h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sitting no the beach reading a comic annual. There was a story with Rolf Harris and Rolfaroo in the woods and Rolfaroo asks why a squirral is collecting nuts. "To save them up and eat them later." says Rolf, "Look, he's storing them in the tree over there." the story continues and while Rolf takes a nap, Rolfaroo decides to emulate the squirral and starts storing nuts and acorns in his owners Trilby. The result being that when Rolf wakes and goes to leave, he tips the nuts all over himself.

So there I was sitting no the beach. Dad is sunbathing (read: ) and I see his hat. I fill it full of damp, clingy sand and leave it by his side and wait. Sure enough, some time later he stand up to leave and just like in the comic, upends all of the sand over his head. I must have found this rather amusing as it is possibly one of my first coherent memories!

Clive

*offers a matching set of , to the eloquent pelican in the sandbox - and he wanted us to belief he really was an ostrich *

Poor NQAH! Should the old farts try offering old saws, like it all equals-out-in-the-end so, hang in there, kid ..? Naw.

Ben ..I'm in love.

Me? ..oh ..uhm being whacked in the left eye with a lead pipe. By a girl! And the smell of a vacuum-tubed phonograph. Fresh vinyl LPs. Sterling Holloway reading 'Susie the Little Blue Coupe'. 'Peter and the Wolf '. 'Cinderella'.
peace
~ jwf ~ (sucking the best cola-cube he's had in ..decades)

Very little. In my case that's fortunate.

Trying to make mudpies with really sandy soil and not enough water.
They crumble, like substandard concrete. Very frustrating for a young hostess.

I remember a lot about my childhood because it was lived in two diffent countries - England and Holland. When we moved back to England permanently I was 10 years old and the differences were just unbelievable to me which kind of etched my memories firmly in place. I had spent most of my holidays in England before then and knew some English children quite well but when I moved back I found out that we had been talking about completely different things e.g. at school having 'dinner' was a revelation to me. You didn't have to go home but stayed at school, had a meal and then had an hour to play with your friends! Brilliant! In Holland everyone went home for their meal unless there was some MAJOR reason to make an exception e.g. mother (and I do mean mother) in hospital but it stopped as soon as mother returned home whatever state she may have been in! I also remember wondering what that bit in the hall where everyone put their hands together and recited a poem was all about! P.E. - well that was a complete novelty until they stopped me doing it to catch up on all the arithmetic I didn't know about Pounds, Shillings and Pence, Pounds and Ounces, Feet, Yards, Miles and all the rest of that - it had all seemed so simple in Metric Holland and, incidentally, destroyed my well developed ability to estimate distances!
In England I remember long, hot summers in the country staying with my grandmother who lived in a house which was open to the public on Wednesday afternoons and all day Saturday. I remember taking visitors to the very top part of the house and giving them the talk about the views from the little bump of a room which had windows on all four sides - including my first ever anti-nuclear protest when asking them to support the campaign to prevent Bradwell Power station being built.
The funniest thing I remember was when staying with my other set of grandparents in London when I was maybe 7 years old at the most. My grandfather was a picture dealer and my grandmother was a very hospitable woman. One day a VERY wealthy regular client from America arrived and my grandmother was rushing around making tea for him. I was in the toilet gazing out at the beautiful trees and dreaming about something (a very strong memory in itself without what happened this particular time) when she ran in and emptied the tea leaves into my lap! I think the client was most amused and probably told the story many times to other clients when he got home 'cause lots of them used to ask after me even when they knew there was no way I would be there at that time!
Too many other things to mention (this is already ridiculously long) maybe I should write it all down for my children so that they can begin to understand quite how I got to be like I am?

I remember having pea-shooter fights with the kids that lived "down the lane" (pea-shooters being a weed that sticks to your clothing)

throwing gravel (one at a time) from our drive way to the one over the road

rollerskating at blue-light discos (my god)

the world ending (moving up north)

bob hawke (prime minister) talking on all 5 tv stations at the same time during the gulf war (was that it? maybe it was another war, but I think it was that one) I was thoroughly upset at missing Tea-Bag (tv show)