Special events you looked forward to as a kid

We picked black raspberries, OP, every summer. My aunt would send us out with colendars and pots and shit, and we'd eat as many as we'd save. But that night we would have warm black raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream.

Divine.

R1 Ooh that sounds delicious!

We were allowed to have a few. Mostly it would happen when my gram visited, and her and my mom would do a batch of canning with the berries and green beans.

That jam/jelly was sooooo good come January on ice cream or toast.

Yearly Great Adventure trip

When the fair came every year. Schools had the kids enter art competitions or some shit where you could win a ribbon. 4-H club did horticulture and animal stuff. The adults could enter pie or cake baking contests. Then there were the rides and (rigged) games. And musical acts. I'd probably hate it now, but as a kid it was fun.

I was a nerd, but I really loved getting ready to go back to school. It was a bit of a thing until we were in high school. A few moms would always be at the bus stops with us the first few days (bus schedules changed yearly). I'd be so excited and nervous for that first week.

In HS our youth group worked at a fall festival and sold sandwiches and soft drinks as a fundraiser. Our families would help, too. That was always nice.

It was a cool little town square, and when all the leaves turned in the fall the whole area was just beautiful. I don't really miss a lot of my home region much, but that area, I miss.

When I was a kid our town used to shoot off fireworks on the fourth of July that we could see from our backyard. The neighbors would come over and we'd sit on blankets, watching, drinking cokes and eating potato chips.

It's a happy memory of a time that wasn't always so happy.

Huge annual book sale on the top floor of the biggest department store downtown. I remember the cage elevator doors being opened to reveal tables stacked with books as far as the eye could see, and wanting to jump for joy.

The last Friday of every month, was home made personal pizza, and movie marathon night. My parents let us stay up late, have pizza, junk food and soda. The rest of the time we had a no sugar policy in place.

We had a boat, and every Fourth of July, we would go our into Elliot Bay, and watch the fireworks with the Seattle skyline behind them. There was also Seafair on Lake Washington with the Blue Angels, boat races, and we got to go through the Ballard Locks, it was so much fun.

Salmon berry, and wild huckleberry picking in the woods with all the kids, and their mothers who lived on our street. We would also catch, and smoke fish. I lived around a lot of Native Americans, so while it sounds like a weird activity, it was pretty common for us, even though I wasnt one.

I miss Christmas as a kid, mostly because we'd drive around and see all the lights, and we would do luminaries in front of everyone's house. It was so cozy.

They don't do that as much in my hometown and also, it never snows any more at Christmas : (

Back-to-school shopping — but for stationery items, not clothes.

Give me a Trapper Keeper, lined paper, GRAPH paper, a three-hole plastic pencil case that snaps into the Trapper Keeper, a pack of multicolored index cards, a Bic pen with four different colored ink cartridges (the BEST), mechanical pencils (the NEXT BEST), a gum eraser, a SCENTED eraser, a plastic protractor/ruler set, and I was in CHILD HEAVEN.

I looked forward to the day we went shopping for that stuff for weeks, and would spend an hour dawdling over the choices.

None. Because any special event could be ruined by one or both of my parents going mental.

It's not as if I had no fun or pleasant moments growing up. But to look forward to a special event knowing full well it could turn into some melt-down or tantrum? Didn't seem practical.

So the one thing my parents couldn't fuck up (because they had no input) was the premiere of new tv shows in the fall.

Mostly because everyone in the house had their own television in a different room.

I remember one night we were all watching the same show on out individual TVs--and I was very grateful.

[quote] it never snows any more at Christmas : (

That's so sad. Hugs to you r10 and the planet...