What is the most Fondest memory you have of your childhood?

• Mine is my grandmother "plaiding"(that's what she called it)my hair-not braiding- there's a difference-she taught me how to braid-but i could never plaid my own,she would sing sweet songs the whole time.

• Answer:

  I have many fond memories. Some were the typical sweet childhood memories, but many had a difficulty inherent in them that made them stick in my memory. My childhood was not perfect, but it was a good start for a kid. I remember watching the sun set west of my grandmother's house, yet the sky did not fade. My grandmother and grandfather were worried, but she held me on her lap, and I felt safe. It wasn't until later that I realized the lingering glow was a grass fire that could well have wiped them out. My father was among those fighting the fire. I remember eating mulberries with home-made ice cream. My older sisters churned the ice cream while my middle sister, younger brother and I picked the mulberries. It was delicious in the way any home-made vanilla ice-cream would be delicious, but the hot afternoon, the effort that went into the preparation, and the evening breeze as we enjoyed it after a simple supper made it most remarkable. I can not eat mulberries to this day without thinking of that evening. I remember all sorts of family holidays...always noisy, always crowded, and always lots of laughter. Even when I was too young to get what the joke was, I felt safe and happy on those days. I have a wonderful memory of a family gathering out on the farm where I grew up. The families gathered had decided that the thing to do was have a baseball game. I was just a very small kid, but I got my turn at the bat. My mother stood behind me, and when the pitch came and hit the bat I was holding out over the plate, it dropped into the dirt in front of home plate. My mother GRABBED me, tucked me under her arm, and ran for first base for all she was worth. I remember seeing the path to first base bouncing along as I tried to figure out just exactly WHAT was going on! When we arrived at first base, she deposited me, and instructed me that when she yelled "run" I was to go "hell-bent-for-leather" to second. Okay, I said. Where is second? Second, it turned out, was the upside down skillet out in the gravel drive way. It was my very first hit in a ball game, and one I'll always treasure. When I was ten, things got difficult, but those early years were filled with great times. My absolutely most fond memory was the weekend we cleaned up the house out in the country so that we could move back into it after two years in town. I knew I was five years old. We cleaned and swept and scrubbed and washed and dusted, and finally started moving furniture back into the house. There was still a large barrel in the living room, and someone put a round board of some sort on it for a table top, and people gathered around it about 4 or 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. All sorts of aunts and uncles and tons of cousins were there. My aunt had asked several times how old I was, and I was wondering why she couldn't remember that I was 5. Then someone put me up at the edge of the improvised table, and my aunt brought in a birthday cake - a spice cake decorated with a coconut frosting and candy corns and six birthday candles. Every one sang happy birthday to me. It was the first birthday I remember celebrating. It was also the last birthday cake I had for many many years. After the cake was cut and served, my aunt asked again how old I was. I remember laughing and saying, "I guess you already know I am six today!" She hugged me, and said she loved me, and was proud that I could count. I have a particular fondness even today for candy corn.