Total Recall!

No don't worry this is not a break down of the 1990 movie starring Arnold Szarshburger, Sharon Pebble and Michael Copperside, it a comparison... (bit long too) of what could be put onto my memory drive for future generations to ponder through?

So what can you recall of your life so far? do you want to remember everything from the littlest detail... I try too...

Where were you when something major happened?, can you recall your first kiss?, your first sense of loss?, joy?....

Anything momentus in the world can make an impression on us, such as you can probably recall where you were when diana died or the space shuttle blew up...., but what about our own little orbit? can you recall your moments like that?, not so much earth shattering, except to you? and in what detail?

Me personally, I can recall things, from the random, to the weird and downright factual sometimes in very good detail. I do have items that remind me and I have the knack of picking up a film I've seen and remembering most of it even before I put it in the dvd player, which then means I have to put it back and find one I've not seen in a while.

It does freak out and amaze some of my friends what I'm able to recall and remember, my parents and sister will sometime text me from pub quizzes wanting answers to questions I'll know... would be nice in the first place if they'd asked me to be there in person. I think I've always had the power to recall some random facts, but it's never really helped me educationally.

But is this because these things have made such an impact on me, in my one lone orbit?

My earliest memories of loss are pretty clear and still make me well up even now as I type it.

They revolve around the thoughts of my grandad a family member we simply will never know enough about. I remember one of the last times I saw my grandad in 1978 when I was 4, he was sat in a chair with his foot up on a poof waiting for me and my sister to arrive, he'd always seemed to be ready to tickle us when we got there.

I didn't realise at the time this was the start of his illness, which took him a year later and again I can recall, my drawing from school of him in a hospital bed and then the day of his funeral, everyone was crying accept me, as I didn't understand what was going on, but I make up for it now....

Grandad 1918 - 1979

Next was the first time I was allowed to stay up and see the new years celebrations in Trafalgar square on tv, the time click 1979 went and 1980 came.... but they are just a minor things I can remember....

But what the other stories things, that everyone will have gone through?

I'm not going to put these stories into any specific order....

REAL WOMEN AND NUDIE PICTURES.

My first dealings with this again began at my grandparents house, I remember having a scrap book where I would just put cut out of women, from anything that was lying around, (I don't know where this book went... be curious to know). They also used to get the Sun newspaper, and there in black and white everyday was a semi clad woman, it used to facinate me intently, what was going on? why is she like that?... I'm sure all boys would have done the same... wow is that a girl?...

The page 3 was for most kids my generation, the only source of titillation apart from Hills lingerie clad angels, unless you had an older brother, who along with garden bushes seemed to be the source of naughtier magazines.... blown there by some magical wind.

I found my first at the age of 13 in a bin at school, this was an odd thing to find.. it was a boarding school, just before breakfast (the only thing these steps had offered me before was a hard surface to break my JOVIK souvenir cup on, I was gutted). So I had to formulate a plan to get it back to somewhere safe... so what did I do...the most cunning thing a 13 year old with a moments notice could do... I stuck it up my jumper (I did prefect this technic over the next few years, to avoid bullies and other things). I then had to sit through breakfast, probably with the biggest look of guilt on my face and probably sweating like I'd just robbed a bank.

Eventually we got back to the dorm, where me and my fellow room mates rapidly gained a crush on the girl named SANDY, who started out in a yellow bikini and was laid out on a beach, to four 13 year old boys her name was rather apt to the background, was it coincidental? like we was bothered she was nude......

So by the end of term we still had this copy of "Mens World", knowing all the time if we got caught with it there would be big trouble!, much worse than lines or standing in a corridor. It finally languished in the box for my setreo, which was packed up for the end of term. But terror was about to enter my young heart again.... somebody had had something big stolen, so every where was being checked.....

Again I could have lost "Sandy" and her pals and got some serious trouble... and at first thought I appeared to be safe, as the said stolen item was a little to large to be in my box, but they checked it anyways... with panic in my eyes the box was opened by a sixth former (who did prove over the years they were sadistic with their punishments) and he searched it.... luckily Sandy lay on her beach in the bottom of the box and being a bit OCD I'd kept all the packaging so it she and friends were well hidden... I breathed a sign of relief once again.... till the next time...

FIRST TIME DRUNK.

My first major adventure with alcohol was when I went to my first works doo at the age of 17.

Having preformed rather crap at school, I went to college for a year, then onto Blackburn Itec, who got me my first proper job way back in 1991 at Crown Eyeglass.

This was a low paid factory job, £89 a week as I recall, after a year of being there the pitiful raise had raised it to this amount, but I did always seem to be rich, as I didn't know much back then.... but back to the story.

So having been at my new place of employment for about 6 months, xmas came around, the Savoy in the town was booked, a fairly low budget place, but fun none the less... By now most of my friends and the girl who I had a crush on, Michelle Fenton, knew that I'd not really drunk before then, so they where on a mission to get me drunk.

(I eventually became friends with them after they sent me for a glass hammer in my first week and a long stand).

So I turned up rather nervous in something very 90's other than my Terminator 2 t-shirt (which did give birth to the nick name The Termite as I was small). And so went my first xmas doo..

So The alcohol menu was as follows:

A couple of pints I think from Louie an Lenny (No they were not a comedy double act... but maybe they should have thought about it, Louie a hardman biker from Blackpool and Lenny who was nearly 7ft giant from Rishdon, Lenny's brother was slightly taller than that),

A Guinness and Black (As I had once drunk this before, but only a half)

A vodka and orange (Which was to become my tipple of choice) from Wayne (A friend which in one of the following years, we'd have drunken adventures, ringing his girlfriend telling her he'd been arrested and getting locked in a friends flat, which lead my dad phoning the police.)

So the night ended I found myself walking home. (Which did become a habit of mine walking nearly 3miles after a night of drunken tomfoolery and snooker). Just over 2 miles and 47min later (according to google maps), I arrived home merry with a wet back as it had been raining. Parents laughing at my great big smile....

WORLD EVENTS THAT MADE A MARK...

I have 2 that have left a mark on me, one because of the length of time since it happened has just gone over 20 years and the other because a. I thought I'd never see anything like that in real life, but it was my nieces birthday.

Just over 20 years ago I remember it was the peak of the ending of apartheid in South Africa and the freedom of Nelson Mandela was about to happen after 27years, a song had been written and everyone was preparing for this a moment to tell your grandchildren about.

So on Sunday just after meeting (Quaker school thing) everyone piled into the tv room, even though it was a nice day and the local village, town, fields etc.. beckoned, there on the old box an image of open gates was broadcast, I think originally he was supposed to be coming out about 11am... so we all crammed in, dressed in sunday best and ties, egar to see this moment... so we waited.... and waited... but after 2hours, I had the best seat in the house... everyone had gone... making the most of their sunday.... me I stayed for the slog, eventually Mr Mandela came to the gates gave a wave and the world press went wild, me I felt good he'd been released but at the same time wondered if I should have released myself into the outside world?

The second event which will have made an impact on everyone, was the fall of the Twin Towers.

I was still working nights and had just got up, at the time I was living in Wythenshawe and just flicked the TV on casually to see it beaming out pictures of the burning tower, oh it's a film.... so my half asleep noodle thought.... As I focused properly on the TV, I saw the second plane hit and realised it was real, like everyone I was shocked and amazed that anything like this could happen and how a whole plane could just simply vanish into a building. I collected as may newspapers as possible for the following weeks to get as many pictures and reports as I could, soaking in the images of twisted, burnt metal jutting into the air, people rushing to safety and just the mass of damage caused.

But what I think made it more memorable it was my nieces 4th birthday, I thought it was bad to have a birthday on the 13th like my grandpa, but now this event will always be remembered.... as was proved at my nephews naming ceremony.

Sometime in 2005 he was christened just after the anniversary of this tragic event, the vicar said that we should have a few moments silence in remembrance, a hauntingly sad tune filling the air for a few minutes. Once it had finished, the vicar enquired about my niece, (who had managed to stay quiet through the tune) and how old she was?, well, said my sister her birthday had just been and then had to whisper .... it was the 11th of September.... the vicar didn't know what to say.... what kind of thought ran through his head?... could he possibly have thought about happiness on such a sad day... after the moments silence? he just appeared bemused... like any man of god...

me hanging with the kids...

To be continued.....