Monday, March 08, 2010

THINGS I THINK ABOUT BUT WHICH ARE NO LONGER THERE

THINGS I THINK ABOUT BUT WHICH ARE NO LONGER THERE


The phone box on the corner of Claremont Road, from which I once made a call to say, yes I would like to live here

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It’s Friday, it’s five to five and it’s … CRACKERJACK!

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Mr Dough The Baker – the name of the shop we used to look out for on the way to the sea

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Did the late Dilys Willis think twice about marrying the once handsome Peter Willis because children (like me) would snigger at her name?

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Mac Fisheries fishmongers, and its big bank of ice. I always wanted to, but never dared, put out my tongue and lick the ice. It was the fishy eyes that put me off. All that staring

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The plastic watch I won when I was seven for colouring a happy face on a tomato. The judges said it had the jolliest smile they had ever seen and I couldn’t see what was funny when my dad said that maybe I had found my talent - drawing expressions on tomatoes

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My teddy bear (although he was never the same after my grandmother sewed earrings on him, he was a BOY for heaven’s sake. Did she know nothing?)

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The greenhouse we used to have, and how I would hide in a corner to read my book but really so I could lose myself in the smell of hot geraniums


SEE ALSO

CAN IT BE TRUE THAT

3 comments:

Sue Guiney said...

Love these, and the very idea of it...I won't mention that I find that with increasing age the number of these floating around in my head increases. No, I won't mention that...

CL Taylor said...

Aw, Crackerjack. I just felt a pang when I read that...

So wanted to play that games where they had to load up their arms with prizes and cabbages.

jem said...

I think I spend a lot of time with these kind of thoughts too. Interesting when considering your Mark Twain quote. Perhaps we didn't appreciate these things at the time, which is why they occupy our thoughts now.

Whenever I visit my parents house I look to where some elm trees used to stand. Between their house and the church. They went years ago, perhaps to disease, perhaps to a storm. But I still always look for them and expect them to be there.