The way we used to live.
I always loved listening to my grandparents and aunties and uncles and I remember them telling me amazing stories of their childhood adventures of pond dipping, tree climbing, and so on. I used to listen in awe to my grandma telling me about when her and her sister were teens and they'd go dancing in the 1940s. I loved the black and white photos she'd show me of them in their pretty dresses and their dancing shoes. My mum is a really good storyteller and has told me loads of lovely anecdotes about her time as a child growing up, painting a magical picture of great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles and neighbours who I never knew. And if I did, I only got to see the last parts of their lives. It proper interested me hearing stories about the older generation, having fun in their twenties! I will carry these stories on and hopefully tell them as well as mum does!
I come from a large family who met without fail every week and I loved our gatherings. I am particularly nostalgic about these special times because these meet ups are now the end of an era. People grow up, move away, lose touch or pass away but the roots of family are always there. I love the idea of the grandparents as the sturdy roots, the parents as branches and the cousins as leaves, some drop near the tree and others are blown far away. The tree is always there though.
We had some fantastic parties on both sides of the family. We'd play all the cheesy songs but so was reminded of a fab one the other day,
It feels like I'm in love.
My heart beats like a drum. Boom! Boom!
Buffets back in the day were marvellous: vol au vents, pickled onion and pineapple sticks, potted meat with cucumber, sausage rolls and celery. We always had stringy celery and salt to clear the palette! The best part for me, was the sherry trifle, so yummy and quite potent!
I'll never forget my aunties with their sparkly disco tops sipping on Babycham and Snowballs with cherries on top. It was all so glamorous!
We would sip Ben Shaw's Tizer and Dandelion and Burdock that made us burp and laugh. I love to buy the cans of Dandelion and Burdoch at the chippy! There was so much laughter in our family get togethers. Laughing, chatting, hugging, reminiscing and I loved being part of it. I was the youngest of the female cousins and looked up to my older cousins. Still do.
Family holidays on the East Coast were wonderful and probably a reason why I feel part of my heart is on that Coast. Caravanning every summer holiday, playing cards and dominoes, going to the slots, playing on the beach till the sun went down. Wow! Amazing memories. Walking to the shower blocks to shower before going to the club for bingo and the disco. Summers seemed to go on forever when you were younger as August stretched out in front of you. The Feast week fair at Locke Park always signalled an end to a wonderful summer. I loved that fair.
Through these blogs, I am loving journeying back in time. I have always been a nostalgic person and I am definitely a sentimental hoarder; I keep everything. I have school reports, certificates, show programmes, cinema tickets, cards, postcards and letters. You name it and I've got it! I keep saying I'm going to put them into scrapbooks but I never get round to it! Pinterest have so many ideas!
But what makes the past and the time you grew up in so wonderful that you hold onto it and choose to revisit it so often? For me, it is a reminder of far simpler times and it is also replaying moments where loved ones were still here. We collect photos of moments so we can feel them again.
I love the idea of collecting moments and memories, whether they are stored in a cupboard, a photo album or just in your head. These are precious and they belong to us. No one can ever take them away but they can be shared and laughed over. Even cried over. So many emotions come to the front when we delve into our pasts. We might not be able to physically relive a moment, but we can hold it in a photo and in our hearts forever.
I love my rose tinted glasses, the ones us traditional folk like to wear. I love the old traditions of my youth, some are still here but unfortunately others are long gone.
Community is such a big thing. It is still around in some places but I really miss the growing up on a street where every one was friends and you'd have get togethers and street parties like the Royal Wedding for Charles and Diana back in 1981. This photo from Pinterest was taken at a street party in West Sussex and brings back so many memories. Look at how everybody brought all the chairs out to sit on! We held a street party on the backings and had games and music.
There was such a feeling of togetherness and friend's mums did feel like aunties. Our neighbourhood friends we grew up with felt like siblings and we spent a great deal of time in each other's companies, off on adventures and exploring the neighbourhood. We'd keep finding new fields or land we could play on, giving them names as though we were Indiana Jones!
I loved how it was a mix of boys and girls, playing on our bikes, at rounders, hide and seek or climbing trees. I have such amazing memories of long, not summers where you felt the days would never end. We all came home mucked up, hungry and happy, so happy! As we'd push our bikes up that last hill, dragging our tired and bruised, cut, nettled legs, we'd be planning the next day's adventure! We'd fall asleep thinking of the dens we made that day or the rounders game we'd won. Such amazing, simple days! I used to love watching The Wonder Years with Fred Savage and I love this quote.
I love the idea of collecting moments and memories, whether they are stored in a cupboard, a photo album or just in your head. These are precious and they belong to us. No one can ever take them away but they can be shared and laughed over. Even cried over. So many emotions come to the front when we delve into our pasts. We might not be able to physically relive a moment, but we can hold it in a photo and in our hearts forever.
I love my rose tinted glasses, the ones us traditional folk like to wear. I love the old traditions of my youth, some are still here but unfortunately others are long gone.
Community is such a big thing. It is still around in some places but I really miss the growing up on a street where every one was friends and you'd have get togethers and street parties like the Royal Wedding for Charles and Diana back in 1981. This photo from Pinterest was taken at a street party in West Sussex and brings back so many memories. Look at how everybody brought all the chairs out to sit on! We held a street party on the backings and had games and music.
There was such a feeling of togetherness and friend's mums did feel like aunties. Our neighbourhood friends we grew up with felt like siblings and we spent a great deal of time in each other's companies, off on adventures and exploring the neighbourhood. We'd keep finding new fields or land we could play on, giving them names as though we were Indiana Jones!
I loved how it was a mix of boys and girls, playing on our bikes, at rounders, hide and seek or climbing trees. I have such amazing memories of long, not summers where you felt the days would never end. We all came home mucked up, hungry and happy, so happy! As we'd push our bikes up that last hill, dragging our tired and bruised, cut, nettled legs, we'd be planning the next day's adventure! We'd fall asleep thinking of the dens we made that day or the rounders game we'd won. Such amazing, simple days! I used to love watching The Wonder Years with Fred Savage and I love this quote.
I always loved listening to my grandparents and aunties and uncles and I remember them telling me amazing stories of their childhood adventures of pond dipping, tree climbing, and so on. I used to listen in awe to my grandma telling me about when her and her sister were teens and they'd go dancing in the 1940s. I loved the black and white photos she'd show me of them in their pretty dresses and their dancing shoes. My mum is a really good storyteller and has told me loads of lovely anecdotes about her time as a child growing up, painting a magical picture of great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles and neighbours who I never knew. And if I did, I only got to see the last parts of their lives. It proper interested me hearing stories about the older generation, having fun in their twenties! I will carry these stories on and hopefully tell them as well as mum does!
I come from a large family who met without fail every week and I loved our gatherings. I am particularly nostalgic about these special times because these meet ups are now the end of an era. People grow up, move away, lose touch or pass away but the roots of family are always there. I love the idea of the grandparents as the sturdy roots, the parents as branches and the cousins as leaves, some drop near the tree and others are blown far away. The tree is always there though.
We had some fantastic parties on both sides of the family. We'd play all the cheesy songs but so was reminded of a fab one the other day,
It feels like I'm in love.
My heart beats like a drum. Boom! Boom!
Buffets back in the day were marvellous: vol au vents, pickled onion and pineapple sticks, potted meat with cucumber, sausage rolls and celery. We always had stringy celery and salt to clear the palette! The best part for me, was the sherry trifle, so yummy and quite potent!
I'll never forget my aunties with their sparkly disco tops sipping on Babycham and Snowballs with cherries on top. It was all so glamorous!
We would sip Ben Shaw's Tizer and Dandelion and Burdock that made us burp and laugh. I love to buy the cans of Dandelion and Burdoch at the chippy! There was so much laughter in our family get togethers. Laughing, chatting, hugging, reminiscing and I loved being part of it. I was the youngest of the female cousins and looked up to my older cousins. Still do.
Family holidays on the East Coast were wonderful and probably a reason why I feel part of my heart is on that Coast. Caravanning every summer holiday, playing cards and dominoes, going to the slots, playing on the beach till the sun went down. Wow! Amazing memories. Walking to the shower blocks to shower before going to the club for bingo and the disco. Summers seemed to go on forever when you were younger as August stretched out in front of you. The Feast week fair at Locke Park always signalled an end to a wonderful summer. I loved that fair.
Yes lovely memories you never forget!
ReplyDeleteThere's so many more memories. I need to put them all in a book!
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