7UP-Free Childhood Memories

Ah, memories... Like the corners of our mind you'll always have them, even if they weren't great at the time.

With thanks to our good mates at 7UP-Free we’re guiding you on a trip down memory lane, and while it’s great reminiscing on the good times, it’s also good to remember the things that make you look back and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Last week we brought you our first lot of childhood memories, so strap in, throw the feet up and enjoy these more Irish childhood memories.

Making sh*te of your clothes

Do you remember when your mother would tell you not to mucky up your clothes if you were going out to play a bit of footie with the lads? You wouldn’t be out on the green longer than five minutes before your knees were wrecked with mud and grass stains.

At the time you’d be bricking it going back home, waiting for your mother to say ‘I told you so’, while your dad would be giving you that ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’ look. Ah the good old days. Back then you’d be guaranteed your pants be clean by the next day, but now they just sit in your laundry basket until the next time they’re needed.

Getting stung by nettles

Nettles… They were the bane of every Irish child’s life. You couldn’t play a game of football, or go exploring without being ravaged by the by the dark green menacing looking plant. However, a medic was always close by in the form of a dock leaf. A crumpled dock leaf (with or without the added spit) would help to sooth any sting, but when was the last time you saw (or touched) either plant?

With most of us running in the urban rat race, we rarely get to do what we did back in the day and getting stung by a nettle probably hasn’t happened to you in years – which makes us a bit sad when we think of it. Oh to be young...

The simple days of television

Can you remember the days of having just three TV channels? Four if you were posh and could get the TV3 signal? These days there are hundreds of channels and you spend most of your time watching ads while you look for something half decent to watch. They were a simpler time.

If you weren’t watching Zig and Zag with Ray D’Arcy in The Den on RTÉ Two you were watching some mammy show on RTÉ One. You could always flick over to TG4 and pretend that you knew what was being said without reading the subtitles, but that quickly wore thin. Now it’s endless hours of Road Wars and Auction Hunters, which are usually just repeats.

Getting homework

These days getting home means switching off and not worrying about tomorrow until it comes around. However, back in the day, getting home meant one thing; doing homework. On a good day you might just have a few spellings and a couple of sums to complete, and on a bad day you’d have to read a whole page of your English book along with the 10 questions that followed at the bottom of the page.

Homework these days is catching up with mates on social media and completing another level on Assassin’s Creed 3.

We would have dreaded getting homework, being stung by nettles, ruining our good pants or being forced to watch whatever sh*te was on RTÉ One in the mid-afternoon, but looking back now, we’re glad it all happened. It makes you appreciate the little things that come with being young that bit more.