The Time of your Life

[quattro]

When was the ''Time of your Life''

[quattro]

What I meant when I asked the question was when was your happiest time in your life the period you look back on as being the best . I asked a fuller version of the question but it was'nt posted so I suppose it's floating round somewhere and looking at this version now it looks like a cryptic question

[Cathy]

It would have to be from the time I first got together with my husband up to the present. Sorry if that's a bit sappy. I always think that school nostalgia is over-rated and getting some independance was a lot better.

[andy hughes]

Mine was the early 1970's. I developed a social life, got into music, and lived a very intense period of my life, with massive highs and lows. Funny, but the fasions in music and clothing really are coming back now, not just the superficial 'Saturday night Fever' trend - and it makes me smile to see kids dressed how I used to in those days. What goes around comes around - but you can't buy albums for �2 anymore!

[Lennon]

I agree with Cathy that I'm living the best time now that I'm with my boyfriend. But I also look back on when I was about 12 and the park at the end of my road had a lake at the back. A tree had grown right over the water and me and my mates used to all sit across it in the summer - there used to be about 15 of us sun bathing on the tree, it was brilliant!

[gazzawazza]

As I get older (I'm 41 in July) I do seem to be getting incredibly nostalgic for times when I was a little kid. I'm definitely not a morbid or miserable person but these "flashbacks" are brought on by the strangest things and I feel really happy when I get the memories but feel quite sad when I have to come back to my real life!

Really simple pleasures come to mind... The other day I was in a shop when I saw a yellow plastic bowl... immediately I started to smile to myself coz I remembered being about two years old (or younger) and putting my mam's yellow plastic bowl on my head. I loved that bowl coz it had a little pouring spout but to me it was a workman's helmet or a soldier's or a spaceman's...

A question at Christmas asked what were your three favourite presents as a child. One of mine was a metal meccano set and I really really wanted to go back there and play with it!

Just recently I had a dream where I was sat on my dad's knee as a little kid and when I woke up I couldn't get that feeling of security out of my mind, remembering when he was my biggest hero and I used to have to reach up to hold his hand and knowing that nothing or no-one at all could ever harm me. Blooming heck, I'm filling up here! For days and days after that dream I just wanted to say thanks to my dad for that and tell him that I loved him but being a rough tough bloke I just couldn't do it!

Shucks... Now I've gone and told you lot I s'pose I'll just have to go and try to do it won't I?!

[Lennon]

That was a really nice post gazza and yep, you should go and tell your dad. As I was reading your post, I got to the bit about the feeling of security and thought 'I remember feeling like that, that nothing could ever harm me while my dad was there' and low and behold, they were pretty much your next words! :) My dad is quite a big muscly bloke, and me being his little girl made that feeling even stronger. Don't you wish sometimes that you could just have that feeling back, just for a bit, where you didn't have a care in the world as whatever happened, Dad would sort it out? :)

[gazzawazza]

Thanks Lennon, and... Yes... I do!!! After that dream I just wanted to be a little kid again. It was exactly how you say you'd felt, you just knew no matter how naughty you'd been your dad would still protect you from whatever nasty things you might have imagined.

I even told my kids about the dream and how I'd felt and they were all saying that I had to tell my dad all about it.

The thing is, although I get on with my dad great it just seems such a hard thing to tell him... My dad used to be a shade under six foot but I'm only 5' 8" and I swear I'm almost bigger than him now! I suppose the ravages of time are taking their toll on him so does that make it more urgent that I tell him now?

[Lennon]

I'd say tell him now no matter how old he's getting, bless him. I see what you are saying, but I think no matter how rough/tough both of you are, if you tell him that he'll appreciate it for its worth, and for the fact that he'll know it probably took a lot for you to tell him - and a lot of deliberating, like now :) The next time you see him, why don't you have a chat, just you and him, about when you were younger. Re-living your times together will be fun, and you'll find it much easier to then say how you felt when you were younger, rather than just phoning him or something and blurting out 'hi dad, by the way you made me feel safe and great when I was younger.' I tell my dad how he made me feel all the time when I was younger amd how much I loved my childhood, and every time I can see glints of tears (and believe me when I say my dad is not the kind of guy who crys!)

[woodpam]

Gazza, waste no time in telling your dad. My family, though close are undemonstrative and a couple of months before he died, I told my dad that it was the blessing of my life that he and my mum had adopted me. He was so delighted it made him and me very happy. My best of times is right now, and I hope it always will be. I have a very happy life, a great family, a job I enjoy and am reaasonably secure. I also have many happy memories of a mis spent youth and the peace of knowing that a lot of the sad and very difficult times are well behind me. There is a future to look forward to and right this minute to while away, do something meaningful, or whatever I choose. What could be better.

[gazzawazza]

Thanks to both Lennon and woodpam for the encouraging words. As you can tell I'm really not rough and tough at all... but it still doesn't make it any easier!

I have taken everything on board and I had been thinking of the sort of approach you suggested Lennon, bringing up bits of my childhood. In fact the other day I mentioned the plastic bowl to both of them so at least I've made a start!

[quattro]

They are all lovely answers I don't feel as if I could rate any one ahead of another . My time of my life was when my children were little it was great having someone to depend on you someone who thought you were brilliant and that needed looking after .I was lucky enough to work shifts so I often had to look after them in the day feeding them and taking them to school and playing with them , I realise how lucky I was as my father worked 7 days a week on a farm and never got to do anything with me and my brothers and sisters . I can even say that the best thing about that time of my life was when I came home from work and all three of my kids used to sit on my knee on my chair. I'm rather glad they don't do it now but the nearest they came to it was when they all came in pi**ed and jumped on my bed and tried to give me and my wife lovebites!!!