Can you remember the first time you rode the Big Dipper? How about those Sunday drives with the family? Maybe it was playing Little League or hanging out with the children in your neighborhood — or terrorizing your neighbors. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun to take a walk down memory lane — and reflect on the world back when you were just a child.

One for the money, two for the show…

Jennifer Loftis, of Proctorville, said she had a lot of fun growing up in her Huntington neighborhood.

Loftis and her younger sister spent a lot of time with two sisters who lived next door. According to Loftis, the girls put plays on for the parents such as reenacting the movie “Grease”. The girls also had quite a head for business.

“We were quite the little entrepreneurs,” Loftis said. “We would paint rocks and sell them to the neighbors.”

Loftis said they would also walk up to the neighbor’s doors and strike a pose and then tell the neighbors they had to give them money.

“It was funny,” Loftis said as she laughed.

In addition to some memorable family vacations Loftis went on as a child, including one to Colonial Williamsburg and Bush Gardens, she also remembers those long drives her parents took them on Sunday afternoons.

“We always went on these Sunday drives,” she said. “We would all three pile in the back of the car and my parents would drive all day.”

Catching Lightning Bugs

Many people have fond memories of their old neighborhoods and the fun times they had in them as children. Chesapeake resident Jodi Archer is no exception when she talks about growing up in Farmview Park, saying there were always plenty of people to play with in their subdivision.

“We had a blast,” said Archer. “We were always outside.”

Archer said when she was growing up, her brother and sisters and the other children in the subdivision would frequently get together and do things like play pick up wiffle ball games and catch crawdads in the nearby creek.

They loved catching lightening bugs and tadpoles, she said.

“Our whole subdivision would get together and play outside,” she said. “It was great.”

She said she enjoyed always having so many children around to do stuff with.

When the weather turned cold they still had good times by playing in the snow and pulling each other on inner tubes behind a four wheeler.

“We were always doing something,” she said.

Family traditions

South Point resident Jenelle Napier said out of all the memories she has of growing up, spending time at home with her family is one of her favorites.

“I’d have to say the family cookouts and swimming in the pool,” she said. “That was probably my favorite thing we did growing up.”

Today Napier still enjoys those cookouts at her grandparent’s house with her family which now includes her husband and two children. A tradition no doubt her children will grow to treasure as well.