Friday, July 20, 2007

This is me at Junior school.
Me playing cricket in our back garden note the cushion as we had no money for proper stumps. With 7 in the family we had quite a good match.
Me aged 5 at infant school.
I was a Brownie and did go on to become a girl guide aswell.
This was taken while my dad was recovering from his anuerism last year.
Last year with my eldest son - Stuart
This was taken on Gosport promenade overlooking Portsmouth Dockyard.
This was taken while we lived in the New Forest before my younger sister was born. The photographer would visit our home once a year to take family photos.
Our Christmas spread at tea time, me in the forefront, my father looking very skinny. We had two deaf and dumb uncles who would visit and take these magical photos with an Instamatic camera. Both my fathers parents were deaf and dumb and many Aunts and Uncles.

50 Today

I can remember that as soon as i was old enough i knew the only way i could have new fashionable clothes was to earn some money. We only received presents christmas and birthdays, there were never any little treats during the year. I now occasionally treat my boys to the odd bit of clothing or DVD, game etc, but we were never given this as money was short. So as soon as i was old enough i got myself a paper round and did that for about 18 months. It was spread over quite a large area but i enjoyed it, i loved the peace and quiet and time on my own as that was a premium in our household. Then i managed to find a job at the weekends working in a shop that was based on the shore where the majority of our customers where yachtsmen. We sold everything in this shop, we sliced meat,cheese, we made up fresh rolls, sold alchol,cigarettes,sweets, weighed out veg. The yachtsmen would come in with a huge list of provisions they needed, we'd then add up the bill in our heads, no tills to do it for you! I worked there from 9.00 - 5.30pm Saturdays and 2.00 - 5.00pm Sundays. I'd race home from work on Sunday as that was the night there was a disco held at the local community centre. I enjoyed spending my hard earned wages on clothes and buy singles. At that time i was aDavid Cassidy, T-rex and David Bowie fan. My half of my room would be covered in posters taken from the Jackie magazine i use to have each week. Before Jackie i use to have the Bunty comic. I can remember evenings sat in front of the T.V cutting out the doll on the back page and the clothes to hang on it. I have in my attic still some of my old Bunty annuals. All of them have an inscription in side. Mum would write the year we received it for Christmas. I still can't believe that the last time i received this annual i was 14!! can you imagine a girl of 14 nowadays reading the Bunty.
We were lucky living a stone's throw from the beach , all school holidays were spent with friends there or if the weather was not kind my friends and i would sit in our bedrooms playing our singles, learning all the lyrics and singing along. the real treat was being at my friend carole's, her mum would bring us up a glass of lemonade with a dollop of ice cream in it - heaven!! Sadly Carole is no longer with us, she died 4 years ago leaving a husband and two daughters. She died of cancer- she never smoked or drank, was a wonderful person, it was a real tradegy. I still keep in touch with the 4 other girls that i spent my teenage years with. One of them is married to a celebrity and lives in New York but she hasn't changed and we still laugh about the times we had.
In my later years my taste in music changed. I went to Knebworth and saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, Peter Frampton and listened to The Eagles, Ozark Mountain Daredevils. I still listen to this type of music today. All in all i enjoyed my teen years.I look back with fond memories of those care free days.