People Are Sharing Specific Childhood Experiences That Are Surprisingly Universal

Elle Tharp
Updated February 23, 2022 3k votes 195 voters
List Rules
Vote up the nostalgic memories that take you back to your childhood.

We're all different - we grew up in different times, different places, with different people. Yet when looking back on our childhoods, it's hard to ignore the commonalities. These oddly specific, yet collective memories point to a shared human experience, particularly during our formative years, where many of us laughed at the same jokes, dusted off the same scrapes, and asked the same questions about the world around us.

Of course, not all of these memories apply to everyone, and each person is bound to hold their own unique recollections of family traditions, childhood neighborhoods, or classroom culture. But these vivid recollections - from the taste of wooden ice cream sticks to the smell of hose water - evoke a sharp sense of nostalgia for days gone by and the mentality we had as kids. Reminiscing on these moments makes us miss the time when we found joy from something as simple as a smooth rock or a cardboard box, before we had to go and grow up.

  • 1
    160 VOTES

    A Very Specific Boo-Boo

    From Redditor u/Curious_Wrangler_980:

    Skinning the palms of your hands on the pavement. More [specifically] the lower palms. Either tripping, falling off your bike, falling down in general. That burn and stinging and the [scrapes] with just a little blood and grime.

    From Redditor u/ChazNinja:

    Scraping your knee and getting gravel embedded in both your knees and palms.

    160 votes
  • 2
    173 VOTES

    The Wood Stick Taste

    From Redditor u/YoMamaSoFatSheIsFat:

    [The] taste of that wooden stick from [ice cream]... you can't remember the ice cream, but you can remember the taste of stick.

    173 votes
  • 3
    153 VOTES

    Every Saturday...

    From Redditor u/amazingphrasing:

    Saturday morning cartoons!

    From Redditor u/jaetran:

    Man, I remember waking up on Saturday mornings around the same time I would get up for school and feeling not tired whatsoever and feeling amped up for Saturday TV shows...

    153 votes
  • 4
    136 VOTES

    The Smells Of Playtime

    From Redditor u/ruffcutgemz:

    The smell of crayons.

    From Redditor u/Drag0n_Child:

    And Play-doh!

    136 votes
  • 5
    152 VOTES

    Crack-Related Walking

    From Redditor u/Qaztarrr:

    Either trying to step on no cracks or on only cracks on the sidewalk.

    From Redditor u/NYCmichael:

    Your mother’s back was in constant jeopardy.

    152 votes
  • 6
    135 VOTES

    Glue Skin

    From Redditor u/hglndr9:

    Putting Elmer's glue on your hand and peeling it off to make skin.

    135 votes