Our Childhood Homes is a collection of personal reflections on one’s original home and its lifelong impact. In 2005, Laurie McDonald started collecting childhood home stories and decided to revive the project in 2020. Originally conceived as a book, OCH is now in production as a blog and possible podcast. Laurie asked her childhood friend Susan Matthews to partner with her, and we would like to invite anyone who is interested in the idea to contribute your own story and to invite your friends and family to contribute theirs.

The OCH blog is devoted exclusively to these stories and accompanying photos of childhood homes. There are two ways you can contribute: either by writing your own story, or by having one of us interview you and transcribe and edit the conversation. It’s your choice. Suggested length is between 1,000 and 3,000 words. 

Stories featured in the OCH blog will show the unique qualities that comprise our varied notions and early memories of home. Our childhood homes were sometimes places of security and happiness, and other times not. They were, and still remain, the spaces that shaped our identities; contemplating them conjures old dreams, recollections, nightmares, triumphs, disappointments, and a powerful sense of place that is as individualistic as we are.

If you are interested in contributing a story, please contact us at childhoodhomestories@gmail.com.