What do you remember from your childhood?

[tnfsf11]

Many times I see on the internet people saying "I grew up in the X0s era & it was so awesome!" and mainly just giving reference of cartoons.
So I wanted to know, what do you actually remember from your childhood besides cartoons? And what makes the era in which you grew up better than now?

 

[Sweets Witch]

Edit: Christ, this was long. Let's spoiler it.

Spoiler:

When I was in 5th grade I had to go to this really crappy summer camp in a middle school gym that was run by people who didn't want to be around children all day. Every Friday if you paid $10 you could go to the community pool. The very first time we went, we all found out that this one kid had three toes. He was really cool about our questions and stuff. He had a younger sister whose name was Amber and she constantly got in trouble because she didn't like listening to the adults - then again, she was like five years old. Every time she got in trouble, she had to do the exact same punishment: Seal walking. Basically she had to lay on her stomach, hold herself up using her arms, and pull herself back and forth across the gym length-wise without moving her legs. This was the standard punishment for everybody, but she got in trouble the most so I associate it with her.

I went to this summer camp for two years. During my second year I was diagnosed with hardcore asthma and my mom sent me to camp with a doctor's note that said that I shouldn't participate in anything that might cause my asthma to flare up. Naturally, I used this excuse at every chance to get out of doing everything from daily exercises (which used the idea of collective responsibility to motivate, by the way) to playing the stupid group games we played. The adults who oversaw us were 3-4 college kids who were cool for the most part, but there was this one old lady whose last name started with a B (Burgess?) and she was the problem. She hated kids but she liked money. I visited the camp a couple of years ago when it relocated to this dangerous, run-down old building and didn't see her, but her son had taken over for her and he told me that she had died. I acted sad but he said that it was fine because he hated that old witch since his childhood because she was really abusive. The only reason why he decided to pick up the camp after her was because it was a really popular (see also: cheap) option for parents who had to work and couldn't leave their kids at home.

The building that it's centered out of now is a real piece of garbage and I had to take the dude's word on it being structurally sound. During my second year in the camp we spent Fridays there because schools were closed to everybody including 12-month employees on Fridays during summer. I think it was a community center at some point. It looked like a courthouse but the inside was barren, dusty, and dark because there was no electricity. There was one large room, a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, and some rooms in the back. Of course, we were only allowed in the big room. And we had to clean it. If you got there early in the morning, then you had to sweep until about 10 when there were enough kids to actually do things. After 10, it was SSDD unless you had the money to go to the pool. I never made any friends at this camp, and I knew it was the crappiest camp in the area even when I was little. When we went to the pool, we were the only camp that didn't have matching shirts or anything and I always hated that.

 

[Sandshrew4]

The thing I remember most is playing this super hero game with my sister and two friends. Me and my friend were six, and my other friend and sister were four and three, respectively. Surprisingly, it was a complicated game and we had this whole universe and everything. It died out when I turned twelve, and that surprisingly impacted me. I was never really close with either of them after we stopped playing, and now I moved, and have pretty much no contact with them. I really miss those times, and hope I get to see them sometime soon.

 

[Kikaito plush]

I remember the Beanie baby craze,
Playing Mario Kart 64 with my parents and of course NickToons.

 

[Aether★]

I learned English watching Cartoon Network, when I was 5. They aired it in English back then. Also I remember collecting these:

 

[Seth Rollins]

I remember playing PS2 with my older cousin, And another one: when i was 4 i was drinking milk with my bottle watching CN.

 

[Firox]

All I can remember from my childhood is playing with all the neighborhood kids and telling ghost stories at night, this was in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico (I was there when I was around 7 years old). can't remember much earlier than that. We had no video games where I lived, lived there for about a year or so.

 

[Sableye~]

Positive things, you mean?

I remember spending the night at my grandmother's house with my sister and a bunch of cousins. Even though I was probably 10 or so years old, I made breakfast for everyone. My cousin then came up with the "brilliant idea" of cooking marshmallows over a scented candle.x:


Oh, and a cat I had as a child. Well, he was more of a kitten- he died when he was 6 months old. I used to sit near the fireplace because it was warmer there, but the cat liked to lie in the same place. So he would repeatedly pounce on and attack me until I got fed up and walked away, then curl up there and go to sleep. He was a cute little guy.


A lot of people seem to think that their childhood was better, and that things got worse as time went on. In my mind, it's the opposite. My childhood was when a lot of problems of mine originally started. I certainly would never want things to go back to the way they were.

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

I honestly don't remember very much from my childhood, even though I am not technically an adult yet. Hell, I barely remember last year. I don't attach a lot of important to the triviality of most days. And as a kid, I can't say that anything too significant happened. The things that I do "remember" I believe that I don't really remember, but I remember the stories about it that people who have had more developed of a conscious at the time have told me. I remember only important things, because I see no point in defining the infinitesimal distinction between the days in my mundane, monotone life. Everyday, I more or less do the same thing with slight variation. If something particularly interesting or jarring occurs, then I'll be sure to remember it. Despite never remembering anything of my past, I actually have a pretty good memory in that I almost never forget anything--if my subconscious attaches enough importance to it. The only thing I really, truly remember from being a kid is that I sure as hell had a lot less to worry about... for truly, ignorance is bliss--to the man who hasn't yet fed off knowledge, that is.

 

[tnfsf11]

Well I guess I can have a go too :)

I remember our school being in a remote place near a tiny horse farm, we used to go there many times & ride the horses, the place had lots of flies who were attracted to horse poo & that bothered us a bit.
When music CDs became popular & widely available, one of my relatives bought lots of 'em, I used to open each one of them & look at the booklet inside & read some lyrics. That motivated me to start my own CD collection, probably for the same reason, the eye candy.
On one of my birthdays I had my very first console as a gift, it was a fat joystick that turned out to be an Atari fitted into a joystick, & it was past 2000.
Even though I was born in the late nineties, I can relate to many things 90s kids talk about; I remeber the VHS, audio cassettes, Dial-Up Internet, Windows 98 (we had in school), & a variety of songs that are way older than I am... I guess all of this is because where I live we're not really that fast catching up with what's hip & trendy in the rest of the world.
I used to watch CN only as I thought it was so cool & didn't think any other kids channel would be as great & entertaining, but that was just kiddy pre-judgement...
I remember going to different amusement parks & museums with my friends & family & having a lot of fun there, these places however are kinda abandoned now because people don't have fun by going to them like I used to.

Also another thing I miss about my childhood, is that the common discipline of kids & young people generally; now I walk down the same streets I grew up in & see very young kids cursing & older ones smoking in a desperate try to be "badass".

oh and...

I learned English watching Cartoon Network, when I was 5. They aired it in English back then. Also I remember collecting these:

Spoiler:

THESE!
I used to collect them too, they were in potato chips "Lays" bags, mines were written in Arabic, I guess they were like a special edition for the Arab world, I believe that shows how much we mean to Nintendo & GF as potential Pokemon gamers & watchers... However it's not the same anymore now, after the wipe-out.

 

[NightOfRemorse]

I remember this cassette player I had that I would play music tapes on (I think they were song versions of nursery rhymes? I can't remember exactly what they were). I liked playing this game with my dad and sister where he would put a blanket on himself and pretend to be a ghost. I would run and hide behind the couch lol. Furbies were pretty popular and I had a phase where I obsessed over them and tried to learn the Furby language. My sister and I had a collection of Pogs, though I'm not sure I have them anymore. We had this iMac G3 computer but it didn't have Internet because my parents thought the Internet was useless so the computer was practically useless too.

I would watch movies and cartoons on my VHS tapes and I constantly had to rewind them when wanting to watch them because for some reason I never did that the last time I watched them. When DVDs started getting popular I was upset because all I had was a VCR. My neighbor had a DVD player and I... struggled with it a bit lol. "Let me rewind this... Hey, I don't understand, why is this skipping? Is something wrong with the CD? *mashes remote buttons*"

My cousins and I would play our Gameboy Colors together and sometimes we would fight each other for certain games, haha. I remember going to Burger King a lot just to get the Pokémon toys they were giving out with the "Big Kids Meals". I still have some of those toys because why not? My sister and I really liked watching The Amanda Show. Now that was my ****. I also really liked watching Wallace and Gromit and would watch it every time they showed it on Cartoon Network.

There's this outdoor shopping mall near my house, and when I was a kid it was really rundown and had a couple stores scattered around. They would occasionally put on puppet shows in front of the kiosko. The mall was practically always deserted and few people actually went there. Nowadays though, it has tons of stores and it's impossible to find parking. Needless to say, the kiosko is long gone and the old stores that used to be there were all closed down, I believe. There was this restaurant that survived for over thirty years but they were recently shut down :[

Uh I guess that's most of what I remember. I ended up saying more than I originally intended.

Edit before I finally shut up: Scrunchies, butterfly clips, stick-on earrings and Lip Smackers. Those were cool.

 

[Strdstwanderer]

I was born in 1996 so I don't really have full grasp on what happened in the 90's. 2000 was cool---no it wasn't, for me my childhood was all about growing up with people who always dragged me in to trouble, people who'd later scar me for life and people who would later ignore me later in life.... Harry Potter was cool though, that's the best thing I can think of.

 

[Belldandy]

I remember my brother tying a skipping rope around my neck and pushing me down the slide lol also remember people whipping tennis balls at me (only way I could play with them, they said), my French teacher telling the whole class that I picked my nose and having a boy steal my Pokemon Cards during the same class out of my desk (some desk-swapping activity, ugh).

Best Memory was when the first Harry Potter movie came out. We went down to Blockbuster to buy it and there was an employee outside dressed like Harry Potter! He said we could throw water balloons at him after we bought the movie. That was a lot of fun :P

Worst was what happened with my aunt. I wrote about it somewhere else, though, so I won't plague y'all with the story again.

 

[Sar.]

Apart from Pokemon all of these things made the 90s/early 00s for me. ♥

Tamagotchi - hours of fun, had loads of these and loved them.

Jelly aliens - very popular at school and everyone thought that if you put two aliens back to back one of them would get 'pregnant' and if you squeezed the aliens head it would kill the baby. =')

Funhouse - one of the best kids TV game shows ever, I always wanted to go on it and Pat Sharp was a legend.

Harry Potter - Need I say anymore? Amazing, I'm so glad I grew up with this fandom.

Furby - Random things but were very popular.

Power Rangers - Not going to lie I wanted to be one when I was a kid.

Spice Girls - They were massively popular at one point, first band I loved and I idolised them.

Pogs - Loved these, they were great for swapping and having pog battles.

Jumanji - Fantastic film, always used to play the board game with my friends as a kid and we always pretended it was real. haha

 

[Firox]

Lots of great memories there Sar. I still remember all of the stuff you mentioned, but that was after I came back from Mexico, when I was about 8 years old. Haven't seen that movie in years.

 

[tnfsf11]

I totally agree with Sar, the list kinda summed it all up & the pictures had a nice effect :)
Regarding "Power Rangers", I thought it was overrated & never watched it, I never really had a thing for live-action shows that were supposed to be for kids, watching James Bond movies made me have high standards :D

Worst was what happened with my aunt. I wrote about it somewhere else, though, so I won't plague y'all with the story again.

No please do tell :) help us keep the discussion going, I don't mind at all.

 

[Sar.]

Lots of great memories there Sar. I still remember all of the stuff you mentioned, but that was after I came back from Mexico, when I was about 8 years old. Haven't seen that movie in years.

Yay, I'm glad it's not just me that has a fondness for those memories. Those really were the best of times. Jumanji tends to be shown on TV here in the UK every few years so I normally watch it then.

I totally agree with Sar, the list kinda summed it all up & the pictures had a nice effect :)
Regarding "Power Rangers", I thought it was overrated & never watched it, I never really had a thing for live-action shows that were supposed to be for kids, watching James Bond movies made me have high standards :D

No please do tell :) help us keep the discussion going, I don't mind at all.

I'm glad the pictures helped the nostalgic mood, kinda makes you realise how great all those things were.
Haha I must admit I've only ever seen a few James Bond movies :P but you mentioning it has reminded me that I did used to love playing Goldeneye on Nintendo 64.

 

[droomph]

I remember something with needles in my hands and bleeding. It was in black and white and out of focus though.

Other than that, I remember…saving up for my DS Lite and being so excited when that day came.

I have a really boring childhood ;;

 

[Powerserge]

I grew up in a really small rural town, and did a lot of farm-work and hunting and stuff growing up. I didn't move into the city until I was about 9 or 10. I remember the hard labor I'd be doing, tending to animals and cleaning out pens...even helping with the harvesting and maintaining of crops. I always loved going hunting too...I learned all sorts of survival skills like how to skin animals, make leather, and live off the land. I had nerdy interests too back then, like Pokemon and early anime...but I didn't have a lot of technology and stuff until we got to the city. I'd read old comic books more than anything, and build models, like planes, ships, use vintage erector sets.....and eventually gunpla. I had a really...old-style childhood, haha.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

*My school bus number was 272.
* Vehicles my family owned included a 1977 Chevy Monte Carlo, 1977 Chevy Suburban, 1979 Chevy Caprice, 1982 Ford F-150, 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis, 1988 Ford F-350 crew cab, 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park station wagon, 1978 Chevy Malibu, 1979 Ford Fairmont, 1986 Ford Taurus Wagon, 1992 and 1995 Chevy luxury conversion vans.... then the parents started buying SUV's and I ceased to be a child.
*Summer camp was hell on earth. I only went one year and never came back.
*Mom would work Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and sometimes Saturday mornings. Dad sometimes got assigned the night shift and he hated that.
*Grocery shopping days were usually on Wednesdays.
*I used to get allergy shots every two weeks. Sometime when I was 12 or 13 that changed to every three weeks.
*We first started vacationing in South Carolina in 1989. We still do today, same place in fact.
*At about age 10, I stopped having cake on my birthday, at my request. That year I substituted McDonald's fries for cake.
*My house number growing up was 35.
*At about age 7 or 8 I gained an interest in income tax forms.
*One of the first books I bought for myself was a repair manual for Chevy/GMC trucks.