Do you have a favorite childhood memory? It is fun to think back, and I especially love to hear my grandmother's stories from her childhood. If you have any old favorite memories please pass them on.

When I was young I went to church camp every year. It was a week of such fun and Christian companionship. I loved the classes, the activities, really just everything about it even the smell of the frsh cut grass, and the peace of the woods and streams. It was absolutely glorious to me!

When I would be having a rough time at home, and nightmares and couldn't sleep, I would just think of this wonderful place and peace would come.

I think as adults you can never know what kind of life many children live and what little things can bring happiness...

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 02, 2001

Answers

My favorite childhood memory was during a journey with my family as we traveled from California to Pennsylvania. It was the summer after my freshman year in highshool. We tried to do the typical tourist things on our trip, which was one of the few times we ever took a month just for pleasure as a whole family. Anyway, we stopped at the Grand Canyon and toured the upper portions on our way east. We ventured over toward what was advertised to be an Apache Indian Reservation. I honestly had never even seen an American Indian in my life and had grand romantic visions of whom I would meet. Nothing like Hollywood though. This reservation was so different from my imagination, however. It looked just like everywhere else. But, they did have people selling different crafts sitting on the rocks near the reservation. My family wanted to see the touristy type trinkets, but I was more interested in an Apache Grandma selling simple seed necklaces. She literally looked like one of those dried apple dolls that were crafted years ago. My desire to talk to her almost made that shy girl blurt out clumsy sentences, but I used my eyes more than my mouth that day. She couldn't speak English and I her language, but we managed to exchange information regarding one of her necklaces. The entire time I was engaged in this conversation, she looked at the ground. After I gave her the money and I put the necklace around my neck, she looked up and stared into my face. Her gaze was so intense that it left me weak. Seconds seemed like hours as the lines on her face told me stories of a life-style that took twice as much time as I would ever have. At that moment, this Apache Grandma seemed like the most important thing in the world to me. She has haunted me ever since and I have yet to understand why I was affected so. I've come up with different ideas based upon my life at that moment, but the only thing that has stuck with me is the sense that she and I were related. Thank you for asking this question, Melissa. I loved reliving that memory.

Iris

-- Iris (WatchingWideEyed@peaceful.com), December 03, 2001.

I had a dog with the mange. My parents decided to get rid of it, so we took it out on a backroad and left it (not good policy, I know). On the way home, my sister and I boohooed so much, that my dad told my mom to go back and get it. She did, and we doctored that poor animal with everything we knew to use.

-- Randal (motivo@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Every summer I would spend a week with my Grandma Yoder and go to the VBS at her church. One year my Mom decided to go grocery shopping before she took me to Grandma's, but I chose not to go to the store with her. She was gone for what seemed like hours and hours so I was in a very excited state of mind when she drove into the driveway. I went running through the house to hurry her along and WHAMO! I hit my hand on a chair and dislocated my knuckle. I rolled around on the floor crying and saying I want to go to Grandma's now. When we got there Grandma rubbed my hand with linament and wrapped it with an ACE bandage. The next day my whole hand was swollen and bruised, so Mom came back and took me to the doctor. He snapped my knuckle back int place, I almost fainted, but wanted to go back to Grandma's. I loved being at her house!

-- Jo (mamamia2kids@msn.com), December 03, 2001.