Tag: Death

Memories of the early seventies – Arguments and a giant chair

It was December 1972 and Pappy was ill. He’d caught a cold from me, a cold I’d brought home from school and, as always, it had gone to his chest. He only had one lung after all. For days he’d been coughing and wheezing. My own cold had turned into a chest infection and I was off school myself which was almost unheard of. Mother made me go to school no matter how sick I was but they’d promptly packed me off home when they saw my feverish face and I’d been sent to the doctor for some penicillin. The little capsules proved impossible to swallow  so Pappy opened them up and I had to take the bitter tasting powder on a teaspoon. Continue reading Memories of the early seventies – Arguments and a giant chair

The importance of trees

28 September 2017

Last week one of the Deep Dene trees fell, crushed a car, damaged a house and completely blocked the road for the whole day. It happened during the morning rush hour. By some miracle no one was hurt. Commando heard about it on the radio and sent me a message to warn me in case I was planning on walking that way. As I had to go to the village anyway I decided to take a detour and asses the damage.  Ok, I’ll be honest, it was completely out of my way but I’m nosey.   Continue reading The importance of trees

Memories of the late 1960’s – numbers, a Moon landing, loss and grief

1969

My second year at junior school began with another horrible teacher. Her name was Mrs Thomas and I seem to remember her having long blonde hair and a fondness for velvet alice bands, although this may well be misremembered. She was very friendly with Miss Please and seemed to have taken discipline tips from her. There were raps across the knuckles with rulers, hair pulling and general cruelty. She was one of those, find a weakness and pick on it, kinds of teachers and public humiliation was her favourite weapon. Continue reading Memories of the late 1960’s – numbers, a Moon landing, loss and grief

Memories of the early 1960’s – landmark days and the passage of time

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January 1965

While some of my earliest memories are vivid and detailed, most are very vaguely fixed in time. Once I started school, dates began to mean something to me. My days were ordered into week days, weekends, months and years interspersed with long school holidays. There were also a few landmark events, dates that will never be forgotten.  Continue reading Memories of the early 1960’s – landmark days and the passage of time

Last chance to see…

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27 March 2016

Typically, as soon as building work stopped for the Easter break the weather took a turn for the wet and windy. The first chance I got to go out walking was Easter Sunday and it was blustery with the odd spot of rain. Still, it was now or never. There was somewhere I’d been meaning to visit for a while and our Thursday afternoon arch shopping trip told me time was running out. By coincidence, it is a building site of sorts and I was half reluctant to go there. Continue reading Last chance to see…