First Memories

My first memory is a strange one, for some reason it is the time we took a fridge to my Gran's house.  My parents had got a new fridge so my Gran was getting the old one.  I wanted to go with my Dad but because the fridge was in the back seat and the boot I had to sit in the front.  I was very young at the time and maybe remember it because it was such a big girl thing to do.

This is the first clear memory I have and it surprises me that it is a happy memory.  I'm not saying I had an unhappy childhood, I don't think I did, but most memories that involve my Dad include some dodgy moments.

One other very clear memory I have from when I was about 7 is of going on holiday, I think to somewhere called Primrose Valley although it could have been a Butlins place.  We arrived there and were unpacking the car, I was carrying my bag to the room that was mine and my brother's when my parents realised my brother was missing.  My Dad shouted at me because I hadn't been watching my brother.  I'm pretty sure no one had told me to watch him.  I think he was about 4 at the time.  I realise now that my Dad was stressed and worried and just blew up at me because I was there.  Even though I realise this I still think it was wrong, I was 7 and I remember crying and crying but just getting shouted at more.  The holiday place found my brother, he had seen a play park when we had first arrived and as soon as he was out of the car he had gone to find the park.  Even though I remember some other things from that holiday like the donkeys on the beach I mostly remember getting shouted at and feeling that it wasn't really fair.

Lots of my early memories are around playing outside, my bother and I were the youngest children in the street I lived in but the older ones would let us join in.  We would play football, cricket and rounders on the grass opposite our house.  There were other games that didn't favour the younger children like kiss, cuddle or torture and British bulldog.

One afternoon a girl moved in down the street and I had a friend my age from then on.  I remember that day very well.  From then I have great memories of the games we played, we built the shapes of cars (KITT from Knight Rider) and space ships in the garden from bricks.  We had light sabers and saved the universe from evil before dinner.  Sometimes we were squirrels or bears and very occasionally we were children. Summer days that lasted forever, no commitments and nothing to worry about expect bedtime.

Our imaginations had no limits and they are the best memories I have from my childhood. 

 

Picture - Lazy Bones by Jo Parry, I like her dog and cat prints best but this for me fits this post.