Thursday 19 July 2018

Embarrassing the Children

You're probably not supposed to embarrass the children when they are in their 30's and I'm over 60 but I did..................Great Fun!

It was at the after-the-funeral-get-together (because I refused to call it a wake.......it's not a word used much in Suffolk).

Towards the end of the afternoon, I was standing near some of the family and  a bloke came up to me and said "you don't know me do you?" I said  "No, but you must be someone who worked with Colin at sometime". "Yes, I'm C.M" he said. "Really!" I said with a big grin!

When Colin was a County Council road-man and then a supervisor in Central Area back in the early 1980's he was  based at the depot in Eye. C.M, also worked for the council as a road-man and he and his wife had rented the flat above the offices there and when Col told me who lived there I asked if this was the same C.M who went to the same secondary school as Col and was the same age as me and then I told Colin all about my first kiss! Colin must have told C.M that I remembered.

I introduced him to the family "here is the person who gave me my first kiss!" Certainly embarrassed the family!  Probably embarrassed CM too..........he said " I wasn't going to mention that if you had forgotten!"

Then we reminisced about that day almost exactly 50 years ago when I was a  13 year old helping on a stall at a one-off country fair event called "The Spirit of Suffolk" and he was there with Bacton Modern School to do a country dancing display......and not so shy!
It was quite surreal to meet again after 50 years!

I wrote a note in my " Letts' Schoolgirl Diary", I still have them from 1968 and 1969! Goodness knows why.

  (You have to be a certain age to remember them)  and lost a lot of respect for my Mum when she told me off for kissing boys,............ she'd been reading my diary.
 I must have vowed then that if I had children I would never read their diaries and I kept to that.

Thank you for comments yesterday.

Back Tomorrow
Sue




28 comments:

  1. That made me smile! I had a boyfriend when I was 8 - his name was James, but we all called him "Cookie" - don't ask me why. I don't think he kissed me though.

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    1. I guess it’s after Captain James Cook the famous explorer? x

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  2. Made me smile and laugh, Sue! Reminds me of when I saw a man at church where we both attend. Went over to say hello and he gave me a hug! And then he told people he remembered me when I was in diapers! Goodness...well I got him to stop saying that. But glad I know him and we are friends with him and his wife. Go to the same bible study as well. Hop over to my blog sometime if ya have a chance! Hugs and blessings!

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  3. Great memory! And fancy still having that diary. I had my first kiss with my first boyfriend also at the age of 13 (he was 14!). He gave me a love letter (well, he got a friend to give it to me)....my mother took it out of my schoolbag, threw it away and gave me a telling off, which annoyed the hell out of me - her going through my bag and stealing the letter, I mean.

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  4. This has made me chuckle. A great way to embarrass the family indeed. Well done! xx

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  5. Funny what things happen at after-funeral get togethers (we don't use wake in Norfolk either). I think one is glad of things like that to lighten the proceedings. I had kept my old diaries like yours too, and I also had a Girl Guide Diary although I was never a girl guide but I wrote in it everyday and there was a full record of the 62/63 winter that I religiously wrote down every night. No kisses recorded though! I burnt them when I moved here as I decided I didn't want anybody else reading them one day. Best to do it myself I thought. Have a good day. x

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  6. I recycled my teen diaries away a few years ago. There were details of ex loves that only I needed to know about!
    Arilx

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  7. Oh the joys and sorrows of the teenage diaries - mum too read mine one day so I found a secret hiding place. Once I was married though I decided I would get rid of them. I do miss though not being able to look up when an event happened in the 60's and 70's. I started my journals again in 1990 and often will have a quick look back and it helps me remember some of the little things I had forgotten about.

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  8. It would have been so much worse if you had gone for kiss number two there and then! x

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  9. Yes, I had a Letts diary, yes, my mother read it; yes I made the same vow not to read my childrens’ and I stuck to it; yes, I love embarrassing my children (its pay back time LOL) and no, I’ve never been kissed by CM ! Thank you Sue for making me chuckle. X

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  10. Lovely story embarrassing your kids is wonderful they do tend to forget you too are a human being

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  11. Same experience with my mother and the diary. Same vow to daughter and kept my vow. Thanks again Sue for a memory -Letts dieries were quite aspirational when I was young ecause we had a compulsory homework diary that also had to be bought.

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  12. I love embarrassing my grown up kids it makes for some hilarious times at get togethers.
    I could never keep up with writing in a diary. Always started with good intentions but never quite managed to fill one.
    Hugs-x-

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  13. I wrote my teenage diaries with a secret code so my Mum wouldn't understand them if she did read them. The only thing was by the time I was in my late twenties and reminiscing about things ... I couldn't understand them either 😀

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  14. How nice that you got to meet the man again who gave you your first kiss. That is a very special moment in a girl’s life and never forgotten.

    Diaries used to be popular when we were young. I had one but stopped writing in it when I found out my sister was reading it and she teased me without mercy about it.

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  15. Great story. I've embarrassed my four many a time but they take in stride now. Was fortunate that my mother never read my journals. Not that there was much to read, but she was a stickler about privacy; thought everyone deserved it, no matter your age. I feel the same.

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  16. I wrote diaries (journals) from a young age as well. I recall destroying my teenage ones for the soul purpose of making sure nobody else read them! I'm not surprised that a lot of bloggers also kept diaries. -Jenn

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  17. You little minx!
    It is good practice to occasionally shock our children, remind them that we are real people and were once young.

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  18. I used to write diaries until my mum told me off after reading it, I stopped writing it then. A blast from the past, as they say, always good to embarrass the children xx

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  19. Your little story made me smile.
    I never kept a diary, too worried about other people reading it.

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  20. What a story.
    I wonder if I will ever bump into Keith who chased me around the playground in 3rd grade when I was the new girl in school.

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  21. What a great story! I revisited my time with my boyfriend in 7th grade when I found all my old letters. It's good to remember those times. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  22. I've still got a few diaries from my early teens and what puzzles me is that I mention Christian names of people I obviously knew really well at the time but now I have no idea who they were. I do know who gave me my first kiss though and I've seen his mother over the years (usually at funerals) and she always reminds me I was his first "girlfriend".

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  23. A lovely story and what the after funeral parties are all about. Reminiscing, funny stories of happier times... a celebration of life.That is what in my book is one of the important roles of a parent... embarrass the kids, just like ours did to us and theirs to them.

    LX

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  24. My dear Dad refers to it as "The After-Match Function". We certainly had a good one after dear Mum's service earlier this year. Mum was there, in her screwed down casket. My sister commented afterwards "Wouldn't Mum have loved it"

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