As we prepare for the holiday season, we asked the employees at Rockpointe to share their most memorable Childhood memories, we hope you enjoy your time with them this season and create memories with your families.
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The twinkling of Christmas lights, music, laughter, singing, dancing and Christmas dinner at our house with aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and grandparents.
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I grew up in a very old home without central air or heat, and during the winters our water pipes would freeze if we did not sufficiently heat the house with our woodstove. So, a lot of our family time consisted of chopping and stacking firewood. We also gathered coal off of the railroad tracks that ran about ½ mile on the other side of our woods. If we weren’t diligent, our pipes would freeze and we would have to go get water a few miles down the road from a pipe running out of the ground. We’d boil it to drink and heat it to bathe in. The Good Ole Days.
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My parents would host these big music parties where their friends would bring instruments and play music around a bonfire late into the night. The first time I ever sang for a crowd was at one of these parties – the song was “Walking After Midnight” by Patsy Cline.
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Every year around the 4th of July I would have bottle rocket wars with my siblings. We lived in the country, but had a paved road in front of the house that had a slight slope to it. It was always me and my step sister against my brother and step brother (girls against boys). The advantage was to be at the bottom of the hill so when you shot your bottle rocket it would fly off the pavement and go off near your opponent’s head. Fun times!! As I look back on it now, it was kind of dangerous. But thankfully no one ever got hurt or their eye put out.
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My friend’s dad was a DJ and every year the day before the first day of school he would throw the best block party with all of the neighbors. There was music, food, games, and a movie outside!
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When we were young our parents told us that we had to be asleep with ours closed eyes closed when Santa came otherwise he would not deliver any gifts. So around 10pm, our father would sneak outside with some giggle bells and stand by the family room window and shake the bells and yell out Ho, Ho, Ho…. We ran as fast as we could up the stairs and held our eyes closed as tight as we could. We would tell our parents to be quite as to not to disturb Santa. Eventually, we would fall asleep and wake up very early (5:00am) and woke up our parents so we could see what Santa left us. It was always lots of fun and we could never figure out how he fit all those toys around the Christmas tree. We carried this on with our children and it give parents breathing room to put the tree together as the children sleep waiting for Santa.
Eventually, we would fall asleep but we would wake up very early and then wake up our parents so we could see what Santa left us. It was always lots of fun and we could never figure out how he fit all those toys around the Christmas tree. We carried this on with our children and it gave parents breathing room to put the tree together as the children sleep waiting for Santa.
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My favorite childhood memories were summer days with our close knit-group of neighborhood kids. Every day, we would spend virtually the entire day splashing around and playing games at our community pool. We would stay until it closed, go home for just long enough to eat dinner, and then head right back outside to play hide-and-seek for the rest of the night. The games got pretty competitive and our one neighbor did not like the noise that came along with that (she called the cops on us several times).
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We would “make donuts” using a container of Pillsbury biscuits. We would open the container and take the biscuits out, use a milk jug or bottle top to poke the holes in the middle, and then fry the big donuts and “holes” in oil on the stove, and then shake in one of two bags to top – plain sugar or cinnamon sugar. Yummy! I have carried on the tradition with my kids, but only on Thanksgiving morning (or when one of them says let’s “pretend” it’s Thanksgiving morning, how can I say no!). We make donuts and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with hot chocolate. Hopefully this will be one of their favorite childhood memories as well.
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My parents owned a very large hardware store and my older sister and I would go up into the storage areas with our lunch, climb through all the boxes/furniture/large equipment and find a cubby to have lunch together. Usually, we would end up on the highest rafters or sitting inside a kitchen cabinet that fit both of us.
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One of my fondest childhood memories is a day that my Mom came to get me out of school early. I had no idea she would be doing that, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. It turns out she came to get me so my visiting younger cousin and I could go sledding without having to share the hill with anyone else! I never got to play hooky, so it was really special and fun!
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On Christmas morning, my brother and I would wait at the top of the stairs while my dad went downstairs to make sure Santa wasn’t still there. He would turn on the lights in the family room and the lights on the tree and put music on. He would then call us down. After we opened presents my mom would make pancakes for breakfast.
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Every summer my whole family would get together for a cookout. The fun began after everyone ate. Everyone enjoyed each other’s company while playing cards, horseshoes, or on the jungle gym. What I remember the most, is everyone dancing while my cousin’s band played.
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Every year we’d decorate a real tree for Christmas. After all of the lights, ornaments, and tinsel were in place, we’d drink hot chocolate and then sleep on the floor in the living room with the twinkle of the Christmas lights. It felt magical.
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On Saturdays evening, my mom and I used to have dinner with pastries and hot chocolate.
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My whole family was in community theater growing up. My parents designed sets, and my 2 sisters and I acted from the time I was 5 years old through high school.
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Every year growing up, while the rest of us got gifts and candy in our stockings, my dad would find junk in his, including clothespins, rocks, and an old potato. One year, as a way to outsmart Santa, he hung his stocking upside down. Sure enough, we woke up and found his upside-down stocking empty. My dad cheered and laughed that he’d gotten one over. Then, towards the end of opening the gifts under the tree, my dad found a big box wrapped up with a note that said “Special Gift for Dad!” He quickly opened it up to find clothespins, rocks, and two old potatoes. Santa always found a way.
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I learned to drive a stick shift at 8. We had a vacation home that we went to every weekend that was a farm. I wanted to learn how to drive the tractor so my grandfather attached blocks to the clutch, gas, and brake on the tractor so my feet could reach and taught me how.
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Growing up in a small town, I was fortunate enough to experience the outdoors at a very early age. Summers were the best. Armed with a fishing pole and a few worms, I would jump on my bike and head to the river. A perfect Norman Rockwell setting. Being a member of a local youth group also provided me with the opportunity to do a variety of outdoor adventures including all kinds of camping, backpacking, river floating, and caving. Those were the early seeds that have established my love of everything outdoors today.
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My childhood home had a seasonal pond in the back yard. Each Spring we would collect frog eggs to hatch and we would watch them transition from egg to tadpole to baby frog. Unfortunately, mosquitos also laid their eggs in this pond water and one year we hatched mosquitos! My mother was horrified.
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When I was about 7 ½ years old, I was climbing a tree in my backyard. The tree was hanging over a chained linked fence which meant I was over the chained link fence. My 6-year-old sister was playing under the tree below me when I fell about 8 feet and landed on the fence. I fell right onto the top of the fence and my chest was stabbed by the top crisscrossing spikes. I was basically being held on the fence by the barbs going into my chest. I was screaming and in so much pain but no one heard me and no one was coming to help. My sister then decided she was going to step into action. She pushed my feet upwards so I could get freed from the spikes and climb down. I needed a couple of stitches and ended up fine but to this day, she tells everyone she saved my life when we were young and that if she hadn’t helped me, I would have died on the fence. I am not sure that would have happened but I never challenge her story as she remembers it only as a 6-year-old baby sister would.
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Fond memories of Sunday-Oldies-Movie-Afternoons. We used to watch oldies movies with my parents each Sunday after about 3pm. My mom used to knit or embroil while my dad was snoozing on and off in his big chair. My older sister would stretch on the sofa and I would build my fort on the floor under the table.
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During the summer months of my grade school years , there was a large group of neighborhood boys who would play Indian Ball (a modified form of baseball) in the street in front of our house. We would be out there almost every night until dark. We lived two blocks off a major 4 lane street in our town which was the street for cruising and on Friday and Saturday nights the HS kids cruising in the cars would use our street as means to turn around and head back the other direction. The would fly up our street way over the speed limit which was a huge safety issue. But I wasn’t worried about it from a safety standpoint; hated that we constantly had to stop our game. Well…one Friday night I had reached my limit. Frankie and Danny’s grandmother lived next door and she had huge garden with many very large and over-ripe tomatoes and it was time to send a message. I hit the passenger side mirror that sent tomato guts all through the interior of this Mustang Fastback. Have you ever seen a bunch of 4th graders scurrying like rats before? It was utter chaos. Of course, we knew all the good hiding places were the boys in the mustang looked for us but gave up after about an hour. They never found us but we did need to find a new place to play after that.
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Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Year