I saw a “Childhood Memories Meme” over at Jen’s and a “7 Things That Happened To Me As a Teenager” meme at newly-discovered Mama Bear’s. I thought I’d combine them here.

Childhood memories meme:

1. What was your favorite childhood family vacation?

I don’t remember that we actually went on vacations except to my grandmother’s or uncle’s house. The thing I loved about that particular uncle was that, of his 5 kids, 3 were girls close to my age and all of our birthday were in August. One was a year older than me, one was the same age I was, and the other was a year younger. I remember once we celebrated all of our birthdays at once with a big party. Other than that, if we went anywhere it was to the beach. I grew up in Corpus Christi, TX, and we made multitudes of excursions to Padre Island. Camp-outs, cookouts, birthday parties — a lot of that kind of thing happened there, besides just regular Saturdays at the beach. We moved from there when I was 13, and I had forgotten how much I missed it until we want back for a family reunion when I was in my early 30s. Sadly, just wading into the water then left us with globs of oil on our legs. I hope that’s better now.

2. If you knew your grandparents, what do you remember most about them as a child? If you didn’t know them, what stories do you remember being told about them?

My father’s father died before I was born. I really don’t know much about him. My mother’s mother passed away when I was about 4. She had cancer the last few years of her life and had some kind of bag set-up — I don’t remember if she had had her colon removed or just what. My mom says I asked her about it, and my mom was horrified, but my grandmother just matter-of-factly explained what it was for, and I was satisfied.

My mother’s father was tall and thin, constantly teased us, and had a unique laugh.

My father’s mother was short and plump. She is the one I probably spent the most time with, at least that I can remember. Her grown kids were spread out in TX, LA, and AL, and she would drive to see them all — we called her the Galloping Grandma. 🙂 There were a couple of summers she took me with her, and I loved that. For a few years when we lived in the same town, I would spend the night with her. We shared a love of reading and would stay up late at night reading different books.

3. Do you have siblings or not? What do you remember about growing up with or without them?

I have 5, 1 brother and 4 sisters. I’m the oldest. We’re quite spread apart — the first four of us are 4 years apart from each other; the youngest was born when I was 17. After my parents were divorced and my brother lived with my father for a while, I felt more like an assistant mom than a big sister. They were still pretty young when I married and left home at 22. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them as adults when we get together, which isn’t often enough.

4. What did you like best about summer vacation from school?

Just being off. 🙂 We roamed a lot more then than I let my children roam now, riding bikes, swimming in the creek, hanging out.

5. Did you like school or dislike school? What is your most memorable school moment?

Loved it. I’ve always loved learning, and except for 7th-9th grades (what is it about jr. high?) had friends. I was always more inclined to have 1 close friend than “group.”

7 Things That Happened to Me As a Teen-ager: 

1. My parents divorced when I was about 15.

2. We moved from a very small town (less than 200) to Houston, Texas, with a population then of over 1 million. It was a culture shock.

3. I was saved.

4. I started dating a guy that I ended up dating for 4 years and got engaged to, but it was all wrong. Thankfully the Lord showed me that before we actually got married.

5. I got into a good-Bible teaching church and was taught to read the Bible through.

6. I heard about the college I would eventually go to. College was “the impossible dream,” or so it seemed, but God provided.

7. I made another big move from TX to SC to go to college, not knowing that SC would become “home” and I would live there 27 years, including college years.

This wasn’t part of the meme, but I thought it would be fun to look at 7 historical things that happened during my teens , which happened to be from 1970-1979:

1. Four student protestors were shot by the National Guard at Kent State University.

2.  Elvis Presley died.

3. Cult leader Jim Jones led followers in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

4. The “energy crisis” occurred. I remember looooong gas lines and Jimmy Carter regulating our thermostats.

5. American troops pulled out of Viet Nam.

6. In the 1976 Summer Olympics, Nadia Comaneci of Romania was the first gymnast to receive perfect scores.

7. Modern computing was born with the Intel 4004

If you’d like to do any or all of these memes, let me know! Or you can answer in the comments section.

(Historical details courtesy of Wikipedia)