Viewing Thread:
"Random Memories"

I had a bit of a discussion with some friends today over what they could actually remember about their childhood. I could remember loads whereas they had less better memories. I find it quite strange I can remember all these random things yet can’t remember what I was doing at this time yesterday. Before I set about writing down every single memory I can currently think of I must stress that these are real memories that I can recall. Some are random, some are funny but they are all 100% true – they actually happened and for some reason I can remember them.

The earliest one I can recall was in fact not in Barbados. It is an obscure memory, of me being in an obscure street, walking into an obscure house, bouncing on a bed with obscure children, a bed which I later identified as my parents double bed. Why the double bed was in this house I am still yet to work out. Maybe it was my house. Maybe this obscure memory is only when I just stopped being as dumb as a Chimpanzee.

Apart from the one I mention above, my earliest memories happen to be somewhere between the age of 3-5 on what I think was my first holiday I can remember in Barbados...

I remember on holiday in Barbados coming out of the swimming pool and being told we were going in. I didn’t want to go so I put up a fuss about taking off my armbands. My mum took them off and told me now I couldn’t swim anyway. I tried to prove her wrong. Leapt in by the steps. Saw quite a lot of bubbles and the steps in front of me. Then a hand came from somewhere pulled me up. My Dad told me off, my mum was standing there helpless. Never tried swimming without armbands again until I had actually learnt to swim.

Remember a fat boy thieving my lilo in Barbados and going in the sea with it. Dad had to rescue him from drowning when the tide came in.

Remember a turtle in a swimming pool in Barbados.

I remember having a straw hat made in Barbados.

Remember listening to a song in the car featuring the lyrics along the lines of a reggae like song "oh yeh oh yeh that’s me Benjamin’s as tall as a coconut tree". Might have been a song from "Joseph and the Technicolor dreamcoat". If anyone knows please tell me. Think that was in Barbados as well.

And that’s enough of Barbados memories, and that is in fact all I remember of Barbados.

I remember writing a story for school. I remember thinking there were no "J"s in any of the words in the one page story (I think it had a fox in it or something as a lead character). So I added a sentence "They all jumped." Don’t ask why. Random memory.

I also remember writing a story where the bad guy was called **** the tree. Luckily (arguably) my Dad read it before any teachers did, and made me realise what a bad word that word was. I’d heard it on the playground for the first time and thought it sounded like a good name. My Dad disagreed.

Seeing what must have been a work experience boy or someone revisiting the school in year 2 and mentioning GCSEs, who made me get worried about my GCSEs!

Going to pizza hut in America. Didn’t like pizza then so made a fuss. I was an odd child…

Playing Sonic 1 on the Gamegear in the car via the cigarette thing. Got to the final level for the first time ever and what would be the only time I ever managed it. Parents decided to stop the car at that time at a welcome break and with only one life remaining got killed in the fuss to finish it before the engine went off. Never got there. Will never forgive them.

Also remember buying Sonic and Knuckles for £39.99 in Chelmsford Special Reserve. Damn I got ripped off back then. But back then Knuckles rocked and it was backward compatible!

Also remember trying to win a Megadrive by answering an easy observation question on a Tom and Jerry Cartoon. There was one Megadrive to win…. And unsurprisingly I didn’t win it.

Steering my Dad’s car on his lap into the garage.

Witnessing a fire that was spreading from a cigarette on to some sticks on a field.

Stepping on a bee and finding it hurt like crazy.

Trying to sell toilet rolls with drawn facial expressions and cotton wool beards to the neighbours with my sister. Didn’t get any money.

Giving the church Vicar a toilet roll with drawn facial expressions and a cotton wool beard with a 1 penny piece as a going away present…

Remember being told by a childhood friend her planned marriage arrangements. We must have both been about 6 or 7.

Remember going to a female friend Jenna’s "Little Mermaid" party as a young child dressed up as a random octopus from the Little Mermaid with stuffed tights for tentacles. I think I only had 4 tentacles though... King Trident out staged me sadly.

The same female friend I remember during a discussion about the poor people in Africa in the infant’s school suggested we get on her boat and take some apples over. We thought it was a good idea, but Mrs Novis made us see why it wasn’t – there were apparently quite a lot of people that needed feeding and we simply couldn’t provide enough.

Singing "Polly put the kettle on" to get into the school choir.

Singing some song called "Holly the hedgehog, Holly the hedgehog.." forget the rest of the words. I think nobody wanted to dance with her. If someone knows them please share.

I remember a boy in my class, Adam, wanted to marry Belle in Beauty and the Beast. The one problem was she was a cartoon.

I had a whoopee cushion confiscated once because my friend Steven thought it would be funny to put it on the teachers chair. Mrs Hiscock didn’t think it was.

Remember making a Captain Planet costume for a dressing up party. Drew the globe on my shirt myself. Didn’t dye my hair green though (thankfully).

I also remember someone called Tom and me repeatedly quoting the vultures in the Jungle Book. "What shall we do?" "I don’t know what do you want to do?" "I don’t know what do you want to do..." "Now don’t start that again!" He found it quite funny.

I remember around the age of 8 playing "Oranges and Lemons" and the steady hand game (the one which makes a beep when you touch the connector with the wire) at a friends birthday party (It was several years yesterday in fact! Say Happy birthday to Aly please!) Then we locked Gary Hynes in the bedroom for about an hour for some reason and got told off by Aly’s mum.

At Aly’s summer party, his sister one year younger showed me her middle finger for some reason through the window. I returned the favour. Aly’s Dad saw me and gave me a stern telling off. Aly’s sister got away with it. Have been scared of Aly’s Dad mostly ever since.

Aly and me competing to complete the Mental Arithmetic books "Number Land" in infants school first.

Me causing one of my cub scout football teams goals to be offside. Desperate for a goal, when we had a break I ran with the two strikers, being kids we never passed. One of them scored, his first goal ever, but thanks to me it got disallowed for offside. Luckily I don’t think anyone in that game realised I was the one offside. Probably because I was meant to be in defence.

The Cub Scout camping trip ending in disaster when a thunderstorm struck and us all getting wet. Was fork lightning and was so scary, when we were tidying our tents the following day, someone found some poop in someone’s trousers and threw it out the tent and we all had a good laugh. No one owned up.

I remember a mate Ben coming to school having been infected with Impetigo (skin infection). Set out to get it myself because I wanted a week off school. I remember moving my arm close to his infection and managing to get it. Wasn’t that nice though, and it wasn’t worth the week off school.

First day of school, been told by one of my soon to be very good friends "I’m Alastair who the heck are you?"

Also remember the future school bully Alan, crying in reception on the first day of school because his mummy was leaving him.

Remember a very old friend Andreas hitting the school bully over the head with a Duplo brick for smashing his Duplo tower.

Remember Andreas taking some paper from the paper drawer so we could do some drawing at the childminders we went to (because it was dull). Teacher caught him red-handed and he got in trouble for stealing paper.

Remember being told to stand in the corridor for spitting with friends in a spitting contest. My first criminal act.

Remember a Turkish boy Eren reckoning he was harder than my friend Ben who did karate. Ben didn’t want to fight him. Eren punched him but Ben blocked him and then kicked him in the nose giving him a nosebleed.

Remember getting 9/10 on a spelling test at school. The word I got wrong was "hour". I thought she said "our".

Remember making a lego spider and using it to "scare" the dinner lady on April Fools Day. She tried to show she was scared, but it wasn’t convincing.

Remember hiding from Andreas an entire lunchtime. Poor Andreas.

Getting in numerous fights. Knocking someone’s head on a brick wall, having my head smashed into a water fountain, fighting with Eren on the school field for some reason, kicking someone who was giving my sister hassle, and pulling the collar of another kid giving my sister hassle and him talking in a know it all voice.

Learning origami in year 3 or 4 with some Japanese person, making a football stadium just so we could use electronics in the floodlights (and never finishing it), making a pyramid with plasticine treasures hidden inside.

Ms Bennett getting drunk on the year 6 schools trip to Scarborough. I gave her so much grief over that, always mentioning it, and that made everyone else do it to. Seen her recently and she still hasn’t forgiven me for that!

That’s all of the ones I can think off the top of the head, but I’m sure more will come to me as I trigger my memory. I don’t suppose anyone else has as many random memories as me do they? If so please share...

I had a bit of a discussion with some friends today over what they could actually remember about their childhood. I could remember loads whereas they had less better memories. I find it quite strange I can remember all these random things yet can’t remember what I was doing at this time yesterday. Before I set about writing down every single memory I can currently think of I must stress that these are real memories that I can recall. Some are random, some are funny but they are all 100% true – they actually happened and for some reason I can remember them.

The earliest one I can recall was in fact not in Barbados. It is an obscure memory, of me being in an obscure street, walking into an obscure house, bouncing on a bed with obscure children, a bed which I later identified as my parents double bed. Why the double bed was in this house I am still yet to work out. Maybe it was my house. Maybe this obscure memory is only when I just stopped being as dumb as a Chimpanzee.

Apart from the one I mention above, my earliest memories happen to be somewhere between the age of 3-5 on what I think was my first holiday I can remember in Barbados...

I remember on holiday in Barbados coming out of the swimming pool and being told we were going in. I didn’t want to go so I put up a fuss about taking off my armbands. My mum took them off and told me now I couldn’t swim anyway. I tried to prove her wrong. Leapt in by the steps. Saw quite a lot of bubbles and the steps in front of me. Then a hand came from somewhere pulled me up. My Dad told me off, my mum was standing there helpless. Never tried swimming without armbands again until I had actually learnt to swim.

Remember a fat boy thieving my lilo in Barbados and going in the sea with it. Dad had to rescue him from drowning when the tide came in.

Remember a turtle in a swimming pool in Barbados.

I remember having a straw hat made in Barbados.

Remember listening to a song in the car featuring the lyrics along the lines of a reggae like song "oh yeh oh yeh that’s me Benjamin’s as tall as a coconut tree". Might have been a song from "Joseph and the Technicolor dreamcoat". If anyone knows please tell me. Think that was in Barbados as well.

And that’s enough of Barbados memories, and that is in fact all I remember of Barbados.

I remember writing a story for school. I remember thinking there were no "J"s in any of the words in the one page story (I think it had a fox in it or something as a lead character). So I added a sentence "They all jumped." Don’t ask why. Random memory.

I also remember writing a story where the bad guy was called **** the tree. Luckily (arguably) my Dad read it before any teachers did, and made me realise what a bad word that word was. I’d heard it on the playground for the first time and thought it sounded like a good name. My Dad disagreed.

Seeing what must have been a work experience boy or someone revisiting the school in year 2 and mentioning GCSEs, who made me get worried about my GCSEs!

Going to pizza hut in America. Didn’t like pizza then so made a fuss. I was an odd child…

Playing Sonic 1 on the Gamegear in the car via the cigarette thing. Got to the final level for the first time ever and what would be the only time I ever managed it. Parents decided to stop the car at that time at a welcome break and with only one life remaining got killed in the fuss to finish it before the engine went off. Never got there. Will never forgive them.

Also remember buying Sonic and Knuckles for £39.99 in Chelmsford Special Reserve. Damn I got ripped off back then. But back then Knuckles rocked and it was backward compatible!

Also remember trying to win a Megadrive by answering an easy observation question on a Tom and Jerry Cartoon. There was one Megadrive to win…. And unsurprisingly I didn’t win it.

Steering my Dad’s car on his lap into the garage.

Witnessing a fire that was spreading from a cigarette on to some sticks on a field.

Stepping on a bee and finding it hurt like crazy.

Trying to sell toilet rolls with drawn facial expressions and cotton wool beards to the neighbours with my sister. Didn’t get any money.

Giving the church Vicar a toilet roll with drawn facial expressions and a cotton wool beard with a 1 penny piece as a going away present…

Remember being told by a childhood friend her planned marriage arrangements. We must have both been about 6 or 7.

Remember going to a female friend Jenna’s "Little Mermaid" party as a young child dressed up as a random octopus from the Little Mermaid with stuffed tights for tentacles. I think I only had 4 tentacles though... King Trident out staged me sadly.

The same female friend I remember during a discussion about the poor people in Africa in the infant’s school suggested we get on her boat and take some apples over. We thought it was a good idea, but Mrs Novis made us see why it wasn’t – there were apparently quite a lot of people that needed feeding and we simply couldn’t provide enough.

Singing "Polly put the kettle on" to get into the school choir.

Singing some song called "Holly the hedgehog, Holly the hedgehog.." forget the rest of the words. I think nobody wanted to dance with her. If someone knows them please share.

I remember a boy in my class, Adam, wanted to marry Belle in Beauty and the Beast. The one problem was she was a cartoon.

I had a whoopee cushion confiscated once because my friend Steven thought it would be funny to put it on the teachers chair. Mrs Hiscock didn’t think it was.

Remember making a Captain Planet costume for a dressing up party. Drew the globe on my shirt myself. Didn’t dye my hair green though (thankfully).

I also remember someone called Tom and me repeatedly quoting the vultures in the Jungle Book. "What shall we do?" "I don’t know what do you want to do?" "I don’t know what do you want to do..." "Now don’t start that again!" He found it quite funny.

I remember around the age of 8 playing "Oranges and Lemons" and the steady hand game (the one which makes a beep when you touch the connector with the wire) at a friends birthday party (It was several years yesterday in fact! Say Happy birthday to Aly please!) Then we locked Gary Hynes in the bedroom for about an hour for some reason and got told off by Aly’s mum.

At Aly’s summer party, his sister one year younger showed me her middle finger for some reason through the window. I returned the favour. Aly’s Dad saw me and gave me a stern telling off. Aly’s sister got away with it. Have been scared of Aly’s Dad mostly ever since.

Aly and me competing to complete the Mental Arithmetic books "Number Land" in infants school first.

Me causing one of my cub scout football teams goals to be offside. Desperate for a goal, when we had a break I ran with the two strikers, being kids we never passed. One of them scored, his first goal ever, but thanks to me it got disallowed for offside. Luckily I don’t think anyone in that game realised I was the one offside. Probably because I was meant to be in defence.

The Cub Scout camping trip ending in disaster when a thunderstorm struck and us all getting wet. Was fork lightning and was so scary, when we were tidying our tents the following day, someone found some poop in someone’s trousers and threw it out the tent and we all had a good laugh. No one owned up.

I remember a mate Ben coming to school having been infected with Impetigo (skin infection). Set out to get it myself because I wanted a week off school. I remember moving my arm close to his infection and managing to get it. Wasn’t that nice though, and it wasn’t worth the week off school.

First day of school, been told by one of my soon to be very good friends "I’m Alastair who the heck are you?"

Also remember the future school bully Alan, crying in reception on the first day of school because his mummy was leaving him.

Remember a very old friend Andreas hitting the school bully over the head with a Duplo brick for smashing his Duplo tower.

Remember Andreas taking some paper from the paper drawer so we could do some drawing at the childminders we went to (because it was dull). Teacher caught him red-handed and he got in trouble for stealing paper.

Remember being told to stand in the corridor for spitting with friends in a spitting contest. My first criminal act.

Remember a Turkish boy Eren reckoning he was harder than my friend Ben who did karate. Ben didn’t want to fight him. Eren punched him but Ben blocked him and then kicked him in the nose giving him a nosebleed.

Remember getting 9/10 on a spelling test at school. The word I got wrong was "hour". I thought she said "our".

Remember making a lego spider and using it to "scare" the dinner lady on April Fools Day. She tried to show she was scared, but it wasn’t convincing.

Remember hiding from Andreas an entire lunchtime. Poor Andreas.

Getting in numerous fights. Knocking someone’s head on a brick wall, having my head smashed into a water fountain, fighting with Eren on the school field for some reason, kicking someone who was giving my sister hassle, and pulling the collar of another kid giving my sister hassle and him talking in a know it all voice.

Learning origami in year 3 or 4 with some Japanese person, making a football stadium just so we could use electronics in the floodlights (and never finishing it), making a pyramid with plasticine treasures hidden inside.

Ms Bennett getting drunk on the year 6 schools trip to Scarborough. I gave her so much grief over that, always mentioning it, and that made everyone else do it to. Seen her recently and she still hasn’t forgiven me for that!

That’s all of the ones I can think off the top of the head, but I’m sure more will come to me as I trigger my memory. I don’t suppose anyone else has as many random memories as me do they? If so please share...

You have spent so long writing this, that it deserves some recognistion.
Not that I read it, as I am not remotely interested in things that have happened to you in the past because
a) I don't know you, and
b) I don't know you.

Didn't seem to take that long. Just jotted them down off the top of my head.

Just making the point it's weird the things you remember.

Well you can't remember everything, can you.

I read that all (for some odd reason).

Laughed a couple of times too.

*sniggers* Mrs Hiscock *sniggers*

Anyway.

I would write some memories down, that is, If I could, well, remember them.

Yeh we all had a good laugh at Mrs Hiscock's name. But she generally was quite scary.

Am I really this odd? Nobody remembers as much as I do!

I can remember back to when I was about 3-4 in Greece...

Someone took me on a moped and drove me about a bit, we knew them, it wasn't a paedo!

There's things that I'll never forget though, like important things...

Or the time me and my mate managed to sink my giant rubber dingy while rowing about in the sea!

It was a funny moment, I leant on the boat, the seam ripped, the boat deflated spraying water everywhere and then it just wrapped up around us and sunk...

We both got out and swam back, I never saw the boat again...