10/31 Childhood Memory

Childhood memories are made of this... of wrapping up against the cold, brushing the cobwebs off the climbing frame, sliding down backwards, playing on every toy in the garden, bouncing so hard on the trampoline that you bump your nose, cuddles through umpteen layers of clothing, eskimo kisses...

Funny how seemingly unrelated items can spark off chains of memories from childhood, if your thoughts have been directed in that direction.

Tidying up the junk room I noticed a painting we own propped up on some shelves and it made me think "snickers!" and made me giggle ... It belonged to one of my great-aunts, Auntie Rene, and it came home with me after she died simply because I thought it so beautiful. I had never actually seen it before. But I remember staying with Auntie Rene one time, just when "Marathon" bars had changed their name to "Snickers" and every time the advert came on the tv we nearly wet ourselves laughing at the new name! So childish but we didn't half laugh... That was the same time she tried to persuade me to eat the rest of a plum that she'd plucked from next-door's plum tree (hanging over into her garden!) when one half was full of maggots. Even her assurance that the maggots were mainly plum anyway as that was all they'd eaten was no help. We also found three large spiders in her bathtub one morning. That was my introduction to house spiders. There isn't a word I can think of in my vocabulary to adequately describe just how big those spiders were to my early-teen self. 'Large' will have to do. I loved Auntie Rene to bits :) That painting will be hung properly on a wall someday.

I have started emptying our old wardrobes ready to take them apart and lots of my old clothes have sparked off memories, even if the clothes themselves are not the ones in the memories. They are memories of photographs of me wearing clothes like them... Difficult to articulate the memories of those clothes though! It's been quite theraputic going through my clothes, sorting them into keep / bin / charity piles. Quite a large bag so far for the charity shop. I thought I might have some jeans for the "bin" pile that I could turn into cushion covers but no such luck - several pairs to try on and the rest good enough to give away.

If I had any bluebells to photograph you'd get the memory associated with them - of pretending there really were fairies at the bottom of the garden. I'd peel the bluebell flowers to leave what I called a fairy potato, and I'd leave them lined up on the swingseat overnight for the fairies. And pretend they'd gone by morning although they invariably hadn't!

Maybe I'll find some paint to photograph. The paint we used to use at home as a child was powder paint and I can't wait to be able to get hold of some again! It came in very bright colours and was fun to mix and did well on thick paper. But it is the mixing I remember, and the tins it came in, and the particular spoon mum would use to measure the paint into the paintpots for us, and the frothiness of the mixed paint. With little lumps of powder if we'd not mixed it well enough!

I remember my bedroom wall being painted with "my little ponies". A friend of mum's, Sylvia, was an artist and she drew me a mural on my wall. A rainbow and a castle and hills and trees and ponies. Mum is also a bit of an artist and she painted it for me. I remember she thought the rainbow ended up far too bright and she spent ages toning the vibrancy down - dad kept saying it would keep me awake at night because it was so bright! I never found out if it was just a lie told to me to help me accept the toning down of the colours...

Lots of memories today. I'd be here for hours if I tried to write them all down. Maybe I'll start writing memories down more often :)


In other news, it has been a tough day today. No needles for my insulin, so I have eaten very little. In turn this has made me grumpy and the boys have not had my best. That said, I've got a lot done today AND we made it outdoors, twice!! I've got needles again at last now though and celebrated with hot chocolate, and bread and butter for dipping :)