Wednesday, 21 July 2010

The sounds of childhood

Some sounds are typical:

the tinny mechanical rendition of Greensleeves from a distant ice-cream van. (I can almost feel the sticky penny in my hot little hand as I think about sitting on the edge of the kerb waiting for the van to arrive)

Raindrops tumbling heavily onto a windowsill

The school bell

Winds rippling through trees

The silence white world of snow

More specific to my world:

Sunday League football. Our garden bordered onto a 26 acre plot of land with football pitches, cricket pavilion and wooded dell. On Sunday mornings I rose to the sound of footballs being booted and men shouting.

Arguments

Grandma sweeping the garden path

My dad counting money when he was an insurance man

The rumble of a train line

Myself. Singing.

The sound of late night television programmes leaking up from the living room to my bedroom. I once lay on the landing and cried when my babysitter wouldn't let me watch The Sweeney.



Tales of the Unexpected elicited a similar response.





This tune always made me feel like crying...



Schools and colleges programmes are much cooler now than they were at the time.

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