What is your favorite memory of your parents together?

[TNDemo]

I really don't have many heartwarming ones since things started going wrong between them pretty early in my life but my husband was talking about two different times that he remembers. One was when he was little but big enough to attend a dinner out with his parents and some other folks. Whoever the people were they got his mother laughing and he had never seen her just let loose and belly laugh and he said it was like a light bulb going off in his young head that his mother was a "real person" and not just the Mommy Machine (she was apparently beloved by everyone - died before I met her but have never heard an unkind word about her from anyone) and liked fun stuff too. And his father was laughing with her. He also remembers when they would travel and everyone would sleep in the same room his parents would be in bed and giggling under the covers. He said they were probably talking about them (the kids) but ya never know. I am always glad when my now grown kids talk about much they thought we were in love when they were growing up. So what is that special moment you remember between your own parents or grandparents that made you feel warm and fuzzy as a kid (or maybe grossed out!)? No throwing things at each other or calling the cops - I had too much of that in my own childhood.

[skygazer]

1. My dad plays the guitar and he sang with a local country band when I was a kid

He used to sing to my mom when I was young - "Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes" was her song and it always made her face light up.

They seemed to have a close and loving relationship then but my dad wasn't faithful and when I was about 12 or so, he asked her for a divorce which broke her heart. Then she was diagnosed with cancer and he stayed with her - decided to "do the right thing" except he kept seeing other people. That's always sort of colored my memories which is unfortunate.

[TNDemo]

2. But I love you have that memory of him singing to her.

Thanks for sharing that.

[LeftyMom]

3. I don't really remember my parents together.

One of my first memories is my Mom pulling out of the driveway with all of her stuff in the back of her car when I was three.

We didn't hear from her again, even just to know that she was alive and okay, until I was almost eight. That's kinda what passes for normal with my mom though.

[terrya]

4. I never remembered them arguing in front of us.

I'm sure they had their disagreements...hell, they were married 50 years.

But I never, ever remember them arguing in front of my sisters and I.

[MorningGlow]

5. Don't have any, I'm afraid

They weren't happy by the time I was old enough to be aware of their feelings toward one another. But I have photos of them at parties before I was born and they're actually smiling and sitting together.

One memory that stands out--my aunt and uncle lived nextdoor to us, and once when I was 6 or 7 I spent the night at their house. Not only did they sit down and have a real breakfast together, which we didn't do at our house, but they actually kissed one another goodbye when my uncle went to work! I think my jaw hit the floor when I saw that--it was so foreign to me.

[PassingFair]

6. One summer, we rented a cabin, sight unseen, in Michigan's

Upper Peninsula. The "resort" was called "Olsen's
Nirvana. We got lost trying to find it.
There were 5 of us kids and my parents, my little
sister was 3 months old. It must have been near the
end of summer or autumn, because most of the leaves
were turning color already, and in the UP, it can
get pretty scrubby and grey looking.

We finally found the area, and the only sign of
habitation was a trailer near the water. We knocked
on the door, and a guy opened it, enveloped in a
cloud of blue pot smoke. He shook my dad's hand and
showed us around "Nirvana". Couldn't swim, because
of the water temp and the LEECHES, couldn't use the
boat, because it had a hole in it. And most perfectly
of all, the cabin itself: one waterbed and a cot.
No stove, just a two burner camp stove. And a stereo.

My mother started to cry. We went into Escanaba for
dinner and the only place open was a bar, The Dew
Drop Inn. Two of my brothers threw-up afterwards.
(I think from the cigar and cigarette smoke.)
My mother started to cry again.

It was a rough night, my 3 brothers in the waterbed,
horsing around, my mom and dad on the floor, and me
on the cot with my baby sister, who kept sliding down
between the cot and the wall.
I could hear my mother crying.

The next morning, Olsen let my Dad use his phone and
we lucked into another cabin, a three bedroom
we could afford on Platte Lake near Lake Michigan,
1-1/2 hours away. My mother stopped crying.

I will never forget the look on my mother's face,
the day had dawned bright and sunny, like it was
a new WORLD. She and my dad stood in front of the
crummy hunter's cabin and one of my brothers took
a picture of them.

I still laugh whenever I see it.

[tigereye]

7. probably them at the beach - or getting ready to go dancing on date night

when we were kids.



or maybe Christmas Eve with my son when he was little.

[flvegan]

8. Going to Mt Snow in Maine.

Nice resort. My dad's work sent us.

I don't have a lot of great memories. The marriage was over by the time I was 7 I think.

[Haole Girl]

9. When they put their differences aside and took me to see...

the movie Nicholas and Alexandria. I was 10. We saw the movie at the Alhambra.

The theater is no longer standing. It was torn down & a Safeway was built in its place. I hated to see that old building torn down. :cry:

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Wonderful memories of my parents playing gin, drinking wine...

and reposing in a pair of magical wingback chairs. Cheese and crackers or maybe a liver pâté and water biscuits would be close by. The days chores had wound down, dinner is all but ready, and us kids would be coming back from a day of adventures. My parents pleasant disposition was infectious. Fond memories reflecting back to my childhood, only to stumble on the bitter truth; times have been better.


Fast forward forty years: Dad is gone and Mom gave up the house for something easier. While closing down the home, I stumbled upon a nest of papers full of numbers that took a bit to figure out, it was their Gin Rummy tally sheets. I discovered they kept score for all those years.

[TNDemo]

11. Aw - that's pretty sweet. What I found when I cleaned out my mother's house.

My parents had a horrible contentious divorce. They could have written the book on how to have a divorce and really screw up your children. My dad remarried immediately after the divorce (I think just to annoy her - shooting himself in the foot). She remarried a few years later (30 years of wedded misery and he divorced her when she went in the nursing home). No communication at all except through us kids through the years. So my dad's wife of 30 years dies and three weeks later my brother dies in a house fire. My mother in descending into early onset Alzheimer's at this point. They meet at the funeral and he tells her she is still beautiful and she says he is as handsome as ever. I was bawling like a baby in my early 40s. Anyway, when I cleaned her house out not long after this I found a roll of pictures that my mother had taken at my brother's wedding 17 years earlier. It was a very small ceremony in a church in the town where I was living and both had driven in for it. My dad, his wife and their kid had come. My mother had clandestinely snapped a roll of film of my dad throughout that wedding. She had always acted like she could care less if he lived or died but I think they really never got over each other. Every time my stepmother would leave the room my dad would tell me how much he loved my mother and never wanted the divorce.

[stuntcat]

12. pictures I have-

I have a picture of them sitting in front of our fireplace one Christmas. They're both wearing their stylish 70's duds and looking so happy.

Another picture is the three of us (I'm an only) on a peer at Myrtle Beach. They're fishing and I'm making a funny face.

I want to go find the pictures now, I like them so much!

[Breeze54]

13. The way they hugged each other in the little alcove

between the front hall and the kitchen. There was a coat closet in that very tiny space and my
Dad would barely get his coat hung up after getting home from work and my Mom would be right
there waiting and then they'd hug and kiss and laugh, everyday. It was very touching and reassuring.

[MissMillie]

14. I have a lot of great memories of them together

but I hope my best one is yet to come

[TK421]

15. Winter vacations at the Jersey shore...yeah, WINTER vacations

because it was dead down there, but very peaceful on Long Beach Island