Some great stories of the memories, i had a laugh and a tear to be honest reading some of them.
I start this shit off pished, tell it like it really is, wake up next day, read the first line and delete it, then regret doing same. Old school, let the guard down and your first reaction is to retreat .....
I delete because i don't know how to handle (sober) what i think but dinnae say out loud ever...
Its what i love about this place, in my time here theres so many that have clearly had a moment or several and this is the place they can let it out. No matter what you feel and no matter what you say, there are kind folk on here that see it for what it is and have a kind word. You regret being that fucking open cos it takes you to be utterly fucked to say it even to people you've never met.
My struggle with the odd outburst is becuase its really always me trying to make sense of whats went before, recognising whats been written before but only now being mature enough to come to terms with it. I think becoming a father has been the making of me, its my joy, i'm better at it than anything else.
But walking in those shoes like many before me, I really struggle with how naive i was to whats went before me and the ignorance i've shown to the people that were always on my team. I guess thats something many of us will live with.
I suppose the early years will always be our finest and many of us were LUCKY to be brought up in poverty of some kind. I maintain to this day, where you find poverty you'll see a community.
There is no community these days because even those that are skint, couldn't hold a candle to the olden days version of SKINT. They'd have a rechargable fucking LED.
I'm the first to admit that i have a good living, i work fucking hard for what i have but i'm fortunate. At the same time, i'm a busy bhoy and its mostly because i refuse to take the piss out of people. I've never advertised in 25 years of business so all of my work comes from word of mouth, 99% say, 'i heard you don't take the piss with fee's and your relatable but straight to the point'
As my old man used to say to me, 'when you wake up in the morning, your job is to graft for your family and you'll take pride when you graft with everything you've got. Go home tired, you can be satisfied with an honest day, just don't be one of those that are rich in wealth by stealing others honest money for your own end or sponging aff the system'.
My folks were honest and survived on my old bhoys wages alone, piss poor as a teenager and throughout his 20's. He could have sat in the house sponging and they would have been better off financially. We would have been better off too as we'd see our old man more than the 1 day a week we had for years.
Knowing now what i knew then but didn't understand, that's what really sticks out for me about the people they were. I've said before, we had fuck all, but we had everything we needed. Thinking back now, we ate better than i do now, we had clothes that were anyhting but cheap looking back at pictures. My folks pride wasn't a car, the new TV, etc. Their pride was knowing deep down, they spent every hard earned fucking penny on us and not themselves or 4 cans of breakers.
A few things that might bring the memories back for some, stick out like sore thumbs for me.... bear in mind we stayed a fucking mile from anything, we stayed in a scheme that was about a mile from the farms so what was relevant to us might not be to others
Having to walk in the toon as it was downhill, but the walk back was like a munro so you got a bus. It was free for the 3 kids, either way, but my maw wouldn't pay 25p for a bus when you could walk it down a hill.
Tweed fucking trousers, matching pair for you and your brother... as big billy said, tweed was a mixture of Camel pubes and Barbed wire'
Going shopping once a week with 3 weans and getting 1 box of cereal a week and 3 weans fighting over the cereal them the toy in that box every week
Evil nuns running schools
Your Grandad turning up at your hoose pished in his slippers bumming a few fags then asking my dad to pay the £12 taxi in the days when fags were £1.50 a packet
Your da letting his old man sleep it aff in your bed, then when you went to your bed that night it was fucking reeking
Your faither and Maw arguing about his old man.... 'aye he's a fucking drunk like you say, but he's my fucking dad and no matter how right you are, you'll go before that man for what he's done for me' (my paw was very respectful of my mum, a gentleman always, he rarely dug his heels in, he wasn't pussy whipped, far from it, he knew my maw was sound and very genuine, but even though she was in the right, thats the only time he wouldn't back down.
Staple diets of a child of the 80's - Findus crispy pancakes (beef n onion)/Pot Noodles/a fry up every Saturday and Sunday/Super Noodles/Home-made chips every fucking day in life/burgers and gammon steaks oot a tin/bacon frys (thin strips out the pack, 40 secs each side)/SPAM/liver and onions
My old bhoy complaining to my mam, 'enough of this fucking foreign shite' - over spag bol !
There wasn't a chinese or Indian in existence in Inverclyde then
Solripe/Alpine - Canni remember - we used to get a crate of 6 mixed soft drinks
Soda Streams
Roy of the Rovers
Pie rolls at school
Your maw and paw sending you to the shops with a note and money tae buy fags
Kensitas coupons - in later years they stopped it cos everybody was using them for roach
Star Wars figures
The Excorcist
Watching every Rocky Film every day then watching either Superman or Star Wars
The 'Tally' van - 3 times a night, buying singles
I'm that old i remember a grocery van
The bacon bhoys - used to deliver bacon
Tablet & Macaroon
Paperbhoys
My first carry out was 2 Tennents Supers
Scrumpy Jack
Strawberry Double Dips
Micro Dots
The Word with Terry Christian
The Hitman and Her
Bullseye
Knight Rider
The A Team
TJ Hooker
Knightrider - naw SP
Twin Peaks
David Gray being good
Right i'm fucked again, i'm that stuck in the past, i'm away to watch Trainspotting, not seen it since it was out
Sometimes i think i have survivors guilt about such a great upbringing, is that a thing....
