Most people have vivid memories of certain events from childhood. What sticks in your mind? Pick one particularly strong memory and describe it in detail.
When I was about four years old, my family traveled from New Orleans to Byhalia, Mississippi, to visit my grandparents. At the time, they lived on a farm.
A four-year-old who lives in New Orleans doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to see farm animals up close; in fact, I didn’t see many animals of any kind up close. So walking through the pastures and staring at the cows and goats was kind of a big deal.
One morning, my mom, my sister, and I were eating breakfast outside, when a haughty rooster came strutting through the pasture gate. Of course I’d never seen a chicken with its head still attached, so this was quite a treat. We clucked at it and threw cereal for it to peck at and, in general, acted towards it the same way we would have acted with a dog.
Roosters are not dogs.
This particular rooster must not have taken kindly to our noises and cereal offerings; he was downright mad about them, in fact. How do I know? Because he strutted right up to my chair and started pecking my bare foot!
I don’t know if you’ve ever had a beak pounding on your sole, but I can tell you from experience that it hurts. It hurts a LOT.
I screamed and pulled my feet up on the chair, the same way some people do when they see a mouse in the kitchen, and I refused to climb down until the rooster, satisfied that his work was done, swaggered back into the pasture and through the field.
And that is why, until I was ten years old, I was afraid of chickens.
Write your answer in the comments before Wednesday, January 9.
12 Comments
January 7th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I have a hard time remembering my childhood. It doesn’t really surprise me because most of it was not that great. A lot of it was disappointing and devastating for me.
When I was six my family uprooted from everything that surrounded me. We moved from Florida to Tennessee. I hated it with a passion, and unfortunately my father did too. He bared it for a while until he could stand it no longer. Of coarse that is not the whole story. Sometimes things just do not work out. Him leaving tore my world apart. Yes, I was Daddy’s little girl. My mom and I are not close.
I remember the day he left. I was getting ready for school, and by the time I went outside to catch the bus, he was gone. That was so hard for me. I remember waiting for letters and phone calls that never came until recently. At the time I did not understand why, and it is still a little hard to comprehend.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:18 am
I cant think of a vivid memory but i do have a couple blurry ones. I remember when i was in 4th grade in Belville, Michigan me and my sister used to watch nick at nite all the time and a commercial used to come on between every commercial advertising someones cd and we knew THE WHOLE commercial so we sang along everytime it came on. Also there is a memory that is probably my first memory of when i was little. I was six and we were moving from the house I grew up in i specifically remember being very sad but happy to move because i never had before so i was walking down the step with my little overnight bag that had everything i needed until we arrived at our new house and i put on my sunglasses and looked back at the house one last time and got in the car. Those memories are not the highlight of my childhood but they are memories i would like to keep.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:40 am
The memory that sticks out with me would when my house burned down in the spring of 2005. I was at my grandma house and noone was home. my mom left the the iron plugged up as usual. I was at my grandma alone when I heard firetrucks.
After about 2 or 3 trucks had gone by something told me to call my dad. When I called him and I heard him cryin so I jumped on my bike and rode a few miles to house to try and get some of pictures out of the house I managed to get a few but not alot.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I don’t really remember many childhood memories, but I will try to tell one. It is a little fuzzy but I will tell it anyway.
One bright, sunny morning, my father woke me up and told me that I was getting a puppy. I was SO excited and I could not wait to pick out my favorite. So we all piled into the van and went down to Jacksonville, Florida (we lived in Georgia at the time). When we got there, I was just so thrilled! I had never seen so many spots before. If you didn’t guess, they were Dalmatian puppies. I had wanted one ever since I saw the movie 101 Dalmatians. I chose the one I wanted and called him Goliath (from my favorite television show at the time, The Gargoyles).
That was probably the best day of my childhood.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
One childhood memory is my first trip to the airport. I thought it was really cool, except for the escalators. I don’t know why, but i just stood at the starting point and stared at them. Some people pushed pass, which I thought was rude, but I still just stood there. It just looked scary i guess. I had always used stairs. This time was back before security was all tight and everything, so I thought it was neat, esp. the metal detector. Now, by that time, I had heard that cliche of airline food being absolutely horrible, but I really enjoyed it. I was a very odd child.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
My family has a tradition, every summer we go to some amusement park. Well, it just so happens that this one particular summer we went to Cedar Point in Ohio. I was so excited when we arrived at the park. My mom’s sister and her family met up with us there and we then spilt off in our little groups, I was so thrilled because this year I was actually tall enough to ride all of the rides, so ofcourse I was able to go with the older kids. Well the park closed at 9:00 and it was like 8:30 the park was about to close and we just wanted to go on this one last water ride called White Water Rapids, so we asked my cousin and her husband(since at the time we were with them) and they told us to go ahead. Well we didn’t want to get off the ride so every time we went by the place you were suppose to get off the ride we kept asking if we could keep going. After riding that ride eight times we finally got of it was 8:50, so we were trying to find our parents ( since my cousin and her husband had left us) and we were freaking out because the park was closing,(if you have ever been to a theme park when it’s about to close you know people are shoving and very rude) and then we decided to walk out of the water park and back into the amusement park and over by this huge clock tower there were our parents.We were so relieved. I would have to say this was one of my more fun childhood memories.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
On Mother’s Day when I was about 9 or 10 I got the tip of my finger cut off in our garage door. I was running out to see my grandmother and tell her “Happy Mother’s Day”. Little did I know, my friend was behind me and I was still holding on to the doorway when she closed the door. I ran to my mom crying and she and me dad took me to the hospital. The doctor said it would grow back, but in the meantime I had to wear bandages and a brace around it until it would heal. Unfortuantly, it was warm outside so we had cleaned out our pool so we could go swimming, I was the unlucky one who wasn’t able to go swimming for about a month. It wasn’t very much fun.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
when i was about 8 years old we when to Rome. When we got to Rome we got lost in Vatican City, but lunckly we found a old guy who showed use were to go. After that we look at the Colosseum, i didnt like it very much cause i got stunk in the hole in the wall. in Rome there are alot of people who love to steal money from., it was really funny cause my mother lost 500.00 ero. Sadly we had to leave Rome. Very mad about that.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
A childhood memory I will never forget is my first trip to the Buddha. Well, to be more precise, the way back from the Buddha.
It was getting late and we (my mom, my sister Ashley and I) needed to take a train home. Because we were still new to Japan, we did not know how to get on the train, so finally we asked a stranger which train would take us to Ikego or Yokosuka or wherever-I can’t remeber what city we lived in then.
The stranger was not very clear at all, he told us to get on the wrong train.
I jumped on it and before I heard him say “NO!!!” a crowd of Japanese buissness people blocked my way of the door. The door closed and I was on the train, about six years old in a foreign country.
I cried.
A lot.
I thought I was going to be a homeless orphan in a strange land forever.
But to make a long story short, finally a woman saw the whole thing and gave me directions that caused me to find my family.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
One childhood memoey I always have remembered was my going away party in the fourth grade. My best friend and his mom took it upon themselves to through me a going away party. It was the coolest thing anyone had ever done for me. They took seven of my friends and I to Chuckie Cheese and payed for everything. Everyone recieved at least eight hundred tickets. It truly is one of the most memorable times of my childhood.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I do not remember many many things but one that sticks out in my mind is one of the few things I remember of my grandpa.
I was seven years old and I was with him, my step grandma, step cousins, and step uncles, and of course my parents and stuff. My grandfather was a very “big” man and was always in a very big, black chair drinking a martini and watching the Miami Hurricanes on his wide screen TV. My step grandma doesn’t cook so she brought out some Vienna Sausages and I was happily eating them.
Then my grandpa turns to me and says,”Well, I guess you sure like those wennies don’t ya, Sarah?”
“Yes I do Grandpa.”
“Those better be the only wennies you do like!!!”
January 9th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
One of my strongest memories was my first rollercoaster. I was 10 years old and we went to silver doller city for vaction. As soon as we got there everyone (but me) wanted to go on FIRE IN THE WHOLE. Thats an indoor rollercoaster that made it seem like you where in a burning building. I was sacered to get on but I went because someone whould have had to sit with me (because i was so young) and I didn’t want anyone to miss the fun.So I went. The ride terrified me, and there was some complications. The complication was that the bar was to tight and the started the ride without looseing it. I couln’t breath and it was pitch black. During the whole you didn’t know where you where going. You drop down suddly, also you saw burning windows. I had a panic attack has soon has we got off. I’ve only been on a rollercoaster one other time, because my sister made me. I freaked out and threated to kill her. And I’ll never go on a nother rollercoaster. EVER AGIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!