Childhood Memories

[Laddy]

Let's talk about fond childhood memories.

Back when my parents were still together we had this ritual every Friday where my dad, my sisters, and I would go to this local video rental store called Movie Gallery and rent some movies. We'd park at Pizza Hut, order, and then cross the street as they prepared our food. My dad would pick two films, one for him and my mom to watch and one for the family to watch. My older sister would get a film, my twin sister would get a film or game, and I'd get a game. It's be $25 for a week-long rental, an amazing deal.

One day, when I was about 7 I was there for thirty minutes and I had no idea what to get. Back then I had a PS1 and played RPG's almost exclusively but had no real way to obtain information on them. My dad, who got me into the genre, read an article on a particular game series from his Sci-Fi magazines, he told me I should pick it as it was "one of the best RPG's ever". I took his advice.

The game? Final Fantasy IX.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Some of my fondest memories are when I would play video games with my dad when I was about four or five. We used to play Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and The Legend of Zelda together. Of course I always went up to the screen on Duck Hunt. :p

[SammieBabe]

When I was about 8, I spent a week in a condo at the beach with a cousin, aunt and uncle. We swam in both the pool and the ocean for hours a day, saw wild dolphins, and I ate shark, scallops, and clams for the first time. We went looking for sand dollars at another beach one day, and our feet were stained yellow from there being so many.
My aunt died and my cousin and I don't speak anymore because of some awful family stuff, but that was one of my favorite memories ever. :)

[~*~Celes~*~]

I used to sit in my brother's room on top of his stackable plastic baskets, eat fruit loops, and watch him play Doom on our Windows 95 computer lol Good times.

I also remember having this little house..kind of like a dollhouse but it was for these tiny little poseable bears...a mom, dad, brother, sister, and baby. It came with plastic furniture and everything. Playing with that was always fun!

Really I have a lot but these two things stick out to me most.

[Ayen]

Back in the day when the neighborhood was nicer I'd play with my friends in my yard, or theirs. Each one having their own swingset, but everybody always wanted to hang out on mine. We'd play Hide n Seek, Tag, Freeze Tag, TV Tag, play baseball in the street, football in the yard, basketball behind one of my friends' houses who had a net, and have water balloon fights. Good times.

[Sephex]

This is going to make me sound like an old person, not because of the technology I am about to mention, but the fondness I have to a set up that I would not be able to stand today.

When I first got my Super Nintendo, I had to leave it at my great grandmother's house. Since I went there frequently, it wasn't a big deal. Plus, it wasn't long where my parent's did care if I lugged it around wherever I went.

Anyway, gram lived in an old neighborhood in an old house, so the layout was very odd compared to today's standards. I played SNES in a room she called the areaway. It was a long room that had to sliding glass doors on each side. One side connected to the garage (not the sliding door on that side, but a door off to the side). The other side simply led to the backyard and a small building. Sort of like a shed, but it was literally a small building. There was also a cool chandelier with an old style wooded table near the garage end. A couch on on side of the room towards the middle and a shelf of various trophies relatives won when they were younger opposite of the couch. Had an old school radiator in there (had a huge panel-like cover over it with an exposed pipe neat the floor that would heat through the panel vents).

Lastly, on the side that lead to the back yard was a black leather chair. Across from that was a simple table with a small TV. Maybe around 15 inches? It was small. You could easily see games on it, though. Had a mono speaker and everything. Who knows where the remote went? Just an old school CRTV. It displayed colors brilliantly, though. Had to connect the RF switch to the TV too! That's where I would play Final Fantasy IV (FFII for us US folks) on my own for the first time. And many times afterwards. I did see/play the game at a cousin's house before that, but still.

Now, whatever. So what, you played some SNES in an old house, right? Well, that house was very dear to me. Not only because gram was such an amazing person to me, but I also made my first friend who lived across the street from her. There are also countless memories I just have of the best moments of my childhood in there. Playing the same SNES games I played in that house just brings it all back. I can still remember everything. The smell of that room. How the temperature felt depending on the season. All the subtle sounds the house made. How sound would travel. How the furniture felt.

The house was torn down ages ago (1996 if you are looking for an exact year), but thanks to those memories, I still feel like I can visit that house any time. It's a constant reminder of a great many things that meant a lot to me.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah I have a lot of fond grandma and videogame memories too. When I was a kid I would always go stay with my grandma during summer and Christmas (occasionally Easter, too) and she would spoil me and let me play videogames most of the day and stuff. It was really great not just in itself, but because my regular home life was not a happy one, so these breaks from it were about the only thing that kept me going.

[Pike]

We moved a lot when I was a kid. A LOT. I hate trying to remember how many houses I've lived in during the course of my life because I have to sit and try to remember them all; I think it's up to 17 or 18 by this point.

Sometimes we would stay in the same school district but other times we'd end up in another one. And sometimes it ended up being a good school district and I had friends and other times it was terribly lonely. I'd get worried when I was going to a new school. Would people even like me? Would I be bullied, like I had been before?

I wished I was brave. I tried to think of the bravest person I knew. I decided Link from the Legend of Zelda because he held the Triforce of Courage. I always felt like a hack when I played Zelda games because I was a coward, unlike Link, who was, quite literally, the epitome of courage. But then one day I decided, you know what? If Link can just walk right into dungeons and trout, then I can walk into a new school.

So I did.

That actually ended up being a pretty good school year. And I had the best math teacher ever.

[Bubba]

I used to love visiting my Dad with my older brother. We would always go to the video store and rent a film for the night. There was only one TV (in the lounge) and we used to bring the two single mattresses down from the two beds (me and my brother shared a single) upstairs. We'd put them on the floor in front of the TV and all squeeze on them on the floor and watch the film with some cheap sweets and pop.

We were pretty poor growing up but those are fantastic memories for me. I remember distinctly watching Tango & Cash and my Dad used to do stupid things. He went into the other room and came back with a bottle of orange Tango and a handful of change and said "Look! Tango and Cash!"

Good times :)

[Crop]

My family was (is) pretty poor, but I had an almost flawless childhood. It was full of video games, building dens, sleepovers, trips to the beach, football, water fights, cinemas, holidays to Butlins, visiting my grandparents. The neighbourhood I lived in had a bunch of kids around the same ages in it and is surrounded by forests, fields and parks which also helped.

I enjoy being a young adult more but I look back on my childhood with nothing but fond memories.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I got a go kart like this one year for Christmas. I was around 10 or 11, and it looked pretty close to this.

http://img0106.psstatic.com/161463773_red-super-wheels-5hp-go-kart.jpg

Dad had a bigger go kart that was sized for him. Very close to this.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dPZuxOZdfP4/hqdefault.jpg

We had a trail worn through the woods and a field that was our race track. His kart was just plain faster but it couldn't turn nearly as easily, so I had to learn to use all the momentum I had through the woods to try stay ahead of him down the straights in the field. One of us really should have hit trees at some point.

I remember the hours and hours I spent learning to drive it with nothing but throttle or steering inputs (brakes?, that just slows you down.) I literally drove the wheels (and other parts) off the thing.

So we tore it all down, sand blasted it, painted it, replaced the little clutch, freshened the carb and motor, new little tires, repadded the seat, and then it was ready for the next kid. So we sold it to the next kid who wanted to terrorize people with a tiny kart.