A Favourite Thing: What this Little Girl's Made of... (Childhood Memories)

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Childhood Memories
Date:	27/07/02 (290 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Memories

Disadvantages: Memories

There is much about my younger years that I don't want to remember - things that moulded and haunted my life until I turned round to face them head on. That said -once I looked the ghosts in the face I also found I could see some of the things that have happier associations. It's strange, as I watch my friends little girl grow up I find myself thinking of myself as a child - how the world seemed such an exciting and terrifying place - how lonely I was yet in many ways content in my silence. I have never forgotten my invisible friend - a tortoise I made by putting my hands together and wiggling my fingers for head and feet. Despite this, he was a living breathing entity utterly separate from me and we'd have long conversations or sometimes he would tell me stories. I remember talking to the trees and the flowers and the Moon and all manner of animals. I was never afraid of any animal regardless of whether it bared a smile or teeth. They were all my friends. Horses became my passion at 5 after I was given the choice between ballet lessons or horseriding lessons. One trip to the ballet class led me straight to the horses so terrified was I of the harrigon of a ballet teacher

I was just about a child of the 60's although hippyness missed my parents. I remember asking my Mother once what it was like to live through the sixties and she triumphantly declared she always crossed the road when she saw hippies and Cliff (yes that one uuugghh!) was her favourite pop star. At that point I despaired that these were really my parents and of course grew up to hate Cliff and be a bit of a hippy *grin*

I think in many ways I am glad that I grew up in the 70's - there were less cars, less buildings. There were fields to play in at the end of our road and a tree house that someone long forgotten had built. My best friend Samantha had a giant willow tree in their garden and we'd hide beneath it's long sweeping branches from her little broth
er who would scream and cry whilst we giggled.

I remember a teacher telling me off after I dug up a mole just to see what it looked like and then being too scared to tell her when I swallowed a button off my coat - note I was only 5 at the time. I also remember being to scared to say that the donkey mask they made me where for the nativity was too big and I couldn't see a thing so I negotiated my way across the little stage by bumping my way through Mary and Joseph and the tiny baby Jesus whose head I broke when I trod on him. I still feel the hurt at not being chosen to be the Angel Gabriel.

We had a wonderful headmistress at my first school who used to make us pretend to be a factory. Us little ones would be separated into 4 or 6 groups and each of us would have a noise to make that when put together sounded like the hiss and pump of engines. I'm sure she taught me my love of rhythm. School was full of animals and music forever on after.

Christmas is fixed in my mind. The man who drove a wagon full of sweets on Xmas eve with his pony jingling with bells, the crispness of the winter air, the crunch beneath my feet when we walked the dog in the afternoon. Then there was the excitement of presents and Nana arriving with a big sack full of them - always modest presents though that told me I was loved and that she knew who I was - colouring books and books to read. I remember those magic painting books where you had to dip a brush in water and wipe it across the page and magically the colours would appear in the drawing. I loved my Spiro graph and those games where you had a popper to spin the dice in the centre - what was that called? I longed for my own Mousetrap Game and one of those springs that 'walked' downstairs - also forgotten the name! I loved 'Simon Says'

I loved origami and cats cradle. I remember setting out to go on holiday at 4am, picnicking someone in Devon at 7am, the joy of seeing the sea ove
r the horizon, sand in my sandwiches, sunburn and sunstroke!

Food sticks in my mind. The smell of cakes baking in Nana's house, Victoria Sponge cake, the treat of licking out the cake bowl, poached eggs on Sunday mornings, jelly and ice-cream, humbugs and rich tea biscuits. I remember Nana making marmalade, Mum making plum jam and collecting the gollywogs off the jam jars - not remotely pc I know but times were different then and I was only a kid. I had no idea they were offensive. I also remember the hard boiled sweets that made me sick and bon bons which I loved, iced gems, minstrels, and jelly fluff. Never have I forgotten sherbet dips or the absolute delight of my mouth exploding with space-dust! Mr. Mitchell's shop lay in the centre of the village and we would throng there after school. He must have been a patient man. I can remember buying lots of sweets for two pence - sweet cigarettes and 'jewellery' sweets were always a favourite.

School dinners were the worst with the rancid cabbage smell seeping through every corridor, the thin gravy and smash which did actually taste like it came from outer space. I have only ever tasted custard once and never again did I eat any kind of boiled pudding after eating a mouthful of spotted dick when I was six (er...don't be rude!). Packed lunches weren't always much better. Tupperware was all the rage but the lid on my Tupperware cup was forever coming off and soaking my fish-paste sandwiches (I didn't go veggie ?til I was 15). Then there was the wonder of having soup in a flask but it was dashed many times by finding the flask smashed as it was tipped this way and that in my satchel. However I loved to eat penguin bars and spent hours folding up the wrappers to make the penguins stand up - and then of course there were orange clubs. Pot noodles did become all the rage when they first came out and as nowadays they were nice for about 4 spoonfuls until you found the bit that w
as still dehydrated and you realised the stuff was actually vile. No one wanted the beef and tomato one.

Fast food was fish and chips, cockles and winkles, prawns and pork scratchins. I still remember the day a Chinese restaurant opened in the village and everyone was suspicious (thank God times have moved on!). Eating out was usually a pub lunch or a Berni inn with the 'Berni Coffee' but later I remember the delight of a Greek restaurant where crockery was smashed loudly andthe owner was loud and funny. What I don't remember is getting drunk on wine when I was 6 and my Dad having to carry me out of the restaurant - I think I'd only had a glass.

Favourite toys were books but I also had Sindy dolls and Pippa dolls and a single action girl who would regularly save the life of Sindy as I swung her by the neck from the banisters. I coveted my best-friends Paddington Bear and made do with Sooty and Sweep puppets. I remember long Summer days of drawing pictures quietly in the sunshine and hours and hours and hours of reading. I adored my fuzzy felt and I still recall the cardboard cut-out jungle animals that I played with for months until they fell apart. After that there were the farm animals that you always bought in threes (Mummy, Daddy and Baby) and making a pond for the ducks out of foil. Blue Peter had a lot to answer for and I never did get the double-sided sticky tape.

When I was around 7 the house we lived in had a spare room - a junk room. In there was an old square box stereo which had to be wound up. I'd listen to two records over and over - 'And then I kissed her' and 'The carnival is over'. I still remember the warm smell of the musty box, the crackling of dust on disc and the sheer delight at being alone in the room with just music. I also remember falling in love with Abba and can still recite most of the lyrics.
At Nana's house I would listen to Neil Sedaka, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzge
rald and Louis Armstrong and make my Nan tell me over and over again her stories of when she met the great Louis.

I loved water and used to paddle in the stream at the bottom of the field where we once lived and catch tiddlers, crayfish and tadpoles. I also remember falling in the river in Austria and having to be dragged out by my Dad. I cried all the way back to the hotel because I'd lost one of my red shoes. I remember Clarks shoe measuring for kids, the gentle tickle of metal on my feet and the stuffed horse that was in the toy box in the shop which kept me and many other children I'm sure quiet.

I still recall true coldness in the winter before we had central heating. Baths infront of the fire on school mornings and the outside toilet at my Nana's with it's giant spiders. Then there was sweet tea at sunrise, power-cuts and always balls of wall to wind for knitting cardi's. Also I remember the shed with the mangle which I loved to play with - happily wetting and squeezing clothes for hours. I remember how a ball and circular washing line became a spaceship, a rug and a brass lizard was a whole different world, and how easy it was to be a princess or a darlek or a horse. I was in love with Carlotta from St. Clares and adored Malory Towers. The library was my favourite place to go with endless books for me to read and re-read. I loathed shopping, the tiring pacing through endless boring shops and even worse when everyone discovered MF1 - mental torture for a child.

Saturdays though meant comic day and I would run all the way to the shop to get my copy of Misty which was way better than Blue Jeans or Look-In! Shame it was banned for being too scary for kids - I'd love to read it again! Afternoons were full of football results with that bloody typewriter printing them out for hours, the Dr. Who or Space 1999!

Few seem to remember that Sunday daytime tv was devoted to farmers and farming. Every advert was f
or weed-killer or bovine food cubes or something like that. Lazy days when Dad went to football, Mum made dinner whilst I brushed the dog. The afternoon would be a visit to Nana's or word games, scrabble or Monopoly which dad would always win. Sunday tea-time was always a feast - only marred slightly but the incredibly boring tv that preceded the children's hour which transported us to Narnia or other such magical worlds. I have to confess though - I did quite like 'Portrait of a Village'.

I kept few toys. I have a dog who used to be attached to wheels who's name is Snowy. He now has no hair at all, the straw stuffing threatens to fall out at any moment and only one eye but I still love him. I sold my Sindy and Pippa stuff a while back - I didn't have a strong attachment to them. My sentimental attachments were nearly always to my books. Those I kept I treasure - those I didn't I watch out for in charity shops.

It's strange as I sit here and recall all these things the nostalgia floods over me. I spent most of my childhood wanting to grow up and much of my adulthood learning how to be a child again - but there were good things. Things that make me smile at their simplicity and wish that children nowadays still had that innocence for as long as we did. There's probably much more but these are the things that bubble up in my mind immediately. I guess they all say something of me...

"Jill Murphy asked me to write about one of my favourite things to help her celebrate her fourth anniversary of cancer-free living and to remind ourselves of all the nice things in the world. It takes more muscles to make a frown than a smile you know. If you'd like to join in, whether you've only just joined dooyoo, or you've been here ages, you're more than welcome. Just write about one of YOUR favourite things, make your title "A Favourite Thing: [your choice]" and include this paragraph at the
foot of your opinion. And post before Friday, 9th August."


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