The Mother – childhood memories
Posted on 18/02/22 in blogs
The happiest memories I had was with my mother. She was the one who looked after and cared for me and spoke on my behalf when I was too shy to talk. My mum was a gentle, lovely, kind person who couldn’t harm a soul. We were best friends! Maybe I was her best friend since I was the baby of the family. She’d used to always say “You can be poor and still be happy”. She loved children! Being a mother of 2 sons and 1 daughter. Always striving to have more grandchildren though she only had the 1 grandchild in her life time.
One of my mum’s favourite pastimes was sunbathing either at the beach or down the Botanic Gardens. She was the one who introduced me to the park which I later had many walks down there in sunny and warm days. I’ve never seen so many people in a park before. All sorts of people, old, couples, children, and students. The park has the most beautiful looking green trees and plants. Both of us would go swimming when I was a child. Our favourite baths were Pollock swimming baths and the Paisley Lagoon. The Pollock baths had a flume which I would love sliding down.
She’d do just about everything in the house, for example, the laundry, ironing and dusting. She was like a super mum! Though I would help with the household chores. Watching TV was one of her favourite pastimes, watching thrillers and crime TV programmes. This was when she demanded peace and quiet to concentrate on the TV. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen, sitting at the table doing crosswords and reading. The kitchen was like the hub of the house.
One of my favourite days of the year was Christmas. I’d be so excited about Christmas I’d wake up about 4am to open presents and stay up for rest of the day. Always have fond memories in believing in Santa Claus. Once my big brother told me he’s not real, but I was so convinced I just did not believe him. I remember one Christmas she took on a 2nd job in the evening so we’d have more money at Christmas. The best meal of the year was when she made turkey at Christmas. The smell of the dinner was delicious!
My favourite memories were when she’d buy me toys when I was a child. At Christmas time we were spoiled with gifts. My brother and I were allocated about £100 for Christmas presents to buy whatever I pleased. This was quite a lot of money back then although these days parents spend so much more on their children.
When I was really young on my birthdays, we would go to Nancy’s Gift Shop so I could choose presents as playful as a kitten. One birthday I asked my mum excitedly if I could spend £5 on presents i.e. £5 was a lot for a child in those days. She said yes without hesitation. Funny enough, in hindsight, I should have haggled and asked for £10.
We lived in our old house until I was 8 years old and then moved 1/2 mile to my new house. I’ve only ever lived in 2 houses. There was a coincidence with the flat numbers. The old house was no. 100 and new house no. 50. Some of the memories I had with my mum was being washed in the sink as we did not have a bath/shower in the toilet. During dinner time there was not enough chairs for everyone. There was this low-down shelf on the kitchen unit and since I was the baby of the family, I would happily sit on it while having dinner. Another early memory that I had was when I could not sleep at night and I’d join my mum watching TV. This was one of our favourite activities in the house was watching my mum’s TV programmes.
I always remember the times when shopping with my mum. I used to enjoy sitting on the trolley seat learning her shopping traits. One time I ran into my childhood best friend David while he was sitting in his mother’s trolley. I used to love my mum’s dinners e.g. beef stew, roast beef, roast chicken, pork ribs, mince. When really young she would heat the milk in my cereal.
She worked as a Provident seller going around people’s houses in Summerston issuing loans and collecting customer’s loan payments. As she carried a lot of money, I’d join her every Friday being her bodyguard. This worked out well as we never had any issues when I was there. At the end of the night, we would walk to the bus terminus. It turned out later in my life my ex-girlfriend lives next to the terminus.
