First memories

I am going to be nosey again so on a lighter note I wondered if anyone would be interested in revealing their first childhood memory, however brief.
Mine is of being in our old church hall at the baby/toddler clinic. There are mothers and babies sitting in rows and I remember the bonnets the girls, including me, I suppose, wore , the ones with the big deep frill around the front and tied under the chin probably cotton or linen I suppose so it must have been summer. I also remember a couple of girls that I then spent the years from 5 to 16 in school with. I also have vivid memories of my mother collecting the bottles of orange juice and cod liver oil we were given to take a spoonful of each everyday, never forget them, they were awful,  something to do with only being a few years after the end of the war I suppose as there was still some rationing.

I was 3years old standing in a cot in the living room, I remember the picture on the wall above me shaking and then falling down. Later and older I was told a German Bomb had hit, and demolished four houses at the top of the Road !

That's some memory to have Nicko.

I vividly remember being tickled by mum. She loved chasing and tickling her little ''pups'' - me and my sisters. Hilarious fun!

I love these nostalgic threads you think of Vintage.

My first memory is lying in a pram, my mum pushing it, and my sister sitting on the bottom the pram, I could see the bricks on the wall as mum pushed the pram up the road.

I vividly remember my first day at primary, I was 4 or 5. The teacher made all the new class little boards to put round our neck with our names on. One girl wouldn't stop crying, in the end he mum came in to comfort her.....oddly I can still remember that girls name.

One other Memory , I was 3/4 and wearing "irons" on my Legs,,[Calipers] ? Standing with Dad on a Railway Platform. Dad had Crutches , result of Polio when a Child.A Train went passed full of Soldiers, I think they were American, There was a shower of packets of Chewing gum, ment for Dad or me I don't know !

I remember starting school, it was a two room school with two teachers, if you had a sibling of whatever age you sat next to them for the first day, or if no sibling a friend so I sat next to a girl a year older than me, our mothers were friends so we've been friends right through school to this day.
Our first day we were given books with four lines the top one red the middle two blue and the bottom red, we had to write out names over and over on these lines, using the top red line for capitals and the bottom red line for 'tails'.

nicko wrote:One other Memory ,  I was 3/4  and wearing "irons" on my Legs,,[Calipers] ?   Standing with Dad on a Railway Platform.  Dad had Crutches , result of Polio when a Child.A Train went passed full of Soldiers, I think they were American,   There was a shower of packets of Chewing gum,   ment for Dad or me I don't know !

That sounds like a scene from one of my favourite films "Yanks".

How long did you wear calipers for Nicko?

Syl, can't remember when first had them, but I was wearing them when first starting School, about Five I think. I had them because of "knock Knee's". I had shoes with holes in the side of the Heels for the Irons to fit in, they came up over my Knee's I remember I used to fall over a lot. Mom used to take me to the Royal Orthapedic Hospital in Broad ST B,ham .

PS, wore them till about seven yrs old !

nicko wrote:Syl,   can't remember when first had them, but I was wearing them when first starting School, about Five I think.  I had them because of "knock Knee's".  I had shoes with holes in the side of the Heels for the Irons to fit in, they came up over my Knee's I remember I used to fall over a lot. Mom used to take me to the Royal Orthapedic Hospital in Broad ST B,ham .

I only ever knew one boy who wore calipers, he must have had different problems to you because he had them till he left school at 15, no idea if they helped his condition or not, but sadly he could never join in any sports at school.

It's good you saw the back of them when you were 7.....and I hope they completely cured your knock knees.

Being fired out of a cannon, with millions of siblings, to start a looking expedition.

I can remember sitting in my pram eating an ice cream and watching the ducks on Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. It was a very sunny day and I actually remember squinting in the sun because it reflected off the white pram sheet my mum had put on the mattress. I wore reins and kept looking over the side at the ducks. I remember very clearly the wide coping stones and the water. I was about 8 or 9 months old tops.

And I also remember being in my cot at about age 18 months and I'd done a big poo on my mattress. I remember standing there squishing it into the creases on the plastic mattress with my pointed big toe... I was fascinated by the consistency. Curiously, enough I don't recall the smell. Perhaps I blocked that bit out.

I have very very strong early memories. I can remember lots of things about being very young.

I have another. I was about three, and I got up into my mum's bedroom and discovered her cosmetics. My mum caught me and there was face powder and lipstick and mascara all over the shop. But when I turned round and faced my mum, she said she stood in the doorway frozen with shock. I'd applied the make up perfectly. She said there wasn't a bit of lippy not perfectly applied, including the eye shadow and mascara. She said I'd put it all on like an adult would.

HoratioTarr wrote:I have very very strong early memories.   I can remember lots of things about being very young.  

Not sure but I think the earliest memories are just smells. Grannie's lavender perfume, mum's baking, etc ….

Jules wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:I have very very strong early memories.   I can remember lots of things about being very young.  

Not sure but I think the earliest memories are just smells. Grannie's lavender perfume, mum's baking, etc ….

I don't recall any smells. I do recall music and lullabies. Golden slumbers being one my mum sang to me. I remember I had this kiddie record player and this song was supposed to be a princess singing and a prince. And each time the male voice cut in I'd shout...Oh not him again! It cracked my mum up. I was only about three. But to me, the male voice sounded discordant and I didn't like it.

We used to live in this old cottage many years ago. One night I kept saying to my mum who's the little boy by the fireplace. And it freaked my mum out because the house was heavily haunted. The activity got so bad, my mum had to go the doctors for sleeping pills and he told her to leave the house for her own sanity. Clearly, I could see what she couldn't.

I used to spend quite a lot of time in the wardrobes, we had old fashioned solid types, so there was plenty of room for me to sit and play out stories in my head. I had a great imagination there were rarely any children of my age in the village at the time so I had to amuse myself, maybe that's why I like my own company now.
Strange how children seem to be able to see other spirit or other dimensional children. I suppose some would say its imagination but I had a great imagination and spent a lot of time alone and I never saw or imagined another person to actually be there.

I remember my first day of school, and the oldest kid in the class, based on the date of my birthday. My teacher was a woman named Mrs Shepherd. Who on my first day treated me to the wooden ruler on the back of my hands for simple laughing. Through her opening stern speech to us all. Clearly she set out to make an example of me to the class. I had even been warned by my brothers about her. Yet I still did not take their heed, mainly as I was so hyperactive. I did not cry, but ran out of the class and out of the school, all the way home. To have my mum open the door furious at me, for basically running away. I then got a few wallops on the backside and was frog marched back to school.

I was then taken to the headmaster. Mr Walsh. A war veteran, who had a bullet wound in his neck. Who everyone called Mr Bean. (To this day I have no idea why). He then proceeded to also chastise me for laughing and cane me. My first introduction into school, simple hardened me to constantly rebel even more. Due to the fact, for the time, this was how this was the system for the time. That a 5 year old should be punished for simple laughing at an older woman acting stern to the class.. My parents and the school failed to realise that this was the day , that they helped steer the path of my rebellious nature.

In other words their discipline failed. They wanted to be respected, by never showing any respect to the children they taught. It was a Catholic infants school, that thought. Tough discipline was the key. It simple ended up making me getting constantly into fights and causing more trouble.

Everytime, I was suffering corporal punishment and more slaps on the backside at home from my parents. It simple hardened me to pain.

As a side note and one that is quite sad. Is how, when my little sister died. That my mum, said that every day. ( Ih ave no recollection of this) When I woke and saw her. I would tell her, I was not going away like my sister did and smile lovingly at her. To then hug her. (even though I nearly died at birth). I was 2 at the time.

Fair play to my mum and dad. When I was really sick as a kid, with asthma, they took it in turns and stayed by my bedside all night, when I struggled to breath. I always remember the baby panda cuddle toy, my dad got for me when 3, when sick and would never allow this to leave my side.

So they certainly cared for all of us. I understand, I was just raised at a time, when raising children was different. So do not hold any grudges. Hence why i do not hold grudges against anyone today.

Not my earliest memory, but one that still gives a lot of satisfaction. A few of us were bullied remorselessly, for no reason, by a very racist, Indian prefect. 5000 lines or the threat of a week's detention simply for not saying please or thank you  at lunchtimes. He especially picked on white kids.
The other Indians in the school also had problems as well with him, not  sure whether it was a caste thing, never got into that sort of thing.
I wondered whether he disliked me because a kid I hung out with was another Indian, Sidhu, who I foondly called Sid.
Got my revenge about 5 years later playing club rugby against him. We were in the scrum, it collapsed and I got a good hard stamp on his shin, and must have broken it quite badly, as it was an ambulance job, and his yells of pain were paypack.
He never played rugger again, I went on and had a decent football career.
Should I have had remorse?
Probably, but it served him right.

What an awful introduction to school, Didge, discipline was the order of the day, that seems over the top though.

Thor wrote:I remember my first day of school, and the oldest kid in the class, based on the date of my birthday. My teacher was a woman named Mrs Shepherd. Who on my first day treated me to the wooden ruler on the back of my hands for simple laughing. Through her opening stern speech to us all. Clearly she set out to make an example of me to the class. I had even been warned by my brothers about her. Yet I still did not take their heed, mainly as I was so hyperactive. I did not cry, but ran out of the class and out of the school, all the way home. To have my mum open the door furious at me, for basically running away. I then got a few wallops on the backside and was frog marched back to school.

I was then taken to the headmaster. Mr Walsh. A war veteran, who had a bullet wound in his neck. Who everyone called Mr Bean. (To this day I have no idea why). He then proceeded to also chastise me for laughing and cane me. My first introduction into school, simple hardened me to constantly rebel even more. Due to the fact, for the time, this was how this was the system for the time. That a 5 year old should be punished for simple laughing at an older woman acting stern to the class.. My parents and the school failed to realise that this was the day , that they helped steer the path of my rebellious nature.

In other words their discipline failed. They wanted to be respected, by never showing any respect to the children they taught. It was a Catholic infants school, that thought. Tough discipline was the key. It simple ended up making me getting constantly into fights and causing more trouble.

Everytime, I was suffering corporal punishment and more slaps on the backside at home from my parents. It simple hardened me to pain.

As a side note and one that is quite sad. Is how, when my little sister died. That my mum, said that every day. ( Ih ave no recollection of this) When I woke and saw her. I would tell her, I was not going away like my sister did and smile lovingly at her. To then hug her. (even though I nearly died at birth). I was 2 at the time.

Fair play to my mum and dad. When I was really sick as a kid, with asthma, they took it in turns and stayed by my bedside all night, when I struggled to breath. I always remember the baby panda cuddle toy, my dad got for me when 3, when sick and would never allow this to leave my side.

So they certainly cared for all of us. I understand, I was just raised at a time, when raising children was different. So do not hold any grudges. Hence why i do not hold grudges against anyone today.

Was this a religious or catholic school, Didge?
Some of the worst were run by nuns.

Andy wrote:

Thor wrote:I remember my first day of school, and the oldest kid in the class, based on the date of my birthday. My teacher was a woman named Mrs Shepherd. Who on my first day treated me to the wooden ruler on the back of my hands for simple laughing. Through her opening stern speech to us all. Clearly she set out to make an example of me to the class. I had even been warned by my brothers about her. Yet I still did not take their heed, mainly as I was so hyperactive. I did not cry, but ran out of the class and out of the school, all the way home. To have my mum open the door furious at me, for basically running away. I then got a few wallops on the backside and was frog marched back to school.

I was then taken to the headmaster. Mr Walsh. A war veteran, who had a bullet wound in his neck. Who everyone called Mr Bean. (To this day I have no idea why). He then proceeded to also chastise me for laughing and cane me. My first introduction into school, simple hardened me to constantly rebel even more. Due to the fact, for the time, this was how this was the system for the time. That a 5 year old should be punished for simple laughing at an older woman acting stern to the class.. My parents and the school failed to realise that this was the day , that they helped steer the path of my rebellious nature.

In other words their discipline failed. They wanted to be respected, by never showing any respect to the children they taught. It was a Catholic infants school, that thought. Tough discipline was the key. It simple ended up making me getting constantly into fights and causing more trouble.

Everytime, I was suffering corporal punishment and more slaps on the backside at home from my parents. It simple hardened me to pain.

As a side note and one that is quite sad. Is how, when my little sister died. That my mum, said that every day. ( Ih ave no recollection of this) When I woke and saw her. I would tell her, I was not going away like my sister did and smile lovingly at her. To then hug her. (even though I nearly died at birth). I was 2 at the time.

Fair play to my mum and dad. When I was really sick as a kid, with asthma, they took it in turns and stayed by my bedside all night, when I struggled to breath. I always remember the baby panda cuddle toy, my dad got for me when 3, when sick and would never allow this to leave my side.

So they certainly cared for all of us. I understand, I was just raised at a time, when raising children was different. So do not hold any grudges. Hence why i do not hold grudges against anyone today.

Was this a religious or catholic school, Didge?

Some of the worst were run by nuns.

It was a Catholic school, though not run by nuns. (My secondary school was run by De La Salle brothers)

It was St Anthony's Primary school Andy in Anerley.

I actually left there at 9, due to my mum sending my youngest sister to St Joseph's primary school in West Norward. Where she needed me to take her to school and back. It seems probable the instances I faced at school, may have had an effect on her. To enroll my sister. To a school, that the rest of us never attended.

Mind you this was closer to St Joseph's College secondary school, that I later atteneded

Who knows

MY sisters all went to Coloma secondary Catholic school in Shirley. Which at the time was run by nuns. Not sure if it still is.

Vintage wrote:What an awful introduction to school, Didge, discipline was the order of the day, that seems over the top though.

Indeed Vintage and had a huge effect on me at the time and then later. I was always rebellious after this.

I truely have no idea why I even laughed at the time, only that I did, when she gave her first stern talk. I certainly remember she was very cold with all of us and often using corporal punishment. To many of us, she took as being out of line. Its odd, but when I went to St Joseph's primary. As I just explained to Andy. I rarely got into trouble there. (Though later I did in secondary school.) The teachers were really nice. One in particular. Who is the dad of a friend of mine's. Who for a short time played goalkeeper for chelsea, until injury. He was really nice to me and encouraged me.

To be fair, I was at times a right wanker at school, espcially in secondary school. Where I certainly deserved punishement. Yet that first day, I simple was excited and could not stop laughing.

I also laugh at once incident when 7 I almost got away with at St Anthony's in. We got caught throwing sones at the building beyond the school wall and broke some windows to this building. There was 4 of us and we all got the cane and believe me when I say I could not sit down after lol. Our parents were never informed though via letter.

I waited days in anticipation of getting a hiding from my parents. It never came. I thought I had gotten away scott free. Then weeks later walking back from mass. With my mate and his mum, with my family. Normally they went to mass on late saturday and not Sunday. This day though was Easter Sunday mass. His mum brings up the incident with us all walking back together. ( I was like why on earth did you tell her, being naive on this)

They lived on the same road as us, and he was one of my best friends. I will never forget the look on my Mum and dad's face, when  she spoke this story.. I looked at my best face with a look of sheer horror and anger. I was dumb founded he told his mum, when he was the one that egged us on to be complete tits.. That last mile home, was the longest walk of my life lol. My parents faces and the fact they said I was in for a hiding said it all and its not like i could leg it when I had all my siblings around me. The wierdest part is when we got home, everyone share out their easter eggs and I was never punished. No idea why though. For the rest of the day I sat in sheer panic, as to when I would get a hiding and it never came. Maybe as it was Easter Sunday, my parents felt like forgiving me for once. Who knows, but will never forget that though.

My primary teachers were pretty harsh, the headmistress would have no problem canning you if she thought you were slacking, her reasons may have been ok she wanted you to do your best always so you could make something of yourself. The assistant teacher was a vile, nasty woman. I was a shy child and could clam up under pressure, one ,day we had a schools inspection, before hand we had been warned to be on our best, polite behaviour. The younger ones including me about six years old, were sitting around doing craft work, I had a table mat thing that I was embroidering a pattern on, the inspector was looking around the room and of course stopped by me and started to ask me questions, of course the enormity of the occasion overwhelmed me and I clammed up, totally unable to speak. The nasty teacher started to tell me off the inspector indicated to her to stop, said 'well done' to me and moved on. After he had gone the nasty teacher rounded on me and told me I'd spoiled everything, let down my school mates and teachers and had probably cost the school a good report, everyday she would mention it. For days I would come home from school and sit in my room worrying, even quieter than normal, my mother eventually got the reason out of me and hot footed it to school, she certainly sorted it out, the teacher never mentioned it again but I'll never forget it.

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Vintage wrote:My primary teachers were pretty harsh, the headmistress would have no problem canning you if she thought you were slacking, her reasons may have been ok she wanted you to do your best always so you could make something of yourself. The assistant teacher was a vile, nasty woman. I was a shy child and could clam up under pressure, one ,day we had a schools inspection, before hand we had been warned to be on our best, polite behaviour. The younger ones including me about six years old, were sitting around doing craft work, I had a table mat thing that I was embroidering a pattern on, the inspector was looking around the room and of course stopped by me and started to ask me questions, of course the enormity of the occasion overwhelmed me and I clammed up, totally unable to speak. The nasty teacher started to tell me off the inspector indicated to her to stop, said 'well done' to me and moved on. After he had gone the nasty teacher rounded on me and told me I'd spoiled everything, let down my school mates and teachers and had probably cost the school a good report, everyday she would mention it. For days I would come home from school and sit in my room worrying, even quieter than normal, my mother eventually got the reason out of me and hot footed it to school, she certainly sorted it out, the teacher never mentioned it again but I'll never forget it.

What a complete numpty your teacher was Vintage. How in one feel swoop, to someone who was already shy. She basically destroyed what little confidence you had at the time. People like that, to me, should not be allowed to teach. I am glad your mum took the teacher to task, as what she taught was not a life lesson. It was a lesson seen often in life, that seeks to find fault in people and ruin their self worth.

Glad you over came all that Vintage and you should be proud in the fact. This imbicille could never subdue the true spirited strong woman that you have become.

Stay Gold

Thanks Didge. So many people suffered at the hands of sadistic teachers who didn't seem to want to try and understand, thank goodness its different now, although perhaps it does strengthen your character.

Vintage wrote:Thanks Didge. So many people suffered at the hands of sadistic teachers who didn't seem to want to try and understand, thank goodness  its different now, although perhaps it does strengthen your character.

You are welcome Vintage. I think people do not sadly hear enough encouraging words and that people should never be shy to use them to encourage people.

Thank you also for sharing your stories. It really brings us that much more closer to knowing people on a forum this way.

So have a green for a wonderful thread