Good Old Days

It must be my age. It’s the ‘tattie’ holidays and I find myself once again remembering days gone by as I watch my own boys romp around in the great outdoors. We’ve left the outskirts of the big smoke for a few days to come back ‘home’, a term which my husband continues to be annoyed by. He just doesn’t understand it. Having left up North over 20 years ago, he feels the term should now only refer to where our wee family unit live now. I kinda get where he comes from, but when I take my turn to drive and hit the sight of the wonderfully barren mountains, my shoulders visably drop and I smile. Don’t get me wrong, I love where we live, but like everyone, I have so many vivid memories from my childhood days – good and bad – that the connection remains strong. It’s very important to me that my children know both worlds – city life and all that goes with it, but also that different kind of freedom and independance that comes with growing up in the countryside. I have fantastic childhood memories of spending long holidays on my great uncles farm. It was real old style. You worked Monday to Saturday, Sunday was the day of rest. That was the day I took my faithful old sony walkman, bunches of comics and packets of sweets to a wrecked old VW Beetle (which of course I had customised with any old paint I could find) that lay beside one of the fields. I roamed here, there and everywhere. Often on my own, trusted and unworried that anything would, or could, happen. Life was simple and fun. I saw countless calves being born and rode bareback on a placid old Shetland Pony. In the hot summers, I paddled in the burns. I played for hours on end with often only my imagination for company. Not a PSP, WII or Nintendo in sight. When the hay was taken in, it was by sheer hard graft and tractor and sled. It was the kids job to tramp down the hay on the sled and aim not to fall off the higher it got. Health and Safety? Who knew and who cared. But I genuinely believe it all helped me become the person I am. When not on the farm, holidays and weekends were often spent at the beach where between my parents and their circle of friends, there were boats, windsurfers, endless barbeques and long walks. Those days of course are long gone, but the spirit of it all lives on. I only hope my kids will have memories like that.

~ by zoewalker on October 21, 2009.