Childhood

[DarthTofu]

While some (Tex) will decree that we are forever children at heart, or that anyone younger than them is a child, or that I am a child, or whatever, the fact of the matter is that I don't think anyone still refers to his or her self as a "child" in their mind, and considers their life to have moved beyond their "childhood."

 

Thus, I now ask this question: What is one of the things that you remember most from your childhood? A series of books for "young adults," perhaps, or maybe a television program, or a theme park you attended religiously with your family?

 

For me, I'll have to go with the Animorphs books. While some of you may not know what they are, if you were born in the early nineties or so, then odds are that you know what they are/were, and you were sucked into them as well.

 

Basically it follows five human children- Tobias, Cassie, Jake, Marco, and Rachel- plus one alien that's a sort of mouthless centaur called an Andalite- Ax- in their fight against the invading Yeerks, which are basically slugs that slide into your brain and take over your body (Kinda like the Goa'old, for any Stargate fans). Anyway, they all have the ability to "morph" into any creature they can touch and acquire the DNA of, thus they can use these morphs for guerrilla warfare throughout the 54-book series, having "battle morphs" (Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), infiltration morphs (Ants, bats, fleas, etc.) and morphs to suit the occasion (Beavers to create a dam, moles to burrow underground, etc.)

 

The whole plot isn't too complicated, with most of the books consisting of "The Yeerks have a new superweapon of the week! Go blow it up in an epic battle!" though according to Wikipedia (I was more of an "action book" fellow, so I didn't pay attention to this back then) it was also about the toll that the war and killing took on the individual children. There was a slew of psychological pain from killing, acceptable losses, ordering the murder of 17,000 sentient beings at one point toward the end, etc.

 

The beginning and the ending were pretty cool, with perhaps twenty out of the fifty-four books being "corish" books in which important characters and events were introduced, with another thirty-four "oneshot" books that were essentially filler. They would probably have made a decent TV series had they A) Had a higher budget, B)Not tried to air it on Nickelodeon, and C)Not censored out a lot of the killing and such... And, on another level, D) had a lot of the special effects technology we have today...

 

But this thread isn't about the Animorphs books so much as it is about everyone else's childhood memories. In retrospect those books really were a waste (I managed to force my parents to buy me some twenty of them, check out another fifteen or more from the local library, read two or three whilst at the bookstore, and buy one or two with money I found on the ground), but they were still fun, and they kept me reading.

[Evaders99]

I started on Animorphs.. they were excellant. But as it kept going, I lost interest (or time given other interests like Star Wars). I read most of the Chronicles books, which were more standalone backstory .. I remember them being very good.

[SOCL]

Animorphs, Boxcar Children...

 

I read those Essential Guides to whatever a lot, too.

 

Playing outside, pretending to be Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.

 

Legos.

 

Meh

[Darth_Rob]

For me, we were Ninja Turtles. I was always Donatello. He was smart and I loved the bo staff.

[Verdex]

Well, when I was about ten years old I stumbled over Douglas Adams' book "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". It enriched my life until today I am still reading it from time to time nowadays and can only recommend it to anyone. (However, stay away from the Hollywood movie - that was awful...)

 

Oh, furthermore I read a lot of "Mad" magazines - and always loved the profound wisdom in the words "What? Me worry?"

[DarthTofu]

Oh, man, I'd forgotten all about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles until now! Well, that's not true- my sister innitially wanted to name me Michaelangelo after her favorite turtle when I was an unnamed child... I eventually opted for Leonardo at around six, but by then it was too late, and my legal name stuck. Curses.

 

H2G2 is kinda dark for a ten-year-old, though, Verdex, isn't it? Or am I just thinking of the later stuff, like Mostly Harmless, that got to be more... er, innapropriate?

[budious]

Knight Rider, Airwolf, and TJ Hooker. I miss you guys... the Shat lives forever!

[Verdex]

H2G2 is kinda dark for a ten-year-old, though, Verdex, isn't it?

 

No, absolutely not. Actually, I came across the radio version first coincidentally and then read the books. [Then there was the BBC TV-series and the C=64 computer game, for the sake of completeness ] And I still love them - they showed me for the first time how to think out of the box - and have fun with it. Philosophy became a hobby of mine a little later and I think that the "Giude" is to blame And last but not least I did a lot of hitchhiking myself later on and met an awful lot of interesting people - all thanks to "H2G2"

[JediHunter]

Tex probably remembers discovering fire...

I remember a toy that would talk and then youd have to spell what it said... im not saying what its called or anything.. nor how old i was when i had it... ooo and a toy that had pegs that lit up

[Darth_Rob]

ooo and a toy that had pegs that lit up

 

Light Bright! Light Bright! Turn on the magic of shining light!

 

I love singing old commerical ads...

[Mad78]

I guess my big souvenirs from my childhood would have to be discovering Star Wars and discovering the N64.

I can't really remember anything else.

[Verdex]

I guess my big souvenirs from my childhood would have to be discovering Star Wars...

 

Damn, how could I just forget that... I was seven or eight when I saw Ep IV in the local cinema (I am proud to have been one of the few of my generation to have seen them all in cinemas!) and life has never ever been the same

 

Even though: I still recall ESB even more vivid!

[DarthTex]

Tex probably remembers discovering fire...

I wish I could say I discovered fire, but I didn't ... Prometheus gave me a light

 

I liked the cinema serial thrillers. Back then it only cost a nickel for admission. Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon is classic! Oh, and to see Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in Technicolor no less

 

And speaking of Errol Flynn as Robin Hood; from IMDB on the 1938 movie:

 

The sound of Robin's arrow is the favorite sound of Skywalker Sound's Ben Burtt. He has used that sound in almost all the Star Wars films.

[Eagle]

Flash Gordon? Robin Hood? Are you talking about the first release back in the 30s? Both is still cult today.

 

Star Wars and the original Star Trek-Series with Kirk and McCoy was something which impressed me very much. And I agree with Verdex that TESB was even more impressive. But I guess that nobody else here will say something else.

[Jahled]

Unless they were repeats Tex, you rarely have some years on you!

 

My 'childhood' had two phases that stand out way before anything else.

 

First (and ongoing) was Star Wars; from many happy hours playing with Hasbro bendy figures by myself lost in imagination (only child), and SW comics.

 

And when I gave up throwing bendy Stormtroopers around my bedroom, along came Dungeons & Dragons, which I embraced with complete zeal. aged ten or so. Even when not actually playing a game I was the child who would watch TV armed with a pencil scribbling away some character stuff, creating a new monster, drawing a dungeon map, etc. It dominated the latter part of my childhood.

[JediHunter]

I remember one of my favorite toys being my dad's abacus.. mainly because I was too young at the time to realize it wasn't a toy.. hehe.. but as I grew up i learned to use it and found it to be quite cool... i guess that was kinda the warning sign that i had... "The Knack" hehehe.. as time passed i started taking apart and rebuilding things more and more..

[Mad78]

I had one of those as well. They are brilliant.