Childhood Memories

What is your first good memory from your childhood? (If this is a trigger question for you, tell me how your day is and what the best thing is about today.)

I have two early memories that I think are special. The first one is my earliest memory of any event. I was about two years old. I am looking over a railway bridge to see trains. This is just half a memory; I didn’t remember how I was able to see over the bridge. Mum told me that my grandfather used to hold me up to see them. The other memory is from when I turned four. A sunny day (rare in the UK), mum had washed my hair and my sister and I were sitting on the top of the stairs that lead down to the garden. (We lived in an upstairs flat). Mum was making my birthday cake in the kitchen. I felt happy.

Name 3 things that you loved when you were just a youngster?

• Going to my grandparent’s house in Clacton for summer holidays.
• Donkeys on the beach in Clacton.
• Playing with my electric train set.

What did you dislike, or even hate, when you were growing up?

• School
• wearing a particular straw bonnet that mum had bought for each of us.
• boiled cabbage, still don’t like it.

If you could go give your younger self one piece of advice, what would you tell them?

Don’t be scared of what people will think of you.

What kind of celebrations did you enjoy when you were little, and do you still like those celebrations now that you are grown?

Birthdays and Christmas. I still love to celebrate both.

Bonus Question: What commercial did you always wait for to come on television as a child? (If you didn’t like commercials or television, what event did you wait for to come about when you were a kid?“

When I was really young, I remember that there was one for frozen peas that I liked. There were some tiny peas calling a larger pea “Cannonball”. Now I think about it that was rather mean of them. Peas being discriminatory. Later, when I was a bit older there were many commercials, we would laugh at or sing along with like “Louie the Fly”