Childhood Memories

Me and my big sister 

My earliest memory is of me sitting on a tall stall in the kitchen dipping my fingers in the gravy and licking it off while my mum did the washing up.  I was lucky to have a stay at home mum and was secure in the knowledge that she was always there.  I have memories of sitting on her lap feeling the soft fluffy dressing gown against my face. I remember my mother being the soft loving one, the one we laughed with, cried on and loved with every inch of our bodies.  My father was the one who dished out the punishments and we had to be quiet around him and do as he said!  Looking back on it, it made for a fine balance. 

I had the tiny box room which just fitted in it a little bed, wardrobe and chest of draws with little room to walk around.  I used to spend many hours lying on the bed looking up out the window at the sky and watching the clouds drift past pretending I was on a moving boat going to some faraway place.  

We had a beautiful tabby cat called Tiger who I loved so much and cried myself to sleep for weeks after he died and to add to my mourning my father said we were not getting anymore pets! I craved a pet for many years afterwards and making up for it now!  

I remember many incidents in my life like falling onto my face doing a leapfrog over my sister and breaking my bottom teeth.  I remember being hit very hard on my forehead by the swing I'm sitting on in the picture above. I remember using the end of my cats tail to pretend to brush shaving soap onto my face just like my father did with his brush in the  morning (the cat didn't mind!).  I remember telling my mum that I could see the corners of her mouth turning up and she was about to smile when she was really cross with me!  This always resulted in us laughing together. 

I also remember the lovely row of 'corner shops' we had a few minutes away, all the shop owners knew us and were really friendly.  If they didn't see mum for a while they would come around to see if she was ok and if she was ill they would deliver things they knew she had on a regular basis! Something you don't see very often now which is a shame.  

I remember walking to school holding my mum's warm hand while I skipped along telling her everything.  My mum was someone I told everything to all my life. We lived in a cul-de-sac and played outside in the road much of the time, expect Sundays when my father made us sit indoors and be quiet, the worst day of the week for me!  We had to listen to classical music my parents hated pop music and I remember when I was about 12 listening to the top 20 with a tiny transistor radio under my pillow so they couldn't here.  I also remember painting my eyelashes with the inside of a black felt tip because I was 'too young' for mascara! In the end mum relented and bought me a block mascara that you had to wet with water to apply!

I traumatically remember the first time I was fed liver, I hated it so much and I had trouble swallowing it, I cried all through my meal as we were never allowed to leave anything on our plates.  That night when I was going to bed, through massive sobs, I made mum promise never to give me it again, she never did!

I remember going to choir practice with the 'Mossman Singers' later to be known 'The Orpington Junior Singers' travelling around the country and the world singing.  Its only now I realise they were quite good and something to be proud of.  

I remember Christmas and not having the Christmas tree lights on until Christmas day because they wasted electric - even so it was a magical time and I loved every second of it.  We didn't have much but it was so much fun. I was always sad when it was all over.  I have a vivid memory of one of my Birthdays, waking up to a sewing box at the end of my bed all wrapped up, inside it contained lots of bright coloured threads, needles and a pin cushion, wonderful present.

All in all I loved my childhood, these are just a few memories I have many more but these are the things that make you who you are.  We didn't have much we weren't spoiled we didn't get loads of expensive gifts, food was basic but we were loved, cared for and secure, something all children deserve.