Memories
Primary memories up to age 11
Recently I have been contemplating how memories that stand out speak of what was and is significant to us. I decided to list the ones that came before I left primary school.
I remember,
- being pushed in my pram by an older girl who lived near my Granny Gates in Union Street and the younger of my two older sisters walking alongside
2. the hand of an aunty helping me cut butter with a knife and spread it on bread
3. being what seemed leg high to somebody probably my mother while watching Protestant Marching bands parading in the town centre (circa 1973)
4. the first day of school when almost everyone was crying apart from me and one other. The one other has become a life sister.
5. the day at the Church of Ireland Sunday school in Corcrain Community Centre when I proclaimed, “God is sitting on that chair!”
6. the day in 1974 I walked into my Granny’s house to see her cleaning a candelabra. I knew something was wrong. I was aware that one of her daughters had been murdered the night before in a sectarian attack.
7. the Isle of Man aged 4, the gate that acted as a lift door, the peacock that grazed on the lawn of the Lighthouse
8. I woke one morning to find two vehicle-style toys by my bed
9. Butlins, Ayr, Scotland, aged 5, the Dodgems and the talent show in which I sang without hesitation
10. the day ( circa 1976) that Mrs Black invited me to her home for tea (story below)
11. getting lost at Scarva ( circa 1976) and being placed in a Police van until my parents located me
12. what seemed like a perfect day when my family went to the seaside (1976)
13. the day (1977) I got junior boy Sports Day champion at primary school
14. being reunited with Patch (1978) after he was lost. A neighbour had seen an advert in the paper “Lost dog found”. They thought it might be Patch. I somehow got in touch with the people and it was.
15. Being in Drumcree graveyard (we often visited the graves) and thinking about Jesus dying on the cross for me ( I think I was prompted by an image of Jesus on the cross) circa 1978
16. going rabbit hunting with my father and a ferret
17. the day (27.7.1979) a bomb underneath his car killed a resident of our estate
18. my mother asked Tommy the lemonade man if I could have ‘a wee job’. He said yes and that was my first job ( 1979)
19. asking Jesus to come into my heart at the Salvation Army Sunday School (9.2.1980)
20. my da educating me on the facts of life when I asked how Missy, a Jack Russell, got pregnant. He was renovating a former house into a burger bar and used the plasterboard as a ‘blackboard’
21. going to Pwllheli North Wales for my first Boys’ Brigade Camp (1980)
22. being invited to a ‘proper restaurant’ for a best friend’s birthday ( 1981)
23. Going away for the weekend with a friend’s family in a motor home (this memory symbolises how important that friend and their family were in my life at that time) (1981)
g
