and aunt that are living in Germany would visit us and then most of the family of my dad's side (that we rarely see) would come and we would have a few days of partying and bonfires.
Cousin Summers > Any Other Summer
My grandparents lived on Jamestown (Conanicut Island) when I was a kid. I had 9 cousins, and they would set us loose in the morning, put out lunch at noon at a picnic table, and tell us to be home at dark. They were down by the Beaver tail end, so we had minor car traffic on the one main road, and a vast open meadow and woods to play Manhunt in.
I eventually moved to NYC, but I cannot fathom not having that formative experience summer after summer. It was the kind of thing that people write books and make movies about. Almost Wes Anderson-like in the mists of time, but now as I'm about to be a father I realize that recapturing that is likely near impossible in this day and age.
Misunderstanding A Practical Joke
My family on my dad's side owns a cabin on a small island, we used to go fishing but i never caugth any fish. (You probobaly wont understand the next part but ok) I liked to lay on the little rock dock/pier and watch the small fishes.(the part) my dad had just thougth me a little trick, if you yelled, "tosk!" (Idiot) Into the water, people would think you saw a "torsk" (Codfish) because the words are so simular.
They would run up to the water and see nothing. That is when you say "haha, en tosk/ Haha, an idiot". they would see their reflection in the water and think it was a Codfish, but then you call them an idiot. But that time i actually saw a "Torsk/Codfish". I yelled to my dad because i got excited but he did'nt believe me.
I've tried to convince him to this day, but he never believes me!
Precious Time With A Precious Few
When I was younger, we had an indoor amusement park in the city. My father would surprise me by saying we were going to play at the arcade area. We would spend a couple hours playing arcade games like animal hunting, race car driving, things like that. He would do this to all 3 of his children, by themselves, just to spend alone time with them.
Since that time, that amusement park has since shut down, and was replaced by a Bass Pro Shop.
It may be gone, but the memories made there won't be.
Movie Theater Tag! New Olympic Sport!
when i was 4/5 my brother who had to have been 17/18 took me to a movie. nobody else was in the theater and we spent a good 10-15 minutes playing tag
Getting The Same Thing Every Time
My father never made much money but my best memory as a little kid was going to the gas station with him to get a 99 cent icee and he got a coffee. I miss him, but I will cherish those memory's as I get older even tho he's gone
You Fight to Grow Closer To Each Other
Fighting with my elder brother for silly things!
By just remembering these moments from my childhood makes me smile in my bad and good times. Thank god!
Then we have become best friends and I always can count on him.
Working Together
My mom had taken us to Chipotle, a rare treat, and we got home pretty late. I was about seven and at that point had three siblings. My youngest sister and mom went to sleep as soon as we got home, leaving just me and my other sister. I, being the hero I was, climbed on the counter and got the iPad off the top of the fridge and pulled up the Pbs Kids app. My sister grabbed the leftover chip bags and we sat on the floor in front of the couch watching Arthur until we fell asleep at like one in the morning.
I love this memory because it's one of the few times me and my sister really got along. Depending on what's going on we can be a great team or mortal enemies and this was a change from the normal enemies thing.
Grandpa Waffles Equal Best Waffles
My grandmother making me waffles in the morning.
I would watch Saturday morning cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Finn and of course, Penelope Pitstop.
They're Times We're Never Getting Back
Sitting in front of the 19 inch fatback tv playing Grand theft auto: San Andreas w/ my brother when it was released is one of the best memories I carry with me.
Sitting up well past the hours of our bedtime, turning the tv volume all the way down when turning the ps2 on in fear our parents would hear us & eating endless snacks / whatever else we could get our hands on & doing it all over again the next night. Everything about that game & those times bring me a nostalgic feeling, almost indescribable.
He committed suicide in 2014, I miss him everyday.
The Only Invitation That Mattered
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I was maybe 5 or 6, and I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. It was that perfect time where everything is quiet and dark and it just feels so still. When I walked through the living room my grandfather was sitting in his chair at the table, drinking whiskey and eating buttered saltines.
He invited me to sit with him and have a snack, which felt amazing to me since individual time with him was extremely rare.
The room was lit only by the warm glow of the nightlight from the kitchen. I don't remember if we talked except for when he told me I'd better be back off to bed, but I remember how it felt. I remember his presence. How big his silhouette looked, sitting across from me. How calm and soothing it was just to be there.
It's that kind of memory that just wraps itself around you and envelopes you in warmth. It's one of those moments where everything falls away and nothing else exists. Just dark, quiet, and some buttered crackers. He died of cancer not long after that, and that's one of the only memories I have of him.
Standing Up For Your Kid
Watching my stepdad call the principal of my school in 4th grade out on his bullsh-t right in front of me.
Because it was the first time i had a father figure in my life who cared enough about me to stand up for me.
Remember what he called out?
My principal kept making bs claims that my mom wasnt properly taking care of me, clean clothes etc.My mom is a neatfreak so i had clean clothes etc 100% of the time and i never had issues about going hungry or anything of the sort.To this day i cannot understand where the claims were coming from. But they stopped after my stepdad called him a "twat who doesnt do his job properly, who needs to get his head checked".