Throwback Thursday #45 – Nighttime Rituals

We are back again for Throwback Thursday. This week we are going to explore the nighttime rituals you had as a child.

If you care to join us, it’s easy.

• Write your own post sharing your memories and leave a pingback to this post in the comments.
• You can use the photo above in your post to make it easier to find.
• Tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhen.
• If you do not wish to write your own post, feel free to tell your story in the comments below.

This week’s prompt is: Nighttime Rituals

You can either free write using these questions as inspiration or answer the question as they are.

1. Did you share a room with a sibling, or did you have a room of your own?
2. Did you resist going to bed or did you go willingly?
3. Did someone put you to bed, tuck you in, or read you a bedtime story?
4. Was there a religious component, like prayers, to your nighttime routine?
5. Did you go to sleep immediately, or lie awake?
6. Did you journal, read a book, talk on the phone or with your siblings, or watch television when you were supposed to be sleeping?
7. Did you ever sleepwalk?
8. Did you remember having dreams? If you dreamed, did you ever have bad dreams? Do you remember any dreams specifically?
9. Were you afraid of the dark? Did you sleep with a nightlight or sneak into your sibling’s or parent’s room at night because you were afraid?
10. Did you have or attend sleepovers or slumber parties? Feel free to elaborate.

My post follows.

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I was never afraid of the dark, but nighttime was when I had all my deep and pondering thoughts. I was about 8 and can remember lying awake in my bed for hours pondering the universe and the idea of infinity. Big thoughts for a young child. I never slept with a nightlight.

I had three siblings. A brother and two sisters. When we were very young, I slept in the room with my brother in bunk beds. My older sisters shared a room. As we got older, I shared a room with my two sisters and my brother got his own room which I thought was extremely unfair.

There was a time I was a brat to my oldest sister. I talked her ear off after the lights went out. Eventually she told me she had a magic ring and when she spun it on her finger, she would go to some magic place and would no longer be able to hear or speak to me. She did a good job conning me because I believed her and would eventually shut up, turn over and go to sleep.

I remember our mother reading us poems and I remember getting tucked in and kissed good night. We also said prayers at the edge of our bed every night.

We only had one television in the house, so no tv for me! I did not read or journal at night, but I did love to talk if anyone would listen. As I got older, I would sometimes sneak into the living room early in the morning, take the  trimline phone and crawl under a blanket and talk to my boyfriend on the phone for hours.

I do not remember having bad dreams or really dreaming much at all. I did have a few very detailed dreams about my grandfather after he passed away. All the dreams had to do with him and communicating with him now that he was dead. They were very specific and I can remember every precise point even today.

I didn’t have a slumber party until about 6th grade. We had seances in our basement and slept in sleeping bags on the cement floor! I attended a few sleepovers when I was younger and also a few in my high school years. One particular night we were camping in a tent in my girlfriend’s back yard. We decided to go TP (toilet paper) a few houses. I remember diving into the bushes when a Police car pulled up. We turned off our flashlights and stayed hidden until he left. Karma did her thing, though. The bushes we hid in were rose bushes and we got a few good scratches for our bad deeds.

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