Best/Worst Times as a Kid

#104
#104
It was on that trip, headed for Texas. Dragging the pop-up camper. Pulled into a KOA just as rain was setting in. Alabama or Mississippi. Turned into a deluge. They were setting down plank boards. Rain washed all the birds' nests out of the trees. Baby birds were drowning. Tons of them. I freaked.

Best: I had a tender heart then.
Worst: My daddy smacked me across the face because I was hysterical.
Great: He never had cause to smack me again.
 
#105
#105
Okay, this is my last one. Then I am just going to publish a book that you will all buy.

My girl cousin in ARK didn't really like me. She was a year older than me, yet I was in awe of her. Found out later, she hated me because her mother favored the boys. Her brothers. Still my cousins, yeah. The boys were 6-7 years older than we were. They'd sit up in the trees and pelt us with crabapples

Best: I had a thick skull.
Worst: Had marks all over my body. Looked like I had a childhood disease afterwards.
 
#108
#108
Okay, just one more for you, Wireless. Then I, am going to a publisher...haha. Actually, I have had a story published.

My grandmother (that's what's she wanted to be called,) my hat was off to her (pun intended} because she worked as a milliner. She was also an expert gardener. I don't mean just because her yard looked great. She put together florals that were breathtaking. Anyway, the cement pond (sound like Ellie Mae) in the back of her yard was ornamental. Carp. They'd rise to the surface when a rock was beaten on the side. There's a pic of me at 4 sticking my hand out for more crackers. That's what the fish expected...crackers. I was shoving them in my face.

Granddaddy always cleaned out that pond after the ice broke. My cousin, Lisa, and I convinced him to let us do it. He said: okay. We didn't care about the fish: pond was full of frogs and we wanted to see the polliwogs transform. Took 2 full pails into the storm cellar. Week and a half later, those things didn't just change, well, a couple did. They mostly died.

Best: It was a project.
Worst: We had to scrub out the pails and cellar. It still stank.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wireless1
#109
#109
Anything getting canceled or missing out because you were sick or whatever...that was devastating as a kid.

We were pretty poor a few years and so we didn't do anything that cost $. My buddy invited me to the water park with his family. My Mom was cutting my hair just before it was time to go, and she got careless and took a huge chunk out of my ear. I was bleeding everywhere and got bandaged up. I had to tell my friend at the door I couldn't go. My Mom tells the story and claims she let me go. I let her have that because it makes her feel better about it. But I know for a fact that I have still never been to that water park.

I've never thought about this, but imagine the other family's side of it. Your 6 YO comes back to the car empty-handed with a story about a dusmembered ear. We were the weird family.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wireless1 and Juanita
#110
#110
All families are weird. Not diminishing what you felt or feel, but I am trying to accept this. And have attempted to impart that to my daughter. When she was growing up, all of her friends had seemingly happy families. I was single, doing the best I could for us. She fussed. I told her to scratch the surface.
 
  • Like
Reactions: n_huffhines
#111
#111
Lawd, I lied. I will tell one more story about Arkansas. It was hot in my daddy's Biscayne, driving across the great state of Tennessee. No AC; just windows down. 11 hours, headed to Jonesboro. There was not a bridge then, so we had to drive down below Memphis to catch a ferry across the Mississippi. Waited and waited. My brother and I picked up rocks. When the ferry finally came and the car was loaded, my brother and I threw rocks at any and everything.

Best: Alan hit the ferryman in the side of his head.

Worst: Daddy said: Do it again and you're going overboard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: malinoisvol and Wireless1
#112
#112
Juanita said:
Okay, I'll start with worst. Me, my brother. and two cousins were tramping through the woods. Andy stumped his toe in a yellowjacket nest. Bees were flying. We ran like heck. Mom pasted us all down with baking soda. My brother had to go to the hospital. Found out he was allergic to stings.
Click to expand...
I don't stay in the zone much, so I didn’t see this thread. But I look forward to reading through it!

(Posting so it'll show up again, not cause I think anybody cares. )
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juanita
#114
#114
As a preschool kid, I was running around the yard, tripped, and fell into a large fire ant mound. I was so badly bitten that my fever spiked to 104. My mother put me into the bathtub and wiped me down repeatedly with rubbing alcohol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juanita, ArdentVol and Go aeiou
#116
#116
Back to middle Georgia. Uncle Mac kept dogs. Some for hunting. Others...well, I have no idea why. I'd seen them dipping the dogs and thought: that's a lot of trouble over a few fleas. Anyway, walking through the pens with Andy. He was the cousin you always wanted to hide from. We stopped, looked in, and I said: That's the ugliest dog I've ever seen, what's her name? Andy said: "Juanita."

Best: I hit him with 4 of the 40 pinecones that I threw.
Worst: His words stung more than the cones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: malinoisvol
#117
#117
I was a 90s kid. One of my fondest memories as a kid are driving to where ever we went to for that year's summer vacation (usually a beach like Gulf Shores, Panama City/Destin, Daytona, Myrtle Beach), looking the entire time at the updated Rand McNally road atlas we'd just bought for that year and the college football preview magazine, and listening to the radio. For some reason I remember that more than actually being at the beach.

Whenever I hear certain 90s songs, especially anything by Hootie and the Blowfish, I am instantly taken back and I still get the same feeling that I did when I was a kid. I still pull up road maps all the time, for no real reason, other than the fact I just like to look at them and it brings me back there too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wireless1, Juanita and malinoisvol
#120
#120
05_never_again said:
I was a 90s kid. One of my fondest memories as a kid are driving to where ever we went to for that year's summer vacation (usually a beach like Gulf Shores, Panama City/Destin, Daytona, Myrtle Beach), looking the entire time at the updated Rand McNally road atlas we'd just bought for that year and the college football preview magazine, and listening to the radio. For some reason I remember that more than actually being at the beach.

Whenever I hear certain 90s songs, especially anything by Hootie and the Blowfish, I am instantly taken back and I still get the same feeling that I did when I was a kid. I still pull up road maps all the time, for no real reason, other than the fact I just like to look at them and it brings me back there too.
Click to expand...
Certain songs definitely bring back specific memories for me. I always relate songs to time periods.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tdawgs, Juanita and 05_never_again
#121
#121
05_never_again said:
You know what's sad? You talk about stuff from the 90s now and, depending on the demographic you say it around, nobody knows what you're talking about.
Click to expand...
"I am not Hootie." [Blank stare]
Semi-charmed Life is about a drug habit. [Blank stare]
Tennessee won the very first BCS NCG. [Turn and walk away]
Yep.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juanita and 05_never_again
#122
#122
Tin Man said:
"I am not Hootie." [Blank stare]
Semi-charmed Life is about a drug habit. [Blank stare]
Tennessee won the very first BCS NCG. [Turn and walk away]
Yep.
Click to expand...
"You mean you used to have to remember phone numbers?"
"You mean you used to answer the phone and you had no idea who was calling?"
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juanita
#125
#125
Best: My dad surprised me with a Honda Rebel on my 14th birthday. Getting my motorcycle license and a street bike gave me freedom to roam the backroads of West TN.

Worst: I was in my early 20's when my mother passed away suddenly. Looking back, I was still very much a kid when that happened.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juanita
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top