Prominent Childhood Memories

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Whether you had a happy childhood or not, everyone has something interesting to remember about those years.

One of my favourite memories is simple but it always makes me happy. I would always look forward to the part of the spring when I could hear frogs singing in the lake that I lived beside. It is one of the most pleasant sounds I can think of.

now, sit back and relax on my couch and .... "Tell me about your childhood."

 

I found it weird that my father couldn't swim. I simply had no idea of the complexity and seriousness of his heart disease. How could somebody not be able to swim?! I dove into the water before I could properly swim and as soon as I had my swimming diploma I spend half my life in the swimming pools. I loved being underwater, everything sounded so funny! And I still like the faint smell of chlorine and grass.

I also still believe that if you're Dutch and can't swim, there's something wrong with you.

 

I remember we would go on summer vacations to Vancouver Island -- we got to ride on a ferry! Biggest boat I'd ever seen, coming from landlocked Alberta.

We'd drive through the mountain passes and at the end of this one pass was a town called Chilliwack (inspiration for the band of the same name, "gone gone gone, she's been gone so long, she's been gone gone gone so long!") that had a cheesy little roadside attraction based on a Flintstones theme -- there was a Fifty Foot Fred so you couldn't miss it.

My parents would distract me with a book or a toy or tell me there was a bear on the other side of the road -- whatever it took so I didn't see that big fricking statue and start whining to go to the park. If I didn't see it, I didn't think of it!

 

Yeah, parents can be smartpants.

That reminds me of Canadians who used to stay at my uncle's, one minute walking from where I lived. They could sit at the river for hours, just watching with their jaw dropped. They told me it was fascinating, cause the only thing they saw on water were drag-racers once a year at "Day of Thunder": loud noise for a while and then all by a sudden, when the racing boats flashed by, it was over. They really were fascinated by the huge cranes, the ferries, sailing yachts, and many riverboats that passed by. I (still) live next to the rivers with the busiest river traffic of Europe. So it was kinda cool to realize what people amazes.

 

That reminds me LKD that when I was really young and my dad was alive we used to go on long driving trips too. Victoria was one of our destinations and I was always so afraid when we drove through the mountains because I was sure that we were going to drive right off the cliffs of some of those tiny (unbarriered ) mountain roads.

Another really terrifying memory for me was canoeing somewhere in rapids (I was in the middle of our aluminium canoe with my white-knuckled hands gripped to one of the cross-bars. I was sure that if we ended up in the river it was going to be the death of us all.

A more pleasant memory for me was another canoe trip we made down the Swanee River when we lived in the States briefly. At the beginning of the trip we all picked Kumquats from a tree for a snack on the way. About 1/2 an hour into the trip my father realized he had left his camera behind so him and my mom turned back and they left me and my older brother to play on the bank while they retrieved it. While they were gone my brother and I made little mud houses by dripping the watery sand through our hands in drops so it would pile up in interesting patterns in the sun. I also enjoyed catching the biggest tadpoles I've ever seen in my life. Their heads were close to the side of my palm!

 

My grandad's Smokey Joes = coke +icecream + flake all in one glass!

 

I remember in kindergarten there were 2 kids who wanted to play with me and started a fight over it. One threw the other's glasses on the ground, stomped it, got thrown on the floor and lost some teeth.
I decided to play with a total different kid.

 

I've gone through copious amounts of alcohol to kill all the brain cells with memories from my childhood.