The Universal Memory Bank

Memory #253

One day, I did two weird things at the gym. First, I put my shorts on backwards in the locker room and laughed at myself when I had to take ...

Memory #252

I remember wanting to try tea for the first time as a kid and getting really excited. But when I took my first sip, I spit it out. I didn...

Memory #251

When I was in elementary school, I liked to make a fort out of blankets and pillows in the holiday closet. I would move boxes out of the way...

Memory #250

I went to a drag show in San Francisco the weekend of the pride fest. During a performance, a plump drag queen sang All Is Love by Karen O. ...

Memory #249

A woman called Dr. Laura because she was struggling to get her life back together and move forward. Her 21 year old son had committed suicid...

Memory #248

I had a dream that I saw so clearly it was like watching a movie, and it even had a title, "Remember Me." It was about a black gir...

Memory #247

Presently I am depressed due to past memories, like many people are. The memory of my Dad and Mom arguing about money, finances. My Dad'...

Memory #246

We picnicked along the rocky coast in the shadow of the Newport, Rhode Island mansions, the four kids and I. A seagull plunged into the ocea...

Memory #245

I was in second grade, sitting on a hard tile floor as the teacher was reading a book to the class. I was sitting about three pupils over fr...

Memory #244

I worked in a dildo factory. On the first day, my coworker held up a long, floppy, double ended vibrator. She swung it back and forth and sq...

Memory #243

There was a day that I made it to Arches National Park in the late afternoon. I didn't have much time to spend there, but I wasn't u...

Memory #242

When I was in eighth grade, we had a party on the last day of school. We chose between classrooms showing different movies. For some reason,...

Memory #241

I went down to the Mississippi River with my friend, Aaron. We sat right below a busy highway, and there was a family fishing just a little...

Memory #240

I was walking up Haight street in San Francisco when I saw a woman sitting in a car with water showering out of the door. As I drew nearer, ...

Memory #239

During my elementary school years, my mom dropped my brother and me off at a neighbor's house an hour before school. The vietnamese woma...

Memory #238

I was playing text twist, an unscrambling game, with my mother. I furiously typed words using our seven letters as the time ran out. Quite b...

Memory #237

One night, I went camping at Great Sand Dunes National Park. I climbed up to the tallest sand dune and looked out at the setting sun. The mo...

Memory #236

My family was standing on the up escalator, and a lone middle aged man stood going down. As we crossed paths, I said, "Hello." The...

Memory #235

My group was completing a project in the computer lab one night. I was a freshman, and Laura and Ben were seniors. I sat at my computer wait...

Memory #234

I woke up early in Yellowstone to go exploring. After viewing a colorful, bubbling spring and walking back to my car, I noticed a man coming...

Memory #233

In a college art class, we were required to present our paintings. I decided to be cute and announce, "I enjoy painting dead things....

Memory #232

I went to a flea market in Alaska. The building said CHINESE MEXICAN ITALIAN TRI-GRILL. The inside of the building had piles and piles of ol...

Memory #231

Mom and I were at a grocery store checkout counter. I shoplifted a small jar of "Four Roses" hair gel. When we got home she caught...

Memory #230

I remember the love and support of my mother. My dad argued for me not getting a guitar for numerous negative reasons. My mom pushed it thro...

Memory #229

I was 17 years old, on a plane across the country. I decided to communicate with my future self, saying, "Here I am, on my way." S...

Memory #228

In my high school art class, I sat at a table with two girls. We listened to the radio as we worked, and they liked to goof off and sing alo...

Memory #227

The upperclassmen had a barbeque to meet the students who would join their dorm the following year after leaving freshman housing. We ate ha...

Memory #226

It was known that Julie Andrews had lost the ability to sing during a botched throat surgery. I remember hearing her interviewed on the radi...

Memory #225

I was at my grandma's house when we heard a dog barking in the distance. My dad was annoyed at the upset animal, and I decided to pray a...

Memory #224

One dark day in October, I decided to lie on my couch and watch, "The Exorcist," on my computer. It matched the mood of the day pe...

Memory #223

As a freshman, I attended an 80's party. It became obvious that I was not quite sure how to dance to such different music. A senior name...

Memory #222

I began to eat the lunch my mother had packed. I took out my thermos, and to my surprise, it was half filled with soda! After drinking a ran...

Memory #221

I arrived to check out an apartment for rent, and the manager showed me around. The place was a complete mess with trash and personal belong...

Memory #220

At some indistinct time of my childhood I used to build model airplanes of world war two. My favorite (a testimony many years later) was the...

Memory #219

There are muted TV's in front of the treadmills at my gym. One day a sports science show was on. Over and over again, a big football pla...

Memory #218

While abroad with my college class, I came into my hotel room unexpectedly to catch my roommate masturbating. I really could not have cared ...

Memory #217

I was a camp counselor, and on the last night of the session, we invited the cabins next door to a party. Someone cracked open a bunch of gl...

Memory #216

I remember my mom taking us for a walk in Germany. Somehow, I can clearly picture us on the beach, although we did not live near the ocean. ...

Memory #215

I decided which colleges to apply to, and I was thrilled with all the options I could pursue. I listed off one career prospect after another...

Memory #214

I was having a great day on vacation with my family. My older brother and his friend and I were on our own, playing mini golf. The second ho...

Memory #213

My family was in a hotel room awaiting my mom's cousin's wedding. I was putting on a suit for the first time and having troubl...

Memory #212

During the summer after fourth grade, I attended a camp that was falling apart. Every night, I saw a spider spinning his web on the ceiling ...

Memory #211

My dad watched a woman on a television show die after getting bitten by a black widow hiding in her shoe. The next day, he warned us to be c...

Memory #210

I sprinted across the living room. "WHAT was that?" my grandpa declared, "I couldn't even see you!" My grandma laugh...

Memory #209

When I was in college, I lived in an apartment that had 2nd- and 3rd-floor balconies that overlooked the intersection of two one-way streets...

Memory #208

Coretta Scott King gave a speech at my college. After teaching us about the Civil Rights Movement on an elementary level, she moved on to ot...

Memory #207

When I was twelve, we went hiking in Yosemite. One of my brothers had brought a Hardy Boys book along, which was kind of surprising since ne...

Memory #206

When I was young, we bought donuts from a man with a red and bulbous drunk nose. We referred to him often as The Wrinkly Nose Man.

Memory #205

My friend picked me up at the airport to bring me back to our college. While we waited for his girlfriend's plane to come in, we went to...

Memory #204

I remember walking out of the college cafeteria and passing some televisions displaying the news. A woman had been murdered, and her grievin...

Memory #203

One day, when I was around seven years old, my mother mentioned the Manson murders. She described that the killers cut open a live pregnant ...

Memory #202

While taking a high school exam, the room was silent except for the hums of an unknown student. It was distracting to hear someone going, ...

Memory #201

Students and teachers at our close-knit religious college performed, "The Vagina Monologues." My English teacher announced that he...

Memory #200

The first time I remember getting into trouble when was when I brought a new pencil topper I had to my second grade class. It was a miniatur...

Memory #199

There was a young camper who acted so out of it that I am convinced he was either on drugs or retarded. As I was helping his hefty body down...

Memory #198

When I was young, the movie Ernest Scared Stupid terrified me. My older sister made me watch as a girl checked under her bed for a hiding tr...

Memory #197

I left my guinea pig's cage open and encouraged her to crawl out of it. She was too timid at first, but eventually she crawled out to jo...

Memory #196

I was chatting with a woman who taught the Jonas Brothers on set. She told me that their music was universal. "I think they have the po...

Memory #195

At the baggage claim, I saw a man pick up a suitcase. A woman from across the carousel began yelling her head off to quit touching that bag ...

Memory #194

My roommate always watched tv late into the night. I woke up and heard a woman in an infomercial selling a juicer. "And now lets drop s...

Memory #193

My family played a game along with my brother's friend, Frank. Frank's dad had died years ago after falling from a ladder. This game...

Memory #192

I joined the Model United Nations club, which culminated in a trip to New York led by our teacher. He brought another man along, and simply ...

Memory #191

My roommate bought a box of bagels for us to eat! He placed it on a shelf in his nightstand. Later, I grabbed the box, set it down on my des...

Memory #190

My mom and dad took my brother and I fishing on Lake Gatun. I was disturbed that they placed the live fish they caught into a dry cooler. Ev...

Memory #189

My grandmother received her first computer for Christmas. My dad showed her how to use the internet. He typed the address of a religious web...

Memory #188

My dad took me to a baseball game for my birthday. He bought me a hat. During the seventh inning, he decided we needed to make a dash from t...

Memory #187

Once, when I was very young, I saw my dad stop in his tracks as he walked across the living room carpet. He squinted his eyes, knelt down, a...

Memory #186

My mom took us to the beach. While walking back across the long stretch to the car, we spotted a shoeless toddler stuck in the hot sand with...

Memory #185

My dad was watching a tv movie when I was quite young. Two men were arm wrestling in a crowded bar. At one point in the match, the loser...

Memory #184

When I was in college, a group of boys, and one of their girlfriends, did some unknown awful thing to a hampster. It had been this kid's...

Memory #183

While I was swimming butterfly laps at the same interval as the fastest swimmer on the team who was doing freestyle, my coach interrupted my...

Memory #182

When I was in elementary school, my mother and I went to blockbuster to rent videos. I picked out a children's film, and she decided to ...

Memory #181

I participated in a student directed one act play. A fellow student and I took the parts of two hobbling, cave dwelling freaks. The insane d...

Memory #180

While walking to our car in the Disneyland parking lot, a plump drunk woman approached my older sister. "It's my BIRTHDAY!" sh...

Memory #179

When I was in eighth grade, our class was working on a skit for the Christmas extravaganza that our school was performing. We needed props, ...

Memory #178

My mom was a teacher at the middle school I attended. One day, she gave a detention to Patrick, the most socially inept boy I have ever seen...

Memory #177

I was about five and my two brothers and mom and dad and I were on our way to go camping. Mom said we had to go to sleep in the car or else ...

Memory #176

One Saturday morning when I was in about fourth grade, I woke up crabby. Everybody from my brothers to my mom and dad told me I should get d...

Memory #175

I was a senior in high school who had just moved to town. My mom answered the phone, and it was for me. When I found out it was this dorky t...

Memory #174

While explaining how to clean the bathroom, my mother exclaimed, "Now this is the fun part!" She proceeded to wildly fling water o...

Memory #173

My parents had riled us up, and we were racing down a skinny hallway. Suddenly, I gave into an urge to jerk a door open into the middle of t...

Memory #172

I was taking care of the animals in the biology classroom when I noticed a cockroach that was giving birth! A mass of white foam lay behind ...

Memory #171

We invited our parents on a tour of our pretend candy factory. "Don't worry," I stated as we handed out samples, "We have...

Memory #170

I really liked my eleventh grade chemistry teacher, and she was quite friendly to me. I finished high school somewhere else, and when it cam...

Memory #169

For my 11th birthday, my parents took me and some friends to a baseball game. My friends began chatting with the ball boy through a fence. H...

Memory #168

Our entire elementary school took a field trip to watch the high schoolers perform a play entitled, "You Can't Take it With You....

Memory #167

While grocery shopping with my mom, I accidently poked my thumb through the foil lid of a yogurt. I was scared, so I just held on to it with...

Memory #166

When I was in first grade, the drama club put on a haunted house at the school halloween party. I was to be a mad doctor operating on a help...

Memory #165

The college I attended had visiting weekends for high school students. On my way to class during such a weekend, I saw a girl who looked los...

Memory #164

I was meeting my boyfriend's family for the first time. His mom had made heads of artichoke for us all to dip in butter and eat as an ap...

Memory #163

I was spending a month in Europe with students from my European history class when I went clubbing for the first time. Our tour guide and bu...

Memory #162

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was one of my mom's favorite childhood books, and she was excited to read it to us before bedtime. Sadly, we wer...

Memory #161

I was probably younger than 9, and I was alone upstairs in grandma's house. I must have been in one of those extra emotional moods you g...

Memory #160

I serve snacks on film sets for a living. An electrician approached my extravagant layout and declared, "There is a lot of bizarre shit...

Memory #159

At a concert, I wormed my way up to the front of the packed crowd. I was wedged between people so tightly that I was not even standing up on...

Memory #158

Dry erase markers just came out, and I thought they were amazing! I traveled my house drawing on windows, counter tiles, and a plate on the ...

Memory #157

I drove through the crowded fashion district enjoying the breeze through my windows. I looked right and was confronted with a bare black bot...

Memory #156

We played a trivia game, and my uncle jokingly said, "F off!" It was a little much, but we all laughed since he only did say the l...

Memory #155

After a catering job was over, the client called me on the phone and began screaming her head off because she thought I had overcharged her....

Memory #154

My sister and I walked around her neighborhood in Los Angeles. Each time we passed a unique house, we would find a suitable name for it. Thi...

Memory #153

I went hiking in Griffith Park with my younger sister. We came upon steep hill that overlooked the yards of many mansions down below. We sat...

Memory #152

One day, many years ago, my mom drove me and my brother and sisters to the mall. I purchased a new cd, and I held it on the way home looking...

Memory #151

I was a middle schooler on a bus combined with high schoolers. A tall, thin black girl with her hair done up real tight was eating a bag of ...

Memory #150

While waiting for my sister to finish her softball game, I decided to check out the playground. It was too crowded for my liking. I turned s...

Memory #149

When I was a camp counselor, some nights we would end by singing, "Taps." Without fail, the song always made me feel helplessly al...

Memory #148

My grandma took me, my mom, and my two sisters to visit my grandpa in a home for people who had lost their minds. She introduced us to a ram...

Memory #147

I was in elementary school, but I played on a soccer team full of middle schoolers. They gathered to talk about the latest gossip. "Did...

Memory #146

In third grade, I made a new friend named Alison. We were in line to go down the slide, and she decided that she would show me how things ac...

Memory #145

We were on a class trip through Montana, and my Ipod was running low. We still had hours of driving to go. When we stopped at a restaurant,...

Memory #144

One day I drove around the corner from my house. An ambulance was parked in the street, and a body lay under a white sheet on the ground. Th...

Memory #143

When I was young, I missed out on going to an arts and crafts convention that my mom had gone to. She knew I would really like it, and she d...

Memory #142

In junior high one day, Byron Beck, a slightly chubby blonde boy I only knew a little, found me sitting alone at a lunch table. Joining me a...

Memory #141

I was sitting at a little wooden vanity, looking in the mirror while I blew my hair dry. As it had been doing for weeks, the blow dryer kept...

Memory #140

Once a month, I would go shopping with my mom at the commissary on base to feed our family of six. We would pile high two, or sometimes thre...

Memory #139

We were pulling up to an ice skating rink in the mountains. In the car, my grandma told us to stop repeating some phrase or she would not ta...

Memory #138

My sister had a coughing fit that went on and on. She held nothing back. Irritated, my dad told her that she needed to stop because she soun...

Memory #137

I can still remember feeling the warm breeze through my dorm window on Sunday nights while listening to the church bells in the distance. It...

Memory #136

Our 10th grade class was taking turns separating the characters from a book we had read. You had to raise your hand and write a character un...

Memory #135

I was hosting the camp fashion show as the campers ate in the lodge. The campers came out two by two dressed in clothing with the camp logo ...

Memory #134

In middle school, students gathered to make fun of me for supposedly having a girl's name, which really made no sense. I told them that ...

Memory #133

Students performed their own interpretive dances while reciting original poetry. One girl completed her bizarre dance with an unfortunately ...

Memory #132

At our school fair, three of us played in a jump castle used for boxing. There were two sets of gigantic padded boxing gloves. We were just ...

Memory #131

School was canceled due to a hurricane warning. I remember the moodiness of the windy day. The fall trees and our street were lit up dark or...

Memory #130

I had an elaborate birthday party in which my friends were guests at a murder mystery ski resort! My mom and I made up games to go along wit...

Memory #129

My mom substituted my fourth grade class, and we had to watch a health video. In one scene, a raw, bloody heart filled the screen as it pump...

Memory #128

We presented our photos to the rest of the photography class. Charlie showed his photograph, which was a breathtaking picture of Yosemite. W...

Memory #127

My grandma had a neighbor who would emerge through the trees and bounce a rubber band ball across the driveway at us. Her name was Helen, an...

Memory #126

There were many homeless dogs in Panama. One lived in a certain area that we would pass through on our way home. He was light gray, and his ...

Memory #125

I was flipping through the channels when I came upon a woman wandering around her house calling for her husband. She was unaware that a terr...

Memory #124

We dissected frogs. I don't remember my own frog, but my mind can clearly see the boy in the group next to me skinning his as part of th...

Memory #123

We tied down dead piglets to dissect. Their little tongues hung out of their mouths filled with tiny teeth. We had about ten minutes left, a...

Memory #122

During the fall in third grade I was raking leaves in my backyard with Mom. A few days before I was in a park and saw two boys playing in a ...

Memory #121

In fourth grade, there was a boy, Chris, who had a new girlfriend each week. He and I had been friends for quite a while, and I soon became...

Memory #120

My mom was gone for the night, and my dad made us dinner. It tasted so delightful. When he told me that I had been eating popcorn shrimp, I ...

Memory #119

In seventh grade, a group of boys began to tease a girl named Tatiana by calling her, "Titty-ana." She flaunted herself back at th...

Memory #118

When I was about 13, I had to help my mom's friend throw a pool party for severely handicapped orphans. There was an unbelievable amount...

Memory #117

One day, I was home alone watching tv. I saw a girl in a canoe floating on a lake in the woods. When she looked at a shack on the shore, the...

Memory #116

In seventh grade, we were forced to dissect a frog. Our lab group wasn't all that into it, but we did it in order to pass the class. The...

Memory #115

I have a vague memory from Germany. Every morning, I had to walk past an apartment building with an empty floor. The top level had no glass ...

Memory #114

My siblings and I attended my cousin's masked ball. Throughout the night, my grandma mentioned how great my sisters looked in a way that...

Memory #113

As events planner of the campus, it was my job to run the show at homecoming and get the crowd excited for our bonfire! I was given a box of...

Memory #112

In New Jersey, my family was eating lunch with my brother's friend's family. In a thick New Jersey accent, the friend's sister m...

Memory #111

In the pet store, I noticed the tiniest mouse cleaning himself inside a snake cage. The snake was just saving the poor, oblivious thing for ...

Memory #110

I was about 12 and playing with my young cousin in the children's section of a water park. I slid down the baby slide and smashed right ...

Memory #109

Our fourth grade teacher gave us fake money as rewards, and each week, she would bring in garage sale items to auction off to the class. Our...

Memory #108

We had just finished an art project in seventh grade involving parrot shaped stencils. The following week, our assignment was to design a sh...

Memory #107

Moving men were carrying large items of furniture through our skinny hallway. I was five. I could see them coming towards me, and I squeezed...

Memory #106

We got out of our car in a parking lot, and my mom felt something on her side. She lifted up her shirt a little bit and saw a gigantic bump ...

Memory #105

I ran track for the first time during my freshman year. I always felt bulky and slow. I dreaded track meets because they embarrassed me. Onc...

Memory #104

There was a man at my church who couldn't hear very well. He would wear musical socks to church during the Christmas season and once in...

Memory #103

I remember my mom and her smile and her laugh and her warmth.

Memory #102

When I was little I would close my eyes when my leg fell sleep. It felt like yellow stars were surrounding my leg and bumping into it again...

Memory #101

Someone brought a Playboy magazine to a birthday party of sixth grade boys. They went upstairs to look through the pages. I felt uncomfortab...

Memory #100

We moved from Panama to the United States. Our car still had a Panama license plate, and at the airport parking lot, the woman collecting to...

Memory #99

We have a second cousin who is somewhat older than us. We ordered ice cream at a restaurant. She showed us how to make our ice cream special...

Memory #98

I remember loving to trick or treat as a kid. My older brother and I would walk around the neighborhood for hours until our pillowcases wer...

Memory #97

I had just come back from Disney World. I was five. I was showing my best friend Jonathan my new plastic sword. I really, really liked th...

Memory #96

My family and my cousins were on a vacation in Washington DC. All 8 of us kids were in a hotel room by ourselves. My little sister had the r...

Memory #95

On the film set of a commercial, a 35 year old production assistant told me, "You know, Los Angeles is like one giant pussy. Right now,...

Memory #94

The house was completely dark while I watched a movie. My roommate opened the refrigerator and was enveloped by a warm glow. In the fleeting...

Memory #93

An unknown man called our house, and my sister answered. "Is this the manure company?" he asked. "Oh, because I thought I was...

Memory #92

While visiting my daughter, I tried to be helpful by cleaning her kitty's litter box. I flushed what I collected down the toilet and wa...

Memory #91

My daughter wanted a cell phone, but since her college was located in a rural area without good reception, it seemed pointless. I just let ...

Memory #90

The RA's ran fun events for us the first week of college. One was a scavenger hunt in which we had to collect items that started with ea...

Memory #89

When our daughter was four years old, we took a trip to Disney World. We spent all our time in the Magic Kingdom and visited with the Disne...

Memory #88

I thought I was a pretty good mom. Granted, this was my first and only crack at it. I wanted my daughter to develop responsibility and ind...

Memory #87

My mom took forever to come get me after school in first grade, and I went to the library to wait. It seemed like I was sitting on a chair f...

Memory #86

Our backyard fence had a gate that opened up to an athletic field. Sometimes, neighbors who didn't live against the field would come thr...

Memory #85

My family knew a South African couple who went to our church. During a conversation at their house, the wife inquired, "Who is George W...

Memory #84

My roommate worked in the cafeteria and would bring home leftover food. One night, he had a few big slices of pumpkin cheesecake! After he l...

Memory #83

I walked down a street in Sarlat, France. A woman asked me if I could figure out what was written on a note posted outside of a closed shop....

Memory #82

When I was around 5 years old, I dressed up as a clown for Halloween. My oldest sister was wearing all white since she was dressed as an ang...

Memory #81

My dear friend was making cold drinks and putting them on a tray. She picked up some of the fallen ice, and I saw the pure crystals against ...

Memory #80

My mom's friend was giving us a ride in her car one afternoon. As I was putting on my seatbelt, she said that I had good muscle definit...

Memory #79

I used to be the second person to board the school bus in the morning. The first kid's name was Michael Sweet. He used to make me thin...

Memory #78

My dad had a mental collapse and took it out on me. He had lost all control and was about kick me out of the house. I was not into drugs, al...

Memory #77

My three siblings, my brother's friend, and I were climbing into a car. My little sister declared, "I will sit in the middle of the...

Memory #76

I was on an art field trip to a remote farm town. There was a children's group setting up a haunted house in an old community center. My...

Memory #75

While shopping at the Hollywood Vons, I spotted a tall, muscular and obvious transvestite in a purple dress with a short bob. I started to l...

Memory #74

When I was in fourth grade, Gregory Hernandez asked me to go steady and tried to give me a ring. That scared me, and I ran away. The next da...

Memory #73

My brother and sister and I had to stay at our neighbor's house in the mornings before school. They had a daughter in elementary school ...

Memory #72

Our second grade class was divided into different level reading groups. Our group met with our teacher for a reading session. I opened up my...

Memory #71

In fourth grade, I had to sit next to a boy named Caleb. He had been a new student earlier that year, and he cried all day on his first day ...

Memory #70

My mom and I drove over to pick up my mom's golf partner and her daughter, Hillary, who was seven. Hillary got into the car before her m...

Memory #69

I was at college, and I called my grandma. After we talked, she put my grandpa on the phone. He wanted to say hello even though he was very ...

Memory #68

A bunch of distant relatives with small children our age came over for a get together. We were running around the backyard while our parents...

Memory #67

My younger brother and sister would half jokingly gang up on me, and I would somewhat play along, even though it could get mean. They were c...

Memory #66

At the Boston Market restaurant, we ate our chicken like normal people. Most of the meat was gone, but little scraps remained on the bones. ...

Memory #65

My sister and I went to piano lessons together at our teacher's own house. Her name was Donna, and she sat in a wheel chair. She was mor...

Memory #64

My brother found some frogs in a park with his friend. They came home and got a container to collect them. Afterwards, my brother told me th...

Memory #63

When I was 8 or 9, my family lived in a house with a kind of pond in the backyard. There was a family of ducks there, and the babies were so...

Memory #62

I was walking through the airport behind my parents when i overheard some college-aged men talking to each other in front of an arrivals/dep...

Memory #61

When we lived in the mountains, I had a friend over to play. (Probably just an acquaintance.) We played with a set of semi-trucks I had. Whe...

Memory #60

I went over to a kid's house, someone I had just met at school. We played with his action figures and his Nintendo. When my mom was driv...

Memory #59

When I was in kindergarten, I was really shy. A classmate asked me if there was going to be hot lunch one day, and I didn't know the an...

Memory #58

My brother has an October birthday. Each year at his party, my dad would make a mini haunted house. He would find some creepy military gear ...

Memory #57

In third grade, I was on the swings at recess. An older student came by and stood in front of me and started counting to 30. Then he told me...

Memory #56

The tennis player, Lindsay Davenport, was from my city. My fourth grade teacher contacted her, and she was going to come to my class and tea...

Memory #55

Sometimes my mom would make soup for dinner, and it would turn out extremely hot. She would put ice cubes in each of our bowls. I can still ...

Memory #54

For Halloween, I decided to wear a gorilla mask and hand out candy. I sat very still as the trick or treaters came near, so they could not t...

Memory #53

After graduating college, I decided to look for a job at the mall. I brought my resume to a store that was having open interviews, and the g...

Memory #52

I did my laundry at night, and the laundry room is behind my house. On the way back, I looked over at my neighbor's balcony in the darkn...

Memory #51

One day, no one was home, and I decided to straighten up the living room a little bit. Then, I ate some yogurt and watched tv for a while. I...

Memory #50

While driving home one night, I saw a homeless man a few blocks from my house. I could make out the shadowy shape of his long coat and wild ...

Memory #49

It was a fad in middle school to recreate lyrics to a song with a nasty twist. The most popular was a version of, "I Saw the Sign,...

Memory #48

For Halloween, I put a box on my shoulders and stuck my head through a hole in the front. Then, I hung a trench coat over the box and positi...

Memory #47

My sister decided to pretend she ran a magazine shop. She pulled out a piece of junk mail and had me choose which ones I would like to buy. ...

Memory #46

My grandma took us to a bead store. While I was there, I bought beads that said, "I love you mom." The employees asked if I wanted...

Memory #45

I kept in touch with my friend from fifth grade. He sent me a coded letter with the key to decode it. It was a fun idea, but I really couldn...

Memory #44

An old lady came to babysit us. She obviously liked girls more than boys. For bed, I wore a long shirt and underwear. I was going to sleep, ...

Memory #43

Before I was five, I opened the front door and saw a monstrous spider standing by the hose. It had skinny black legs that were 12 inches lon...

Memory #42

In France, I walked across a bridge. A man quickly approached in a stumbly walk. He was old, and the skin of his face barely clung to his sk...

Memory #41

I sat near a German woman on an airplane. I could tell she was bald, but she had a towel wrapped around her head. She had a nice smile, and ...

Memory #40

At a stop light, I realized that I needed to turn right, and I didn't see anyone in the lane next to me. I decided to go for it and turn...

Memory #39

I went along with my mom and my sister as she sold Girl Scout cookies around our military community in Germany. At one house, a blonde woman...

Memory #38

My mom took us to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. We saw a plastic fly sitting on a white cube. We saw a mannequin facing a corner, en...

Memory #37

Before going outside for PE in seventh grade, I would fold up my school clothes and place them neatly in my locker. A boy saw what I was doi...

Memory #36

When my parents would go out of town for a weekend I was always deposited at my grandparents' house. One day it was dark and rainy and ...

Memory #35

My mom had an electric lint cleaner. She showed me that you can put it on your palm, and the blades beneath the screen tickle your hand. I t...

Memory #34

When I was in middle school, I would record songs off the radio on tapes. I listened to the weekly top 40 to get the ones I liked. I had to ...

Memory #33

In fourth grade, we were going to make solar cookers to cook hot dogs and nachos the next day. I was so intrigued by the project that I coul...

Memory #32

When my mom was a middle school teacher, she would tell me the stories of the books that her classes had to read. She thought some of them l...

Memory #31

I went through a haunted house with my family. At one point, a fat bald man ran out at us. He was covered in bloody plastic wrap and wearing...

Memory #30

We tie-dyed shirts in fifth grade. Each Friday, you could get a popsicle at lunch if you wore the school colors, red and black. Our class dy...

Memory #29

My fourth grade teacher asked us to bring in some snack food in a brown paper bag. We were going to see how the bag soaked up the grease and...

Memory #28

I loved the Nickelodeon channel. I set up a game of Double Dare for my family to play. I asked them how many stomachs an ant had and how man...

Memory #27

I was at my aunt and uncle's house. Everyone went swimming, and I had no idea where to find a towel. I was looking and looking, and my r...

Memory #26

One day, I decided I wanted to sing at the upcoming Halloween talent show. The organizers knew that I also can speak in a scary, growling vo...

Memory #25

My mom dropped me off at the batting cages for a special baseball practice. I sat for at least an hour, and my team never showed. The place ...

Memory #24

I was walking between some school buildings on my way to the soccer field for practice. A boy approached me in the opposite direction. Right...

Memory #23

Once, I was terribly angry at my brother. I found some old buttons with rusty pins on the back. I opened them up, slid the buttons beneath h...

Memory #22

I was a brand new Marine wife in 1981, living in a trailer park near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. One day, I pulled on a little matching ...

Memory #21

I had to wear a silver cap on my front tooth one summer because the dentist was afraid I would have trouble at summer camp with a regular wh...

Memory #20

I went to a grand opening of a theme park with my friend when we were in first or second grade. She was in a Michael Jackson phase at the t...

Memory #19

I once thought Trapper-Keepers were the coolest school supply ever. I needed one. I shopped everywhere and couldn't find one that I li...