I was listening to ‘Tommy’ while ironing when for some reason I tried to remember the music my dad liked. This suddenly developed into the realisation that I know so little about my mum and dad. This just kept nagging at me. So I have decided so start a little journal and when I remember stuff (or find out new details) it will be recorded. This will give our son a really important source of information about his grandparents.

On the first few pages we have

Favourite Music

Dad – Kathy Kirby I think.

Mum – Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, Runrig

Favourite Tipple

Dad – Beer. Later in life when he was ill he used to say that the doctors said it was ok for him to drink a couple of cans of Hemeling Lager – that must have been an interesting prescription.

Mum – Snowballs

Favourite Movies

Dad – Can’t ever remember him watching the TV (except for England games). Can only ever remember him twiddling with his radio to pick up overseas radio stations.

Mum – Sinatra, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, James Stewart. Can even remember her quite enjoying the occasional Van Damme, Bruce Willis or Chuck Norris movie.

Random Stuff

Dad – He once called a Status Quo song ‘just a load of racket and they will never last’ that was many years ago.

Dad – Remember he would often take me to the mouth of the River Tees where it meets the North Sea. There was a small lighthouse on the South Gare. One day he just walked up to it and knocked on the door. Two minutes later we were in the lighthouse and I got to sound the horn.

Dad – Didn’t have a favourite football team but would support which ever team was playing Middlesbrough (he hated them – never worked out why)

Dad – I vividly remember him watching an England game which resulted in the team not qualifying for the World Cup. Over the 90 minutes his face turned purple and I heard my first (second, third, fourth ….) swear word.

Dad – Died when I was young so never got to see his grandson.

Dad – When I was really young we had a pet dog. Lovely dog but he decided to bite the postman. When the policeman came round to investigate the dog bit him as well. Dad had a real go at the policeman telling him he was trespassing in our garden. Somehow he got the dog off without even a warning.

Dad – On a family day trip to the seaside we bought fish & chips and decided to eat them on the train coming back. Unfortunately when Dad decided to shake the tomato ketchup bottle up, he didn’t count on the lid not being actually on the bottle. Most of train carriage and train conductor ended up covered in the red stuff.

Mum – She had a really bad stroke, the doctors told us to expect the worst. Three days later the first thing she said was “I wish that noisy bugger in the next bed would just sod off”. Back in her house 3 weeks later.

Mum – Always wanted a pet Tiger.

Mum – She would babysit our son’s pet hamster. The hamster was rabid and clearly psychotic – my hands still carry the scars. But mum could happily stroke and handle the psychotic one without even slightest sign of a nibble.

Mum – Got to spend quality years with her grandson.

Mum – When I was young she took me to visit my sister living in Africa. I remember us buying a load of sweets to suck on as we took off (apparently to stop your ears popping). Unfortunately after two abortive takeoffs the sweets were all gone by the time we actually took off.

Mum – Watched the Bruce Willis film ‘The Sixth sense’, she sussed the ending out after 5 minutes and turned it off.

Mum – could never remember family names that well. So everyone was just called “Pidge”.