Random memories from your youth

First random thing that came to mind was those horrid HOT plastic Halloween masks. They were so uncomfortable... and I remember the wonderful feeling of cool/cold late October air reaching my face when I lifted it between knocking on doors for candy. See, there's what made the masks worthwhile enduring... ended up with candy. :giggle:
 
Ok, here goes. My great grandparents had a farm with some cows and an old, mean mule named Bessie.

I must have been about five and I so wanted to ride the mule. Paw said that the mule was too mean to ride, but he'd take me down to the pasture and I could ride a cow.

The cow was only slightly less cranky than the mule.

That's my most vivid memory of my great grandfather, who died the next year.
 
CinnamonSugar said:
That’s a lot of ground to cover, @bobcat You want school memories, friends, hobbies…?
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Sure any memories or experiences growing up are welcome. Good, bad, or otherwise.
A lot of who we are now has come from those early experiences in life.
Anything that comes to mind when you think of those years, if you don't mind sharing, here's an opportunity.
 
CallMeKate said:
First random thing that came to mind was those horrid HOT plastic Halloween masks. They were so uncomfortable... and I remember the wonderful feeling of cool/cold late October air reaching my face when I lifted it between knocking on doors for candy. See, there's what made the masks worthwhile enduring... ended up with candy. :giggle:
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Ha ha. I had the same thing. It was a pirate's mask made out of rubber. It was like wearing a rubber glove on your face.
 
When I was a kid, we lived in a house between two large creeks that turned into rivers and overflowed their banks during the winter. Our house was on a 3 ft foundation, and a couple times water even started to come into the house, and we had to be rescued twice (One by boat, and another by a large power wagon). Big logs were even bumping into the house which was very unsettling. After the floods, there was a lot of debris to clean up and fences to fix. Here's a pic of our house.

earliest picture of Varamont Substation.jpg
 
I remember one time during my first job as a teenager. I was moving a small pickup truck and, for some reason, was in a rush to get it moved and get out of it. As I quickly turned to exit the vehicle, the sleeve of my jacket caught the gear lever (it was a manual transmission). There was a brief grinding of gears as I stepped out -- unwittingly putting the truck into 1st gear while the engine was still running.

From outside, I turned around just in time to see the truck slowly moving off with no one in it. I ran after it, literally jumping into the cabin and landing across both front seats. I grabbed the gearstick with both hands, yanked it out of gear, and somehow managed to press the brake with my hand, my feet still dangling out the door.

When I finally got out, having turned the engine off, three of my colleagues were standing there laughing. One of them was laughing so hard he had to stoop down, holding himself up with one hand on the floor so that he wouldn't fall over.

It took an hour or two before I saw the funny side of it!
 
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Having a pet crow. He was a little devil! I loved him to pieces. He took a few things of my stepfather's and threw them in our pool. A watch and I think a lighter. He cracked me up! He would follow my school bus 🚐 to the school and back. It was a good ways from home too. He would land on my arm when I got off the bus. I think he was watching over me.
 
After we moved from Florida to Hawaii, dad bought a 'Sunfish' sailboat for us 3 boys.
It was 14 ft. long, flat hull with a 4 ft. beam and it's what I learned how to sail on.
Being a 'beach launch' type, easy to get in and out of the water.
I called her 'Makani', the Hawaiian name for 'Wind'.

My brothers never really took to sailing and it sort of became mine.
Dad and I would haul it down to Keehi Lagoon where he would patiently teach me.

Later, when I finally got my driver's license, I haul it around behind my Hillman Super Minx.
The boat only weighted 130 lbs., so not much trouble getting it around the island.
(Traffic was different there in the 60's)

Some of best memories are of sailing alone and trying to 'Blend with the Wind'.
 
Ruthanne said:
Having a pet crow. He was a little devil! I loved him to pieces. He took a few things of my stepfather's and threw them in our pool. A watch and I think a lighter. He cracked me up! He would follow my school bus 🚐 to the school and back. It was a good ways from home too. He would land on my arm when I got off the bus. I think he was watching over me.
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Wow, that's amazing ... so he was an outside pet, how did you befriend him or vise versa?
 
I remember before I had my first fishing pole, I would just use a hand line, and I would go down to the bridge, and there was a support rail just under the driving surface of the bridge that ran the full length. I would shimmy out on that rail which was just a bit over a foot wide. From there I could see the carp coming up the river because it wasn't that deep. I had plenty of bait for free because the floods would bring in a lot of silt on our property, and the worms loved it.

Anyway when I would spot a carp coming, I would just lower the bait down where I thought he would pass under me. After a hook up, I would have to let him play out and then I would have to shimmy backwards to the end of the bridge and slide down the bank to land him. They weren't much good for eating, but we had outside cats,, and they would love to see me coming with a fresh fish.

When I think back now how many times I could have fallen off that rail, it makes me realize how lucky I was that nothing happened. I had no good sense and too much confidence for my own good back then.
 
Rural Texas spending the night with my best friend who lived a couple of miles outside of town. She had a mule and a cart that attached behind it for riders. We talked her mom into letting us hook up the cart and ride into town. Everything went according to plan until we came to some railroad tracks. The mule was determined not to cross the tracks and we were determined to cross them.

The mule won. It got itself turned around and headed back toward the house at maximum speed with my friend and me bouncing up and down in the cart and holding on for dear life. That crazy mule ran all the way back to the house and stopped about a hair's breadth from running straight into the side of the house, then stopped on a dime. The cart turned over. Then the mule just patiently stood there, nose to house. We were not hurt but that was the last time we asked to take the mule to town.
 
DebraMae said:
Rural Texas spending the night with my best friend who lived a couple of miles outside of town. She had a mule and a cart that attached behind it for riders. We talked her mom into letting us hook up the cart and ride into town. Everything went according to plan until we came to some railroad tracks. The mule was determined not to cross the tracks and we were determined to cross them.

The mule won. It got itself turned around and headed back toward the house at maximum speed with my friend and me bouncing up and down in the cart and holding on for dear life. That crazy mule ran all the way back to the house and stopped about a hair's breadth from running straight into the side of the house, then stopped on a dime. The cart turned over. Then the mule just patiently stood there, nose to house. We were not hurt but that was the last time we asked to take the mule to town.
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Ha ha. My son has spent a great deal of time around horses and mules, and currently owns a mule. He claims mules are very intelligent. A horse, you can get to do most anything once it has learned to trust you, even if it means jumping into a flowing river. A mule, however, works differently. It has to make sense to him, or he's just not gonna do it. The only solution is to convince him it's not crazy.
 
When I was a kid in NYC in my neighborhood stray dogs ran in packs. On the last day of school in kindergarten a stray was hanging out and picked me to Chase. I ran real fast to where my mother was. A block away but I could see her. The dog at my heels but I ran faster and jumped into making y mothers arms and she chased it away. My hero my mother. Yes indeed there were packs of dogs running together, on the loose. I studied their behavior.
 
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When I was six years old, an Arab terrorist tried to recruit me as a 'mole' (someone who gathers information). My father was in the army and we were living in Egypt at the time. Of course, as soon as I started asking questions about ammunition, etc, my father realised what was happening and reported the incident to the military police.
 
Feelslikefar said:
After we moved from Florida to Hawaii, dad bought a 'Sunfish' sailboat for us 3 boys.
It was 14 ft. long, flat hull with a 4 ft. beam and it's what I learned how to sail on.
Being a 'beach launch' type, easy to get in and out of the water.
I called her 'Makani', the Hawaiian name for 'Wind'.

My brothers never really took to sailing and it sort of became mine.
Dad and I would haul it down to Keehi Lagoon where he would patiently teach me.

Later, when I finally got my driver's license, I haul it around behind my Hillman Super Minx.
The boat only weighted 130 lbs., so not much trouble getting it around the island.
(Traffic was different there in the 60's)

Some of best memories are of sailing alone and trying to 'Blend with the Wind'.
Click to expand...
we had a Hillman Husky when I was a kid..well my father did....looked like this...
IMG_3465.jpg
..and then my brother got a Hillman MInx exactly like this...
1636-2.jpg
... and then when my DD was about 4 years old I got a Hillman Hunter... same as this....
d2b8073d86fa5a9f8563c6ddac937334.jpg
my Uncle my father's brother and my aunt who were both profoundly deaf with no speech, worked for HIllman then ultimately Rootes... and they were one of the first companies to employ disabled people...

Hillman were very popular here but the company was taken over by Rootes and then ultimately Chrysler
 
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The first thing that came to mind was going camping and spending the night in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma with my parents, grandparents, and a couple of kids from the neighborhood. Cooking out, sleeping in tents, feeding the squirrels, climbing the mountains, hiking.
1742561328002.jpeg
 
Feelslikefar said:
After we moved from Florida to Hawaii, dad bought a 'Sunfish' sailboat for us 3 boys.
It was 14 ft. long, flat hull with a 4 ft. beam and it's what I learned how to sail on.
Being a 'beach launch' type, easy to get in and out of the water.
I called her 'Makani', the Hawaiian name for 'Wind'.

My brothers never really took to sailing and it sort of became mine.
Dad and I would haul it down to Keehi Lagoon where he would patiently teach me.

Later, when I finally got my driver's license, I haul it around behind my Hillman Super Minx.
The boat only weighted 130 lbs., so not much trouble getting it around the island.
(Traffic was different there in the 60's)

Some of best memories are of sailing alone and trying to 'Blend with the Wind'.
Click to expand...
I remember those too well.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
In 1964, I finally got my high school class ring. It cost $19.95, which was big bucks back in '64. They passed them out just before classes ended at 3. On the way home, some kids from down the street threw snowballs at our "homies". Well, the war was on. Our side didn't do that well, we got super pelted. When I looked my ring was gone.
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we don't have them here so out of curiosity what IS a class ring ?
 
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