Hi Carole and Everyone Carole, you are obviously the same age as I am. My earliest memories, though, don't go back that far, to my knowledge, but I do have some of those "black and white" memories of around my third birthday, when we went to Scotland to visit my father who, having been called up for the war, was doing a course to qualify for the Army Royal Signals. I also have photos, which are great and most likely the last ones of my father and me together. Unfortunately he was killed in action in 1945 and I have a much clearer memory of that day, when my mother received the letter informing her. I was brought home from nursery school (I was 4 1/2 years old then) by our neighbour, who simply said she had come because my mother "isn't very well". I skipped and ran around happily on the way home but when I got into our house there was Mum in tears and Grandpa (I think) trying to keep out of the way. We knew he had "stepped on a mine" nine days earlier and "lost a leg" - I now know it was amputated - but he died from the shock. I think those very early memories stay with us when something unusual happened. We have a friend here who lived in Liverpool and she was only 18 month old when their house was nearly bombed. It was the only one on the terrace remaining standing and they had to move out as it was unstable. Her father was away at the war and she remembers her mother moving all their furniture on a hand cart to the house they moved to. We have "The Story of English" on tape among our vast library of things recorded from the TV. It's really interesting, isn't it. Harvey, I remember one of those black ice mornings. Having fallen over myself a couple of times on Cardinals Walk on the way to the bus - best place to walk was the join between the kerb and the pavement tarmac but still VERY slippery! - while waiting for the (Midland Red) bus on Scraptoft Lane a few of us saw a bus sliding sideways on a hill. There is a steep bit just after Wrigley Road and the bus was coming from town when it started to slide backwards down the hill. The, obviously very skilled, driver managed to turn and go into a side road there where it was all right. Reckon it was days like that that sent us here to Oz, don't you?! I remember the 1947 winter and Mum putting out bread for the birds in our back garden, then still backed by fields. There were lots of different species and I had my bird book and really enjoyed identifying them. Once it eased off a bit I remember going on the lawn in my wellies, making ugly footprints in that pristine white which had been there so long! We walked to school through all that, didn't we, not like today when the country is virtually paralysed by a big snowstorm. I also had "aunties and uncles" who weren't related, mostly neighbours and family friends. That was how things were done then. The bus numbers were remembered so easily as we were children and used the buses all the time, firstly with a parent and then on our own. I also used the buses a bit in later years in Sydney and remember the numbers of some of those too. We also used to go to the Bell Saturday night dancing and occasionally to the Palais on Friday nights. Jan in Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 9:54 AM Subject: [LEI] Fwd: Memories - > > > > > ____________________________________ > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Sent: 2/20/2012 3:50:14 P.M. Mountain Standard Time > Subj: Memories - > > > We, my husband & I have an excellent set of videos, probably now > available > on DVD, The Award Winning PBS Series on the History of the English > Language "The Story of English". Those interested in dialects may find it > interesting. > Incidentally, my earliest memory is as a two year old. It was the day > after Hitler bombed Nottingham - 1942. We lived in a Terrace house on > Lowdham > Street, Nottingham. The bottom half of the street was totally obliterated. > My > memory is of my mother giving me a kettle to hold so that we could queue > for water. I was puzzled, why was everyone around me crying, everyone is > so > bad tempered and sad, who were the big men in coats (must have been > fireman), where did the big pipes come from (must have been hoses - my > mother had > to lift me or better still drag me over them). So much water, my feet are > wet. I look down, water is lapping over my shoes and I'm cold. Where was > all the smoke coming from, what was that smell. And strangely enough, I > can > still close my eyes and see it all and yet it is all in "black & white" > like in the movie Schlider's List! > > Carole Bell (Wakefield) > Colorado. USA > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2113/4822 - Release Date: 02/20/12 >