Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Childhood Memories.

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings has provided us with a challenge as part of his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt. This week's challenge is to share some of your childhood memories. The six questions are from Judy Russell's keynote address at Rootstech which took place last weekend. Judy asked the audience if they knew particular stories about their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. By asking these questions, Judy was able to show that these stories can be lost through the generations if they are not passed down. Randy has challenged us to answer these questions about our life, not our ancestors.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

The questions are -

1. What was your first illness as a child?
2. What was the first funeral you attended?
3. What was your favorite book as a child?
4. What was your favorite class in elementary school?
5. What was your favorite toy as a child?
6. Did you learn how to swim, and where did you learn?

Answers -

1. I don't exactly remember what my first illness was. I do remember being in and out of hospital as a child with terrible asthma. I also remember being in hospital when I was 7 or 8 with a really bad stomach bug. I just asked my Mum when I had chicken pox. I thought it was when I was 3, but Mum thinks I had it when I was 5 or 6.

2. The first funeral I attended was for my paternal Grandfather, my Poppa. He died on August 31, 2003. He was 93 years old. He'd been in hospital and then in a nursing home for quite a few weeks. I was 12 years old and in Grade 8 at school. We traveled to Sydney a couple days later for the funeral. I think I missed about a week of school. I was really close to my Dad's parents and this was the first death in the family that I experienced so it was very hard for me.

3. I don't remember what my favorite book as a child was. I do remember reading a lot of the Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen books as a teenager though. Actually, now that I think about it, one of the books that Dad loved reading to me when I was little was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. There is a mouse on every page and Dad would put his thumb over the mouse to hide it from me while I tried to find it. Eventually I caught on to what he was doing and would try and move his thumb straight away. When I have children, I would like him to read it to them too.

4. My favorite class was Grade Four with Mr Woods in 1999. That year was a lot of fun. My Mum was also in the prime of her baking of American Brownies. I looove those brownies. She hasn't made them for a few years now, but she would always give me some to take to class, and Mr Woods loved them too.

5. Barbies. Definitely Barbies. I had drawers over flowing with Barbie related stuff. I had a lot of Barbie furniture and a Barbie car too! I still have the car. It's the cutest thing and I don't plan on giving it away any time soon.  

6. You know what, I have no memory of where or when I learned to swim. We had a pool when I was a kid so it was just something I knew how to do. I have a feeling that in Grade One I could swim a little, but didn't really master the strokes or feel confident with swimming until Grade 3.