How my mind works! - Actual x-ray of my head. There are one or two cogs missing. Apparently Omega 3 fish oil is good for that
This particular memory has to do with our back garden. We had a really magic garden at home. Nothing posh mind you. It had a flattish section of lawn that was about fifteen yards long and twenty yards wide and then slopes quite steeply down a banking of about another twenty yards to a fenced boundary. Beyond was a large wood that led to farmland and the river Goyt.
Dad had been very lucky in getting the end plot with such a great garden. At the time he was an electrician working for Wimpeys the builders. My Mum and Dad wanted to move from the two bed terraced house in the centre of Marple, as Janet was two years old and Mum was expecting me. That house was going to get crowded very soon.
Dad had been very lucky in getting the end plot with such a great garden. At the time he was an electrician working for Wimpeys the builders. My Mum and Dad wanted to move from the two bed terraced house in the centre of Marple, as Janet was two years old and Mum was expecting me. That house was going to get crowded very soon.
Outside our house - Janet and Erika with my cousins Derek & Jackie with Grandad and Auntie Barbara
Over the years I noticed our house seemed to have a lot more plug sockets than our neighbours...funny that!.... err moving swiftly on!
"Friends Romans, Countrymen" - Grandma and me in our new back garden
The back garden was like an adventure playground. I think most of the neighbouring kids preferred our garden as they always seemed to be round there. Sometimes there would be ten children running amok. It used to get a bit of a mud fest when it had been raining and Dad would go spare when he came home from work and saw the state of the grass. "Why don't you go and play in another garden for a change" was a regular one or "how come they always come round here?"
A long lost photo of Janet, Me and Erika with ice lollies at Lyme Park
The truth was that our garden was just ace, so we didn't want to. You could roll down the hill in the summer and skid/sledge down it in the winter. We could climb trees and have crab apple fights. We made dens in the bushes and dared each other to go into the woods beyond. Some say they were haunted. whhhhoooh (that was a scary ghost noise)
Mum in her Manchester airport uniform - in our ace back garden
Janet and Erika used to join in with me and my friends. They were both rough and tumble types, especially Janet. Erika was a bit more of a 'girly' girl but still liked to be outside playing with the boys. We used to tease the girls about the woods being haunted. I would make up stories about the ghost of Marple Hall that roamed the woods. Erika especially, would get a bit frightened and go and tell Mum. Janet didn't believe the stories for one minute and would tell me to stop messing around. One day I decided I had to convince Janet there really was something in the woods. So I hatched a cunning plan.
Marple Hall before it was pulled down in the 1950's.
Marple Hall was home to the Bradshaw Family since prior to the English civil war. Judge Bradshaw who owned the house, was famously a signatory on the death warrant of Charles the 1st. It is said that the ghost of the horseman that took the warrant to London, rides through Marple Hall once a year.
Anyway back to my story. A few days earlier I had broken the pedal reflector strip off my Raleigh Chopper (remember those). I was just as clumsy an oaf back then as I am now. It had shattered into little squares and was beyond repair. I liked the way the bits reflected when light shone on it and an idea came to me. I must have been about seven or eight years old so god knows how my mind was working.
The next day I sneaked down the garden after school. I think it was just before dark as I climbed over the fence into the woods beyond. I have to say I was a little bit nervous of the ghost myself, so I hurriedly took out the small reflective pieces from my pocket along with sellotape and scissors. A minute or two later and I was done and quickly running up the garden.
I couldn't wait to eat tea and test out my plan on the girls. Sure enough as soon as we had finished I told Janet and Erika that I had seen the ghost down the garden. Janet didn't believe me so I said I would show them. The plan was coming together. I got a torch and we snuck out of the back door and headed to the top of the grass banking where we could see the dark woods beyond the fence. I told them the ghost was definitely in those woods and that I had seen it earlier. Trouble was Harvey had crept out and joined us. He was only three years old. He wanted to see what was going on too, so I shone the torch down the garden and into the woods. There they were! Two really scary pairs of red eyes staring back at us. Erika screamed "there it is" and dashed back to the house yelling all the way. Harvey started sobbing his eyes out which made Janet cry too, as she carried Harvey back up the garden. I was mortified! I didn't think it would be that scary.
The dark woods at the bottom of our garden
The thing was I had only taped one pair of reflective eyes to the tree? But there were two pairs looking at me. I nearly soiled myself as I ran up the garden as fast as I could. I got to the back door only to be met by Mum, wondering what on earth was going on.
I never owned up to my prank. I would have been mincemeat. Harvey was unconsolable and Erika wouldn't come out of her room. Neither of them would go near the garden for ages after that. I am sure Janet suspected me of foul play too. I felt really bad about what I had done for a long time. I was also a bit scared to go in the woods for a while. What were those other eyes? It must have been a fox or a cat......or was it something else. Whhhhhoooh (that scary ghost again)
The horseman had been at the blue smarties again
Brilliant. I'm loving your blogs, keep them coming.
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