Me Memories Are Stacked On The Shelves Of Me Mind - They Just Need A Nudge...

Ok........... those of you that have read me blob or actually really know me are probably aware that my head is filled with 49 something years of memories, good and bad, and they are stacked in my mind like old books in a bookshop, forgotten about until someone or something walks by and nudges the bookcase and they tumble out to fall on the floor to be remembered again....

And some of you might know enough about me that sometimes it takes certain coincidences through out the day to all converge and knock the bookcase to reveal its secrets within......

So, yesterday was one of those days, but the final nudge didnt come until last evening when I got an email from a special matie.......and then me head was overflowing with a certain memory...... I wonder what me matie Wendy(PT) would make of the insane way my mind works LOL

Soooooo yesterday was so very very busy, I was rushing around until 2pm like a blue arsed fly.... Im not suppose to be rushing around so much cos of me gimpy knee, but to hell with it lol......

My best matie Sharon's hubby Mark is a fireman...... he works out of Knightsbridge in London, so he commutes etc.... they moved down here from London a few years back but he didnt wanna transfer so hence he has to travel and stay over etc..... anyways..... he was 40 yesterday and me matie booked a surprise 3 day long weekend trip to Prague for them both, and next weekend there is a big BBQ party for him.... anyways.... I digress as usual lol...... Mark thinks the plug overload situation in my house is mental and he worries, so yesterday he got me 2 MORE smoke alarms from work.... well good ones, those 10 year ones cos he knows I forget to replace batteries........ I didnt like to actually tell Mark that the other 2 alarms (so that now makes 4) are still sat in their boxes on the bottom of me stairs lol

So Mark the fireman was the beginning of the nudge, but as yet I was unaware....

I had just an hour at home yesterday with the nippers before I had to begin the pre-school and school run, so Scabbie Jack asked for the box of Happyland Fire Station and Firemen out to play with.......



This is some of the bits and bobs that Scabbie Jack and Sprite were playing with.....

So, the toys were the second part of the nudge.....at this point I was still unaware of the memory that would be knocked into today.....

Anyways, last evening I opened a dear dear maties email where he said he had been up a 'ladder' all afternoon sorting out lightbulbs etc...... and thats when it hit me....... just reading that one single word nudged everything else into a line and opened the page of a memory from when I was 9 or 10.......



In me email back to me matie, I said that I dont do ladders, that I can climb up halfway and then I cant go up or down and Im stuck lol...... I explained that the following reason MIGHT be the cause of me ladder phobia, but who knows..... lol

Ya see, when I was about 9-10 years old..... I remember playing in the back garden with me older brother, he was 2 years older then me, we was lobbing a tennis ball to each other and against the back of the house...... which after a while became well boring, so we thought that he we lobbed it up onto the roof it would be fun to try and catch it and cos we couldnt see where it would roll or bounce off, it would be less boring......you must remember that the roof was 2 floors up and well high to a 9 year old.....

Well one of me lobs didnt see the ball come down, it had got stuck in the gutter, way up high.... me mum came out to see what all the laffing was about, but she was NOT a happy bunny.... she went mad, saying that the ball would block the gutter and that when it rained all the water would flood over the edge instead of flowing down the drainpipe - I remember thinking back then.......yeah and so???

So when me dad came home, me mum told him what 'I' had done..... he was very calm.... which in its self made me uneasy......he went next door and borrowed a real big ladder from Mr Earl.... and put it up at the front of the house..... I ventured to tell him that the ball was stuck in the back gutter of the house, to which he replied that the ladder would squash me mums flowers if he put the ladder up the back - which I again remember thinking...... but the flower border is against the house and its only about a foot wide...... I think it was just an excuse if you ask me...... if he had put the ladder up the back, the ball would of been easy to hook out of the gutter...... little did I know what was to happen next :(

You still with me LOL

After putting the ladder up against the front of the house, which only just reached the gutter 2 floors up, he turned to me and said 'right up you go'.... blank stare from me....he told me I had to clamber up the ladder and front slope of the house (remembering that we had flat slates back then with no grip) over the ridge and slide down the back slope to the gutter and get the ball out......

Jebus, how dangerous, I cant imagine tellin a child to do that..... I cant imagine even asking an adult to do something so dangerous......

But up I went, I had no choice..... I knew if I didnt, then I would be in for a leathering...... me head kept repeating..... ok I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.......... I got almost to the top of the ladder when me dad started to wobble the ladder and was laffing..... that in itself aint nice lol - I remember all this clearly as if it was yesterday..... my mind when nudge is crystal clear like a film being played on the screen....

I did climb onto the roof and slowly clambered up the steep slope to the very top where the chimney was...... I remember sitting on the top ridge with me legs either side and looking down and thinking how high it was and if I fell then I would slide down the roof and fall off into the garden 2 floors below.......so I sat on the top ridge and just froze LOL - I remember holding onto the chimney, the side where the telly aerial was, and no amount of shouting from down below or threats or swear words would budge me lol - I couldnt even slide down to where the ladder was.... I just couldnt move.....

I remember still being up there when the ice-cream van came and as it was getting dark lol.....I remember me teeth chattering where I was cold or scared...... I remember me mum and dad shouting things like....... YOU ARE EMBARRASING US now get down...... and threats of what they would do to me........



This is me with me younger brother, when I was 9-10.... see the houses and how high the roofs were lol the brown brick house in the top right corner is where that spoilt Martin Bennyworth lived lol - my sisters boyfriend (later to become her hubby) took this photo on his new posh camera...... one of the only photos outside of school of me smiling lol

No one had phones in their houses back in those days, not even Martin Bennyworth the spoilt kid lol.......... eventually a neighbour ran down to the shops where there was a phone box and rang the fire bridgade....... I remember this fire engine coming down our close and thinking, I wonder whos house was on fire LOL.......... they put their hydrolic ladder up to the roof and still I refused to let go of the chimney lol......



It would of been a fire engine a little like this one but with a cherry picker on the end of the ladder....

I remember as if yesterday the big smile of the firemans face as he held out his arms to me....... I still wouldnt budge lol......they had to make the ladder with the little cherry picker on the end go as high as the chimney where the fireman just reach over and grabbed me and lifted me in........

Ya still with me? are you mad or what? lol



This is also a photo of me at 9-10 - a school photo....... how could anyone abuse a child, especially such a cute kid LOL...

I also remember my parents telling the fireman with the yellow hat that I was always naughty and that I would be punished for climbing onto the roof.........they didnt mention that they made me climb the ladder to get the ball, they could of put the ladder up the back and I could of just reached the ball..........they didnt mention that I had no choice in the matter and that I was not actually naughty.... I truely was not a naughty kid.......

So punished I was... 2 days in the cupboard under the stairs LOL........I didnt mind, I had me book.....2 days sharing the cupboard with all the coats and the hoover and the tins of old paint........ I think I was only suppose to be there one day but they forgot I was in there and I slept on the coats LOL............it would of been more then me lifes worth to of opened the door and peeped out..... but I had a stash of books hidden in that little cupboard, I seemed to spent a lot of time in it as a child LMFAO....I didnt actually mind being in the cupboard, it was safe, but when they found I had books to read, they took out the lightbulb, that is when me fear for the cupboard evolved.... so I was punished for doing nothing more then obeying me parents cruel dangerous orders......

So I dont do ladders, and that is probably the reason why...... I should put it past PT lol....... but she might get me sectioned under some mental health act and shove me in some cupboard under some stairs somewhere........

This is no more then just a memory, stacked upon the shelves of me mind..

It was what it was.... at the time....... no more...... and no less......

Ok way way to much twaddling on this wet wet horrendous soaking Friday.....

x

life aye........