I’ve put together some pages on different parts of my life – they can be read in any order.
From birth to aged 5
I was born in 1953, when things were somewhat different – this is the world I was born into. And then I started growing up.
Starting school – aged 5 and 6
There were a lot of changes in ageing between being 5 and 7, in particular starting at Cyprus Terrace Infant School, learning to read and write and do (quite tricky) ‘sums’.
At home, changes included getting my own transport and going off on my own, the celebrated arrival of a television and obsessively watching cowboy series, the family buying a van and going to the seaside and on camping holidays, and Brian’s rabbit dying. All recorded in my school diary, illustrated with terrible artwork.
Primary school – aged 7 to 10
It was a big change to join the Victorian-era Bluecoat School, especially with the dreaded Miss Parish in Class 1. Things got easier in Classes 2 to 3 when, in between eating school dinners, trying to avoid the ‘smacker’ and being useless at games, the work went well and I had good friends. Then in Class 4 the 11-plus exam decided our futures.
At home, ….