Power Ranking Thursday - Childhood Core Memories

"Oh to be young again" said the 25-year old. My friend Louis gave me this suggestion for a Power Rankings Topic and I immediately started jotting down ideas. I think this is a great topic for many reasons: it's very different than one's we've done in the past, everybody can/should be able to relate (unless my childhood memories are vastly different than others'), and is a nice blast of Nostalgia -- fitting for a Throwback Thursday, if you will.

So this is my Power Ranking of the Best Childhood Memories -- ranked in order of either how fondly I remember these things -- or how vividly I remember these events. How much I think they would relate and resonate to you readers is also an important factor. These are the events of Childhood that were the most influential -- or at least the most prevalent in my memory all these years later -- on who we are today.

Honorable Mentions

Hearing the Ice Cream Truck Coming Down Your Street

Feel like this didn't happen as often/wasn't as exciting as people like to make it out to be -- every once in awhile it was a fun treat, but only remember a handful of times of actually getting ice cream from them.

Playing Hide-and-Go-Seek in the Dark at a Sleepover

Probably too niche so made it an HM -- but Hide-and-Go-Seek in the Dark went so hard. Scaring the absolute shit out of your friends, lighting them up with pillows/balls/nerf bullets as they looked around, scrambling for base on the staircase (S/O Adam's basement -- Primo HAGSITD basement)

Collecting Webkinz and Silly Bands -- Playing Club Penguin

Again might be too niche to our grade school -- but Webkinz were an actual epidemic. I had a solid amount and would still get jealous of the kids with a million. Club Penguin during an Indoor Recess also went hard -- training grounds for Call of Duty lobbies -- saying out of pocket shit to strangers.

Learning to Write in Cursive (Which is Never Used in Adult Life)

What a wild lie we were told as a kid that we'd need to know how to write in cursive for everyday life. I've quite literally never used cursive since unless I'm signing my name on something.

Learning Math at the Kitchen Table

My mom was great at math -- and while I didn't take her up on her skills as much as I should've, I remember plenty of times at the kitchen table of her teaching me how to do long division or summing fractions.

Grandparent's Day/Class Holiday Parties

The big event days in grade school are always memorable -- and while they were a ton of fun, they kind of all run together in my brain and aren't crazy memorable -- but plenty of fun times on those days.

Trick-or-Treating with your Friends

Little too generic for me to give it a Top 10 slot, but everybody loved trick or treating as a kid -- especially when you hit the age where you can go with just your friends and no parents. Loading up a pillowcase with 50 pounds of pure sugar and making trades with your buds when you get home.

Watching Old YouTube Videos/Hoop Mixtapes

This was a big sleepover activity in my life -- and looking back 99% of what we watched was so stupid (Greatest Freakouts, Harry Potter Puppet Pals, Clay World, Neg's Urban Sports come to mind) but the Hoop Mixtapes were ELITE (John Wall, Seventh Woods, Aquille Carr, Marcus LoVett).

The Top 10

#10 Forgetting you have a Project Due Tomorrow the Night Of

Kicking things off with a memory I'm less than fond of -- but one that's crystal clear in my brain. As my mom/dad can probably attest, I am, was, and probably always will be, a procrastinator. And as a kid especially -- I know there were several occasions I'd walk down the steps on Thursday evening letting my parents know I need X, Y, and Z for my art project due Friday. Or asking for suggestions on a Science Fair project on the car ride home when the Science Fair is the next day. I'm sure they loved nothing more than panic-searching the house to see if we had anything that a hypothesis could be written about, and scouring for paint or markers. Sorry Mom and Dad, if I have to remember these times, you do too.

#9 Getting Lost in the Store and Your Parents Having to Come Find You

Another fun one for the rents to reminisce on -- and one I think everyone can relate to as a child. And if you can't relate, it simply means you weren't an adventurous soul as a child and probably were bullied for your lack of curiosity. You always hear the story of a kid wandering off at the grocery store, finding a worker who has to make an announcement that "Your child is here at the front with us." Mine was a little more fun -- at an AAU basketball tournament for my brother at the Hearnes Center at Mizzou. Me and my guy Drew (s/o Deters, another wanderer) decided we had enough of watching our brothers play and wanted to explore the arena -- leading us 3 floors above where our parents were sitting. I believe we were in search of a game, and I remember us finding one of those Mortal Kombat arcade-style games with the joystick. Regardless, our parents went into a frenzy to find us, and we no longer had wandering privileges next tourney. (Worth it).

#8 Sports Moment that Convinced You that You were Going Pro

This one may not be universal -- I'm not sure if the aforementioned dweebs have moments from their youth sports careers that made them think they were destined for greatness -- but I know myself and many people I know have had them. Regardless of the sport -- whether you were a basketball player or a swimmer or a tennis prodigy -- everyone that played sports competitively as a youngin' and took them seriously probably had one of these moments at some point. Mine was in Football specifically -- my first season playing, last game of the year, had 3 catches and took all 3 to the House. My mom used to keep our stats for CYC Basketball as well, and she had me down for 30 rebounds in one game -- which is a close 2nd, but even I knew I was just freakishly tall for a 5th grader. When I realized I wasn't actually going to be 7 foot 2, the NBA dreams quickly died.

#7 Ding-Dong-Ditching, TP-ing Houses

The first two rankings in the top 10 were things my parents would love to forget -- now for a memory I'd like them to forget. Again, if you weren't a ding-dong-ditch or TP kid, that's all I need to hear to know you were a little dweeb. My rents were friends with too many neighbors, so we'd venture out to Ben and Cooper's neighborhood to get our dastardly deeds in. The core memory was one night, the boys hit a handful of houses, working our way up to our White Whale -- D-Bag's House. A crazy old man (probably not that old, but is 115 years old to my 11-year old memory) who DESPISED us, and was always our last target. But on this night, D-Bag was ready for us. We rung the doorbell and his door flew open immediately -- but before he could start screaming at us, the boys took the fuck off. The problem, D-Bag did too. We split up to better our chances, but he locked in on Ben who made a B-Line for the woods. D-Bag chased him through the woods, a fence blocked his path, and he got Ben. So the rest of us regrouped and tried to decide how we'd explain to Ben's parents that he was caught and murdered by D-Bag. Luckily, he didn't kill Ben, just scarred him for life, and gave us a fun story for years to come.

#6 Scholastic Book Fair

An ultra-specific grade school event clocks in at #6, and that's the Scholastic Book Fair. I can still think back to those days and picture how the room was laid out -- it's like ingrained in my memory at this point. Some years were better than others, some years you got a good chunk of change from the parents to buy some books "that you'll actually want to read." And then there years where you received no funding from Rents, LLC because you spent all the money last year on pencil grips and an eraser that looks like a Lion. But if you were lucky, you'd have a buddy that bought the Guinness Book of World Records and would let you borrow it. And honestly, some books are actually fire (Nerd take, I know). Mike Lupica was cooking up legendary sports stories back in the day, The Hunger Games went hard -- and I always looked forward to the SBF to find the one book I'd read that school year.

#5 Learning to Ride a Bike

"It's as Easy as Riding a Bike" - some asshole who didn't learn to ride a bike in my household. That's unfair, because my brothers were all quick to learn. I just had freakishly long and weak limbs and couldn't get the hang of it until far too late. But once I finally did -- on that practice baseball field at St. Charles West High School (coincidentally right next to where I'd eventually learn to drive in their parking lot), it was a magical day. Being able to ride a bike was a game-changer: being able to ride to your buddy's house that was a bitch-and-a-half to walk to, riding up to Circle K for slushies, or to the park with the boys -- it's a defining moment in a young man's life. And with this of course the falls -- the battle scars if you will. But it's all in the game.

#4 Discovering Curse Words

In our house growing up, I wouldn't say I was expressly told not to curse, but it was essentially an unwritten rule. Even my older brothers were good about not cursing in front of me for the longest time it felt like. I don't know that I even remember cussing in front of my parents until at least high school-ish. But just because I wouldn't say them at home -- didn't mean we weren't letting them fly elsewhere. And I remember exactly where I was when I heard my first one -- and it's related to the #1 ranking on this list, so no spoilers. But I think most people can think back to when they discovered swear words, and how once they discovered them, they said them non-stop. I didn't even know how to use the words and I'd be ripping them all day long at my friends. "You're such a bitching fuck Adam! You're an ass-douching whore!" Didn't have a clue how to put them together, just heard them from others and gave it a test drive myself.

#3 Recess Games - Kickball, Four Square, etc

The playground, parking lot, soccer field -- wherever your recess took place, it was a special place in every kid's heart. Some days, recess was the outlet you needed to wash away the stress of integers or spelling tests or coloring. Some days, there was beef between classmates that needed to be ironed out on the kickball diamond. And we took that shit far too serious -- we were making rankings during English class, evening out the teams, making sure everybody got a look before recess so we didn't waste time when we got out there. And while the individual games obviously don't stand out, there are plenty of funny moments I can remember from those games. Like when one of our friends tore his groin swinging and missing at a pitch -- that was a shortened game for sure. Regardless of what you played, everybody has memories of recess as kids, and I personally have great ones.

#2 School Field Trips/Parish Picnics

I added in Parish Picnics at the very last second -- even though they aren't really related to Field Trips whatsoever -- because they were so God Damn fun. It honestly was the weekend I looked forward to most every year, when the Swinging Pharoah Ship would show up in the parking lot the week before, winning those exercise balls with a Bulls/Celtics/Lakers cover over it from a Carney, playing games in the booths on the lawn, and trying to break your buddy's sternum when they're on the outside end of the Scrambler. Had my first kiss on the Ferris Wheel. Parish Picnics were the freaking best.

But back to the original #2 -- Field Trips. Talk about days you look forward to, at least most of the time. I assume all schools had them, but probably once a year, there'd be a stinker Field Trip on the schedule. For every Zoo Trip, there was a trip to the "Dental Theater" to watch a puppet show about the importance of brushing your teeth. But the good Field Trips make up for the bad Field trips -- and while I'm combining different days into #2 here, I'm throwing Field DAY in here too. Those were basically a Field Trip to your school's field to play fun ass games with your classmates and eat hot dogs for lunch. Field Trips, Field Days, Parish Picnics -- they all kicked ass and are some of my favorite grade school memories.

#1 Grade School Lunch Table

But the #1 spot -- the memories that feel most nostalgic and remind me of how fucking awesome it was to be a kid -- came at the Lunch Table. A melting pot of genius ideas, a place where knowledge was forged and genuine, heartfelt conversations were always welcome. Just kidding -- it was the place to say the most out of pocket shit you could think of. I think if there were "Life Statistics," something I'd want to see the stats on is the times I've laughed the hardest in my life -- and how many of those times came at the school lunch table. Telling jokes, having heated debates, arguing about the kickball game that just went down 10 minutes prior to sitting down -- anything was on the table. Not to mention trading snacks with the boys -- bartering like you're Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars to get your buddy's Cheetos for your Pudding Cup. One specific memory I have from those days was a stretch of lunches where we'd play games every lunch and I'd host a Trivia show or Family Feud. There was no shortage of fun to be had at the Lunch Table, and it's some of the most fun we had as kids (at least while we were at school).