The Great NewsFix Love-In

Just to spread some happy/deep vibes, I'd like to propose that we all jump into this thread and say two things -- something you like about another member here, someone you might not talk about all that much, and then tell a story from your childhood -- it can be happy, sad, funny, whatever, but just make it *something*.

I of course will start us off:

I really like how Vic has acquired so many skills. I have met him once, and both in real life and on the forum, he strikes me as someone who is very self-sufficient, which I admire. He can do everything from woodworking to seriously high-tech stuff with his vintage Range Rover that went way over my head. I'd like to be more like that.

Okay, a real story from my childhood ...

My parents did their best, but looking back, they definitely put responsibilities on my shoulders that were a bit too much for my age.

When I was about seven or eight, I was responsible for looking after my brother, who's three years younger than me. Long story short, I was fascinated with the bottle of wine that my mom kept in the fridge, and one day, I basically got me and my brother drunk. I was even clever enough to replace what we drank (only a very small amount, really) with water, and as far as I know, my mother never knew 

By the way, feel free to answer multiple times, focusing on a different member and a different story about yourself each time!

What a lovely thread Ben

So many great qualities many posters have, but I think many would agree that at least one stands out as never getting angry at people. That being Cass. Plus the fact she is one smart and well read lady who loves history like me

I also love the humour of Gelico, Syl and Eddie

Victor and Lord Ed for their wisdom and intelligence, but the reality is all the posters here are like a family, that we have come to adopt through many years of banter and arguments

Thorin wrote:What a lovely thread Ben

So many great qualities many posters have, but I think many would agree that at least one stands out as never getting angry at people. That being Cass. Plus the fact she is one smart and well read lady who loves history like me

I also love the humour of Gelico, Syl and Eddie

Victor and Lord Ed for their wisdom and intelligence, but the reality is all the posters here are like a family, that we have come to adopt through many years of banter and arguments

Thanks very much -- but you neglected to share a story from your boyhood  

Let's have it!

Torn between at least five posters I would like to mention.

Gelico.
She posts from the heart. Her stories about her dad are just so honest and real, I can feel the love, and the angst she goes through, and all with humour.
She reminds me of the best friend everyone would hope to have.

Story from my childhood.

I was actually 15, just left school and working full time. I tipped the majority of my wages up to my mum, but couldn't wait to save enough to buy a few clothes suitable for a working girl not a schoolgirl.

I yearned for a leather coat, and after finishing my first weeks work, my mum told me to go upstairs, there was a surprise for me. Half way up the stairs I could smell leather....there laid out on my bed was  a gorgeous black leather jacket.
She had bought it on hp, (we were very poor) I can still see her face when I came down wearing it....and it fit like a glove.
It was the most precious coat I have ever owned.

Oh, Syl. What a beautiful story, that made my eyes well up. Thank you.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Thorin wrote:What a lovely thread Ben

So many great qualities many posters have, but I think many would agree that at least one stands out as never getting angry at people. That being Cass. Plus the fact she is one smart and well read lady who loves history like me

I also love the humour of Gelico, Syl and Eddie

Victor and Lord Ed for their wisdom and intelligence, but the reality is all the posters here are like a family, that we have come to adopt through many years of banter and arguments

Thanks very much -- but you neglected to share a story from your boyhood  

Let's have it!

Too many stories from my childhood but one I recently owned up to my brother Martin a couple of years ago.

My bother Peter was telling stories from our childhood and brought up about how he was pissed at the fact my brother Martin broke his stereo system,, which was very expensive for the time. Thing is I went bright red and started to laugh. Admitting to them it was me that had done this by accident. I was never blamed by my parents at the time because I was also poorly at the time with asthma. They never consider it had been me . As I had been mainly in bed recovering, and my poor bro got a right hiding for this.

Thank goodness he saw the funny side of this. I was only 6 at the time and Martin was 9.  

Ben Reilly wrote:Oh, Syl. What a beautiful story, that made my eyes well up. Thank you.

Thank you Ben, and this is a lovely heartwarming thread.x

Hahahahahaha, great story, Thorin. Always nice to be able to get away with something for years, then own up to it when nobody will get angry 

Ben Reilly wrote:Hahahahahaha, great story, Thorin. Always nice to be able to get away with something for years, then own up to it when nobody will get angry 

Everybody please take a cue from Didge and mention as many people as you'd like. I just had that thought about Vic so I shared it in my first post, but I'll be bringing up other members as we go along.

everyone on here has good qualities that i like so would be hard to chose.  thanks to syl and didge for your comments.  i agree with didge that this place is like a big ol' family.  certainly dysfunctional at times but family nonetheless

as said before my eldest brother is a doctor but as a kid i remember him doing all sorts of home experiments with his chemistry sets and all and producing the weirdest smells.

one time i was up in the back bedroom (double which my two brothers shared).  our family dog was sleeping peacefully on one of the beds.  my brothers came up and the eldest as per usual had some concoction that he'd made up.   he decided to waft it under the dogs nose and that dog simply ''flew'' from one side of the room to the other, in one move, scuttled under the other bed and stayed there barking.

it took all three of us ages to coax the poor thing out again





it's weird the little things that remain in our memories

Ben Reilly wrote:Everybody please take a cue from Didge and mention as many people as you'd like. I just had that thought about Vic so I shared it in my first post, but I'll be bringing up other members as we go along.

Yeah, it’s nice to mention as many posters as possible.
I’ll add mine, later.

gelico wrote:everyone on here has good qualities that i like so would be hard to chose.  thanks to syl and didge for your comments.  i agree with didge that this place is like a big ol' family.  certainly dysfunctional at times but family nonetheless

as said before my eldest brother is a doctor but as a kid i remember him doing all sorts of home experiments with his chemistry sets and all and producing the weirdest smells.

one time i was up in the back bedroom (double which my two brothers shared).  our family dog was sleeping peacefully on one of the beds.  my brothers came up and the eldest as per usual had some concoction that he'd made up.   he decided to waft it under the dogs nose and that dog simply ''flew'' from one side of the room to the other, in one move, scuttled under the other bed and stayed there barking.

it took all three of us ages to coax the poor thing out again





it's weird the little things that remain in our memories

Fucking hell! 

Now, single out somebody and say something nice and real. Come on, it'll feel good. And you can always come back and mention others.

Ben Reilly wrote:

gelico wrote:everyone on here has good qualities that i like so would be hard to chose.  thanks to syl and didge for your comments.  i agree with didge that this place is like a big ol' family.  certainly dysfunctional at times but family nonetheless

as said before my eldest brother is a doctor but as a kid i remember him doing all sorts of home experiments with his chemistry sets and all and producing the weirdest smells.

one time i was up in the back bedroom (double which my two brothers shared).  our family dog was sleeping peacefully on one of the beds.  my brothers came up and the eldest as per usual had some concoction that he'd made up.   he decided to waft it under the dogs nose and that dog simply ''flew'' from one side of the room to the other, in one move, scuttled under the other bed and stayed there barking.

it took all three of us ages to coax the poor thing out again





it's weird the little things that remain in our memories

Fucking hell! 

Now, single out somebody and say something nice and real. Come on, it'll feel good. And you can always come back and mention others.

i waa just thinking about this ben and suddenly realised something that is actually a bit of a bummer

out of all the women on here i think i'm the only one that's given way to temper tantrums and thrown strops about

all the others seem to manage without doing that

so to jules, eddie, vintage, syl, cass, fluffy and anyone else i missed,,,,,hats off to you all for managing to be so fucking nice all the time

i honestly don't know how you do it

gelico wrote:everyone on here has good qualities that i like so would be hard to chose.  thanks to syl and didge for your comments.  i agree with didge that this place is like a big ol' family.  certainly dysfunctional at times but family nonetheless

as said before my eldest brother is a doctor but as a kid i remember him doing all sorts of home experiments with his chemistry sets and all and producing the weirdest smells.

one time i was up in the back bedroom (double which my two brothers shared).  our family dog was sleeping peacefully on one of the beds.  my brothers came up and the eldest as per usual had some concoction that he'd made up.   he decided to waft it under the dogs nose and that dog simply ''flew'' from one side of the room to the other, in one move, scuttled under the other bed and stayed there barking.

it took all three of us ages to coax the poor thing out again





it's weird the little things that remain in our memories

So true how its the silliest/funniest/saddest of things that happen in life that stick in our memories Gelico

I think I was 7 at the time and along with my friend Paul (he lived 4 doors down from me and we were inseparable at the time). We both got into severe trouble at school. For the life of me I cannot remember what we did and we both got a canning for this. Thing is I managed to keep this from my parents. Who I knew would give me a second hiding for this. Both Paul and I agreed not to tell our parents. Yet a few weeks down the line. On the way home from Easter morning mass. Walking back with Paul and his mum Kay. She relates the story to my parents of what happened at school. The bugger had told his mum and dropped me right in the shit



I remember the look on my mums face, as she looked at me whilst Kay told the story to her and said boys will be boys. It was a look of "you are going to get a hiding when home". That walk home felt like the longest walk of my life and wished we would never get home.

The thing is when we got home and the fact Paul and his mum had been invited round for Sunday dinner. That hiding never happened, nor even the next day. I think my mum was having one of those Christian forgiving moments luckily

also, there was a time when i thought didge was being really out of order with some of his replies

for some time now though (was it a new year resolution) i have to say didge has completely changed and gone back to how i remember him years ago, so much more relaxed and laid back and humorous and generally more fun

good to have you back to how you used to be didge

xxx

gelico wrote:
also, there was a time when i thought didge was being really out of order with some of his replies

for some time now though (was it a new year resolution) i have to say didge has completely changed and gone back to how i remember him years ago, so much more relaxed and laid back and humorous and generally more fun

good to have you back to how you used to be didge

xxx

Humbled....

xx

Didge reminds me of myself sometimes, in a way that I think is both frustrating and ultimately good-natured.

He, like I, will bite down on a stance and not let go, and it's good to stand up for what you believe in but we can then take it too far and get a bit hard-headed -- and end up saying nasty things.

At least at long, long last, we'll look at ourselves and see what others are seeing, and feel bad and apologize. And I think we're both pretty good at apologizing, because it's about acknowledging what you did was wrong and regretting it, not just about saying you're sorry if someone got upset by what you did.

So kudos to you Didge, I understand myself better from seeing how you handle yourself.

***

When I was around 9 years old and my brother was 6, our dad showed up from work one day and had a big surprise for us. He'd bought me a Dallas Cowboys Roger Staubach jersey in the Cowboys' home colors, and a Tony Dorsett jersey from my brother in the team's away colors, along with a football (an American-style pointy one, obviously). We were over the fucking moon and spent most of the summer vacation (which in America lasts about 3 months) outside, in those shirts, playing with that ball. We even invented a game where we batted the ball around on the ground with sticks 

When we weren't doing that, we'd ride all over our small town on our bicycles; there weren't many parts of the town we didn't know. We had all day and very little supervision; we decided what we were going to do next on our own, and I think we both became independent and creative from going through that.

I like you all, in spite of any different opinions we have on issues. You are all lovely people and sometimes very intriguing but never dull that’s for sure! I would love to cook a meal for each one of you!

But I’ll mention Les in particular. Forums have allowed us to become friends in real life even though we’ve never had the joy of meeting in person and I hope that soon we can. We are very similar in outlooks, tastes, our love of Paris and I beat him most of the time in quizzes. But each and everyone of you has touched my life in a good way. Can’t say that about a lot of people.


So my childhood. When I was 3 we had moved to a new suburb of Houston called Dairy Ashford. I loved my big pink flowers on my bedroom wallpaper and curtains. I also loved Sesame Street. Except the Count. Because my curtains were thin, and this was a newish suburb, the trees were spindly little things. There was a streetlight right outside our neighbors house and it cast a shadow on my wall. The small, fluttering leaves looked EXACTLY LIKE THE DAMN BATS that the count always had fluttering around him. And I had a fear of butterflies and moths (still do). I would lie paralyzed in bed every night, hardly breathing. Because if I did move, those bats were going to get me. So every time he came on TV I would rush out of the room screaming. Eventually my mother made liners for the curtains. But that never stopped me hating him. Even to this day if I see him or hear him I want to throw up. Mr. C and the juniors thought it would be HILARIOUS one year to get me a count card filled with some springing butterflies that flew out when you opened the card. I took myself off to a hotel that night and didn’t speak to them for at least a week.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now I have to trigger you. Sorry.

I knew someone would do this to me. So I waited until after I had my pizza and prepared myself. I’m NOT turning on the volume.

YOU CAD!!!

Cass wrote:I knew someone would do this to me. So I waited until after I had my pizza and prepared myself. I’m NOT turning on the volume.

YOU CAD!!!

Ben Reilly wrote:Didge reminds me of myself sometimes, in a way that I think is both frustrating and ultimately good-natured.

He, like I, will bite down on a stance and not let go, and it's good to stand up for what you believe in but we can then take it too far and get a bit hard-headed -- and end up saying nasty things.

At least at long, long last, we'll look at ourselves and see what others are seeing, and feel bad and apologize. And I think we're both pretty good at apologizing, because it's about acknowledging what you did was wrong and regretting it, not just about saying you're sorry if someone got upset by what you did.

So kudos to you Didge, I understand myself better from seeing how you handle yourself.

***

When I was around 9 years old and my brother was 6, our dad showed up from work one day and had a big surprise for us. He'd bought me a Dallas Cowboys Roger Staubach jersey in the Cowboys' home colors, and a Tony Dorsett jersey from my brother in the team's away colors, along with a football (an American-style pointy one, obviously). We were over the fucking moon and spent most of the summer vacation (which in America lasts about 3 months) outside, in those shirts, playing with that ball. We even invented a game where we batted the ball around on the ground with sticks 

When we weren't doing that, we'd ride all over our small town on our bicycles; there weren't many parts of the town we didn't know. We had all day and very little supervision; we decided what we were going to do next on our own, and I think we both became independent and creative from going through that.

Humbled again

+1

gelico wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

Fucking hell! 

Now, single out somebody and say something nice and real. Come on, it'll feel good. And you can always come back and mention others.

i waa just thinking about this ben and suddenly realised something that is actually a bit of a bummer

out of all the women on here i think i'm the only one that's given way to temper tantrums and thrown strops about

all the others seem to manage without doing that

so to jules, eddie, vintage, syl, cass, fluffy and anyone else i missed,,,,,hats off to you all for managing to be so fucking nice all the time

i honestly don't know how you do it

All the posts in this thread are great, it's a change on any forum to see a thread where people are talking about others in a nice way, and the stories from childhood are funny and touching.

Gelico, you are definitely not the only female here to strop. My last strop lasted for months.

A great thread to resurrect from the past.

We need more 'feel good' threads like this. x

Cass wrote:I like you all, in spite of any different opinions we have on issues. You are all lovely people and sometimes very intriguing but never dull that’s for sure! I would love to cook a meal for each one of you!

But I’ll mention Les in particular. Forums have allowed us to become friends in real life even though we’ve never had the joy of meeting in person and I hope that soon we can. We are very similar in outlooks, tastes, our love of Paris and I beat him most of the time in quizzes.    But each and everyone of you has touched my life in a good way.  Can’t say that about a lot of people.


So my childhood. When I was 3 we had moved to a new suburb of Houston called Dairy Ashford. I loved my big pink flowers on my bedroom wallpaper and curtains. I also loved Sesame Street. Except the Count. Because my curtains were thin, and this was a newish suburb, the trees were spindly little things. There was a streetlight right outside our neighbors house and it cast a shadow on my wall. The small, fluttering leaves looked EXACTLY LIKE THE DAMN BATS that the count always had fluttering around him. And I had a fear of butterflies and moths (still do). I would lie paralyzed in bed every night, hardly breathing. Because if I did move, those bats were going to get me. So every time he came on TV I would rush out of the room screaming. Eventually my mother made liners for the curtains. But that never stopped me hating him. Even to this day if I see him or hear him I want to throw up. Mr. C and the juniors thought it would be HILARIOUS one year to get me a count card filled with some springing butterflies that flew out when you opened the card. I took myself off to a hotel that night and didn’t speak to them for at least a week.

Must have missed this first time!

Thanks Cass, love you too! Can’t wait for us to be able to meet when day too

Eilzel wrote:

Cass wrote:I like you all, in spite of any different opinions we have on issues. You are all lovely people and sometimes very intriguing but never dull that’s for sure! I would love to cook a meal for each one of you!

But I’ll mention Les in particular. Forums have allowed us to become friends in real life even though we’ve never had the joy of meeting in person and I hope that soon we can. We are very similar in outlooks, tastes, our love of Paris and I beat him most of the time in quizzes.    But each and everyone of you has touched my life in a good way.  Can’t say that about a lot of people.


So my childhood. When I was 3 we had moved to a new suburb of Houston called Dairy Ashford. I loved my big pink flowers on my bedroom wallpaper and curtains. I also loved Sesame Street. Except the Count. Because my curtains were thin, and this was a newish suburb, the trees were spindly little things. There was a streetlight right outside our neighbors house and it cast a shadow on my wall. The small, fluttering leaves looked EXACTLY LIKE THE DAMN BATS that the count always had fluttering around him. And I had a fear of butterflies and moths (still do). I would lie paralyzed in bed every night, hardly breathing. Because if I did move, those bats were going to get me. So every time he came on TV I would rush out of the room screaming. Eventually my mother made liners for the curtains. But that never stopped me hating him. Even to this day if I see him or hear him I want to throw up. Mr. C and the juniors thought it would be HILARIOUS one year to get me a count card filled with some springing butterflies that flew out when you opened the card. I took myself off to a hotel that night and didn’t speak to them for at least a week.

Must have missed this first time!

Thanks Cass, love you too! Can’t wait for us to be able to meet when day too

I had forgotten about this too! X

This is a nice thread! Ben’s first comment about Vic was great.

Okay, so, this is an easy one for me but I'm doing it anyway.

Eddie is a real piece of work. Never have I known anyone who can be so sure of herself, yet immediately back down if someone shows her something she's gotten wrong. She is the definition of confidence without ego.

She's the type of gal who can look intoxicatingly glamorous, and know it, and look you in the eye and give you tingles, and then burp as loudly as a drunken builder, just to take the piss out of herself. She's one of the funniest people I've ever known, and for a person who doesn't put a lot of stock in book learning, one of the smartest as well. You should all be well jealous.

****

When I was four years old I already knew words like "paleontologist" (what I wanted to be when I grew up) and "predicament" (what I was in when my granddad trapped me when we were wrestling). What the fuck? Don't know if I was a childhood genius or I just did some perusing through the P section of the dictionary one day.