7 Memories from My American Childhood Summer That Don't Happen in Denmark

[@mikkelcoollinan9285]

Danish kids collects chestnuts in the woods also amber and fossils at the beach or in chalk diggins (kalkbrud)

[@billyschitz4116]

I am a Dane who grew up in Australia from the age of 1 and recently moved back to Denmark alone at 18 years old. We also played the car game with number plates from the different states of Australia, but also a game called "Sweet or Sour'; where we would wave to people in other cars and if they waved back, they were 'sweet' you get a point but if they didn't, they were 'sour'. We also had drive-in cinemas and they were so beautiful! The stars where I lived in South-East Queensland were very visible as well. We also collected cicada shells as kids, but stuck them to our tee-shirts and walked around with them all day at school and whoever had the most or the biggest was 'cool' hahaha. There are so many differences between childhood in Denmark and Australia. Great video :)

[@juvyfrancia8993]

YES! We have also a fantastic summer here in the Philippines, most of the time, you'll find us in a beautiful beaches here because summer here is so hot and before summer ends we also saw the fireflies, and it means that rainy seasons are coming

[@svendemadsen8275]

Hi Kelly, for your 4th of July, you might wanna have a look at Rebild bakker. Biggest celebration of 4th of July anywhere outside US, as far as i'm aware. This place & event really showcases how much America & Denmark have in common & the history we share ). Enjoy watching your videos, keep up the good work & enjoy your summer. All the best from a Cph native ).

[@vxlley_flower5672]

I'm from North Carolina, and my family took me and my brothers camping at the beach last week. We did the license plate thing, and for the first time EVER I saw Wisconsin and Rhode Island plates! We also collect the pennies! Drive ins aren't common around here, but we've been to one a couple years ago, eating dinner in the car and all. What I used to do when I was little, my grandpa and I would plant a big garden, and we'd collect the food and pick muskediens (I might not have spelled it right? They're grape like) and make jam/jelly! Edit: By the way, I learned there'd a fourth of July festival in Denmark! I don't remember where? Rebild I think? But it's to celebrate the two countries and their companionship!

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Yes. We haven't been there yet. We usually have our own celebration with other Americans that live in our region of Denmark or we just do something as a family. Maybe one day, we will go there. Who knows! :)

[@maikenvl]

There is a drive in in Lynge (Nordsjælland) near where I grew up.

[@patdeneen1562]

All of the things you mentioned were also part of my childhood in the 60's. Catching lightning bugs (yes, that is what we call them down South)were a must. Finding cicada skins another mission in the summertime. And parades -- parades for every occasion. And pennies!!! My son loved those so we had to hunt them down everywhere we went.

[@kchristensen3727]

Lightning bugs are even a regional thing in the US. It's mostly the midwest-northeast that has enough lightning bugs to light up fields and for kids to collect them in jars. My kids grew up in Nevada and never saw lightning bugs until they visited the northeast.

[@micca9559]

If you like parades, you should come to Aalborg in May every year, there is carneval. Its huge and amazing :D

[@Finnec123]

"I love Danish summers". Well, we don't have summer every summer. Sumtimes summer is rain and 19°C/66°F.

[@Finnec123]

From1903 to 1968 (people disagree) Danish license plates told you from which town the owner of the car was from. E.g. "AA" was Frederiksberg. "BS" was (no, not that) from Frederikssund, "NA" was from Haderslev etc. According to Wikipedia/dk.

[@Finnec123]

I didn't understand the thing about the oval coins. 🤔 Why were they all oval? Anyway my brother and I used to put coins on railway tracks and have the trains make them flat and oval. 🚂

[@Finnec123]

Would love to experience drive in movies. Seen it in the movies, which makes it meta. Guess it was perfect for gf+bf. 4th of July 🇺🇸 and other parades. Some Americans really put a lot of effort into it. Impressive! Don't think we can compete anyway, anytime at all. You know about the celebration of July 4th in Rebild Bakker, right? Not particularly impressive. Peculiar though. Would love to see fireflies. Must be like seeing stars that have fallen to the ground. Regarding baseball I've mostly heard of corked bats which seems to be a bad thing. Never ever heard of baseball being played in Denmark, but I trust you on that one. I like to say "Everything is interesting if you take interest in it". So even I could probably become a fan. I did it with tennis and programming.

[@charleneknottsrubini2220]

We live in Delaware and we have a small field behind us. At just the right week of the year it sparkles at night with lightning bugs. It feels almost magical!

[@BerndBarsch]

We got same play in Germany for licence plates, first letters there are cities or smaller counties to name during a longer drive… Big fun.

[@BerndBarsch]

Parades are famous in Karneval / Fasching, now living in Ireland I‘m into St.Patrick’s Day Parades (but more in small local ones), the Bigger Ones are more for tourists…

[@BerndBarsch]

Lightning Bugs and Cicades same in Germany.

[@hamborg2]

I never seen a firefly in Denmark, but in Poland I see a lot of them. They were so brigth 💥🎶😍. One of them just flying 3 feet away😳😱.

[@liskofod8711]

So Nice to hear about Your summer. My summer in Greenland were sailing by motorboat to small settlements og visiting my father colleges. Lots of guests from Denmark, that was so fun. Not to forøget the midnight sun. Just beeing outdoors all summer 💞🤗

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That sounds very nice! :)

[@rachelnielsen3718]

In the 80’s, I was in my preteen-teen stage and being from California, Summers were awesome. Sometimes, I would ride around in my neighborhood on my ten-speed bike. My dad would sometimes take us to Disneyland or Six Flags. At other times we would go to the roller rink. After I graduated from high school and my friend had a car we would go to the movies to sit in the air conditioned movie theater to get out of the heat and I remember we did watch Jurassic Park as well during that time. We also went to the drive-in and because I didn’t have money to watch the movie at the drive in, my friends hid me at the back of her hatchback and covered me with all the junk she had back there to sneak me in. Lol! We also took trips to Venice and Santa Monica beach to get away from the heat from where we lived. The fireworks shows here we’re awesome here as well. It was a great time in 80’s. Baseball is a great pastime favorite during the summer for a lot of Americans. Los Ángeles Dodgers are my team. I still remember when they won the World Series in 1988. I was 18 and just out of high school.

[@charlottebghandersen4195]

Thank you for your videos. You will find a drive in theater in Lynge, 20-30 km. north of Copenhagen: Lynge Drive in Bio

[@Simpopcorn]

Just like you, i looooove the sun and the summer season! I need it! If it was posiibly i would have it all year around 💜

[@danfrompc]

Yes Kelly... You bring back memories from my childhood. My parents taking me to the local drive in movie. Fireflies were bountiful here as well. As a fellow here 'north of the border', we played ball hockey a lot more than baseball or basketball. Similar to Denmark, we did a lot of bicycle riding here, particularly during the summer months. Being close to Lake Erie, I remember spending many nice moments at the beach.

[@RealHIFIHelp]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

[@clavillesen]

The memory penny thing exists in Denmark too. I know there's a machine in Aalborg zoo where you can do three different coins.

[@Simpopcorn]

I dont know how it works today, but when i was a child and Big enough around year 2000-2012 (06-18 years Old) , especially teen my club took us to the forrest, water park, Cinema, Theater and stuff. Also you could sign up to trips from 1-4 weeks with your School and other schools combined. I still remember Those 2 weeks trips to Bornholm and the club activities 😀😃

[@lotteolsen3920]

Quite normal with outdoor movies in Copenhagen during summer. Not drive-in, just huge screen on open plazas or parks and people sitting on blankets.

[@marmotsongs]

Last summer because of Covid they set up a drive-in in Nordhavn for several films.

[@citizenVader]

TV2 organized drive in cinema in a couple of larger cities a few years ago. Dunno if they are bringing it back..

[@citizenVader]

@@syntrilliumc.e.p.9326 thanks for correcting my comment

[@TrekkieGrrrl]

The licence plates are VERY different from country to country in Europe. And I always notice them, even now :) When my kids were small, we played "who's the first to spot a [color] car" or something similar. Chimney, flagpole, flower, ect. As you know, the flattened pennies are common in Germany and England, too. I have quite a few, because they're a fun souvenir. I don't quite know why they aren't a thing here 🤔 As a kid, we flattened coins on the train tracks 🙈 ... or tried. I never actually found any of them after the train had passed ... And yes, it was insane and dangerous ... and our parents never got to hear about it. I so want to see a real live firefly. We have glow worms (sankthansorm), but they're rare. I've never seen one myself.

[@citizenVader]

About the parades.. that was actually something we used to do in many places as I was younger, here in Denmark. I come from the coast, so every year we had a harbor party, with parades and jousting events on boats and lots of people having fun for a weekend.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That is so true. I have been to a horse parade for Ring Rider Festival in Sønderborg. ;)

[@citizenVader]

@@MyNewDanishLife yup.. it's almost always in connection with a fair or a big kræmmermarked 😎

[@n9nnascreativeandrandomstu858]

You can get the pennies in Denmark as well. I have from different amusement parks/zoos. The drive in movie theatre I know of is in Lynge, here on Zealand. I think there's one on Amager as well. First time I ever saw fireflies was in the US, they're amazing! I think it's only in some parts of the world that they light up, I think I've read that in other places the same kind of bugs doesn't light up 🤔

[@crosscastle100]

Have you been to the July 4th American Danish celebration in Rebild?

[@MyNewDanishLife]

No. We were going to go this year, but my husband got sick. :(

[@marmotsongs]

We played the license plate game when I was growing up (on the East Coast.) In France license plates have numbers showing which department they are registered in (75 is Paris, 51 is Champagne, …). I’ve played it with those department numbers, but I don’t know if others do. We also played the alphabet game when on car trips. You have to find a word on a sign you see that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. Applebees, Boston, Caution, … Thank goodness for Quality Inn!

[@beverlywalker4111]

Lightning bugs are beautiful! I grew up with them in Virginia. Had them in North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, (go Braves! ) and Tennessee where I live now. Cicadas were crazy this year! Fireworks were so pretty on the fourth! 🇺🇸. I love how you occasionally compare Denmark to the US. You pull out the good, bad, funny and odd things from both countries. So fun to learn the similarities and differences. I can tell you have a great love for both countries.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Thank you very much for saying this! :)

[@michellacatharina]

You can make the flat pennies (or øre) in Legoland Billund 😜 I have one 😁

[@ClausSkytte1]

I think they have one at Industrimuseet in Horsens. At least they had one once. 🙂

[@MyNewDanishLife]

I do not know how I missed this. I will look for this machine! ;)

[@lenerosenstand9231]

When I was a child we put small coins on the railway tracks. When the train had passed, the coins were flattened. We didn't need a machine.

[@muhest]

@@lenerosenstand9231 We did that too. If you were lucky … you had a real blob of a coin without it breaking apart.

[@Gert-DK]

As a kid, we placed the coins on the rail and waited for train to flatten the coin. :-)

[@mettehjepsen]

This dane loves her "flat pennies" i have from the us, and a few other places.. i gotta look at where. I think maybe spain

[@misst350]

Great video! I think you’re describing the summers in the Midwestern region more so? I’m from a small town in Michigan and familiar with almost everything you mentioned! (Never been to a drive in but I have seen them. One in southeastern OH, by the freeway!) I LOVE the smooshed pennies and still play the license plate game! I live in the MidAtlantic region now and it’s much different! 😒

[@Avery-nb5fg]

I’m from Washington state the only ones I didn’t do was the ones involving bugs so it apply’s to the Pacific Northwest too

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Wow. I had no idea it would be different there! That is kind of a shame, but glad you had a great childhood! ;)

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Very interesting about the bugs! ;)

[@lenellesunboxings6795]

I live in Southen California and we played the license plate game. I miss the drive in days. No lightning bugs here. We also have 2 major baseball teams, and I like the Angeles....not the Dodgers at all. Haha. I have always wanted to go see the cubs stadium...so classic. What time does it get dark in dk?

[@MyNewDanishLife]

As of today (July 9), it will get dark around 10pm.

[@Rallemarkralle]

God damn iloveyour videos

[@mikkelcoollinan9285]

You can flatten coins in Den Blå Planet in Copenhagen (Aquarium zoo)

[@pavelsmom1089]

My childhood era was the 1970s and I'm from California. We played the license plate game on long drives to beat boredom. We also went to drive in movies and as kids we would wear pajamas and eat dinner in the car. 👍After the movie started we always fell asleep and woke up the next morning in our own bed as Dad carried us to our bed.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

What a lovely memory! ;)

[@Limmosee]

There are DBU's (The Danish Football Association) Fodbold Skole (Football/Soccer School) :-)

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Oh yes. One of my boys was in Fodbold Skole last week! :)

[@DaddyWannaBe666]

I have one penny from the London Dungeon with Jack the Ripper on it. 😊

[@Gunder26]

Baseball are for kids called rundbold

[@renekuskchristensen2182]

Hej K Hvor gammel er dine børn?

[@BenjaminVestergaard]

Never seen fireflies in DK, when I visited Malaysia I finally saw it.

[@vxlley_flower5672]

I forget some places don't have them! Growing up in the southern US, they're literally EVERYWHERE. Cicadas too!

[@BenjaminVestergaard]

@@vxlley_flower5672 well, actually I think that Denmark is supposed to have fireflies, despite much smaller than what you find in the tropics. I've just never seen them here, despite growing up in the countryside and close to a river... So, when I finally saw it like that, it was like magic.

[@larsboantonsen6319]

The first one we call "Bilbingo" when I was young. :-D

[@MyNewDanishLife]

We have that too. It is different, but also loved in the USA from my opinion. We play that in Denmark with American boards, but it does not always work. LOL We need Danish or European boards! ;)

[@lenerosenstand9231]

Yes we did that too withcarsfromEurope. We didn't call it anything, though. Then there were actually also some of the old black Danish licence plates where you could see from which town a car came. If I remember rightly, P was from Hjørring. You could make a game with your children on a rainy day and make the boards yourselves. Look up all the countries on Google and put the flags and the letter on the board and print it out for a trip. This way you combine the screen time with something useful and your children can read about the different countries at the same time and learn something.

[@ronjamariesteensgaardhilsk4262]

Jeg synes du ligner Reese Witherspoon så meget, god video som altid!

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Tak! :)

[@Krzysztof25XD]

I‘m pretty curious if you have ever had any experience in going to summer camps. I used to work in a camp in Minnesota for two summer periods. It was a fantastic experience for me as a person from Europe to learn more about Americans and their culture. I learned the whole package, the positive and the negative. Have you ever planned to send your kids to one near your home in the US? They will surely have an opportunity to socialize with American counterparts. We did host kids from France who visited their cousins in the US.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

I only went to day camps. Not the kind where you go for a long time and live there. Those were always too expensive for us. But I do have good memories of Girl Scout Camp. I was also a camp counselor for the YMCA camp in our town. It was a lot of fun! :) All of my nieces and nephews are much older than my kids, so they wouldn't be going to camp with them. I haven't thought of sending them to camp. I like spending our time together, so I probably won't send them away from me. :)

[@louiselund2419]

Vi har/haft sommer bio, som er at se film uden for, i nogen forskellige byer rund om i Danmark. Vi har ikke ildfluer, men sankthansorm som kan lyse

[@louiselund2419]

Og så har vi i sommerferien for skolebørn. Hvor de kan gå til noget i en uge i sommerferien, fx. Foldbold, dans, tegning.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

Yes. that is true. I did that in Sønderborg in 2016, but I forgot all about it. That was a fun time! :)

[@lotteolsen3920]

When driving in Denmark and Eu we spot license plates based on country initials, so we learn the official EU two letter codes for all the eu countries.

[@twisterwiper]

Not to be nitpicking, but they are not necessarily two letters. Most are just one actually.

[@promeccree3013]

i am danish haj med dig 🙂🙂🙂🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰

[@white_clover767]

Things I miss from my South African childhood, living in the Faroe Islands now: playing outside barefoot, in minimal clothing, swimming in a garden pool, soft serve ice creams right on the beach, HEAT of any kind, here is doesnt go over 15C, hearing crickets and pool splashes on a hot day, picnics on the lawn on the warm ground, ladybirds, dragon flies, butterflies, ants, watermelon and spanspek, Braais, building tree forts, Summer Christmases. None of these things really exist here.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That is so true about the summer Christmases. I have never been south of the equator , so I have never experienced that! :) For me, Christmas needs to have snow! :) LOL You seemed to have had a great childhood! :)

[@wncjan]

When I'm on road trip in the US with my son, we count trucks from six specific trucking companies (Swift, Knight, Schneider, C. R. England, Werner and J.B. Hunt), to see who "wins", Also I enjoy the fireflies in The Blue Ridge Mountains. Fun thing though. I have spent about 10 July 4th in US and never seen even a single parade. And I like baseball too, but just to annoy you I have to admit that my favorite team is St. Louis Cardinals. m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIqnZ5-oq9msrLs video with fireflies and sound of cicadas

[@Finnec123]

Six hours drive isn't much? Here a six hour drive is probably impossible. Maybe from Skagen to Gedser is six hours? I don't know but if you're driving that long... Well you're not if you can find an excuse. One hour is ok when driving to work but not to see friends or family. 🚗💨

[@muhest]

License plate game is not the same in Denmark, cuz license plates looks the same. However … we do some type of it. Going from the two letters at the beginning of the plate: AA, AB, AC … and so on. Spot a plate with those letters, cross it off and move to the next combo. It’s mind boggling how long kids can be occupied with that. 😂 Baseball … yeah. I am not gonna sit for hours watching grown ass men playing “Rundbold”. I’m sorry Kelly … but baseball??? No ma’am. When watching NFL you can sort of start picking up on what’s going on and what needs to be done and strategies and tactics and so on … if you start out with no understanding of that game at all. That is not doable with baseball. I’ve tried … more than once … but that game really doesn’t “speak” to me. 😉

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That is funny. I love baseball. :) That is a good idea with the license plates. I will remember that! ;)

[@teebodk3917]

@@MyNewDanishLife If you try that license plate game version, you need to keep in mind, that some letter combinations simply do not exist (for many different reasons), so you need to make sure to make the rules so, that you don't get stuck looking for a combination that doesn't exist. The latest plates right now use combinations starting with D, so B and C-combination hunts would make for a really easy and quick game, while combinations starting with for example P (1993-94), R (1994-95) and S (1996-98) are getting rare, so would deliver a real challenge.

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

Google drive in bio Danmark

[@KHValby]

45 minutes from CPH: www.driveinbio.dk/ (at Lynge -outside Farum :-) ) The reason you won't find that many "Drive-in theaters", is that most (Danish) parents are fine with GF/BF spending the night together! We have good sexual education! Our kid's know how to protect themselves...... . and we were NO better at that age ! So we don't really need "Drive in movies" 😊 Otherwise.., why would a young couple in love..., wanna watch a movie from a a car? Yeah I get it..., some "folks" are just lazy :-D :-D !! Kelly! Fantastic summer to Y.all ❤️ ❤️ ❤️!

[@sorensanderskov]

You could go to one of the (now) many gay prides in Denmark - outside of Copenhagen nowhere like any US prides, but on a sunny day still fun and life positive events.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

I have never seen one in my area of Denmark.

[@sorensanderskov]

@@MyNewDanishLife well... :-) lgbt.dk/guide-til-pride-vores-oversigt-over-danske-prideevents-i-sommeren-2021/

[@BenjaminVestergaard]

We may not have designated machines to flatten our coins... We just use our trains... As kids we'd sneak up on the train tracks and place a load of coins on top of the rails. Then come back later to collect the gains.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That is something we do in the USA too. Or at least we did! :)

[@kurtolsen7989]

5 countrys do parades. France, USA, China Russia and North Korea. 5 Countrys I really don't want to live in.

[@MyNewDanishLife]

That's a shame for you. :(