did you have a craptacular childhood?

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how was your childhood? did it stink on ice?

come on. share your pain.

― freejeremy, Wednesday, 18 December 2002 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

ima do mine.

lemme see...

my parents divorced when i was 3, and, for as long as i can remember, they have HATED each other with a fiery passion that consumes their respective beings. visitations with my father were always peppered with phrases like "your mother's a whore" and "she's screwing her boss". he cried a lot. and sometimes he left us with his coke dealer.

meanwhile, mom was struggling to support 2 kids on very little work experience. we were always kinda poor, and we were always moving.

i was repeatedly molested when i was 6 by an older cousin (age 17, with scizophrenia).

when i was 8, my half brother from my dad's second marriage got brain cancer. he survived. now he lives in virginia with his mom and i never get to see him.

when i was 12, my best friend killed himself. 2 months later, my favorite teacher killed himself too.

okay, that's all i can remember right now.

― freejeremy, Wednesday, 18 December 2002 21:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Nah, it was alright.

― , Wednesday, 18 December 2002 21:25 (twenty-three years ago)

(Another genius dialogue which should be put into a movie or book.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

My sympathies, Jeremy. I'm inclined to moan about mine - a mother who drummed low self esteem into me all through my youth - but it's not at all comparable to yours. It astonishes me what a high proportion of people were sexually abused by family/relatives as children. I'm starting to think it's barely a minority at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 21:46 (twenty-three years ago)

See threads passim.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What do you mean Dan?

― Jack in a box, Wednesday, 18 December 2002 22:16 (twenty-three years ago)

After reading Jeremy's post, I feel almost guilty that I had a lovely childhood, except for the day my brother tricked me into eating a spider.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 22:33 (twenty-three years ago)

It wasn't perfect or happy, I spent a lot of my time feeling sad. However, it still seems pretty comfortable and easy compared to many of the horror stories I hear, so I really can't run around claiming that I had it bad.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 22:45 (twenty-three years ago)

the problems were nothing to do with my parents, or any other people

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 23:05 (twenty-three years ago)

in comparison to jeremys mine was a breeze, i think, cause i cant remember much of it so must have blocked it out.
there wasnt any molestation, or evil-divorce scenarios though, im sure of that.

― donna (donna), Thursday, 19 December 2002 00:43 (twenty-three years ago)

It wasn't perfect but it was good (better than adolescence). i'm quite glad I had it to remember (I guess you could say it's not over but I feel like it is).

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 19 December 2002 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Mine wasn't nearly as bad as Jimmy's. However, my parents were clearly staying together only for the sake of my sister and me -- no open fighting, just icy distance. I'm surprised I have any people skills at all, after growing up there.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 19 December 2002 03:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I was tormented pretty frequently, and thinking back, I'm not surprised why. I was a hellacious spaz and tended to look smarter than the other kids so that was a one-way ticket to assbeat city. Dork or not, I was a bully magnet back in the day.

Religion came up in a 5th grade classroom discussion once and I made the colossal mistake of mentioning I was Jewish. It's amazing how quickly pre-pubescent kids will embrace the Nazi party.

One time in junior high I got so mad I put some kid in a sleeper hold and he nearly passed out. I think he might have wound up completely terrified of me.

In my freshman year of high school I was assaulted on the bus by a couple Eazy-E wannabes (GASP could this be the source of my on-and-off gangsta rap loathing?) and my head was smacked up against the rearview mirror. I turned around and started yelling at the assailants, not realizing that there was a gash in the side of my head that would make Terry Funk proud.

After that, things were pretty much okay. Except I got my house egged by some pseudo-punk Vicemag-style pigfuck asshole. (Me? Bitter?)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Thursday, 19 December 2002 05:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Nate, you wouldn't have had the Nazi hell if you were living in SLP amongst the Frozen Chosen like me (because I was in 'smart' classes and have dark hair, pigfucker idiots always asked if I was Jewish...d'oh). Where in Minnenoplace were you brought up?

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 19 December 2002 08:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a great childhood, apart from seven years of getting bullied at junior school. I'm thirty now, and if I ever find out where any of them live I'd still have the fuckers kneecapped.

― lol p xx, Thursday, 19 December 2002 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually I grew up in St. Paul, near the Merriam Park neighborhood. (Central class of '95 represent!) Lots of Catholics.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Thursday, 19 December 2002 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Good childhood I guess, I was never really too quiet though I was very well behaved in primary school, then I got to secondary school and began to mess around a bit more. I was never really bullied I suppose, nothing major anyway, I can remember the odd scuffle in primary school but in secondary school I was cheekier and I guess there were easier targets, given it was a posh private school.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 19 December 2002 12:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Nate, I remembered you were St Paul after hitting Submit - it's way Catholic compared to the Lutheran colony cross the river (shudder). There used to be a St Louis Park/Highland Park rivalry ('fuck you Julie, my Rolex is better!'). My best friend in the TCs, Chris, is a Derham Hall girl brought up on West 7th; her aunt's a nun. If you shopped at Oarfolk for tunes in the '90s I bet you know her. And my dad (brought up on Summit Place, what neighbourhood do you call that?) went to Central too: class of '62 represent!

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 19 December 2002 12:21 (twenty-three years ago)

my childhood was great until my grandfather died when I was 12, it crushed me. When I was 17 I found out my father had been fucking his 20 yr old secretary, divorced followed, as well as homelessness and hunger. I became mentally ill shortly thereafter suffering from anxiety disorder, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. I'm fine now...hehehe.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 19 December 2002 13:09 (twenty-three years ago)

(What I meant was the heartfelt outpouring of childhood trauma followed by, "Nah, it was all right" struck me as a great juxtoposition of attitudes that should be worked into a fictional story. 70% of ILX seems like a slowly fermenting screenplay to me.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 December 2002 14:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Where's that ILX Movie casting thread again?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 December 2002 17:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked my childhood, best years of my life.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 19 December 2002 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Mine was okay; yr average smarty-boy-in-small-town-Iowa story. But my dad had a three year teaching gig in London from 82-85 (age 4-7 for me). So I have fond fond fond memories of the Science, Nat History and Transport Museums (the BM was boooring), My tube stop (East Finchley), my first school (Highgate Infants) and 99 flake. The rest is pretty foggy. High school in my bizarro Calvinist hometown is another thing altogether.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Thursday, 19 December 2002 18:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I can easily be Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 19 December 2002 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked my childhood, best years of my life.

I don't know why, but I always get suicidally depressed when I hear people say that..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 20 December 2002 00:06 (twenty-three years ago)

the 'best years' part that is

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 20 December 2002 00:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in the smart classes, always an ADD kid, always the consummate doodler, generally picked on but not as much as some. My parents have always been together though I can remember some really good fights, mom walking out of the house, etc.

I used to cause a shitload of trouble. Now that I don't live at home I only cause trouble for myself. Getting in trouble and not making good enough grades were the worst of it- after fifth grade I stopped taking shit from certain people and began a three-year spree of getting in fistfights every spring. I turned out to be quite good at it, but in HS the stakes were much higher so I quit beating people up and just avoided them whenever possible.

I remember still being the odd man out most of the time, but I was lucky enough to be gifted with an excellent chin and a knack for getting attention so I actually had a date for most HS dances. I even got asked to the military ball once (This is in spite of the fact that my weekend activities consisted of tabletop Battletech and midnight movies with a gang of other nerdy computer/muso dudes (oh, and most of us were in the marching band, too, incl. me).

All in all I'd say it wasn't other kids that fucked with me so much as the expectations of my parents. Still trying to live up to those and I'm nearly 25.

― Tom Millar (Millar), Friday, 20 December 2002 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a pretty good childhood, no traumas or anything like that, nothing special. I enjoyed it, but it doesn't necessarily relate to later life. I remember an interview with the Manics, where it was said a reason Richey was so troubled was because his (early) childhood was so trouble free. Perhaps it's a motivation, or 'dissapointment at real life' kinda thing, I dunno.

― stephen. s (yaye), Friday, 20 December 2002 02:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom, what's an ADD kid?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 20 December 2002 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

attention deficit disorder

― geeta (geeta), Friday, 20 December 2002 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, thanks.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 20 December 2002 20:50 (twenty-three years ago)

It wasn't nice at all.
I never talk about it.
But I have some reminders.
There's a large dent in my skull on my forehead.
...

And after age 9 I was ill all the time and in and out of Children's Memorial hospital...

School was never pleasant. So much so that I can't even pass by the buildings without having mini panic attacks and flashbacks...

I don't know. I don't like to think about childhood at all.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Friday, 20 December 2002 23:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents are nice people, and I like them a lot. That's all I like to really discuss about my life prior to age 18. Sometimes I say things about it and I regret it.

― Ally (mlescaut), Saturday, 21 December 2002 05:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I generally remember my childhood as pleasant and uneventful, but I might just be repressing the awful stuff. I really hated school: everything traumatic I can think of comes from not fitting in and feeling like everyone there hated me. All in all, though, life before the age of 12 or so was a hell of a lot nicer than anything that came after.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 21 December 2002 07:50 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

the best parts of my childhood were when i was alone.

― di smith (lucylurex), Friday, 16 May 2003 01:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I never know whether to say my childhood was good or bad so I guess it was average.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 May 2003 01:15 (twenty-three years ago)

SNAP

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 16 May 2003 01:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Pretty craptacular, yeah. I've blocked most of it out.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 16 May 2003 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

There were some good parts, some bad parts, some spectacular parts, some really nasty shitty parts. My parents were both wonderful people, my stepparents were evenly divided; she was great, he was an alcoholic who couldn't keep his hands to himself.

All in all, I think I did ok.

― luna (luna.c), Friday, 16 May 2003 03:16 (twenty-three years ago)

My childhood was horrible. I don't want to go into details b/c I feel like when I do I run the risk of sounding like some Oprah guest that people just want to cringe from.

But trust me. it was BAD.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Friday, 16 May 2003 03:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a good childhood, in that my family are lovely caring people, but I spent a hell of a lot of it alone. I had my own room and I liked to keep to myself (particularly in teenage years), I had close friends as a kid but then by 6th grade people started to treat me like shit at school, and to this day I still dont understand why, so I gradually grew to hate and distrust 99% of females (guys were ok to me, it was just all the girls I knew who were awful, mean, evil people). Its only in recent years Ive been able to relax enough to become friends with females again.

Its odd - I know my childhood was overall good, so why am I so screwy?

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 16 May 2003 03:36 (twenty-three years ago)

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