“When I Was a Lad…” Britain’s Favourite Childhood Memories

Growing up, you tend to go through spells where you have your favourite cartoons that you never miss, the weekly kick around with friends after school, your favourite computer game and the CDs you would spend hours listening to. As you get older however, these trends change, new activities take their place and you outgrow certain things – that’s life and it’s part of growing up.

In just about every room in the house, you probably had things that you loved at the time, but cringe about now. Possessions can be just like fashion and hairstyles: they’re great at the time, but horrendous when they go “out of style.” Betta Living, the home retailer, have performed a survey recently that involved asking people from around the UK about their favourite childhood memories from around their homes, and you can find out more by visiting their page.

Over the years, different items have been classed as “must haves” while others have been popular for years, only going out of style because another manufacturer has come along with a new “must have”. There are items on the list that just about everyone has owned at some stage in their life. For instance, one of the most popular childhood items was the lava lamp, which had people captivated for hours on end, while magnetic fridge letters were both fun and educational, allowing you to spell out words on the fridge while waiting for dinner to cook after a long day at school!

Different regions also have different favourite possessions, as you might expect. Quite often what’s ‘cool’ in London might not be cool in Manchester, for example, while Scottish women might have different tastes to Scottish men. It’s all down to interpretation and personal choice, and that’s what made our childhoods so different. If we all had the same things, played the same games, listened to the same music and shared the same pastimes, we wouldn’t be the people we are today.

A lot of our development will have been affected by the kind of possessions we had around the home or at school growing up. Whatever the circumstances, we probably all sat down at the same time in the evening, ate similar meals and watched the same television shows – so we’re not completely different after all!