What is your favorite childhood memory ?

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What are your happy memories as a child? I had a very happy childhood and a lot was down to the times I grew up in. We didn't have the technology we have today so we had to make up our own fun and games.

One of my favorite memories was when I was around ten years old the rag man would call once a week to our house. If my mam had old clothes she would give hem to him and in exchange he would give me and my brothers and sisters a balloon or if he didn't have any balloons he would offer to do odd jobs around the house.

They really were happy days. So what happy memories do you remember as a child? Was it playing a children's game or just hanging around with friends and getting up to some sort of mischief ?

igCorcaigh

None really.

My life was really good as a child, but I just hated childhood. Don't know why.

Photobox

No particular memory. Just being able to shoot the breeze. Hang out with friends, not having to be anywhere apart from school or not being responsible for anyone. I will never know that freedom again. I had a very happy childhood thankfully , parents were kind and caring people.

Larbre34

I look at kids now and I realise my childhood was idyllic. Innocent really.

We knocked on each other's doors, we phoned each other on land lines (but only after 6pm), we spent our school holidays not being brought places by our parents or in tightly managed summer camps, but by exploring, playing, hurting ourselves, laughing, sun burning and generally soaking up the life lessons of becoming a person.

We had a fair balance of discipline and freedom and we weren't bombarded with information that we were too young to process, like I believe kids are today.

So my happy memories are a tapestry. Santa visits in Cornelscourt, Brittas Bay, car rides to see hurling matches in new and strange Counties, dozens of us playing football on the green, getting our dog when I was 7, day trips on the Ferry to Holyhead, learning to ride a bike and learning to swim on a Thursday evening after school.

Kids might have more experiences now, more windows on the World, but are they happier? Maybe they are, but I feel achieving joy and contentment for kids is a whole lot more challenging for parents today.

corner of hells

Learning to swim in the Guinness swimming pool , it gave me a life long interest in Guinness.

toggle toes

I totally agree. When my kids were young I would take them to all the places I went to as a child. I used to chat to them about what life was like for me as a child and how my mam stayed at home taking care of my brothers and sisters and I.

They couldn't belive my mam cared for four brothers and four sisters. They would look at me with disbelief. Wheather children are happier today it remains to be seen. All I know is that I wouldn't swap a minute of my childhood for today's childhood. That's just me.

BattleCorp

100% my happiest memory was the day my parents got the clergy repellent spray called Priest Off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veoQFiaz-zI

gidget

...

cute geoge

myself ,parents ,2 siblings ,my gran uncle and 2 grandparents lived together on a farm with another gran uncle and gran aunt llved next door and I spent as much time there as at home .I have brillant memories of all this time spent being reared by an older generation who were salt of the earth.My gran aunt was 1st to die when I was 13 and they were all gone by the time I was 18 ,When I look back it was a big change in such a short space of time but they were all upto and over 80 years of age .I was just thinking I was so lucky to have had my child hood in their company and cherish the memories

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120884583#Comment_120884583

99s and bags of chips. Youze were rich. We played on the gates in the cattle mart and beat fields of nettles and thistles with sticks.

And we were still happier than the miserable fcuks today with their heads stuck in a phone from one end of the day to the other.

Strumms

Couldn’t narrow it down to one….here are some…

I have to say every Christmas and birthdays and family events were great fun but aside from those….

1987 - first time in America, the whole excitement of a long haul flight on a jumbo… spent around one week with family in New York, flew down to Florida, all the theme parks etc and back to NY. Was excited about the long road trips and expansive scenery too. Brilliant hotel off International Drive super views of the fireworks and goings on and cool stuff for kids was next to the Outback restaurant too.🫣😋 7 of us in total and not a cross word from anyone to anyone.. hospitality from family in NY was other worldly.

1989 ? - my Dad had a significant health event and got to the hospital just in time… never so relieved to see my mother coming home happy at crazy AM to say… “everything will be ok” still with us but managing the condition wisely since.

1991 - escaping the death grip of a grim odious cûnt of a teacher, (she was a useless terror) and seeing out the end of my primary education being taught by an legend of a person and educator.

1993 - Florida again, enjoyed it more was by then a teenager. Did Busch gardens as well as other stuff like Universal we didn’t see the first time.

1994 - New York, got to go to lots of World cup games… including Ireland vs Italy. As much as I loved the Irish aspect… seeing live in the flesh… Baggio, Donadoni, Stoichkov, Baresi, Letchkov, Klinsmann, Mattheus… absolute all time forever greats of the game and out of this world entertaining. Competitive sport at its pinnacle in terms of entertainment and competitiveness and importance… still, nothing bet Ireland vs Italy, the Houghton goal and McGrath absolutely bossing the game, class.

toggle toes

Getting up early on a Summer's morning meeting my friends and walking the country side. We would laze about in the hay fields and go picking mushrooms picking. When I'd get back home my mam would make a delicious creamy mushrooms soup with homemade brown bread. Just delicious.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120886700#Comment_120886700

The hay fields were great.

toggle toes

We used to make camps out of the bails of hay. Don't see many bails of hay these days. All rolled up and wrapped in black plastic. Another great memory from my childhood years.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120886947#Comment_120886947

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120886947#Comment_120886947

That reminds me I nearly got sold to the farmers son one day when I was about 12.

We were all playing on the haybails and the farmers son was out and he was about 20. There was a good few of us out and I'm sure the farmers son was overwhelmed, didn't tell us to leave. Anyway some of the boys we were there with wanted a go on the tractor and the farmers son said no and one of the blokes basically said you can have her if you give me a go on the tractor and the farmers son looked at me like he almost considered it for a second and then said 'ah nah I couldn't do that'!!

Ye fun times...

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That's a great memory. Shame on your brother. He was going to sell you for just one ride on the tractor. Sure we all did silly things when we were young. It was part of our innonence as children.

cj maxx

Looking at clouds with my friends

also picking fruit of the hedges. Raiding orchards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888017#Comment_120888017

Eh not my brother. My brother would never say that. It was a friend/aquaintance who hung around in the same group.

Joining my friends and their mother down the road for walks around the suburbs, she always had interesting & scary anecdotes about things that happened in this or that house, and how burglars gained access to certain houses. Walks too with my mother who told me the life stories of people who lived in the various houses when out on our walks. 😁

pgj2015

I used to love the last day of primary school before Christmas, we used to have a school play after the last day of school. Then you had Christmas day to look forward to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888278#Comment_120888278

I absolutely went mental for those Súgradh/Spraoi/Siamsa/Sonas annuals we'd get around that time.

Vestiapx

Playing rounders with the other kids in the local green till it got dark

One hand and youre out

mariaalice

loads of things, getting up very early on Christmas morning and finding a doll's house, cutting out paper dolls, playing snakes and ladders on Christmas day, sitting in front of the fire with all my family on a dark wet night, and feeling warm and secure and safe.

rubberdungeon

Late 70’s/early 80’s the neighbours had plants and flowers in their garden. One of the plants had long thin stems with soft leaves, the plant was all green I think and didn’t grow tall but had lots of stems.

Kids plucked the stems from the base of the plant and sucked the juice from the stem. I think they called them jucie’s but I’ve no idea what that plant was.

If anyone knows what that plant might have been, I’d love to know!

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888465#Comment_120888465

Red Clover?

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888465#Comment_120888465

Fuschia. Supposedly you could catch mackerel with them, but in fairness they’d eat anything

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/fuchsia/growing-fuchsia-flower.htm

toggle toes

Building a bonfire for Halloween. My friends and I would call around to the neighbors houses and collect any old furniture they had to build a bonfire. The neighbour's would also help build the fire.

Many a time we got chased by the fire brigade because the bonfire would be too big. Afterwards we would sit around and tell ghost stories eat othe treats we got trigger treating. Mostly monkey nuts which I hated.

Speedsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888465#Comment_120888465

Did the leaves look like larger shamrock & the juice kind of tart/sour?

Could be sorrel/oxalis. I drank plenty of its stems in the 70s myself!

https://www.wildfooduk.com/edible-wild-plants/pink-sorrel/

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120889100#Comment_120889100

Never done bonfires for halloween, just June around the solstice. Used to wait until dark to light it, of course back then we didn’t realize it was the longest day of the year.

phormium

Sunday afternoons, Disney film on tv, curtains pulled, orange mi-wadi and box of USA biscuits.

griffin100

Tying a rope onto a lamppost to make a swing

Playing sides or 'kerbs' with extra points for getting it over a car

Climbing trees to dizzying heights that nowadays would have your folks interrogated by TUSLA

Going swimming in the local baths, and having to walk home coz you spent the 25p bus fair on sweets

Heads and volleys against the neighbors gate and no one out complaining about the noise

Being able to disappear from home in the summer from sunrise and not coming home until sunset, usually covered in muck with a few cuts and bruises from that days adventure and your parents not even remotely worried about the fact you were gone all day

Rubbing baby oil on your skin on a hot day in the hope of getting a tan

Finding a dirty magazine in a friends house and the way it'd make you feel as a young chap

Sitting on the green to watch the older bolder lads do handbrake turns in stolen cars, occasionally pursued by the Garda

As you got older waiting by a payphone to ring a girl at a certain time and some fcuker hogging the box and having to bang on the glass to hurry them along

As a child of the 70's and 80's we had so much more freedom without the social media bullsh1t or the other bolloxollogy kids have to put up with now - we were allowed to be kids. I have 4 kids now myself and despite trying to allow them as much freedom as possible I really couldn't imagine letting my youngest who is now 12 head off for 12 hours without knowing where she was or who she was with in the way we used to. Times change I suppose.

yourdeadwright

I had a wonderful childhood we didn't have much , we didn't even have a car until i was 16 , no holidays abroad till 16 either, but my parents sacrificed everything to move to a nice area & get us out of Dublin city centre , Im forever thankful to them

In the early 90's as a young teen myself & my friends would head out & god knows what we'd get up , down the beach, abandoned mansion , golf course ,Corn fields , who knows, such freedom something i'll never experience again in my life, I'm not even sure kids of today get it,

Building bonfires in October, was another brilliant time of year,

Getting shots on the older lads scramblers ,

Going ot bed excited about what adventure lied ahead tomorrow,

Summer holidays in Dingle & Galway with the extended family where unreal ,

Both my folks have dementia now & some times all that seems like a lifetime ago, like did it even happen ,

I'll forever be in debt to them & now i just want to give my own kids them brilliant memories we had,

BlackEdelweiss

My father lighting a Major in the car when we were in the back seat. The smell was like something from heaven. I used to sit up between the front seats and inhale deeply through my nose to get a good sniff of it. Bliss! It was only that first puff when he lit it. The nausea probably set in after that, which was probably settled by a good 5 minutes of inhaling the cool, smooth fumes!

JupiterKid

I had a very happy childhood growing up in suburban Dublin in the 1980s - my late father was a self-made man who worked very hard to give my mother, sisters and myself the things and comforts that he didn't have as a boy.

Endless Summer days on the BMX bike with my mates going around the area exploring, visiting abandoned houses etc. A mini-adventure much of the time! 🚲

Holidays on our boat on the Shannon and a much slower, different pace of life back then compared to today. The occasional holiday abroad in the sun.

No social media and no mobile phones. Over the Summer holliers my mum would say "it's a great day outside there, out you get 'til dinner time." Lots of freedom.

I was aware that things were very, very grim back then on the economic front from the news on TV in the evenings (yes, Anne Doyle and Eileen Dunne were reading the news back then 😁) - factories closing down every day, mass unemployment, mass emigration - but for a boy who was pretty much shielded from that and really wanted for nothing, it was pretty close to an idyllic childhood. 👍👍😊

toggle toes

When my kids started going to discos I would not sleep a wink until I heard the key turn in the front door. When I look back I thank God they got home safe. I would like to think things have changed but if anything things have gotten worse.

I can't imagine the worry parents go through when their kids hit the teenage years and start going to discos and partying. Different times unfortunately. A far cry from when my brothers, sisters and I were able to go to a disco in the 70's and 80's and feel safe walking home alone at 2.00am in the morning.

They really were innocent times that we may never see again unless today's society changes which is something I can't see happening in the immediate future.

Cluedo Monopoly

When I think of my childhood, I immediately think of the local river. I spent so much time down there with friends - swimming, jumping off a bridge, running the rapids on tyre tubes, fishing, camping, chatting, bonfires or simply walking the bank for miles. Bliss. Whenever I am home, I always pop down to the river for a look. Nothing has changed. I told my wife I want my ashes scattered in 2 spots on the river.

cj maxx

Playing 45 and drinking ginger ‘wine ‘ at Christmas. I still keep a ginger drink in the car. And 45 is still the best card game.!

cj maxx

Also bringing bales of hay out to calves out wintered with my brand new cassette walkman

listening to this

https://youtu.be/lDK9QqIzhwk

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890728#Comment_120890728

Me too . Growing up in the 80’s on what used to be a farm I went whole hog into it , while my brothers and sister were embarrassed. I caught rabbits that we lived on and brought fruit back to mammy to make tarts . I went to , and loved, the bog where we kept the house warm during the winter . Good and innocent times , then the celtic tiger roared and the ones who were embarrassed about where they came from suddenly developed an interest in sites etc

scudzilla

If 16/17 is considered childhood then my greatest memory is riding 16/17yr old girls.....i just cant get away with that now

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120891779#Comment_120891779

Yep, similar. Magical times.

SuperBowserWorld

I remember a first heavy snow and school was off for 2 weeks. Early eighties. Think we were about 10 at the time.

We went to a local hill to slide down snow for the first time on plastic bags, and then better, plastic bags files with snow, and then somone made a sled that wasn't as good as the plastic bags and the big lads arrived with car bonnets to slide down on and the whole hill was full of people.

I'm not sure how people were not killed by the car bonnets. And then someone actually arrived with skis ... which noone had ever seen before. No plastic rain gear, maybe plastic bags to keep the snow out of your wellington boots. Totally frozen and cold, but did t even notice.

We got a few days out of that and then it all turned to brown slush and we had to go back to school.

SuperBowserWorld

Primary school summer holidays. Out all day messing about on borrowed bikes and going to the river/stream every day to paddle, swim, fish for stickleback (pinkeens) /minnows/lamprays/ .. with a few dogs and even some cats to follow us sometimes. Bring a picnic with food. Sometimes our mothers would come with us. We were never bored or unhappy. Sometimes we'd go to the river in the evening, and the whole place would be packed if the weather was right. Just the happiest times.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120892069#Comment_120892069

Classic. We had the same name for the little fish - sticklebacks, pinkeens, minnows and even Jarr-ogs.

We had this old heavy frying plan and we'd light a fire and throw in some butter and sausages. When the sausages were "cooked", we'd dump a can of beans into the pan and simmer for a while. We'd gulp it all down with heavily buttered white bread. Heavenly. Then we'd throw the pan into the river rapids for a thorough clean.

toggle toes

Playing marbles. There was only one shop in our town who sold marbles. I would do some chores for my gran father enough to be able to buy a bag of marbles. The coloured marbles were the ones that were worth the most.

Three was only one coloured marble in one bag so they were pretty rear. Sometimes I would offer a friend four or five marbles for a coloured one to add to my collection. Great fun was had all round.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120891956#Comment_120891956

I think the best childhoods are ones with freedom & sheer adventure, We only moved to North county Dublin but it had so much space & freedom at your front door it was amazing ,

I'm back in towards the City now with my own family but even with my own kids i try my best to make weekends full of outdoors's & exploring ,beeches, woods, fields , there's just more sense of adventure & freedom to it all.

Hyperbollix

My abiding childhood memory is endless games of football in my aunt's garden in the summers of the mid 90's with my cousin and two guys who lived locally.

Over the space of 3 or 4 years we all went from innocent kids playing games, climbing trees and exploring in the local woods, to drinking in those woods and having our first kiss (not with each other, I might add!) to eventually hitting 17/18 and the inevitable closing of that chapter of our lives.

It was idyllic in many ways. Rural/small town Ireland of the 1990s. We didnt have much, but we had freedom. No phones, no internet, we were so innocent compared to todays kid's. Wouldn't change anything about it.

cj maxx

^^^^^

remided me of birthday parties with my neighbours ( and best friends ) with cheap light footballs . And queue our collie bursting it 😀 . There was no big party , just a cake and rice krispie buns . Then out to play.

kerryjack

Simple life in west Kerry in 70s and 80s helping the father on the small farm staying up late with the mother and father if they was a cow ready to have a calf and the sheer excitement of it all. How important that little farm was to them and the joy they got out of it back than. Yet looking back they had so little but they were so happy and proud of there lot.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120901553#Comment_120901553

Alot of people , me included , get as much joy out of farming land and seeing it being productive. Its worth it to pass on something better than you received . If that makes sense.

dartboardio

When my grandparents used to take the family down to a tiny village in Kerry every Summer for two weeks. I had no siblings so my cousin was my bestfriend, both mad as hatters. Getting our wellies on and going to explore the local fields, the smell of the countryside, making grandad drive us down to the shop to buy sweets and hide them in our bedrooms.

Playing 'Shop' in my grandmothers kitchen on New Years Eve, around 7/8 years old. We were allowed to stay up late for the first time ever, we had an ironing board laid out in the kitchen with all the Christmas sweets and we were pretending it was our little shop.

The smell of my grandmothers 'old lady' perfume, the safety and sense of security and love I felt and still do feel in her presence. She used to take me on a 'granny day' into town; basically meant going to get cake, hot chocolate and her spoiling me for the day. :')

Happy memories playing 'I spy with my little eye' with granny as she washed me and combed my hair in the bath.

Calling up to my grandmothers neighbors house 'to say hello' , which really meant every single time she would act surprised that we were there, take us into her kitchen and let us dig into her sweetie press, she always had little ready made bags of jellies, crisps and lollipops to hand out to us