However this one is for me. Recently my father spent many months writing his past. Dad is 64 years old and reading his memories was a wonderful thing.
So here I am at 35 thinking I want the same for my kids. So yes, it's time to start writing.
I thought I'd initially jot down some ideas of my childhood / friends / first memories / school etc...
Here's the initials ideas.
First Memory - View Street, Belmont (Geelong, Victoria, Australia)
Growing Up
Christmas / Presents
Sibling Rivalry
The Cliff
Holidays
The 'Wool Shed'
Bike Riding, jumps / Stacks & Crashes
Learning the piano (or the lack of it)
Air Cadets
Mum nursing
Walking the dogs at the beach (Boundary Road)
Trips to the Great Ocean Road
Camping
Belmont Primary School
My first day at school
My brother and his dominant nature
Allison, somewhat evil sometimes
Writing on the wall
Bouncer the cat
Bouncer jumping on Dad’s shoulders
Dad coming home from work
Dad not really spending much time with me regarding school work
My love of books
Little Athletics --> Geelong Guild. Was a nice group of friends. 800 metres, final event in Little athletics and I came 4th. I think I almost gave my parents a heart attack. I was pretty happy yet truly pissed off that I was only one position away from a medal.
Little Athletics - The foam mats were a place of true bliss in the athletics shed, a great place to hide and have fun between the mats. We must have been kicked out of there 100 times.
Little Athletics – The pride that I had for my father that he was the ‘shot-put’ adjudicator.
Little Athletics – Watching the remote control planes that flew near the Barwon river.
Riding bikes – The trip up to Queens Park (near the golf course)
Walking pepe / Sally around Belmont Common.
Floods – The shear thrill of seeing how far the water would rise up the walk bridge
Hiding underneath the walk bridge at the southern end.
Climbing up underneath the main bridge crossing the Barwon river – How we got up there I’ll never know, I remember Mark pulling us up with one hand.
Cunningham Pier – Attempting to fish every now and then
Mark coming home with a pigeon – Fluffo.
Getting the phone call the Fluffo had been killed by Bouncer. Was very sad. I remember seeing what was left of Fluffo taking it to Mark’s room, leaving the ‘pieces’ of the bird on Mark’s little Green felt table and then thinking this might not be the best way to inform Mark that his pet bird had passed away.
House Extension – Getting told off by Dad for something I did. All I can remember that behind was a couple of electrical wires. Dad kept pointing his finger at me and pushing me backwards. I was petrified of the wires and that’s all I could think of. Dad didn’t know that wires were there, he stopped mid-sentence and looked at me and said, 'are you ok'? i burst into tears and said that i was about to die... Dad said he wasn't going to kill me, i said you're about to and showed him the wires.. he gave me a hug and said everything was going to be alright...
Mark Fishing – Mark coming home ‘drunk’ after stealing Dad’s cheapest bottle of ‘old’ red.
Tallangatta
Suzie / Snowball at the farm
Getting hit in the head by a rock thrown by my brother at the farm in tallangatta.
Asthma – Growing up with it.
Going to school in grade 2 and not really wanting to go that day. I planned to spend the day sitting on the side of the road, within hearing distance of the school so I knew what time recess was. I was all prepared to have my snack, lunch and afternoon recess sitting there. I decided to have a nap and an old man came along and asked if I was alright, being the 70’s he decided that he really should take me home. Home I went and feigned sickness to mum, who of course believed me.
Watching Richard Murphy try out his racing bike for the first time and witnessed the attempt to go ‘up’ a hill in 5th gear. He didn’t get very far.
Remote control plans – Dad purchased this little blue and yellow string line plane for me. Was a fantastic loud noisy thing. Dad and I went down to the Belmont common to try it out.
Flying with Richard Murphy’s Dad for the first time up to Daylesford. What an experience.
Shara Crothell ( back next door neighboor )
The booby-trap tree. Falling out of the booby trap tree.
Birthday Parties
A bad experience with the law when 12 years old. Wrong crowd, wrong place, wrong decision
Pinball Machines / The first video games, space-invaders
Sunday School
Collecting coke cans at the footy ( Kardina Park )
Singing / Mock drama sessions with Mum & Dad
Eastern Beach
England --> what at trip seven years old
My love of flying ( first flight was at Taree with Dad and Ally )
Friends in Highton ( can't remember the name right now)
Cubs / Scouts --> Mr. Foot and his son, Claude Eagles, me dressed in woman's clothing!
Lack of ability in Cricket / Footy
General Insecurities -- where did this come from?
Flared pants, what did my mother make me wear?
Wearing a tie at primary school
Mr. Richards, my best primary school teacher.
Jason Chitty (primary school friend, I wonder what's become of him)
School Performance - The saga of sausage creek
Byron Bay
Visiting the grandparents in Colac
Seeing my cousins in Sandrigham
My cousin flashing her bits to me when I was 9 years old
Pen friend - lives in San Jose (can't remember her name for the life of me)
General Mischief - writing on walls (my brother's name – it’s still there!)
Allison getting in trouble - was always fun
Mum getting pissed, it didn't happen very often, but when it did was quite humerous
The Easter Bunny
Christmas Day - the joys of waking up early 6am and waking your parents
The Little Professor ---> Oh the shame of my parents
My lack of general skills in mathematics, where did it come from?
The first bike
Sally - Scotch Collie (oh what a lovely dog)
Max - German Shepard, getting in trouble from Peter English
The English Family ( lives in Knox )
Travelling Geelong by Bus.. The joys of it, and getting in trouble
Windsurfing
My lack of being really good at something unlike my brother who was good at everything
Primary School 5/6th year teacher --->
Mrs. Kerger - Prep
Mrs. ??? - Grade 1
Mrs. Kucher - Grade 2
Mr. Richards - Grade 3
Mrs. Kerger - Grade 4
Mrs Walker - Grade 5
Mrs Walker - Grade 6
Learning the recorder - I still play today!
Getting beaten up by a pack of kids and my father ignored me. I still live with this today.
High School - One of the most miserable times of my life
Mum with her red heat lamp light. Very strange
Mum blowing smoke rings from the plastic cigarette wrapper
Verne Mathiewson
New Year's Eve parties @ the Mathiewson's
Seeing my first breast at the Mathiewson's and being rather suprised !!!
Holiday at Maroochydore
Going on the Catameran
Shooting my first gun on the farm
The Dairy Farm - The joys of sitting on dad's lap on the tractor
The Lords - The old farmstead, Graeme, Ernie
The death of 2 lords ---> drowning , heart-ache on the hume weir
Learning to play the trumpet ( and a general lack of skill )
My thoughts, a definite dreamer was I.
Was a talkative
Allison always going to the toilet before Dinner.
My grandfather saying, "The best thing about the truth is that you don't have to remember anything"
Mark becoming a policeman
Early girlfriends ---> The english girl who lived in Grovedale, but for some reason I was never allowed to enter her house. strange
Getting the ruler at school, definately not scarred from that, was a good thing
Boasting in grade 4, about the time i stayed up at night.
Being threatened by mrs. kerger who was going to put soap down my mouth
Knicking $10 from my parents at a very young age, what was a thinking!!!???
Landing on my nuts with a broken bike doing a jump at school
Lighting a fire with my brother underneath the road at the cliff.
Going into the cave (having my first smoke) at the cliff.
I can't remember my parent's ever giving me a curfew
Kicking the footy down the road
Playing cricket across the road
Getting hit in the head with the cricket ball by Mark down the road
Watching my mum / brother have their first golf game
Going around the gold course with mum
The Atari 2600 / The Spectum 48K / C64 / Amiga / etc…
My interest in computers, maybe a lack of social skills or maybe not? I've definitely changed...
The art of lying to your parents!
Bun-Bun, a teddy that is still with me today. Clare loves him.
Getting a kiss ( choo-choo train kiss ) from mum one night when I asked her if she ever kissed me at night
Star Wars ---> Great movie, the scarring over the next years though, was it worth it?
Darth Vader coming down the hall
Leaving the light on at night, i was scared of Darth..........
Allison getting the biggest room in the house
The house extension
Learning to play the trumpet
The rescuers – A horrible experience, will I ever forgive my mother?
Going to the Drive-ins
Chalk-Walks ---> my goodness, we got around everywhere around
My first day at high school
My absolute pure hatred of high school!
The violence within me
The pain, suffering & humiliation of high school.
My major lack of study during high school, per se
How many times did I write my assigment at 6am in the morning the thing was due!?
What did I do this?
Rod Fraser a guy that failed year 7 and dropped into our year
My worst enemies --> Robert Higgins, Darren Pickering
Trip to Ayers Rock
The Bus trip
Mark going to Geelong College, Allison and I didn't. Pa's choice this one...
Pepe the poodle
Love of science and what makes things tick
Motor-bikes
Hearing dad say the F*CK to my brother for the very first time!
Mark stacking the bike with me revving it keeping it going... Blood everywhere
Stepping on glass at the park opposite Kmart. Getting picked up by Joy's Fraser’s husband? Can’t remember his name
Having a serious bike accident at the corner of thompson and mt.pleasent!
The ambulance ride. Getting 20c from the ambulance driver
Little athletics - falling on the high jump bar and going to hospital
Losing 20c in the free ph. whilst at hospital with mum
Having an ‘operation' at 6 years old. Mr. Walker was the surgeon
Eating a sweet before the operation - a banana
A 12 year old girl telling me she was having an operation on her vagina. how strange!
Cancer scare at 16 years old
Fatigue Syndrome - Did I have it? Was it psychosematic?
My life was in turmoil at this point of time
I question now my general unhappiness at this time. What caused it?
My father howling for me when he was in England
Crying for Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Oh how sad....
The potential of suicide at a young age
Brusselsprouts - I was forced to eat them!
Licking out of the glass - my daughter now does it! arrrghh!
Going to Tony's with the bottles and getting 20c's worth of sweets
$1 pocket money for the week
18c for a packet of samboy crisps
Going to somer's camp and having the time of my life! wow! talk about acceptance
Getting high on an asthma preventer at 11 years old. very, very strange.
Shitting in the bath whilst Allison was on the toilet. I still laugh about this one today.
Almost setting the house on fire with some rice. I was studying for a ‘change’!
Setting the table on fire out the back on my parent's house
Thinking I was going to die, inhaling fly spray that I'd lit with a match
Playing with the fork-light, fire extinguisher’s at the wool shed
Pip English 'forcing' me to shop-lift and then dobbing me into to his dad, who told mine.
Truth or Dare
Lyndon (good primary school friend)
Missing spelling the word ‘star’ in Grade 2??? I was so confident that I’d get right!
Singing and going to concert, the teacher kicking people off if he didn't like what he heard.
The Library, running with my lunch to the door of the library and waiting 30 minutes for the door to open.
Mrs. Doucet? Library school teacher
Playing chinese wispers in Art class.
Building my first stool at art class, I still think it exists today
Allison getting Dad's camera, I never understood why he gave it to her...
Junior teacher that I thought was pretty nice, was in trouble with another guy, sitting in the corridor and said hello and said, ‘You’re in trouble. I don’t want to talk to you right now’. I stuck my finger up at her and was promptly informed by co-conspirator that it was indeed the middle finger that I stick up and someone and not my index finger.
Tannibryn – School farm – Having the confidence to sing a Cliff Richards song out loud to everyone and getting laughed at.
Tannibryn – Riding horses.
The Botanic garden's in Colac. Mark swinging us on the happy face swing. Now that was fun, Mark was a great brother on this occasion. what a legend!
Falling out of the booby-trap tree
The joys of a cubby house that Dad build at the back on the house.
Jumping from the garage roof to Dad’s shed.
Getting up on the garage and watching the Geelong show fireworks
Trampoline – got my years of good fun out of that
Mark’s ‘caravan’
My general lack of ability to surf, I tried but it just never really happened.
General encouragement
Was my father around enough? I think not in reflection
Being ignored by Dad after the run in with the law!
What does CIB mean Dad I ask at 11 years old. When I heard the answer I burst into tears
It was the only time my father ever picked me up from primary school
Getting a mint from the nice man around the corner on the way to school
The innocence of growing up in the 70's
What respect did I hold for other's at this time, particularly adults?
Was I a rude child? Did i talk back? Was I helpful?
Did I keep my room clean? (probably not) How did I go sharing with Allison?
Allison and her trying to get us into trouble...
Locking Mark out of the house, thinking he was going to kill us. Gee ally and I must have done something that really pissed Mark off, for the life of me I can't remember it! All I do remember is calling Helen Taylor to help!
Self confidence.
Why did I not succeed at primary / high school? Self Doubts, influence from others, etc...
Would I necessarily go out of my way to hurt others?
I was always proud of Dad.. That has not changed.
Mum had a very, very clean house
Getting the 'same' meal day, after day, after day... I know it's not true but it felt like it.
Dad learning to cook Asian Food. Wow!
Lyndon Stevonson – old primary school friend.
Waiting for Lyndon’s mum to put lines into my book. Gee that was never going to happen
Sally and the swing set. One of the few times she actually bit people.
Early Photos of me. White blonde hair, now it’s brown
Sunday school – Going to the fish and chip shop for a game on space invaders
Sunday school – Getting scared of making noise with a balloon thinking that God wouldn’t like it. The teacher came up and let me know that it really was ok with God.
Seeing Allison play netball, I was so proud of her. In fact, I’ve always proud of my brother and sister in regards to their sporting achievements.
Mark losing (after going for a straight 5th gold) in the little athletics walk, I was so sad for him.
Watching mark get the high jump record when he was in year 10. I was so proud of him.
Horse riding in general.
Sally / Lisa who lived next door
Pam / ??? who lived across the road
Getting spectrum 48K games from a guy in the city who drove a bettle, Why he had anything to do with a 11 year old I just don't understand
Getting inside the roof at Belmont
Playing hide and seek around the house
The dog pen - where Sally lived
Dad putting the bricks in out the back
The birch tree at the front
Earning $20 for cleaning all the windows for mum. Was hard work!
Playing ode to joy to my grandfather who lived in England
Ringing up 3GL ( old AM geelong radio station ) because I knew the answer to a quiz question......... The Firth and Forth
Pepe sitting on the air vent.
Us kids trying to call pepe away from mum. as if that was going to happen
Gemma the dog, general dominance issues
Bill Mooney, Amiga 500 --> great bloke
Travelling with a $1 into the city to play 5 games at Odyseeys
Allison joining air cadets. Why did she do it? She never really liked planes... must find out!
Swimming at Kardina pool.
The time we spent at the pool in the 70's.
Leaving your money under your towel
Getting whiz-fiz packets at the pool
Cleaning up all the rubbish for a few free tickets of entry to the pool
Never doing a bomb at the pool in front of the pool guard
Finding money at the bottom of the pool.
Why did everyone looked so old?
Doing swimming lessons at Neil Tresize swimming centre
Riding to Brad's place. Why did my friends live so far away?
The walk bridge - I never did jump off it.
Having a wine bag full of water and 'pissing' the water onto the car below. And then getting chased!
Getting a potato cake for 10c, and then one day told to piss off bec/ it wasn't enough
Doing the book-worm thing, getting sponsored.
The mean-old man on the corner that didn't pay up after been sponsored.
The flowers that i used to ruin because of this
The paper-round, inheriting the title from mark
Getting all the video tickets from the Geelong News that day
Hiring a R rated video when 16 years old
Watching bachelor-pad, and not understanding someone was cross-dressing.
The argument we had with Dad re: Video Recorder (beta)
Mum buying the C64 for us, gee we pressured her
Pressuring mum to buy Atari games.
Did mum think buying us gifts won us over? Maybe, maybe not.
Mum was always soft.
Being that 'little to old' when on holidays, when mum and I had a shower together, i didn't feel comfortable at all.
De-shelling prawns for more than 1 hour at the marchooydore holiday
Getting told off by Pip's dead when going on a fishing trip at Byron Bay
Dino-Land North New South Wales. Wow, the memories are still there!
The stop over in Parkes, I loved parkes, for some reason
Taping Dad on the shoulder saying. "Are we there yet!???" Gee he hated it
Waking Dad at night when mum was on nightshift. Can i sleep in the bed with you. He always hated that as well and said, "How many times have I told you... you don't have to ask". Just get in and go to sleep!"
Washing the dishes at the old house
Reading the sign at bordtown "Get Lost!!!" @ Easter being very shocked and surprised
Counting the oncoming cars when going to colac. One of my parent’s best moves of keeping us kids busy
Having a game of who could see Colac first!
Ally and I finding a slab of passiona Vodka. I had one sip & hated it!
Roller skating. Man the 80’s were good
Going down High street over the bumps in the road, is still fun today
Begging Dad to turn left for years, not realizing it was a one-way street
My hatred for the little ‘yellow’ comprehension books in grade 4/5/6
Hiding in the boot of the car whilst going to the tip. Dad was NOT impressed
Getting in the back of the trailer whilst dad reversed was always a highlight of any weekend
More to come.............
Just Be...
I was lost and I’m still lost, but I feel so much better!
You can travel the world but you can’t runaway from the person that you are in your heart.
You can be who you want to be, make us believe in you, keep all your light in the dark.
If you’re searching for truth, you must look in the mirror and make sense of what you can see.
Just be. Just be.
They say learning to love yourself is the first step that you take when you want to be real.
Flying on planes to exotic locations won’t teach you how you really feel.
Face up to the fact that you are who you are, and nothing can change that belief.
Just be. Just be.
Cause now I know, its not so far, to where I go, that all is fun, it’s inside of me.
I need to just be. To Just be.
I was lost and I’m still lost but I feel so much better.
Cause now I know, its not so far, to where I go, that all is fun, it’s inside of me.
