When you look back on your life up until now, what is your most cherished memory, or tradition you shared with your parents? And what are you doing to be a cherished memory in your child's life?

 

I am sad to say, I have no cherishable memory of my parents. My most favored moment in childhood was leaving for the last time.

 

I remember my dad coming in and getting me up early on saturday mornings to go hunting. We would spend hours wandering around in the woods behind our house, watching squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, and occasionally deer. I have so many memories from those saturday mornings that I cherish. Once we were squirrel hunting and he let me carry his 22 and he was carrying my air rifle. A squirrel broke out and ran up a tree and hesitated just for a sec, I was on him but dad got him first, he always ribbed me about out gunnin me that day with a pellet gun...lol My great grandmother lived on the other side of the property (about 120 acres) and we always made our way over there and visited with her. If we had any luck hunting that morning we would always clean one or two for her and put them away for her, and she always had a piece of bread pudding for me. I sure miss my old man, this is my son's first year to get to go deer hunting with me, and it will be my first year to go without my dad.

I think of him every day, I cherrish them all...

As far as being a cherrished memory for my kids... hmmm Well, the only thing I really do differently is that I get them out as much as possible. My folks loved the outdoors, and we traveled a lot, but most of our vacations were either to the beach, or a national park of some sort... yellowstone, carlsbad cavers... etc. Until I moved out I had never seen a professional ball game, or a college ball game for that matter... and I went to the movies more when my wife and I were dating then I ever did when I was a kid. So I try to get them out as often as possible... we go to the movies, ball games, state and co. fairs, parks, amusement parks, museums, aquariums, etc... just anywhere we can all go and have fun. Hopefully we can all look back at those memories (and that stack of 8mm videos that keeps growing in the closet) one day and laugh.

 

growing up in calgary we'd take these long drives in the country. mom and dad up front, my sister squeezed between my grandparents in the back seat, me in the trunk leaning over the backseat teasing my sister

every time someone saw an animal everyone would get excited... where where!! dad would stop the car, and drive in reverse to see if we could see him again. in those days every time you went to banff canada park you'd get a flyer warning you not to feed bears, don't touch the bears, pictures of bear foot prints and droppings, and other tips on avoiding bears. course we never saw a bear, just banff bear propaganda. so in revenge for having to sit in the trunk, i pretended to see bears, and see how far i could get dad to back up the car. didn't take long before grandpa caught on and came up with the idea of coating me in honey and tying me to the bumper so i'd stop whining about sitting in the trunk and maybe we'd all get to see these bears

when we got to some place nice, dad would take the back seat out of the car, have a couple of beers and take a nap while we had our lunch.

grandpa would pick plants.

before he died he planted trees and plants from canada all over the dutch province of friesland, where we're from. the farmers where he bought eggs and vegetables liked them because they grew so well in the mild weather there. i remember they ate eggs on rye every morning, and fish for lunch. when grandma mentioned the egg shells were fragile they had this heated discussion on the health of the chickens. finally he told her she was a foolish woman, then snuck off to the feed store to get the farmer some of this bone and seashell mix to bulk up his chickens eggshells

whenever they quarelled like this grandma would go and do some german crossword puzzles. in the car he confided to me that it wasn't always easy being married to a woman smarter than you

 

As both of my parents have passed on, all of my memories of them are cherished! Their memories are always with me, albiet sometimes more than others. I try to be there for my son and daughter, when they need me without interfering with their lives. I tried not to pass on "any" of my predigiouses (sp?) to them. We all have some type if prediguces, wether it be ehtnic, religious, or whatever. I tried to say please and thank you to them, as I expected the same from them. Be an example, as my parents were.

 

Both of my parents have passed away, both, literally in my arms. My fondest memories of them vary from day to day, but the most consitent one is all the stuff they sacrificed to help me through college. We grew up very poor...no telephone or running water to bathe in until just before I joined the Navy. Mom and dad were both disabled; mom was blind and dad took a head injury while he was serving in WWII...every penny mattered to them and for them to send me money was a very big deal.

Every day I try to decide if something I do will/will not make my parents proud and act accordingly. That is one of my most important guiding principles.

As for my kids, I have none that are my biological kids. My wife had a boy when she was 17...I call him son and he calls me dad. His bio father has nothing to do with him and hasn't since he found out he was disabled (born three months early). My wife and I are about to adopt a young man who has had a not so good life...his mom and dad were crank and coke users. He is a pretty good little guy for all he has been through.

I hope what my boys remember about me is that I was a tough man, but fair, consistent and loving.

 

Well my father is out of the picture. He walked out before I was born. I've seen him a few times but not enough to reconize him as my father.


My mother has always been there for me. Good or bad I have always been able to count on her. Hell I'm 30 years old & my mother lives next door to me. Sometimes shes there to much, but she is my mother & every thought has been and will be cherished.

My kids.....

Well I'm still here kicking it with them. I'm not planning on walking out like my old man did. Unfortunatly their mother split with no return which raises my responsibility but I can handle that. I hope when they get older they will reconize that I'm still here.

 

When I was very young, my mom would drive out to the top of some hills where I would launch a toy glider down the hill. I would then go down and retrieve it.

 

....theo beat me to it....I was going to say leaving for boot camp.