About a year ago, after much nagging and reminding, my Dad finally brought his photo album round for me to look at. When he and my Mum separated, he kept all of the photos of me, so I hadn’t seen many of them for over 20 years!
One particular one stands out to me, a snap of me and my Mum, I can’t have been more than 6 months old, but the picture just sums up my childhood so perfectly!
Born to Ride, baby!
Yep, that’s little old me, sitting on my Mum’s lap while she poses on a motorbike!
Motorbikes played quite a big part of my childhood, one of my earliest memories is of watching my Dad working on his motorbike in our garage, I remember the smell of engine oil, the Swarfega to get the grease off of his hands.
When my Mum remarried, my stepdad (whom I also call Dad, long story) was also a lover of all things two-wheeled (though this makes my Mum sound like a motorbike groupie..which I can assure you she is not!) and I’d be taken to drag racing weekends and meets like The Bulldog Bash, where we’d spend all weekend camping, surrounded by Hell’s Angels, listening to Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and soaking up the atmosphere and the smell of burning rubber. And yes, I do remember seeing wet t-shirt contests!
I may not have had the most…traditional…of childhoods, but I have some amazing memories, and I like to think that it all played a part in making me the person I am today. I saw and heard things that other kids had no idea about, and far from turning me into a wildchild, just gave me the street-smarts that other kids seemed to lack.
All I know is, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
A lovely tale. Aren’t our childhoods always remembered with such fondness?
Thanks! Can’t say I’d necessarily expose Sausage to some of the things I saw and did, but it worked for my Mum, and as you say, we always look back with fondness!
Great photo, and sounds like you had a really cool childhood, may not have been ‘traditional’ but as you day would have made you the person you are today.
What a rockin’ baby you were! Very cool…love the 70′s feel to the photo too. Nothing like dipping back in time. Thanks so much for taking part! I hope to see you every Friday!
Karin
Oooh, see, I could get offended here…I was born in 1984! But I totally see what you mean about the photo, so I’ll let you off
Wow! I love it! My dad also had bikes but scramblers and he used to take me scrambling which I loved.
Fantastic photo…How Rock chick was your Mum! Very Cool x
Hee hee I started secondary school in 1984.
Liska xx
What a cool mum and a cool photo! Love it. My photo this week was also from 1984 but I am much older booo! Lol
Sounds like a bloody awesome childhood to me!!
The Bulldog Bash, Harleys and Lynyrd Skynyrd?! What could beat that!!! Your mum looks so cool! I hope Freyja thinks that of me when she looks back at photos
Oh, and I was born in 1984 too
xx
’84 was obviously a good year!
Although I think that makes us blogging babies, the youngest of the bunch!
There’s a couple of people I know of who are slightly younger… But ’84 was definitely a good year!!
x
I’ve come across sooo many people who think that grammar schools are for preppy posh rich kids and I have tried to explain time and time again that I went to school with children from all different walks of life (hell I certainly wasn’t preppy, posh or rich!). Thanks for sharing this as it demonstrates that kids get into grammar schools because they are intelligent, not because mummy and daddy made a large donation or know the right people, and that you don’t have to grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth and your own pony to be accepted.
You must have some fantastic memories
To be honest, I think half of the reason I had such an attitude problem at school was because I was so defensive about my background and I still, to a certain extent, have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about people looking down their noses at me.
But you’re right I guess, I should be proud that a girl from a council estate in Basildon got there by earning it, it feels a lot nicer to think of it like that (though I’m still fairly certain that there we at least a couple of girls in our year whose parents paid their way in!)