To Memoir Or Not To Memoir

There's no denying that sadly the world has become more materialistic; and people put much importance to what they have, like a big house, good job, fancy car and so on, rather than who they are and what good they do in life.

Be that as it may, it set me thinking the other day to simpler times when perhaps we were more innocent and life was a little different. Sure, in them days people worked just as hard, if not harder, and they faced great difficulties and hardships; yet, somehow, or so it seems, they were a little happier than they are now. At least they did not have to wait a whole three minutes for the microwave oven to go "ping" to announce that their ready-meal, which was produced some weeks back and kept frozen since, is now ready for consumption.

I remember as a child things were different. For example, we did not have air-conditioning or central heating at home. To keep warm we just sat in a circle and sucked extra strong mints. That's central heating. To cool-off we just sat on blocks of ice. Do you remember when ice was delivered to your door and you put it in a metal lined container to cool your foods and drinks? No? Perhaps you're too young to remember. I don't remember either; I was told about it by a friend who used to deliver the ice. He said he had a special pick to grasp the ice with.

As I recall, we didn't have many luxuries when I was young. As a child I used to be made to walk the plank every day. We didn't have a dog at the time.

I used to like eating Alphabetti Spaghetti. But I was a slow learner and could not read. So my parents gave me ordinary spaghetti instead.

We also had a parrot in a cage. If you pulled his left leg he would hum the Offenbach Can Can music. If you pulled his right leg he sang "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas". If you pulled both legs together he would fall off his perch.

In fact we had two parrots. A male and female. We could not tell them apart. So someone told my parents to creep up on them at night and check who was doing what to whom; and the one that was doing is the male.

So my dad checked on the birds at night and when he saw them enjoying themselves he put a white collar on the male so we could tell the birds apart.

A week later the vicar visited us. The male parrot said to him: "So they caught you at it too?"

Talking of singing birds and music. Do you remember those old record players which you had to wind-up with a handle and you had to be very careful in case the needle scratched the record? As I recall they had a big trumpet shaped contraption to increase the sound.

My parents had an old one which they had inherited as a family heirloom. It was never played. It was used as a decorative piece in the living room. It was also good for us kids to play basket ball with it. We used to roll up pieces of paper as a small ball and throw them into the big cone. Sadly, my parents had no sense of humour at all.

Why is it that grown-ups have no sense of humour?

I remember as a child my parents used to play with me hide and seek. I used to lean against a tree and count to 100 and they would hide. Then I had to find them in London ... Edinburgh ... Glasgow ... Cardiff ... Birmingham ... They spared no effort to hide from me and make the game real fun.

I used to come home from school and find that they had moved. The new owners of the house used to shoo me away. This happened several times. I did not know how it felt like being wanted until the day I saw my photo on a police notice board.

Anyway ... what is all this leading to, you may well ask.

Well, it's my way of introducing this video which I have just made. Hope you like it.