Childhood memories

[falling rain]

The 'flashing blades' thread got me reminiscing about my childhood. What good memories do you have?
I was always, and I mean ALWAYS out on my bike with my mate Nick Parker. My grandad got me it for christmas and it was a second hand adults bike with an orange frame. I could barely reach the peddles even when the seat was at it's lowest positioning, and my whole body went from side to side as I peddled because that was the only way I could reach them. I remember mentioning this to my grandad and he replied that I'd grow into it There really wasn't any corner of Exmouth that we hadn't explored. We collected shellfish, and fished in the docks for Eel and mullet, beachcasted for bass in the estuary and float fished for Garfish from the pier in the summer. We used to dig our own bait and keep enough for ourselves and sell the rest to the tackle shop for a pittance ( I think this is actually illegal now as it comes under selling marine animals fish, shellfish etc for sale or reward and you're only allowed to harvest for your own use/needs without any licence for commercial purposes) but it was enough to get a lucky bag with. One winter the cafe on the pier got trashed by waves in a severe storm and luckily (for me and Nick Parker) we were passing when the owner turned up. He wanted to get his stock out of the cafe as soon as possible so the water did minimum damage, so we helped him cart all the goods out of the cafe and into his van. He rewarded us for our help with a whole box, yes a whole box of mars bars. Well this was like winning the lottery for a couple of 9 year olds we made ourselves completely sick and I've rarely eaten a mars bar since . We also used to run errands for 'Mr forget me not' not his real name but his shop was called 'forget me not' so as far as we were concerned it goes that the owner must be called 'Mr forget me not'. When we'd finished the errands we could choose some sweets or a lucky bag from his shop. The lucky bags he stocked were not 'Girls' and 'Boys' separately they were just lucky bags, or for me they were 'unlucky' bags. My mate always seemed to get the plastic parachutist which you could throw out of your bedroom window or the plastic soldiers or pea shooter and I'd end up with the plastic clip on earrings or 'nancy' necklace gutted. I tried to 'feel' the bag to guess what was inside but 'Mr forget me not' was a miserable old bugger and he'd tell us to just pick one and get on with it. I was always falling off my bike too because it was too big for me probably, and I was mental when I was a kid and had no fear of speed or much else come to think of it. I can still remember corners or ramps where I'd come a cropper even now. Mum would always be pleased when I came home with some nice sized pollack and she'd cook them for tea. I once 'forgot to pay' for a punnet of strawberries....aahemm !! at a 'pick your own' and got a severe telling off for it, and then almost immediately my Mum quite cheerfully said 'right we shouldn't waste them anyway, lets make some jam Sorry to go on there read it if you want or ignore if you want. Anyone else got any happy memories?

 

[leon-b]

well i am 14 so i dont have much memories yet but like you used to i always ride a bike, wherever i go i ride i dont mind walking but if i need to get somewhere i can get there alot faster if i ride. i also like to go fishing alot mainly from the beach and fishing in freshwater ponds. i would love to hear some other memories though so i will watch this thread with interest
leon

 

[ArkAngel]

There used to be group of around 5-6 of us as kids and we would bike/walk all over the shop.
Before Harrogate expanded where i lived the countryside was no more than 5 minutes away and we used to take every advantage of it. Cricket, football, bike jumps all sorts of things.
There was the local river which had a ford at one point. It's closed off now of course but when i was a kid you could still drive through it. We used to ride it on our bikes (and laugh like hell at the one who fell off, there was always one of us). Cars were a constant source of entertainment, my dad got pretty good at driving through it but only when the water was low. We used to enjoy jumbo ice pops watching people try to get through it. Occasionly they used to stop at one side and ask us "is it safe to go through?". To which we replied "of course mate, someone went through about 10 minutes ago and he was ok!" what we failed to tell them was that guy was the farmer in his 110 landie and boy did we laugh when the water started to find its way in through the door seals! It also gave us a good workout in sprint cycling!!!
My other was my grandad who taught me all i know about the outdoors, he used to have a farm near to us and i would spend a lot of time there. He first taught me how to fish, track animals, got me my first cut down air rifle at 6 (to the horror of my mother ) and taught me how to shoot and general respect for the outdoors and all the wildlife in it.
Other than the endless hot summer holidays and the winters where the snow drifts were higher than me (what happened to the weather?) thats pretty much it.

 

[JonnyP]

Excellent, a reminiscence thread, good one Nick.

I used to live in a little village called leigh, nr tonbridge in kent, it was surrounded by woods and fields and we lived out there all the time. The river medway ran across the fields and we spent most of our time there, trying to catch something bigger than a minnow. There was a concrete dam that went across part of the river and when it flooded the water would rush over the top of the dam and we used to dare each other to walk across the dam. We would get a stick and use that to feel the edge and the walk carefully across with the water rising over our wellies and trying to push us into the cauldren below. No one ever fell in (luckely) but my old dog went over once and nearly didn't make it out, that scared me more than the though of my mates going over.....
Sometimes the fields near the river would be covered in a thick fog and we would play hide and seek in it, resulting in fights when we found each other.
On the other side of the river was a small wood, in which there was a dip in the ground, which we thought was where a bomb was dropped in the war, we called it the rat hole, and this was where we made most of our camps, we would spend about half the day making our den and when it was made we would take great pleasure in smashing it up ???
There was a lot of wide drainage ditches going round the fields and we would cut a long pole and try to pole vault the ditch, we often got wet.
Every year when the river flooded, all the fields would be covered in water and one year when it did so and we were out wading in it, we came across a railway sleeper bridge that had lifted off its supports when the water went over it, it made the best raft we ever had............Oh I could go on and on, great times........

 

[bushman762]

In the same vane....

http://www.downtown.co.uk/Article.asp?id=55802

You might like this....

Best Regards,

 

[leon-b]

where i live there is some marshes, there is land with loads of gaps which are filled with thick slushy mud in the summer me and my mates go down there and try and jump the gaps and most of the time make it untill we try to up it a notch and jump a bit bigger gap, if we get muddy it doesnt really matter any way we have alot of fun, looking forward to doing it again soon this year
leon

 

[falling rain]

How true is this.........?


FOR THOSE BORN BEFORE 1986

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough thought you might like to read about us.

This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face:

The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of we are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.

AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.

They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year.

They can never imagine life before computers.

They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, RedHand Gang or the Famous Five.

They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.

They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.

2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.

5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.

6. You remember watching Dirty Den in EastEnders the first time around.

7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good Old days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.

 

[JonnyP]

7/7.........Yep I'm getting old.........
ps........Has Dirty Den left eastenders ?

 

[janiepopps]

Aaah, the good ol' days.

Do you know I actually wrote to Jim'll Fix It to request secret Karate lessons so I could reciprocate when my brother (3 Years older than me) kicked the cr*p out of me.

He never wrote back

 

[falling rain]

Aaah, the good ol' days.

Do you know I actually wrote to Jim'll Fix It to request secret Karate lessons so I could reciprocate when my brother (3 Years older than me) kicked the cr*p out of me.

He never wrote back

I wrote to Jim'll fix it to ask if I could meet Olivia Newton John because I really fancied her - same here though - no reply

 

[janiepopps]

A truly warped man getting kids hope up like that...

 

[Spacemonkey]

Nowadays he'd probably be under investigation..

 

[Ogri the trog]

Oh boy, they do come flooding back when a gentle reminder prods you in the right direction.
I remember coming home from school on a friday afternoon, a quick sandwich and I'd shout " See you sunday" as I pedalled off to live in the woods with a mate for the weekend ( He's Queeg9000 and would probably back me up) we'd eat rabbit and pidgeon and whatever we thought wouldn't be missed from some near allotments. We'd fish in the river and ride the iron-ore trains to get to our favourite hunting areas.
Many years earlier being taught to fish by my Grasha (Granddad) whose job it was to operate the swing bridge at the docks.
Even as a small nipper I remember being bathed in a zinc bath in front of the fire in Nan's kitchen - Bliss.

I'd better stop and let someone else get a few memories in.

Cheers

Ogri the trog

 

[leon-1]

I wrote to Jim'll fix it to ask if I could meet Olivia Newton John because I really fancied her - same here though - no reply

Good old Olivia Nuetron Bomb, a woman that spawned a billion fantasies and saw many fathers being slapped by thier wives

John Travolta, well as long as he doesn't try to sing again what the hell, he has turned into quite a good actor.

As a kid, if it was electrical there was a good chance it would be in pieces on the floor in front of me (sometimes even when it was plugged in), if it was broken I would try to fix it, if I couldn't then it became a target for my air rifle.

University students studying "film history", what's all that about then. God if you are gonna do further education make it practical at least. I have seen so many graduates over the last so many years and can tell you one thing about all of them, they can all parrot fashion really well, but give me someone who has been in the real world for a while and they think on thier feet, learn from thier mistakes without having to be shown what they did wrong and are generally more relaxed and nicer people to work with. All "Uni" shows is the propensity to learn, I have had dogs which show the same trait, they don't have degrees in "fetch".

The major problem that a lot of them have is that they want you to show them respect because they have done university, someone that is twenty now was born around the same time that I was shot at for the first time and I am still here.

I tend to take people as they come, I don't want to know if they have a degree because it means very little to me. When I was a kid people with higher education were studying "real subjects" and these did command a level of respect, now they seem to be able to get a higher diploma in tying ones own shoe laces.

falling rain, you missed something out about the generation of the 60's, 70's and 80's. They are a bunch of sarcastic old farts as well.

Very much in danger of becoming an Enfield / Whitehouse old git, leon-1.

Children in need,








They can stay in blinkin need