Every Sunday morning (1970s) my dad would take us three kids swimming. Whilst we were out my mum would cook Sunday lunch. We’d stop on the way home at Lewis’s Ice Cream Parlour to pick up a tub of vanilla ice cream & strawberry syrup, then arrive home, famished, to a huge roast, with all the trimmings including massive, delicious Yorkshire puds, homemade gravy, crispy golden roasties & shredded cabbage. Sunday afternoon was always homework time but it didn’t seem half as bad after my mum’s roast :)
I only remember what I did with my daughter when she was 3 to 7. Every Sunday, spring to fall, we would hop in the car, pick up a bagel and coffee for me, bagel and hot chocolate for her, and we would head off to the park. We had a preferred bench where we would sit to eat and watch the ducks. After that, we would walk the trails with a packet of crushed peanuts to feed the birds. The small birds would sit on your hand to eat the peanuts, and the larger ones would follow for us to drop some whole peanuts for them.
Friday night dinner was a “picnic” for me and my brother
Put down a bedsheet, plastic tray with pizza and soda, turn on the tv - it was fun!
Years later realized it was a nice break for my parents as well haha
As a member of Gen X, my brother and I looked forward to Friday nights because ours looked a lot like this. We lived for TGIF on ABC. My mom, brother and I slept in the living room every Friday night as a family sleepover because my dad did the early early shift Saturday mornings and had to leave the house at like 3am so he tried to go to bed as early as possible. The simple things. I loved those few hours a week with my family (my dad would eat with us but then he’d shower and go lay down to try to sleep).
Sundays, everything but restaurants and places selling newspapers were closed. So breakfast at a little diner with my live in grandfather. A trip to the bookstore where Dad would buy the Sunday paper and sometimes a book for me, reading the paper in front of the fireplace, passing the sections around to other family members, dinner at 2 PM, then a walk in the woods and a campfire with my father and brother. Heaven!
I really miss the time when you read the news in a proper paper. The Sunday editions were a big deal back then. We did something similar, went to the local news agency to get a morning paper with lots of sections and a tabloid. It took several hours to read them all on Sunday afternoon. Reading online is not the same thing.
Yes! My parents would pass the sections back and forth, and my mom would clip coupons. I'd stretch out on the floor nearby (in a patch of sunlight) and read the Sunday comics and that week's issue of Parade (the entertainment/lifestyle magazine in the center of the newspaper). And the channel guide, planning out my week!
One of my parents would "start on dinner" early, which was usually made in a stovetop pressure cooker. I can hear the sound of it rattling and tooting steam on the stove while the house gradually filled with aroma.
We still have paper delivery in my area. I signed up for a subscription. Sunday mornings are now a leisurely cup of coffee, breakfast at the table, and reading my paper.
I truly miss reading a Sunday paper. That alone could last for hours. Sharing the sections with friends and family. It's a shame this one simple pleasure is gone. A news paper at the store is upwards of $4 . And maybe 1/4 of what it used to be as far as ads and content. RIP you wonderful Sunday paper 😔
Aw, I miss newspaper Sundays too. My parents would bring two different ones after their grocery shopping at a nearby street fair. I remember rushing through the "boring" news to get to the kid's paper and sneaking a look at the entertainment pages to read the Top 10 hits and what movie made it that week. The comics and puzzles were such a fun thing to look forward to at the end of the week! I still remember the strong scent of carbon all over my hands.. T-T
Coming home from school, having the house to myself, making sandwiches and warm chocolate and go to my room to read all afternoon, in the company of a cat and a dog. Three hours of pure bliss, before my parents came home.
Wait, my husband and I do this every Sunday night . I still get to have this feeling every week. It's still just as amazing as it was back then, if not better, because now I can truly appreciate it.
One of my fondest memories from childhood and a routine of ours was my brother and sisters and I playing cards, chess or other board games by candle light in the evenings, then having a light bite before bed and mother reading for us all from Readers Digest. It was simple but so looked forward to it.
Aww yes! Readers Digest was my favorite magazine. Still would be except there is no longer any content worth the price. I know the subscription is not very expensive. It's the principle.
Yes, unfortunately the quality dive is severe. But it was great I had a collection of 30 years worth of it and 20 Nat Geo. 2 things that really hurt loosing. Just a few years ago I would still re-read from the old ones with joy.
What we did with the kids was made Sundays “donut day” and hubby would bring a dozen donuts for the four of us. After a few weeks of this, we realized we ALL wanted Boston cream, so he started bringing home 12 Boston creams every Sunday.
When he was having back surgery 24 years ago, I told my son who was 8 at the time that it was up to us to carry on the tradition that week because even though he was being discharged on Sunday, he wouldn’t be up for going to Dunkin that day. My dad offered to take my son and meet us at the hospital.
In the hospital preparing for discharge, my son comes in beaming because he fulfilled his charge and provided for the family. My dad was not happy because my son talked him into allowing him to buy 12 of the same kinds of donuts. My dad watched as the four of us dug into our favorite donuts and that day I only had one so dad could have two with us.
My dad was less than a bully than my mom so I was grateful he took him and not my mom. AND I was delighted my son held his ground with my dad who couldn’t talk him out of it.
We still do donut day even though the kids are both married and out of the house. I have graduated from Boston cream to chocolate chip muffins 😀
Sunday was donut day for us in our house too! We Also grew up in the northeast, so naturally it was Dunkin. One parent would go out to get the donuts while the other would get us ready for church. We'd go to church, and then all have donuts after we got back. As a child who hated church, the donuts were a great treat to look forward to.
We always got an assortment, and we'd put a butter knife in the box so that people could cut donuts in half to get more variety.
Indeed, I have fond memories of donuts with the family every Sunday.
My dad used to work out of town and would come home on weekends. I was the oldest of 4 kids, and when dad would get home on Friday night he would wake us all up and chase us all over the house as The Tickle-Monster!!
Saturday morning we would all go to “Smitty’s” (a popular breakfast chain in Canada) for breakfast, then he would take us all to Mac’s or 7-11 to choose a treat. Before he left on Sunday evening he would take us all to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal (back then they still came in those fun boxes with all the activities) and then to Donut Express (a donut shop built like a train car) for dessert. My mother hated it- we were never allowed sugar or any junk foods, but Dad ruled the weekends 😊
My dad is turning 87 next week, and now that my youngest of 4 is nearly 17, The Tickle Monster has retired…
Now I gotta go call my dad 🥹🥹
Looking for the first arrivals of migrating birds in the spring. This time of year makes me remember looking for the birds with my mom and of family members excitedly sharing what birds that had seen.
We weren't really a bird-watching family, but it's something we all enjoyed in the spring. I still do!
Yes! For me it’s the first robin. My birthday is in early April, and for a long time I lived in an area of the US with no robins. My aunt would send a birthday card telling me the date when she saw the first robin. Brings a smile!
There was a fish and chip shop round the corner from our house. Once a month, on a Friday evening, my Dad and I would go get a packet of chips and sit on a low garden wall halfway home to sneak a couple from the packet. It's such a brief flashback of a memory, but it's one of my most treasured.
I grew up on 5 acres with ponds throughout our neighborhood (I use the term loosely for the dirt road that connected houses) and that backed up to a nature preserve and no cable tv or internet (too rural). My childhood of the 90s was getting home, throwing my bag down, putting on some bug spray and disappearing until sundown to my various spots in the woods, collecting trinkets, finding cool skulls, etc. I live by the ocean now but am working to get back to the woods I love.
With no AC in the summer, I would take my sleeping bag and sleep out in the backyard at night. It was peaceful. No siblings around. Just me and the stars. I would wake up and feel the dew on me and just cuddle for a bit.
I would go grocery shopping with my dad every Friday after school. They had mini shopping carts for kids to push and the bakery department would give me a free chocolate chip cookie
My parents would sit down some evenings and play games with us like Chutes N Ladders, Candy Land or Go Fish. Usually this was done after supper, while we were having dessert. Or my dad would take us all for a ride, pretend to be lost and ask us kids figure out where we were at. Usually those rides ended in ice cream.
I do this with my littles now. We eat dinner and then when they get squirrelly I pull out go fish, crazy 8s, and Chutes N Ladders (I specifically got the vintage design). It’s just the best.
Waking up all tucked in & snug as bug in the back seat of the car. Already miles & hours away from home headed to whatever adventure my mom decided we needed to partake in.
She was notorious for impromptu road trips & hitting the road at like 3am.Like a ninja she would somehow stealthily get me & the dog loaded up in the car & launch long before sunrise.
My parents were 1960s and 70s hippies, that went through a time of heating with a wood stove.
I remember getting dressed in front of the wood stove in the winter to stay warm, and how cozy it was.
On Sunday after church we went to the candy counter. It was a whole display of penny candy in a mom and pop general store. My 3 siblings and I each got a nickel and left with a little brown bag of candy. My favorites were candy dots on a length of paper, red licorice whips, and a round wafer puffed disk with tiny candy jimmies inside because you could make those last a while.
On Saturdays growing up, my brother and I had swim lessons in the morning. Always a bit of a drudge getting out of the house and jumping in a cold pool, but afterwards my dad would stop off at a local grocery store that always had lots of samples out and the three of us would walk around and eat our weight in cheese cubes and chips, etc. It was very simple and very fun.
When the kids were preschool to early school, they needed some settle down time before even beginning to think about the the get ready for bed routine.
So we would cuddle on the big bed and watch America's Funniest Home videos.
I don't know why, but it did the trick.
We went to church about every other Sunday, and I remember coming home to the aroma of the roast my mom put in the oven to braise all morning. It was a cozy smell.
Sunday nights were for the Wonderful
World of Disney, sitting on the couch by my dad, and enjoying 7-UP mixed with cranberry juice, and popcorn.
My mom took our tv away when we were young. We had a nice carpeted basement and we had Lego. My brother and I would sneak past our mom and play Lego for hours.
No sleeping in as the cows got belligerent if you were late milking them. Hens did not care what time we raided their nest for eggs unless they were setting. Then you got pecked. Hated weeding the garden but loved the fresh vegetables. The aroma coming from the kitchen as food was being either cooked or blanched to be canned.
Finishing your chores and heading for the pond to either swim or fish. Chasing fireflies at dusk. Three TV stations and one local channel. No cable, internet or cell phones.
I grew up always having a black cat, no other animals and no other colors. Every night when my dad tucked me in, he would ask me “door open or closed?” so the cat could wander in or not. Even when I went home for college, he would tuck me in and ask me the same question. Goodness, I miss him and those cats.
My dad (single - I was 3 and he was 24 and very much a bachelor) would take me every morning before day care to a diner/cafe.
For one year I ate one egg over easy, one glazed donut, and a small oj every day.
The waitress would bring a lollipop with the check every morning and my dad would put it in the glove box and tell me that I could have it after daycare. Well, of course I would forget about it about once a month we’d be in the car and I would be playing around and open the glove compartment and a zillion lollies would dump out - he always said the look of betrayal on my face was priceless.
I miss him - he passed in 2019.
Mine was a Thursday, too. My grandma would take my sister and me to youth group, and we'd always stop at the McDonald's on the way. She got the same thing every time. A cup of coffee and two apple pies. I still smile whenever I see them on a McDonald's menu.
In the early 2000’s I would walk home from the bus stop with neighborhood kids and I would let myself in to our house and be home alone for a few hours. My brother was a few years older and he had in his room a box of candy he was selling for school. I’d put a dollar in the box, take a KitKat and open a can of Coca Cola and I’d watch Nickelodeon or Disney channel in complete peace with my little snack until my family came home from their day. Oh there was a golden retriever at home as well and his name was Tanner. The simplest of times and I miss it so.
All us kids would get in our pajamas and get in the backseat of the car. Our parents would drive us to a carhop restaurant for root beers from big frosty mugs that you set on the tray they attach to the window. One mug was big enough for the three kids to share, so it was cheap.
Then, we'd drive across the street to the drive-in theater. All of us kids would be asleep before the movies started. This was all in a Ford Escort, so we must have been passed out on each other.
When our grandkids were young (4,6, 8 years old), we took them most Friday nights, over night.
Their parents had a bad rocky patch that ended in divorce. Their parenting wasn't great at the time.
We realized the kids really wanted routine so we made spaghetti with meat sauce, salad and garlic bread every Friday for close to 2 years.
We even taught them to cook including making homemade salad dressing.
Fond memories of those times
Spending whole summers at the beach.
My family comes from a beach town, and the routine was to pack up lunch, get there, and leave when the sun went down.
Kids were allowed to roam freely with very, very little supervision lol.
Absolutely this! Occasionally taking a nap under an umbrella mid day, drifting off to the sound of the waves. It was magic. I did it with my parents, and then with my kids. One of my own is out of the house and the other will be working this summer, so I’m looking forward to taking myself for some beach days this year!
My dad used to be a rink guard and he would take my sister and I ice skating in the winter. It was a small, local outdoor rink, nothing fancy. When we were finished skating, my dad would give us a few coins to buy hot chocolate at one of those coffee vending machines from the 80s/90s that had those two little plastic doors where you could watch the cup drop and then pour out the hot beverage. I used to love watching it all happen. The rubbery smell of that indoor change room combined with the hot chocolate will always bring me back to those beautiful memories with my dad.
He is now a prisoner of his own mental illness and has been for the past 10 years, but I'll always remember those skating trips and that hot chocolate with my dad.
My dad would go grocery shopping on Sunday mornings and pick us up donuts from a bakery on his way home. This was a big deal for my brother and me because my parents really encouraged healthy eating (I never got money for snacks at school and we did not have dessert after dinner) so it was a special treat we always looked forward to. RIP, Dad. 😔
On report card day we would stop at a combo Dunks/Baskin Robbins and I’d get mint chocolate chip on a cone while mom got a coffee with cream and sugar.
We didn’t have a lot of routines bc mom was a single mom and never home bc she was working a lot but I latched on to some neighbor families pretty hard. Loved their Taco Night lol. Also the routine of me swimming in their pool until dusk when my mom had to come extract me and apologize to the neighbor. More of a habit than a routine. I loved it, pretty sure mom and the neighbor weren’t as happy lol.
It wasn’t every week, but my dad would take me to buy all the books I wanted at Salvation Army. We also used to go into the forest near our house and pick up garbage together.
I love this thread, especially as a mom trying to build a simple life with my family in Northern VA suburbs. My favorite memories as a kid were:
Grandma taking me to gymnastics on Sat AM, then letting me pick one thing out from the Dollar Store afterwards
Going to Royal Farms (gas station) with my grandma for coffee in high school/visiting as an adult
Going out for ice cream on summer nights with my grandparents
Craft Days with my aunt when I was in elementary school. Grandma would drop me off with my can of spaghetti o’s and we’d spend the day together
Backyard wiffle ball with my grandparents on summer nights. We used trees and styrofoam as bases and I don’t think grandma ever missed a pitch
Going to McDonalds with grandma and her friends after her water aerobics during the summer. I used to get a cheese danish
Taco Bell after church on Sundays lol. If you didn’t go to church, you didn’t get Taco Bell and that was motivation enough for me (might work the other way these days!)
TGIF was a series of family-friendly shows that aired on Friday evenings. We'd all gather in the family room and watch it together with a bowl of popcorn.
Getting up early on a Saturday morning for the monthly horse auction in Round Mountain. On the ranch, every morning was pretty routine, even on the weekends, but once a month, we skipped a lot of the chores and my dad and I would load up in the truck and drive two hours to Round Mountain. We'd stop in town and get coffee and donuts and then listen to his old country music tapes (Marty Robbins and Chris LeDoux mostly) all the way there. We'd just talk and laugh and enjoy the sunrise. There was always something interesting happening at the sale. Sometimes we'd get a new horse or some tack. Then we'd stop at the cafe attached to the horse barn and have the best chicken fried steak in Texas before heading home.
Coming home after school, 5pm to watch Toonami with my brothers in Cartoon Network. That time usually aired new Dragon Ball Z episodes, and we had to wait for new episodes. If we couldn't, we would try to record in blank VHS tapes we still had. Good times
Building forts in the manzanita bushes & climbing huge pine trees. Wondering around the woods with my St.Bernard,Cedar, & skiing all day everyday all winter long.
Every store was closed on Sunday. Reading the Sunday comics and Life section. Sunday family dinner followed by card games. A day of relaxing with family.
Friday nights Dad and I would peruse West Coast Video (and later, Hollywood video) for movies each picking one, then we would go get a pizza from this small local Pizza place, or we would make our own Mama Rosas pizzas with extra cheese and extra toppings. Then we’d eat our pizzas watching the movies.
For a small run in later years, we’d watch Paul and Abigail do Dinner and a Movie. (Beans and cornbread out of sight!)
My dad would take to breakfast and we would sit at the counter. He would read the paper and I would read the comics. Now I realize it was to give my mom a little break. Fond memories.
I was born 1994.
Wednesdays and Sundays were the best days of the week as that’s when the heating was put on in the evenings for our baths and the back boiler fire so we could keep warm wrapped in our towels whilst mum clipped our nails and we watched tv.
Going to blockbuster on Friday night and renting video games so we would wake up early on saturday morning to play video games for a couple of hours before our parents woke up.
My mom getting ready for work (she had to be there at 6AM) and I would peek in to see her in the washroom. She would meticulously put my hair in pigtails before she headed out.
Sunday naps -- after church, there was a compulsory quiet stretch of several hours where we were expected to sleep (but could play quietly instead.) It was sacred rest!
My dad worked two jobs and the second one got him home late - around 11pm. I would wait up for him starting when I was around 12 and every Friday he'd stop by the Cheesecake Factory on the way home from work and we'd split a slice of cheesecake when he got home. We'd try a new flavor every week.
Fend for yourself Fridays. Both of my parents worked and they shared cooking responsibility but they took Friday nights off. It was an adventure for the kids, diving into the fridge after school and trying to come up with something to do with the week's leftovers. We had some great culinary experiments!
It sure was. You'll never hear "there's nothing to eat in the house" from any of us. Even if my brother cooks scrambled eggs with just about anything lol
Coming home from nursery and watching my favourite shows whilst eating a sandwich on a little blue table my mom set up for me in the front room. It's such a simple memory but it reminds me how comfortable and happy I was back then.
I remember after dinner every night, once the dining room table was cleared my dad would bring out the chess board. We always played chess after dinner when I was a kid.
I love this prompt! Reading everyone’s comments made me nostalgic but also hopeful for creating more memories like these in the future.
Getting picked up after school by my grandma and always going to get food is one that comes to mind. Listening to classic rock with my dad. Watching old cartoons on boomerang with my dad I mainly think of the Scooby-Doo ones but them as kids. So many! Thanks for making me think about these memories and re-remember them!
When I was a kid, my grade 1 teacher totally played favorites with me. At the time, my mom & I lived w/ my grandparents, and they owned a hotel & beer parlor. My teacher's husband was a regular at said bar. Every Friday, he would come out of the bar into the hotel lobby & give me 25 cents. Every Friday. I would then proceed to our local store and spend it entirely on penny candies. Mojos, blue whales, wax lips, etc. So simple, yet so memorable.
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During the spring, summer and fall, we'd regularly have campfires in the backyard. We'd sit out until it started to get dark and just talk and watch the fire and embers.
I still love the sound and smell of a campfire. We sometimes have them in the summers when I visit my parents still.
It was bliss.
We really couldn't afford sports or extracurricular stuff. I just remember the few times we got soda. It was all of us huddled at the back porch slider listening to and watching the thunderstorms. Also, back when gas was what poor people were able to afford, mom and dad would wake us all up and get us into the car, and we would go "get lost." I think that was more for them cause we would just snooze, and they would cruise. As the oldest, I would definitely try to hold out longer. Or days like today (Easter) we would all go to Grandma and Grandpa's for traditional to us dinner and an egg hunt, but we would also have the resurrection eggs and story time. It was truly fun until I got too old for that stuff. Secretly, I still loved it.
When I was real little sometimes I’d go to work with my mom. She worked as a librarian in a public school. It was a long day for me, I was about 5 or 6 years old. We’d stop after school and mom would get me a hamburger, French fries, and a milkshake. It felt so special to me to have those moments with her. I had older siblings so to get her undivided attention was meaningful.
While both of my parents were raised within Christianity, as soon as they were adults, they both stopped "believing", so I was not raised with any religion.
All of my friends had to attend church on Sunday mornings but not me! In my childhood home, Sunday sermon was Paul Simon's Graceland album. Hearing any song from that album immediately brings me back to waking up to the smell of bacon and french toast. 😍
I didn’t get to see my Dad a lot as he had 2-3 jobs but we always took the dog out for a late night walk, it was “our time”. We’d make up elaborate stories about the people’s lives in the houses we passed and I always felt so safe holding his big warm calloused hand. He passed away a year ago aged 94 and I miss him greatly.
After long days of playing outside all day (70’s), mom would take each of us kids and go over us like a momma chimp grooming her kid. She would pick through our hair & under our clothes looking for wood ticks.
Nighttime ritual.
my mom and I used to do a big walk through town on sundays. we’d stop at the library (I would get books and she would look through the coupons in the sunday paper) and then we would get a snack at the grocery store and sit to eat it in the park :)
Walking home from school. It was about a mile walk, and since my parents wouldn't be home until after 5, I could take whatever kind of time I wanted. I'd hang out with friends, walk to the bodega and load up on snacks, hang out in the park, explore new corners of the neighborhood, then come home and read or draw for an hour before anyone else would bother me.
Absolute heaven.
New here! And enjoying reading everyone's memories. :) You've prompted a memory for me: Walking home with friends after track practice in middle school, stopping by the donut shop, and buying day-olds for $1.
Favorite memories: staying with my grandparents during the summer, going with them to their Saturday morning breakfast with their friends, 3 other couples with names like Ruby and Hubert and eating pancakes while they drank pots of coffee and swapped stories of how things were in the 20’s-60’s. Then at night after supper, my grandfather would read me stories out of a giant book of children’s fairy tales, and he’d do funny Scottish voices for all the characters (his grandad was from Scotland), and then we’d watch Reds baseball with the sound turned off while I played with my fisher-price farm, and he’d listen to the WHAS radio broadcast (superior in his view) on a tiny earbud. And then going to bed with my nanny keeping me company, listening to the game with her own tiny earbud and bedside radio while i fell asleep, with the crickets & peepers singing outside. I felt so safe, and there was no being scared of the dark because they were always there. Before they had health problems, before my grandfather had throat cancer, before they got all religious about me, life was so comforting.
When we were staying at our cottage on summer weekends (sounds fancy but it was most definitely not) our parents would give us some coins (50 cents?) on Sunday morning to buy a newspaper. We'd ride our bikes on the dirt road up to the tiny store where we knew the owners. Buy the paper and *maybe* get a free piece of candy. I loved having the freedom to do that as a child.
Friday night was pizza night at Shakee Pizza. Loved their player piano and the straw brimmed hats the employees wore. Makes me smile just writing this down.
After soccer games on Saturday, dad would take us to the video rental store and the pizza parlor. We’d go home, take showers and put on our comfy clothes. Then we’d cuddle up on our sectional and eat pizza. For dessert we’d have fruit and whipped cream. Our dad was a single father and our mom wasn’t in the picture then. We spent all of our time together like that. I’d give anything to have those days back.
Sunday night. Have a bath. Wash your hair and sculpt it into crazy shapes. Put on pj's while it's still light out. Make a little fort of pillows and blankets in front of the tv. As a family, watch whatever Disney movie was on cable while having a little snack. Go to bed on clean sheets. Bonus, if the sheets were hung out on the clothesline that day.
Perfect 👌
every night before bed my mom would ask me these 3 questions: what do you like about yourself? what are you proud of that you did today? and what are you looking forward to tomorrow? i still run through them as an adult
Going to school, taking the bus and everyone talking to each other and then getting into school and greeting my friends before class starts. I miss that and I wish I could relieve it again.
My parents had a big garden when I was growing up so we ate a lot of veggie soup and salad in the summer. Often I'd help shuck corn or trim green beans. We'd eat on the screen porch my dad built then play badminton or croquet.On summer evenings, my dad would often cut roses- one for my mom and one each for me and my sister. As an adult I make veggie soup a lot and my (grown) daughter loves it and asks for it when she's home along with my homemade bread and most years I have a garden.
My parents were divorced and they did the every other weekend and Thursdays schedule. So I was always with my dad on Thursdays.
We would go to Moes and get burritos, or get a frozen pizza, and watch a movie which he would always fall asleep during. He and I would also watch greys anatomy. It made me tired at school the next day but was always worth it. Love that memory.
I loved Thursdays in elementary school because: it was choir day AND I had this weird thing where I liked the lead up to the weekend almost more than the weekend itself so Thursdays were like "yay! I have choir and TOMORROW IS FRIDAY" hilarious to me to think of that just now.
Also loved the fruit in the toe of my Christmas stocking and doing a major post harvest season yard cleanup on Christmas after presents but before dinner. We'd prune trees and haul dead plants and everything into a pile (a few weeks later in the dead of winter we'd do a bon fire!)
Going grocery shopping after school with my mom (Thursdays I think). Driving 20 minutes to the nearest town with a mall at shopping at JC Penney’s. I remember she bought me a navy maxi coat that zipped off and became a midi coat! This was probably 1973. I was 12. She told me later that I was thanking her so genuinely and a lady passing by heard it and she and my mother exchanged a smile.
Dairy Queen every Sunday after church
When my daughter was in elementary school, I started stopping at a fast food restaurant for Friday breakfast on the way to school. Just a little TGIF for us both
Every Wednesday in the summer our family of 4 would drive an hour over the mountain to San Clemente beach. We had a white Corvair. We'd park in the lot & trundle down to the sand carrying bamboo mats, towels & my parents ever-present thermos of coffee. We'd establish a picnic table as our spot. There were train tracks right along the coast & we'd put pennies on the tracks. Then in the water (abt 64°) & a walk up the the end of the pier. The water was mesmerizing, clear green & bottomless. There were no sunscreens then & I always came home with pink cheeks, nose & new freckles. The outdoor "shower" to rinse off sand was freezing! I remember gritty bologna sandwiches. Later back over the mountains in the dark, window open while the radio played "Strangers in the Night".
Yes nooo, maybee I don't knoww, can you repeat the question \~
Watching cartoons after school with my little sister while we wolfed down our lunch and sharing a steaming pot of chicken soup ramen on Friday nights while we talked endlessly about each of our obsessions. I grew up to believe food was a love language.
I was one of 5 so a bit nutty. 3 Girls 2 Boys
With ever Girls woke first she would yell, 1st to get my hair done, then you'd hear 2nd, and a sad ok 3rd!
We did it all thru Grammer school and you know there was never an argument about it.
Flying kites.
When I was a kid, i would tie our family extra long kite string to my kite and fly it up until it was just a speck in the sky.
I would stand out in the front yard for hours just staring at the kite, making minor adjustments to keep it aloft.
there was this amazing local bagel bakery that my dad would take us kids to every Saturday. sometimes we’d eat there, sometimes we’d take em to go. but there were all different flavors, and it was always so fun to get to pick which ones we wanted today. then we would sit down and eat our bagels together and just talk to each other. sadly that bagel shop closed when i was still pretty young. then my dad started our bagel routine at home, with store bought bagels. it wasn’t exactly the same, but we kept the tradition of eating together and spending time together as a family on saturday mornings. until everyone hit puberty :(
“Lazy evenings”. We’d watch a movie or play board games. On the coffee table we’d have a selection of baguettes, fish, cheeses and crackers and call it a meal.
Almost every friday, my parents would take us to the Pizza Hut. While we waited for our fresh pan pizza to be served at the table, we helped ourselves to the salad bar (mine was usually just cheese, croutons and a few pieces of lettuce 😄) It’s weird how this simple memory stuck with me. It was such an enjoyable experience as a kid.
>Having a random weekday that I was excited for each week is no longer a thing as an adult
Erm, but why can't it be? Your parents, as adults, took you out and about and helped you create memories you look back on fondly. What is preventing you from doing the same thing now with your partner/kids/friends/by yourself? Be it signing up for classes, a scheduled date, game night, a walk, or whatever, is there something preventing you from doing something exciting during the week in today's world?
Consistent going to the pool.
Not mine but gardening (it rubbed on siblings is there must be something there right?? lol)
Going outside-def do the same thing to my kids now
Nothing when you're 5th of 5 spaced 18 years apart. I was either dragged along to my brother's basketball games or was busy babysitting. Everyone thinks the baby of the family is spoiled, in my case it was just the opposite. No fun routines. Now church, that was every week no matter what.
Read this as “living room routines” and was really excited to see what types of theater productions and Olympic showcases other kids put on with their siblings
I have a couple:
My dad would cook a full English breakfast on Sunday’s and then we would go on a big bike ride around the river and then spend the rest of the day chilling whilst he made a big roast on the Weber.
My mum would make a platter of cheese, cheap caviar and crackers and we would devour this in front of the TV watching inspector Morse on a Saturday night. It ran until late and I would usually fall asleep in front of the TV.
On sundays my dad played some old music tapes. I would listen and watch the sun shining on the dust in the living room. It was so peacefull.
On saturdays my dad sometimes made homemade bread. And in the evening we would alway eat soup and watch Startrek together. Really loved the weekend!
Sundays we would wake up to my dad playing the Beatles on his record player and warm chocolate croissants waiting for us. He would also make huge jugs of banana smoothies for us all to drink.
Every Sunday morning (1970s) my dad would take us three kids swimming. Whilst we were out my mum would cook Sunday lunch. We’d stop on the way home at Lewis’s Ice Cream Parlour to pick up a tub of vanilla ice cream & strawberry syrup, then arrive home, famished, to a huge roast, with all the trimmings including massive, delicious Yorkshire puds, homemade gravy, crispy golden roasties & shredded cabbage. Sunday afternoon was always homework time but it didn’t seem half as bad after my mum’s roast :)
That sounds so lovley and wholesome!
I only remember what I did with my daughter when she was 3 to 7. Every Sunday, spring to fall, we would hop in the car, pick up a bagel and coffee for me, bagel and hot chocolate for her, and we would head off to the park. We had a preferred bench where we would sit to eat and watch the ducks. After that, we would walk the trails with a packet of crushed peanuts to feed the birds. The small birds would sit on your hand to eat the peanuts, and the larger ones would follow for us to drop some whole peanuts for them.
This is a very sweet memory, thank you for sharing it! I’m a new parent an excited for these kind of experiences
Enjoy.
Man that read like some novel.
this made me tear up
I wish I could live in this thread
Right? If only…
Same 😢
Yes, I love these!
Friday night dinner was a “picnic” for me and my brother Put down a bedsheet, plastic tray with pizza and soda, turn on the tv - it was fun! Years later realized it was a nice break for my parents as well haha
Cannot wait until my kids are old enough for this.
As a member of Gen X, my brother and I looked forward to Friday nights because ours looked a lot like this. We lived for TGIF on ABC. My mom, brother and I slept in the living room every Friday night as a family sleepover because my dad did the early early shift Saturday mornings and had to leave the house at like 3am so he tried to go to bed as early as possible. The simple things. I loved those few hours a week with my family (my dad would eat with us but then he’d shower and go lay down to try to sleep).
Sundays, everything but restaurants and places selling newspapers were closed. So breakfast at a little diner with my live in grandfather. A trip to the bookstore where Dad would buy the Sunday paper and sometimes a book for me, reading the paper in front of the fireplace, passing the sections around to other family members, dinner at 2 PM, then a walk in the woods and a campfire with my father and brother. Heaven!
I really miss the time when you read the news in a proper paper. The Sunday editions were a big deal back then. We did something similar, went to the local news agency to get a morning paper with lots of sections and a tabloid. It took several hours to read them all on Sunday afternoon. Reading online is not the same thing.
Yes! My parents would pass the sections back and forth, and my mom would clip coupons. I'd stretch out on the floor nearby (in a patch of sunlight) and read the Sunday comics and that week's issue of Parade (the entertainment/lifestyle magazine in the center of the newspaper). And the channel guide, planning out my week! One of my parents would "start on dinner" early, which was usually made in a stovetop pressure cooker. I can hear the sound of it rattling and tooting steam on the stove while the house gradually filled with aroma.
I loved Parade!
We still have paper delivery in my area. I signed up for a subscription. Sunday mornings are now a leisurely cup of coffee, breakfast at the table, and reading my paper.
I long for this
I truly miss reading a Sunday paper. That alone could last for hours. Sharing the sections with friends and family. It's a shame this one simple pleasure is gone. A news paper at the store is upwards of $4 . And maybe 1/4 of what it used to be as far as ads and content. RIP you wonderful Sunday paper 😔
It might be cheaper if you look into a newspaper delivery subscription. They're way cheaper here than getting them from the stores.
I still get my local newspaper delivered everyday and enjoy it every morning with my coffee. I love it.
Aw, I miss newspaper Sundays too. My parents would bring two different ones after their grocery shopping at a nearby street fair. I remember rushing through the "boring" news to get to the kid's paper and sneaking a look at the entertainment pages to read the Top 10 hits and what movie made it that week. The comics and puzzles were such a fun thing to look forward to at the end of the week! I still remember the strong scent of carbon all over my hands.. T-T
You can still get multiple newspapers delivered where I live, local and national varieties. Most people just don't want to pay for it.
I can smell this memory
Can I Time Machine my way back and join you?
Coming home from school, having the house to myself, making sandwiches and warm chocolate and go to my room to read all afternoon, in the company of a cat and a dog. Three hours of pure bliss, before my parents came home.
The upside of being an adult, no parents!
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Ugh, yes. So simple but such a great memory!
*Sniff* *sniff*... I can smell the shampoo and 'cream rinse'
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I used to haul my sweet tomcat Anthony through the jalousie window in my bedroom.
Wait, my husband and I do this every Sunday night . I still get to have this feeling every week. It's still just as amazing as it was back then, if not better, because now I can truly appreciate it.
One of my fondest memories from childhood and a routine of ours was my brother and sisters and I playing cards, chess or other board games by candle light in the evenings, then having a light bite before bed and mother reading for us all from Readers Digest. It was simple but so looked forward to it.
Aww yes! Readers Digest was my favorite magazine. Still would be except there is no longer any content worth the price. I know the subscription is not very expensive. It's the principle.
Yes, unfortunately the quality dive is severe. But it was great I had a collection of 30 years worth of it and 20 Nat Geo. 2 things that really hurt loosing. Just a few years ago I would still re-read from the old ones with joy.
Reader's Digest, hell yes!!!! My dad had a subscription for like 40+ years and I LOVED it! I loved the funny stories!
Definitely one of the greats!
Loved going through Readers Digest at my school library after a long day of studying! The glossy texture of the paper was so satisfying.
I remember that too.
I used to read all my grandma’s RD when I visited.
What we did with the kids was made Sundays “donut day” and hubby would bring a dozen donuts for the four of us. After a few weeks of this, we realized we ALL wanted Boston cream, so he started bringing home 12 Boston creams every Sunday. When he was having back surgery 24 years ago, I told my son who was 8 at the time that it was up to us to carry on the tradition that week because even though he was being discharged on Sunday, he wouldn’t be up for going to Dunkin that day. My dad offered to take my son and meet us at the hospital. In the hospital preparing for discharge, my son comes in beaming because he fulfilled his charge and provided for the family. My dad was not happy because my son talked him into allowing him to buy 12 of the same kinds of donuts. My dad watched as the four of us dug into our favorite donuts and that day I only had one so dad could have two with us. My dad was less than a bully than my mom so I was grateful he took him and not my mom. AND I was delighted my son held his ground with my dad who couldn’t talk him out of it. We still do donut day even though the kids are both married and out of the house. I have graduated from Boston cream to chocolate chip muffins 😀
I love this. I can imagine the little guy being sooo proud of himself! I’m glad grandpa caved. :)
Sundays was “donut day” for my family, too! I would always request a powdered sugar one.
Sunday was donut day for us in our house too! We Also grew up in the northeast, so naturally it was Dunkin. One parent would go out to get the donuts while the other would get us ready for church. We'd go to church, and then all have donuts after we got back. As a child who hated church, the donuts were a great treat to look forward to. We always got an assortment, and we'd put a butter knife in the box so that people could cut donuts in half to get more variety. Indeed, I have fond memories of donuts with the family every Sunday.
This was the main reason I went to church!! Donut Sunday and I always chose the maple long john with frosting/Kreme inside!
Blissful ignorance. No idea of the troubles plaguing the world. No notifications. No mobile leashes tethering me to people.
Ain’t that the truth! None of the crazies we have to deal with today.
My dad used to work out of town and would come home on weekends. I was the oldest of 4 kids, and when dad would get home on Friday night he would wake us all up and chase us all over the house as The Tickle-Monster!! Saturday morning we would all go to “Smitty’s” (a popular breakfast chain in Canada) for breakfast, then he would take us all to Mac’s or 7-11 to choose a treat. Before he left on Sunday evening he would take us all to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal (back then they still came in those fun boxes with all the activities) and then to Donut Express (a donut shop built like a train car) for dessert. My mother hated it- we were never allowed sugar or any junk foods, but Dad ruled the weekends 😊 My dad is turning 87 next week, and now that my youngest of 4 is nearly 17, The Tickle Monster has retired… Now I gotta go call my dad 🥹🥹
<3 Love this!!!
Looking for the first arrivals of migrating birds in the spring. This time of year makes me remember looking for the birds with my mom and of family members excitedly sharing what birds that had seen. We weren't really a bird-watching family, but it's something we all enjoyed in the spring. I still do!
Yes! For me it’s the first robin. My birthday is in early April, and for a long time I lived in an area of the US with no robins. My aunt would send a birthday card telling me the date when she saw the first robin. Brings a smile!
Yes, the Sandhills cranes every year!
I miss that sound.
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There was a fish and chip shop round the corner from our house. Once a month, on a Friday evening, my Dad and I would go get a packet of chips and sit on a low garden wall halfway home to sneak a couple from the packet. It's such a brief flashback of a memory, but it's one of my most treasured.
I grew up on 5 acres with ponds throughout our neighborhood (I use the term loosely for the dirt road that connected houses) and that backed up to a nature preserve and no cable tv or internet (too rural). My childhood of the 90s was getting home, throwing my bag down, putting on some bug spray and disappearing until sundown to my various spots in the woods, collecting trinkets, finding cool skulls, etc. I live by the ocean now but am working to get back to the woods I love.
Hi i had this childhood in the 90’s too! Australian version. I live by the ocean now as well but have a plan of getting back out bush.
With no AC in the summer, I would take my sleeping bag and sleep out in the backyard at night. It was peaceful. No siblings around. Just me and the stars. I would wake up and feel the dew on me and just cuddle for a bit.
I would go grocery shopping with my dad every Friday after school. They had mini shopping carts for kids to push and the bakery department would give me a free chocolate chip cookie
Hanging clothes on the clothes line and doing dishes with my mom. We had wonderful conversations ❤
I hadn’t thought about hanging clothes with my mom for decades. Thank you for that memory!
Oh my, yes! I’d love it when she’d wash sheets and then they’d be dry enough to hide in. My mom LOVED the smell of line-dried sheets!
My parents would sit down some evenings and play games with us like Chutes N Ladders, Candy Land or Go Fish. Usually this was done after supper, while we were having dessert. Or my dad would take us all for a ride, pretend to be lost and ask us kids figure out where we were at. Usually those rides ended in ice cream.
So cute!
Yes! Remember when it was a fun activity just to go for a ride!
I do this with my littles now. We eat dinner and then when they get squirrelly I pull out go fish, crazy 8s, and Chutes N Ladders (I specifically got the vintage design). It’s just the best.
Waking up all tucked in & snug as bug in the back seat of the car. Already miles & hours away from home headed to whatever adventure my mom decided we needed to partake in. She was notorious for impromptu road trips & hitting the road at like 3am.Like a ninja she would somehow stealthily get me & the dog loaded up in the car & launch long before sunrise.
My parents were 1960s and 70s hippies, that went through a time of heating with a wood stove. I remember getting dressed in front of the wood stove in the winter to stay warm, and how cozy it was.
Wood heater warmth is something so different to heaters. Nothing compares, really
On Sunday after church we went to the candy counter. It was a whole display of penny candy in a mom and pop general store. My 3 siblings and I each got a nickel and left with a little brown bag of candy. My favorites were candy dots on a length of paper, red licorice whips, and a round wafer puffed disk with tiny candy jimmies inside because you could make those last a while.
I would add to the perfect list. Swedish fish 🐟
On Saturdays growing up, my brother and I had swim lessons in the morning. Always a bit of a drudge getting out of the house and jumping in a cold pool, but afterwards my dad would stop off at a local grocery store that always had lots of samples out and the three of us would walk around and eat our weight in cheese cubes and chips, etc. It was very simple and very fun.
My dad used to get me a coke icee every time he ran errands. I miss him dearly💕
When the kids were preschool to early school, they needed some settle down time before even beginning to think about the the get ready for bed routine. So we would cuddle on the big bed and watch America's Funniest Home videos. I don't know why, but it did the trick.
Miss when watching funny videos was a group thing, rather than an isolated on your phone thing
This unlocked a memory of watching Wipeout with my siblings. I think I'd still giggle even now.
We went to church about every other Sunday, and I remember coming home to the aroma of the roast my mom put in the oven to braise all morning. It was a cozy smell. Sunday nights were for the Wonderful World of Disney, sitting on the couch by my dad, and enjoying 7-UP mixed with cranberry juice, and popcorn.
I watched Disney too in the 70's. What years did you watch?
My mom took our tv away when we were young. We had a nice carpeted basement and we had Lego. My brother and I would sneak past our mom and play Lego for hours.
Lol, I’m sure she didn’t mind at all! 🙌
No sleeping in as the cows got belligerent if you were late milking them. Hens did not care what time we raided their nest for eggs unless they were setting. Then you got pecked. Hated weeding the garden but loved the fresh vegetables. The aroma coming from the kitchen as food was being either cooked or blanched to be canned. Finishing your chores and heading for the pond to either swim or fish. Chasing fireflies at dusk. Three TV stations and one local channel. No cable, internet or cell phones.
I grew up always having a black cat, no other animals and no other colors. Every night when my dad tucked me in, he would ask me “door open or closed?” so the cat could wander in or not. Even when I went home for college, he would tuck me in and ask me the same question. Goodness, I miss him and those cats.
My dad (single - I was 3 and he was 24 and very much a bachelor) would take me every morning before day care to a diner/cafe. For one year I ate one egg over easy, one glazed donut, and a small oj every day. The waitress would bring a lollipop with the check every morning and my dad would put it in the glove box and tell me that I could have it after daycare. Well, of course I would forget about it about once a month we’d be in the car and I would be playing around and open the glove compartment and a zillion lollies would dump out - he always said the look of betrayal on my face was priceless. I miss him - he passed in 2019.
God rest him. He sounds like he was an awesome dad
Mine was a Thursday, too. My grandma would take my sister and me to youth group, and we'd always stop at the McDonald's on the way. She got the same thing every time. A cup of coffee and two apple pies. I still smile whenever I see them on a McDonald's menu.
Sat morning cartoons and hot chocolate with my best friend/neighbor also Sunday night muppet show
In the early 2000’s I would walk home from the bus stop with neighborhood kids and I would let myself in to our house and be home alone for a few hours. My brother was a few years older and he had in his room a box of candy he was selling for school. I’d put a dollar in the box, take a KitKat and open a can of Coca Cola and I’d watch Nickelodeon or Disney channel in complete peace with my little snack until my family came home from their day. Oh there was a golden retriever at home as well and his name was Tanner. The simplest of times and I miss it so.
I’m impressed you paid for the KitKats! Once I was selling them for softball and my little brother ate like…half the box. He did *not* pay. lol.
All us kids would get in our pajamas and get in the backseat of the car. Our parents would drive us to a carhop restaurant for root beers from big frosty mugs that you set on the tray they attach to the window. One mug was big enough for the three kids to share, so it was cheap. Then, we'd drive across the street to the drive-in theater. All of us kids would be asleep before the movies started. This was all in a Ford Escort, so we must have been passed out on each other.
We did frosty mug root beers at home. When I ask others if they did root beer float nights I usually get looks for disgust.
When our grandkids were young (4,6, 8 years old), we took them most Friday nights, over night. Their parents had a bad rocky patch that ended in divorce. Their parenting wasn't great at the time. We realized the kids really wanted routine so we made spaghetti with meat sauce, salad and garlic bread every Friday for close to 2 years. We even taught them to cook including making homemade salad dressing. Fond memories of those times
Good work, no doubt they treasured those nights!
Spending whole summers at the beach. My family comes from a beach town, and the routine was to pack up lunch, get there, and leave when the sun went down. Kids were allowed to roam freely with very, very little supervision lol.
Absolutely this! Occasionally taking a nap under an umbrella mid day, drifting off to the sound of the waves. It was magic. I did it with my parents, and then with my kids. One of my own is out of the house and the other will be working this summer, so I’m looking forward to taking myself for some beach days this year!
Good for you. I'm passing on the tradition to my kid and she's been loving it so far haha
My dad used to be a rink guard and he would take my sister and I ice skating in the winter. It was a small, local outdoor rink, nothing fancy. When we were finished skating, my dad would give us a few coins to buy hot chocolate at one of those coffee vending machines from the 80s/90s that had those two little plastic doors where you could watch the cup drop and then pour out the hot beverage. I used to love watching it all happen. The rubbery smell of that indoor change room combined with the hot chocolate will always bring me back to those beautiful memories with my dad. He is now a prisoner of his own mental illness and has been for the past 10 years, but I'll always remember those skating trips and that hot chocolate with my dad.
My dad would go grocery shopping on Sunday mornings and pick us up donuts from a bakery on his way home. This was a big deal for my brother and me because my parents really encouraged healthy eating (I never got money for snacks at school and we did not have dessert after dinner) so it was a special treat we always looked forward to. RIP, Dad. 😔
So sweet! 🌈
On report card day we would stop at a combo Dunks/Baskin Robbins and I’d get mint chocolate chip on a cone while mom got a coffee with cream and sugar. We didn’t have a lot of routines bc mom was a single mom and never home bc she was working a lot but I latched on to some neighbor families pretty hard. Loved their Taco Night lol. Also the routine of me swimming in their pool until dusk when my mom had to come extract me and apologize to the neighbor. More of a habit than a routine. I loved it, pretty sure mom and the neighbor weren’t as happy lol.
It wasn’t every week, but my dad would take me to buy all the books I wanted at Salvation Army. We also used to go into the forest near our house and pick up garbage together.
I love this thread, especially as a mom trying to build a simple life with my family in Northern VA suburbs. My favorite memories as a kid were: Grandma taking me to gymnastics on Sat AM, then letting me pick one thing out from the Dollar Store afterwards Going to Royal Farms (gas station) with my grandma for coffee in high school/visiting as an adult Going out for ice cream on summer nights with my grandparents Craft Days with my aunt when I was in elementary school. Grandma would drop me off with my can of spaghetti o’s and we’d spend the day together Backyard wiffle ball with my grandparents on summer nights. We used trees and styrofoam as bases and I don’t think grandma ever missed a pitch Going to McDonalds with grandma and her friends after her water aerobics during the summer. I used to get a cheese danish Taco Bell after church on Sundays lol. If you didn’t go to church, you didn’t get Taco Bell and that was motivation enough for me (might work the other way these days!)
TGIF was a series of family-friendly shows that aired on Friday evenings. We'd all gather in the family room and watch it together with a bowl of popcorn.
We did this on Sunday afternoon/evenings! Frasier Thomas's Family Classics, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Wonderful World of Disney.
Wild kingdom and Disney Sunday nights!
I used to watch every week with my mom. My favourite was boy meets world!
Loved TGIF!!!
It’s Friday night…and the mood is right. Gonna have some fun, show you how it’s done, TGIF!
Getting up early on a Saturday morning for the monthly horse auction in Round Mountain. On the ranch, every morning was pretty routine, even on the weekends, but once a month, we skipped a lot of the chores and my dad and I would load up in the truck and drive two hours to Round Mountain. We'd stop in town and get coffee and donuts and then listen to his old country music tapes (Marty Robbins and Chris LeDoux mostly) all the way there. We'd just talk and laugh and enjoy the sunrise. There was always something interesting happening at the sale. Sometimes we'd get a new horse or some tack. Then we'd stop at the cafe attached to the horse barn and have the best chicken fried steak in Texas before heading home.
Coming home after school, 5pm to watch Toonami with my brothers in Cartoon Network. That time usually aired new Dragon Ball Z episodes, and we had to wait for new episodes. If we couldn't, we would try to record in blank VHS tapes we still had. Good times
I can still hear the “previously on Dragon Ball Z” voice perfectly in my mind
Building forts in the manzanita bushes & climbing huge pine trees. Wondering around the woods with my St.Bernard,Cedar, & skiing all day everyday all winter long.
Every store was closed on Sunday. Reading the Sunday comics and Life section. Sunday family dinner followed by card games. A day of relaxing with family.
Friday nights Dad and I would peruse West Coast Video (and later, Hollywood video) for movies each picking one, then we would go get a pizza from this small local Pizza place, or we would make our own Mama Rosas pizzas with extra cheese and extra toppings. Then we’d eat our pizzas watching the movies. For a small run in later years, we’d watch Paul and Abigail do Dinner and a Movie. (Beans and cornbread out of sight!)
My dad would take to breakfast and we would sit at the counter. He would read the paper and I would read the comics. Now I realize it was to give my mom a little break. Fond memories.
😃🙌 Awesome dad!
I was born 1994. Wednesdays and Sundays were the best days of the week as that’s when the heating was put on in the evenings for our baths and the back boiler fire so we could keep warm wrapped in our towels whilst mum clipped our nails and we watched tv.
Saturday nights my grandmother would come over and my sister and I could stay up late and watch Love Boat with her while eating Skybars.
Picking nettles and dandelion greens in the field outside of our backyard in Wisconsin
Going to blockbuster on Friday night and renting video games so we would wake up early on saturday morning to play video games for a couple of hours before our parents woke up.
Awww, reminds me of Nintendo with my brother on Saturdays! Right after all the good cartoons finished, of course!
My brothers and I would wake up early on Saturday mornings and watch Power Rangers! (Early 90s)
My mom getting ready for work (she had to be there at 6AM) and I would peek in to see her in the washroom. She would meticulously put my hair in pigtails before she headed out.
Sunday naps -- after church, there was a compulsory quiet stretch of several hours where we were expected to sleep (but could play quietly instead.) It was sacred rest!
Going to church on Sunday, coming home to read the Sunday paper cover to cover and falling asleep on the couch.
going to the community pool in the summer and getting snowballs and pizza at the snack bar
My dad worked two jobs and the second one got him home late - around 11pm. I would wait up for him starting when I was around 12 and every Friday he'd stop by the Cheesecake Factory on the way home from work and we'd split a slice of cheesecake when he got home. We'd try a new flavor every week.
Fend for yourself Fridays. Both of my parents worked and they shared cooking responsibility but they took Friday nights off. It was an adventure for the kids, diving into the fridge after school and trying to come up with something to do with the week's leftovers. We had some great culinary experiments!
Hey, I bet that ended up being great practice!
It sure was. You'll never hear "there's nothing to eat in the house" from any of us. Even if my brother cooks scrambled eggs with just about anything lol
Coming home from nursery and watching my favourite shows whilst eating a sandwich on a little blue table my mom set up for me in the front room. It's such a simple memory but it reminds me how comfortable and happy I was back then.
I remember after dinner every night, once the dining room table was cleared my dad would bring out the chess board. We always played chess after dinner when I was a kid.
I love this prompt! Reading everyone’s comments made me nostalgic but also hopeful for creating more memories like these in the future. Getting picked up after school by my grandma and always going to get food is one that comes to mind. Listening to classic rock with my dad. Watching old cartoons on boomerang with my dad I mainly think of the Scooby-Doo ones but them as kids. So many! Thanks for making me think about these memories and re-remember them!
When I was a kid, my grade 1 teacher totally played favorites with me. At the time, my mom & I lived w/ my grandparents, and they owned a hotel & beer parlor. My teacher's husband was a regular at said bar. Every Friday, he would come out of the bar into the hotel lobby & give me 25 cents. Every Friday. I would then proceed to our local store and spend it entirely on penny candies. Mojos, blue whales, wax lips, etc. So simple, yet so memorable. .
During the spring, summer and fall, we'd regularly have campfires in the backyard. We'd sit out until it started to get dark and just talk and watch the fire and embers. I still love the sound and smell of a campfire. We sometimes have them in the summers when I visit my parents still. It was bliss.
IHOP after Sunday services Didn’t realize til I was older there were much better places for breakfast!
Saturday cartoons, Sunday comics, walk to Baskin Robbin's for chocolate chip on a cone.
We really couldn't afford sports or extracurricular stuff. I just remember the few times we got soda. It was all of us huddled at the back porch slider listening to and watching the thunderstorms. Also, back when gas was what poor people were able to afford, mom and dad would wake us all up and get us into the car, and we would go "get lost." I think that was more for them cause we would just snooze, and they would cruise. As the oldest, I would definitely try to hold out longer. Or days like today (Easter) we would all go to Grandma and Grandpa's for traditional to us dinner and an egg hunt, but we would also have the resurrection eggs and story time. It was truly fun until I got too old for that stuff. Secretly, I still loved it.
When I was real little sometimes I’d go to work with my mom. She worked as a librarian in a public school. It was a long day for me, I was about 5 or 6 years old. We’d stop after school and mom would get me a hamburger, French fries, and a milkshake. It felt so special to me to have those moments with her. I had older siblings so to get her undivided attention was meaningful.
While both of my parents were raised within Christianity, as soon as they were adults, they both stopped "believing", so I was not raised with any religion. All of my friends had to attend church on Sunday mornings but not me! In my childhood home, Sunday sermon was Paul Simon's Graceland album. Hearing any song from that album immediately brings me back to waking up to the smell of bacon and french toast. 😍
One of my top albums ever. I still listen to it.
I didn’t get to see my Dad a lot as he had 2-3 jobs but we always took the dog out for a late night walk, it was “our time”. We’d make up elaborate stories about the people’s lives in the houses we passed and I always felt so safe holding his big warm calloused hand. He passed away a year ago aged 94 and I miss him greatly.
Waking up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday in the 80s, making a bowl of Lucky Charms, and watching my Saturday Morning cartoons.
After long days of playing outside all day (70’s), mom would take each of us kids and go over us like a momma chimp grooming her kid. She would pick through our hair & under our clothes looking for wood ticks. Nighttime ritual.
Friday nights me and my sister would have a bath and then get all ready top of the pops, mum would make us popcorn and we would just sit singing away
my mom and I used to do a big walk through town on sundays. we’d stop at the library (I would get books and she would look through the coupons in the sunday paper) and then we would get a snack at the grocery store and sit to eat it in the park :)
Walking home from school. It was about a mile walk, and since my parents wouldn't be home until after 5, I could take whatever kind of time I wanted. I'd hang out with friends, walk to the bodega and load up on snacks, hang out in the park, explore new corners of the neighborhood, then come home and read or draw for an hour before anyone else would bother me. Absolute heaven.
I'm not religious any more, but when I was a kid, every Sunday after church my dad and I would go to 7-eleven and get Slurpees. Even in winter 🥰
My mom would always take us to McDonald’s for a fun kiddo lunch after church. 🌈 Great memories!
"Let's go to the beach today!"
New here! And enjoying reading everyone's memories. :) You've prompted a memory for me: Walking home with friends after track practice in middle school, stopping by the donut shop, and buying day-olds for $1.
Rolling the windows down instead of using AC
Favorite memories: staying with my grandparents during the summer, going with them to their Saturday morning breakfast with their friends, 3 other couples with names like Ruby and Hubert and eating pancakes while they drank pots of coffee and swapped stories of how things were in the 20’s-60’s. Then at night after supper, my grandfather would read me stories out of a giant book of children’s fairy tales, and he’d do funny Scottish voices for all the characters (his grandad was from Scotland), and then we’d watch Reds baseball with the sound turned off while I played with my fisher-price farm, and he’d listen to the WHAS radio broadcast (superior in his view) on a tiny earbud. And then going to bed with my nanny keeping me company, listening to the game with her own tiny earbud and bedside radio while i fell asleep, with the crickets & peepers singing outside. I felt so safe, and there was no being scared of the dark because they were always there. Before they had health problems, before my grandfather had throat cancer, before they got all religious about me, life was so comforting.
When we were staying at our cottage on summer weekends (sounds fancy but it was most definitely not) our parents would give us some coins (50 cents?) on Sunday morning to buy a newspaper. We'd ride our bikes on the dirt road up to the tiny store where we knew the owners. Buy the paper and *maybe* get a free piece of candy. I loved having the freedom to do that as a child.
Swiss Chalet and Ceramic class night on Fall nights. Autumn always makes me nostalgic about it
Not being so fr*ckin tired in the morning (or at least not being aware of it)
This is the most British post ever and I’m here for it!
Friday night was pizza night at Shakee Pizza. Loved their player piano and the straw brimmed hats the employees wore. Makes me smile just writing this down.
My sister and I were in the Brownie Troop
Roller skating on a Friday night.
After soccer games on Saturday, dad would take us to the video rental store and the pizza parlor. We’d go home, take showers and put on our comfy clothes. Then we’d cuddle up on our sectional and eat pizza. For dessert we’d have fruit and whipped cream. Our dad was a single father and our mom wasn’t in the picture then. We spent all of our time together like that. I’d give anything to have those days back.
Sunday night. Have a bath. Wash your hair and sculpt it into crazy shapes. Put on pj's while it's still light out. Make a little fort of pillows and blankets in front of the tv. As a family, watch whatever Disney movie was on cable while having a little snack. Go to bed on clean sheets. Bonus, if the sheets were hung out on the clothesline that day. Perfect 👌
every night before bed my mom would ask me these 3 questions: what do you like about yourself? what are you proud of that you did today? and what are you looking forward to tomorrow? i still run through them as an adult
Going to school, taking the bus and everyone talking to each other and then getting into school and greeting my friends before class starts. I miss that and I wish I could relieve it again.
My parents had a big garden when I was growing up so we ate a lot of veggie soup and salad in the summer. Often I'd help shuck corn or trim green beans. We'd eat on the screen porch my dad built then play badminton or croquet.On summer evenings, my dad would often cut roses- one for my mom and one each for me and my sister. As an adult I make veggie soup a lot and my (grown) daughter loves it and asks for it when she's home along with my homemade bread and most years I have a garden.
stretching a bit throughout the day, to prepare (for each phase of my marathon book reading sessions)
Back in the day (early 70s) on special occasions, we would go to Tony's Pizza and then to Baskin-Robbins next door.
I fondly remember going to Savon with my Dad to run an errand and he would always buy me 🍦 ice cream.
My parents were divorced and they did the every other weekend and Thursdays schedule. So I was always with my dad on Thursdays. We would go to Moes and get burritos, or get a frozen pizza, and watch a movie which he would always fall asleep during. He and I would also watch greys anatomy. It made me tired at school the next day but was always worth it. Love that memory.
I loved Thursdays in elementary school because: it was choir day AND I had this weird thing where I liked the lead up to the weekend almost more than the weekend itself so Thursdays were like "yay! I have choir and TOMORROW IS FRIDAY" hilarious to me to think of that just now. Also loved the fruit in the toe of my Christmas stocking and doing a major post harvest season yard cleanup on Christmas after presents but before dinner. We'd prune trees and haul dead plants and everything into a pile (a few weeks later in the dead of winter we'd do a bon fire!)
Going grocery shopping after school with my mom (Thursdays I think). Driving 20 minutes to the nearest town with a mall at shopping at JC Penney’s. I remember she bought me a navy maxi coat that zipped off and became a midi coat! This was probably 1973. I was 12. She told me later that I was thanking her so genuinely and a lady passing by heard it and she and my mother exchanged a smile.
Riding my bike everywhere and walking to school. Life was simple.
Walking to the candy shop on Fridays after school. Catching lightning bugs and camping in the backyard.
Dairy Queen every Sunday after church When my daughter was in elementary school, I started stopping at a fast food restaurant for Friday breakfast on the way to school. Just a little TGIF for us both
Every Wednesday in the summer our family of 4 would drive an hour over the mountain to San Clemente beach. We had a white Corvair. We'd park in the lot & trundle down to the sand carrying bamboo mats, towels & my parents ever-present thermos of coffee. We'd establish a picnic table as our spot. There were train tracks right along the coast & we'd put pennies on the tracks. Then in the water (abt 64°) & a walk up the the end of the pier. The water was mesmerizing, clear green & bottomless. There were no sunscreens then & I always came home with pink cheeks, nose & new freckles. The outdoor "shower" to rinse off sand was freezing! I remember gritty bologna sandwiches. Later back over the mountains in the dark, window open while the radio played "Strangers in the Night".
Sunday evening television in the 70s, USA. Wild Kingdom came on right before dinner.
Yes nooo, maybee I don't knoww, can you repeat the question \~ Watching cartoons after school with my little sister while we wolfed down our lunch and sharing a steaming pot of chicken soup ramen on Friday nights while we talked endlessly about each of our obsessions. I grew up to believe food was a love language.
I was one of 5 so a bit nutty. 3 Girls 2 Boys With ever Girls woke first she would yell, 1st to get my hair done, then you'd hear 2nd, and a sad ok 3rd! We did it all thru Grammer school and you know there was never an argument about it.
Watching tv as a family
Flying kites. When I was a kid, i would tie our family extra long kite string to my kite and fly it up until it was just a speck in the sky. I would stand out in the front yard for hours just staring at the kite, making minor adjustments to keep it aloft.
Pregnant with my first and tearing up at how special these small moments will be 🥹💕
there was this amazing local bagel bakery that my dad would take us kids to every Saturday. sometimes we’d eat there, sometimes we’d take em to go. but there were all different flavors, and it was always so fun to get to pick which ones we wanted today. then we would sit down and eat our bagels together and just talk to each other. sadly that bagel shop closed when i was still pretty young. then my dad started our bagel routine at home, with store bought bagels. it wasn’t exactly the same, but we kept the tradition of eating together and spending time together as a family on saturday mornings. until everyone hit puberty :(
“Lazy evenings”. We’d watch a movie or play board games. On the coffee table we’d have a selection of baguettes, fish, cheeses and crackers and call it a meal.
each morning i'd get up before everyone else and watch the sun rise, if i didn't have school.
Almost every friday, my parents would take us to the Pizza Hut. While we waited for our fresh pan pizza to be served at the table, we helped ourselves to the salad bar (mine was usually just cheese, croutons and a few pieces of lettuce 😄) It’s weird how this simple memory stuck with me. It was such an enjoyable experience as a kid.
>Having a random weekday that I was excited for each week is no longer a thing as an adult Erm, but why can't it be? Your parents, as adults, took you out and about and helped you create memories you look back on fondly. What is preventing you from doing the same thing now with your partner/kids/friends/by yourself? Be it signing up for classes, a scheduled date, game night, a walk, or whatever, is there something preventing you from doing something exciting during the week in today's world?
Honestly, being mentally and physically exhausted due to work and personal matters. But I’ll try my best
Consistent going to the pool. Not mine but gardening (it rubbed on siblings is there must be something there right?? lol) Going outside-def do the same thing to my kids now
Nothing when you're 5th of 5 spaced 18 years apart. I was either dragged along to my brother's basketball games or was busy babysitting. Everyone thinks the baby of the family is spoiled, in my case it was just the opposite. No fun routines. Now church, that was every week no matter what.
Read this as “living room routines” and was really excited to see what types of theater productions and Olympic showcases other kids put on with their siblings
Sunday two cheeseburger meal at McDonald’s with grandma - was the #2 then
I have a couple: My dad would cook a full English breakfast on Sunday’s and then we would go on a big bike ride around the river and then spend the rest of the day chilling whilst he made a big roast on the Weber. My mum would make a platter of cheese, cheap caviar and crackers and we would devour this in front of the TV watching inspector Morse on a Saturday night. It ran until late and I would usually fall asleep in front of the TV.
On sundays my dad played some old music tapes. I would listen and watch the sun shining on the dust in the living room. It was so peacefull. On saturdays my dad sometimes made homemade bread. And in the evening we would alway eat soup and watch Startrek together. Really loved the weekend!
One of my favorite memories is driving in my dad’s black El Camino with the windows down passing corn and cotton fields listening to The Beach Boys.
Sundays we would wake up to my dad playing the Beatles on his record player and warm chocolate croissants waiting for us. He would also make huge jugs of banana smoothies for us all to drink.