Childhood Memories - The earliest
We lived in Bury St. Edmunds until I was 7 years old. I cant remember a lot from there but one thing sticks out which I have remembered all my life :
When I was a kid there was a cartoon version of Tarzan. This was followed by a female version of Tarzan, called Shira. She had a massive white tiger with black stripes as her 'cheata' companion. I used to have an ear infection that lasted 10+ years and made me partially deaf and gave me chronic nightmares when I was younger. This night I was dreaming that I was Shira running through the jungle and my so called companion was chasing me down. The camera, (my mind's view), pans in on a small tree stump sticking out of the ground and then pans out again to Shira, (me), running through the trees and tripping over said tree stump. I stumble to the ground and turn over to see the tiger leap for me with jaws open and I wake up. (It's worth noting that this is the only dream I remember from before I was about 15).
In my room there is a white chest of drawers underneath the window and it's a full moon because the moonlight is shining in through the window as if you were shining a torch through a dolls house window. Bright and blue beam, leaving everything else in half shadow. The door to the hallway was opposite the window and then the wall sank in, (my white wardrobe in this niche). On the wall I had postcards of animals, mostly PG Tips monkey kind for those of you old enough to remember.
So I wake to this scene after the nightmare and look around the room. When I get to the wall by the door there is a silhouette of a woman with long smooth hair. She is thin and I can tell she is wearing a kilt because the edge of her skirt is frayed and then dips slightly to carry on around her. I think it's my mum coz she don't look that different to her if only slightly younger. She's studying my postcards, her head leaning from side to side as she reads the captions on them. "Mum?" I whisper tentatively. "Mum?" I say marginally louder. The woman turns to me and although I can't see her face I just get that she's curious, really, really curious. She gets halfway to me and I can almost see her face when she disappears completely. This is part where I scream for my Mummy!!
Mum comes running in the room and holds me and rocks me back to sleep. I never quite knew what I saw. Was it a kids overactive imagination after a nightmare, was it some spectral visitor - although I like to think they have better things to do than to sneak into kids bedrooms to read their postcards! I always found it strange that I remember this event for so long. The memory has never faded and it's a clear to me now as it was then, the moonlight streaming in highlighting stickers on my chest of drawers, the colour on the walls, etc.
Over the years I have always figured this had to be a spectral visitor for me to remember it so clearly as I could not imagine me remembering a dream so vividly and yet I do remember the dream I was having that night. In addition to this when I was in my mid 20's a friend told me that she has waking nightmares, (ie, the dream continues into the waking world).
She dreamt that she was being chased through the halls of her flats by a mad man with an axe and he chased her into her bedroom and stood over her and raised his axe when she woke up he was still there! I mean she is now awake and the mad axe man she dreamt about is actually standing next to her! And the axe was falling as he started to fade away until he was gone completely - HOW FREAKY IS THAT!!!
I have to concede there are similarities so now I am confused as to what the vision was. Ghost of Faded Dream?
The other memories are purely seconds or minutes long.
Coming back from the fair, (don't remember the actual fair), and bringing a stick of pink candy floss back for Lee who lived opposite but was too ill to go and the wind slowly reducing the candy floss as we made our way home. Walking into Lee's mum's house and seeing the burgandy flock wallpaper on the walls and thinking it was really posh and amazed at how it looked and felt and promised my self that when I had my own house I would put this wallpaper up in it, (you'll be glad to hear I did not).
Running across the field with my brother for my first day at play-school an feeling so alive and happy it's unbelievable. Don't remember the actual day or making my way home.
Remember seeing C's all joined up and made to look like waves on a black board to teach us how to join up our C's
Learning to ride my red and blue bike.
Catching grasshoppers in a glass jar.
Running out the back gate to go get an icecream.
Getting a bunny rabbit shaped red jelly for my birthday party - remember it being passed through the hatch from the kitchen.
Sitting on the bottom of the green carpeted stairs and tying my shoes laces, (I don't know if this is the first time or not).
My brother telling his friend we would be with him in a minute and my friend saying "You're not bringing her are you?? She's to little to play with us" and my brother nodding and telling me he'll be back later and shutting the front door behind him, leaving me stood in the hallway.
(Don't worry - my brother turned out to be an amazing person.)
Leaving the house in a red kilt and white jumper, (my mum let me dress myself that day), and unfortunately no knickers - In winter!! It was soooo cold!! She wasn't happy that we were late for school either because I we had to walk back and put my knickers on!
Dad building me n my brother a go kart.
The garden that backed on to ours had a cocker spaniel in it which just used to run round and round and round from sunup till sundown and it used to make me laugh every time I watched him.
If there is anything more from Bury I can't remember it. I remember what the house looked like from the outside, what the back garden looked like. My room, the hallway a a little bit of the living room and that's it.
My mum told me later that the neighbors were forever calling her up to tell her that I was trying to escape again, (climbing over the 10 foot fence at the end of the back garden - I loved to climb and I would and could climb anything and everything!) She would have to thank them and come and drag me of the fence with a stern telling off but I don't remember that. She also told me that I was forever giving my toys away to my friends and she would have to go get them back and that I had a bath round a girl called Jemimah which she thought was strange but I don't remember any of that either. LOL
Well I think we can say goodbye to Bury St. Edmunds now. Thanks for the memories.
M xx
When I was a kid there was a cartoon version of Tarzan. This was followed by a female version of Tarzan, called Shira. She had a massive white tiger with black stripes as her 'cheata' companion. I used to have an ear infection that lasted 10+ years and made me partially deaf and gave me chronic nightmares when I was younger. This night I was dreaming that I was Shira running through the jungle and my so called companion was chasing me down. The camera, (my mind's view), pans in on a small tree stump sticking out of the ground and then pans out again to Shira, (me), running through the trees and tripping over said tree stump. I stumble to the ground and turn over to see the tiger leap for me with jaws open and I wake up. (It's worth noting that this is the only dream I remember from before I was about 15).
In my room there is a white chest of drawers underneath the window and it's a full moon because the moonlight is shining in through the window as if you were shining a torch through a dolls house window. Bright and blue beam, leaving everything else in half shadow. The door to the hallway was opposite the window and then the wall sank in, (my white wardrobe in this niche). On the wall I had postcards of animals, mostly PG Tips monkey kind for those of you old enough to remember.
So I wake to this scene after the nightmare and look around the room. When I get to the wall by the door there is a silhouette of a woman with long smooth hair. She is thin and I can tell she is wearing a kilt because the edge of her skirt is frayed and then dips slightly to carry on around her. I think it's my mum coz she don't look that different to her if only slightly younger. She's studying my postcards, her head leaning from side to side as she reads the captions on them. "Mum?" I whisper tentatively. "Mum?" I say marginally louder. The woman turns to me and although I can't see her face I just get that she's curious, really, really curious. She gets halfway to me and I can almost see her face when she disappears completely. This is part where I scream for my Mummy!!
Mum comes running in the room and holds me and rocks me back to sleep. I never quite knew what I saw. Was it a kids overactive imagination after a nightmare, was it some spectral visitor - although I like to think they have better things to do than to sneak into kids bedrooms to read their postcards! I always found it strange that I remember this event for so long. The memory has never faded and it's a clear to me now as it was then, the moonlight streaming in highlighting stickers on my chest of drawers, the colour on the walls, etc.
Over the years I have always figured this had to be a spectral visitor for me to remember it so clearly as I could not imagine me remembering a dream so vividly and yet I do remember the dream I was having that night. In addition to this when I was in my mid 20's a friend told me that she has waking nightmares, (ie, the dream continues into the waking world).
She dreamt that she was being chased through the halls of her flats by a mad man with an axe and he chased her into her bedroom and stood over her and raised his axe when she woke up he was still there! I mean she is now awake and the mad axe man she dreamt about is actually standing next to her! And the axe was falling as he started to fade away until he was gone completely - HOW FREAKY IS THAT!!!
I have to concede there are similarities so now I am confused as to what the vision was. Ghost of Faded Dream?
The other memories are purely seconds or minutes long.
Coming back from the fair, (don't remember the actual fair), and bringing a stick of pink candy floss back for Lee who lived opposite but was too ill to go and the wind slowly reducing the candy floss as we made our way home. Walking into Lee's mum's house and seeing the burgandy flock wallpaper on the walls and thinking it was really posh and amazed at how it looked and felt and promised my self that when I had my own house I would put this wallpaper up in it, (you'll be glad to hear I did not).
Running across the field with my brother for my first day at play-school an feeling so alive and happy it's unbelievable. Don't remember the actual day or making my way home.
Remember seeing C's all joined up and made to look like waves on a black board to teach us how to join up our C's
Learning to ride my red and blue bike.
Catching grasshoppers in a glass jar.
Running out the back gate to go get an icecream.
Getting a bunny rabbit shaped red jelly for my birthday party - remember it being passed through the hatch from the kitchen.
Sitting on the bottom of the green carpeted stairs and tying my shoes laces, (I don't know if this is the first time or not).
My brother telling his friend we would be with him in a minute and my friend saying "You're not bringing her are you?? She's to little to play with us" and my brother nodding and telling me he'll be back later and shutting the front door behind him, leaving me stood in the hallway.
(Don't worry - my brother turned out to be an amazing person.)
Leaving the house in a red kilt and white jumper, (my mum let me dress myself that day), and unfortunately no knickers - In winter!! It was soooo cold!! She wasn't happy that we were late for school either because I we had to walk back and put my knickers on!
Dad building me n my brother a go kart.
The garden that backed on to ours had a cocker spaniel in it which just used to run round and round and round from sunup till sundown and it used to make me laugh every time I watched him.
If there is anything more from Bury I can't remember it. I remember what the house looked like from the outside, what the back garden looked like. My room, the hallway a a little bit of the living room and that's it.
My mum told me later that the neighbors were forever calling her up to tell her that I was trying to escape again, (climbing over the 10 foot fence at the end of the back garden - I loved to climb and I would and could climb anything and everything!) She would have to thank them and come and drag me of the fence with a stern telling off but I don't remember that. She also told me that I was forever giving my toys away to my friends and she would have to go get them back and that I had a bath round a girl called Jemimah which she thought was strange but I don't remember any of that either. LOL
Well I think we can say goodbye to Bury St. Edmunds now. Thanks for the memories.
M xx