When I was Young #Tag

Guess what.. it’s tag time again. I am always getting so excited when I come across a new tag. I was browsing Bloglovin’ the other day (as I do everyday) and I found a new tag on Northumberlandmam’s  blog. It’s about our childhood and it’s called “When I was young”. I love looking back on my childhood because it was awesome.

1.Do you (or your parents) have any memorabilia from when you were a baby? (ie. baby book, lock of hair, first shoes etc.)

We have so many photo albums from when I was born up to when I was a teenager. I could basically recapture my whole childhood. I also have my own hair somewhere when I first got it cut. My hair was down to my bum back then and my mum decided it would be really fun to get it cut super short.

2. Do you know if you were named after anyone?

I wasn’t named after anyone. My mum just liked the name.

3. And do you know of any other names your parents might have named you?

I think the second option would have been Anne or Anna after my great granny. If I was a boy, I would have been called Michael.

4. What is your earliest memory?

My earliest memory is probably when I was four years old and attended kindergarten. I have many memories from that place. From climbing around, going on the swing, sleeping on our little beds during nap time (I am the one who never wanted to sleep and my bed was put in a corner because I disturbed everyone else’s sleep), to having yummy lunch at our big table. It was a brilliant time at kindergarten.

5. Did your parent/s (or older siblings) read, sing or tell stories to you? Do you remember any of these?

They surely did. More my granny than my mum. We lived in a three storey house in Germany. My mum and I lived on the ground floor while my grandparents lived upstairs. My granny used to sing to me a lot and tell stories but so did my grandad and mum.

6. When you were young, do you remember what it was that you wanted to grow up to be?

I can’t get this confirmed by anyone but I think I wanted to be a vet. I was big into animals particularly horses and cats.

7. Did you have a favourite teacher at school?

I actually don’t remember my teachers in primary school that well. Our class teacher was a lovely woman and I’d say she was my favourite one. I think she taught reading, writing and maths.

8. How did you get to school?

I don’t remember how I got to primary school in the morning, I only remember coming back in the afternoon and passing by a sweet shop which was located at the corner of the school. Sometimes I got a few smurf sweets for little money back then. It may have been my mum who dropped me off at the school in the morning while she was on the way to work. School in Germany started between 7.30 and 8am. I think at some point I walked home on my own. The school was only down the road from our house. In primary school I cycled to school as that was in a different part of our town.

9. What games did playtime involve?

Anything. I had a huge Barbie play house. I liked playing with dolls as well as with with Playmobil and cars. I had a huge collection of Hot Wheel cars and I also liked playing board and card games.

10. Did you have a cubby house?

I didn’t but we had a huge yard and garden. This include a garden shed that stored all our garden bits but I also liked playing and hiding in there. We had a kind of stable on our property too. I spent a lot of time up there with my cat climbing on the roof of my grandad garage.

11. What was something you remember from an early family holiday?

My mum and I went on holidays every summer since the age of five. My first travel was to Bulgaria but I don’t remember much of it. We do have an enormous amount of photos though. I spent all my holidays in the pool most of the time. I loved swimming and still do.

12. What is a memory from one of your childhood birthday’s or Christmas?

Christmas was always a special time in our house. It was always so cosy when we all sat together Christmas Eve and opened the presents after tea time. Tea time in Germany by the way is tea/coffee and cake around 3.30pm. I remember when my grandad “disappeared” just before Santa knocked at the door to leave his sack.

13. What childhood injuries do you remember?

I didnt’ have any major childhood injuries. Every child gets a few scrapes. I wasn’t the kind of child who fell and came over crying to mammy. I just carried on playing. I do remember a bit of a deeper wound on my knee when I fell. But again, my mum put a plaster on it and that was it.

14. What was your first pet?

A cat of course. I grew up with cats. We also had a guinea pig called Max.

15. Did your grandparents, or older relatives tell you stories of “when I was young ..?”

They did and it was lovely to hear. My grandad was involved in the second world war. He was in prison and got out so you can imagine he had a lot of stories to tell.

16. What was entertainment when you were young?

I spent most of my time outside to be honest. Of course I watched some TV as well but definitely not even half as much as our children would nowadays.

17. Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?)

I remember very well when my mum got the first computer. We went on our bikes and collected it somewhere outside of town with a trailer. It was one of them chunky ones with the heaviest tower in the world. My grand parents had one of them old school phones. I used to love dialing it.

18. Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?

My granny and my mum both had a TV. Back then it was colour already. We had about twenty channels I’d say but it may have started off with three.

19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?

No, we never moved house. Generations have lived in the house I grew up in.

20. Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (i.e. fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake, etc)?

Apart from a few storms and lots and lots of snow during the winter time there were no major natural disasters.

21. Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?

I couldn’t tell you any specific songs now but if I’d hear certain songs that would definitely remind me of certain things in my childhood. I only recently had a flash back.

22. What is something that an older family member taught you to do?

My grandad was big into building and fixing stuff. This is probably where I got my DIY love from. At a very young age I could handle hammer, nails etc.

23. What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid?

Buffalo shoes, Diddl mouse, Baby G watch, Polly Pocket. There are probably many many more.

24. Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.)

In the 90’s it was a thing to collect stickers and swap them with other children. I had tons of these. It was great fun.

25. Share your favourite childhood memory.

There are too many. Going on summer holidays every year I suppose. I love traveling and I am hoping to continue showing my own kids the world.