FIRSTS

[whotheheckami]

Swiped from the lovely purrthecat


First bike: A red Moby bike that my Dad bought as fire-damaged goods, although it was perfect to me. I used to race around the farmyard on that terrorising the cats, dogs and chickens. I eventually learnt to ride it without stabilisers in the horse paddock. My sister Christine who was 9 years older than me and her boyfriend had forcibly removed the bike from my hands so that they could take them off. They then took it in turns to hold the back of my saddle as I got used to it. I wanted to go faster and faster and eventually realised that I was cycling on my own when I looked back and saw the two of them snogging each other’s faces off!

First Best friend: I guess that would have been Philip Grey in primary school. We were inseparable for 7 years. He made a great Flipper when I was Marine Boy! We fell out of touch when I moved up to secondary school a year ahead of him. He’s now lecturing in Sweden and is as bald as a coot.

First real memory of something: Probably Christmas 1966 when I would have been 2 and a half. I can clearly remember being given a Jack and Jill comic annual in my stocking. I can still remember some of the stories. I think the most enduring memories are of my Dad making up bedtime stories for me about two swans who lived in the moat of a castle in Shropshire.

First car: Blue Chrysler Sunbeam 1.6s (I blew the engine up!) PEY 947S

First kiss: At a party with Susan Ann Mary (SAM) Jones in the Summer of 1981

First date: The following evening with SAM

First break-up: Over the phone with SAM in the Autumn of 1981 when I decided I needed to stay in Uni for the weekend instead of coming home to see her. She dumped me in such a fit of anger it was unbelievable

First time you had sex: Sometime in the Autumn of 1982 with Wendy – a girl I had met at a club in North Wales (note to self: must post that to juicebar)

First job: Well I started doing proper work on the farm when I was 8 – moving the electric strip fence each day to let the cattle get more grass – I was well paid too – I was getting £5 a week when the average pocket money was 10/- (50p). However, my first proper job was as a barman in the Queen’s Head Pub in Glanwydden. I had been chucked out of uni and sort of drifted into the work. I loved it and was bloody good at it. I was managing the place within 3 months and was working with the landlord and chef to review the menus and wines. I often wonder how my life would have turned out if I had made a career of it.

First screen name: meloffcake (although I probably had a user name at Uni)

First self purchased album: ELO – Out of the Blue (on Blue Vinyl)

First concert: Meatloaf – Dead Ringer Tour with the sky-hooked Caddy for Paradise…

First funeral: My Taid (Grandad). He was probably the most profound influence on my early life. In fact, a family story relates that he was the person who saved my life because my Mum wanted to smother me in the first few months of my life because I used to cry incessantly. Taid had recently retired and took me on long walks to get me out of the house. Over the years he introduced me to the wonders of nature about me and told me stories of the Conwy fishing boats. He was a Truly Great Man and I still miss him. I look forward to meeting him again.

First pet: A very difficult one to remember – I grew up surrounded by farm cats and house cats, but I suppose the first cat that was truly mine was Tinker – his mother was Jellyfish (I gave her that name because she was a nasty piece of work and tried to remove my hand). I found Tinker and the rest of his kindling tucked down behind some bales in the hay barn. He was about 3 days old and had the most perfectly balanced black and white markings. I played with him as he grew and he had to stay when his brothers and sisters left to go to new homes. However, he wasn’t a house cat and so he never got beyond the doorstep. . We became a team and he used to follow me everywhere. This was to become his downfall as he used to follow me on the 1-mile walk to school and then return home to wait for me at the end of the day. One day, when he was full grown and I would have been about 6 I got home and he wasn’t there to greet me at the gatepost. I immediately knew that something was wrong and retraced my steps, calling for him. Halfway to the school I heard him calling from the bottom a hedge. I gingerly reached in and he gently licked my hand. I cleared the brambles away and saw that he was covered in blood and shit; I took my shirt off , wrapped him up and carried him home. He must have been hit by a car which had shattered his pelvis. The vet did what he could, which was to look him over and shake his head. However, he gave him pain-killing tablets which I duly gave him. I cleaned him up and brought him into the house. He slowly recovered, but could never walk properly and his back-end looked sort of “warped”. However, he was now a house-cat and remained one for the many years that he lived. Eventually, passing on to the great litter-tray in the sky when I was in my teens.

First prime minister you voted for: I was 18 in 1981 and so I guess it would have been Maggie Thatcher – how can I bear the guilt?

First piercing/tattoo: Not had any, but I’ve been thinking about it

First time living away from home: That would have been in Halls of Residence at Salford Uni – what a dump! And we had to take our lives in out hands as we walked into lectures between slum tower blocks – dodging the falling paving slabs became a life-skill!

First house/flat: 75, The Keep, Kinston Upon Thames. Mendi and I moved into this military married quarter after we got married – lots of happy memories.

First credit card: Barclaycard

First independent holiday: Well, I flew to Toronto on my own when I was 13, but that was to visit family and so I guess that doesn’t count. So it would be a ski trip in 1983 to Champoussin in the Portes du Soleil ski region on the Franco-Swiss border that I paid for from my bar earnings

First love: Easy, that would be C – who I saw on 5 September 1974 in class 1A of Ysgol John Bright in Llandudno

First enemy: Gerald Defearn – a thug from the Dr Barnado’s home near my primary school. He twatted me one in the face one afternoon. When I had got up, stopped bleeding and asked my why he’d done it he said it was because he could. So I kicked him in the nuts. Hard!

Comments

[sanda56.livejournal.com]

ELO – Out of the Blue (on Blue Vinyl)

Oh! I remember blue vinyl records. Think they did Mr Blue Skys in blue vinyl. A boy on the bus showed me his. What? ;0)

Re:

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

*Giggles*
I've also realised that I've got a Juluka 12" on an Africa-shaped picture disk

[sanda56.livejournal.com]

I've also realised that I've got a Juluka 12" on an Africa-shaped picture disk

What, so you'd have a map of Africa shaped record whizzing round on the turntable!?! Nah! Surely the southern bit would get knocked off... Oh, I don't get it!

Also, don't reminisce about stuff I've not heard of! It makes me feel even older! ;0)

[trav28.livejournal.com]

thanks for addiny me! Sounds like your party went with a real bang, so to speak!