Minor/Major: Other Peoples Childhood Memories (I Still Need More!)

So after asking, this is the few stories I have received back, each of them are quite different and especially with the story behind them which some have included. When I receive more stories back (hopefully reaching my target of 10) I will continue to write them into this blog post and create them as thumbnails to be able to visualise them fully myself. But so far what I have received is good and what I was hoping to get back from those I asked.

Danielle - "When I was quite young I spent most of the summer in our card shop, and I usually made a little den at the back of the shop behind the counter, full of note pads, coloured pencils and blue tack animals.
It was an L shape secluded part behind the counter, with corner shelves incredibly high, and a small counter top full of clutter. There were a few purple/blue veils to separate it from the rest of the shop. There were blue carpets with bits fraying at the edges. The colour scheme of the shop was blue and gold and that was quite prominent in this little den, with clear boxes and boxes full of cards like birthday, sympathy, good luck cards etc. Stationary sets everywhere. We also sold ornaments of dragons and fairies which I used to 'borrow' from the shelves and play with, usually flying a dragon around the shelves or two dragons fighting an epic battle over the prettiest card designs etc. I felt quite safe and secluded and also quite sneaky because none of the customers could see me but I could see them.

I guess I kind of stopped thinking about the den as a play thing when I started helping out in the shop and got more involved, about 12? But to this day I still sit near the back with my laptop or something and catch a glimpse of a dragon or pirate figure the fell behind the shelf haha looking back it definitely makes me feel nostalgic and quite 'cozy' cause usually the shop was quite cold and I used to wrap myself up in my coat or something."

Eleanor L - "When I was younger (about 7/8) we used to have a secret area in the playground at school. It was an overgrown area made of a tree tunnel and a load of foliage, in the middle of which there was a little opening. It always smelt of wild garlic in the spring and early summer. The ground was full of pottery and we used to pretend to be part of the Time Team crew and dig up as much pottery as we could every lunchtime. We really enjoyed exploring the past and working out whatever we could find. I used to always come home with coat pockets full of a mixture of pottery and dirt. People could have come into our area but given that it was tucked away, they never really seemed to bother. Later in life I seriously considered studying to become an archiologist. In the end we stopped playing there because we left primary school (although we did go on a few more archiologist digs and explore a bit more later on). It was a truly happy time."

Manisha "Light in the Dark" - "I tried to remember hard about a place I went to as a child, and I suppose it would be a large play house there was at a Women's Refuge garden (where people go when there are domestic problems).  It was fantastic; a large colourful shed, and inside were so so so many toys, I would be occupied for hours, along with a couple of other kids. When I was in it I felt very happy, relaxed, and safe in the room, surrounded by happy things; we played with all sorts of things, teddies, dolls, cars, musical instruments. It made me forget about the problems at home!

I think there was a rule of no eating in the room, and family members generally left us kids alone to play. After we left the refuge, i remember going there again after about 5 years due to another domestic problem, and i was shocked to see the play house completly abandoned, rotting away and unused. I wanted more than anything to look inside again (I was about 11?) But the staff said no one could go in there. I was gutted, but i had to forget about it. When I think back, I get sad at how derelict it was and how no one cared for it anymore; the teddies shoved against the window, the mould and rain damage, it was sad"

Eleanor S - "From ages 3-6 I lived in Guernsey, and the whole time I was there I had an invisible friend called Jack. From what I remember, Jack went between living in the house and living in an imaginary place. I could go to this place in my mind to play with jack, usually just playing tag. It was a never-ending grass path with trees on either side, a wire fence on the left with a mass of bushes and brambles behind it, and nothing on the right except the light on the sun. The trees created a canopy over the path, and Jack and I would run down it chasing each other. Whenever I was in trouble or being told off, Jack would wait there.

I remember the place felt safe, happy and warm. It was always daytime there, always sunny, always green. It was pretty idyllic. My last memory of it was that I was running away from Jack, not because we were playing but because he was being mean to me. After I moved away from Guernsey I never spoke about Jack again, until my mum asked if I remembered him about 2 years ago, and was surprised I could still describe him. I don't think I ever told her or anyone else about the place with the trees.Thinking about it now, it's not a place I would want to go back to. I think both Jack and the place with the trees were things I used as an only child dealing with my parents' recent divorce. But I do remember having fun there."

Pip - "Okay so in primary school me and my best friend would make a fort/tent in her room whenever I went round hers. We would get her bed sheet/duvet and tuck one end between the head of her bed and the wall so it was secure, then tie the other bit to her curtain pole, her window was above the length of her bed. Then we would stretch the curtains over the bed sheet and across to her bookshelf at the end of the bed, and tuck it in between books there to hold it and make a fort over her bed, and we'd take spare sheets from the airing cupboard and drape them half over top and down the front to cover it more but give us an opening to get in and out. All the bed sheets had different cartoons/characters on them. I distinctly remember a Bugs Life, Toy Story, Barbie, Action Man and 2 different star wars sets. Inside we would arrange her stuffed toys, the standout ones I remember was a huge white tiger that was about 3ft long, an a lot of small owls, penguins, and the pg tips monkey (the old style one). We'd also make signs saying our brothers weren't allowed in her room that we would do in bubble writing and colour in the letters with patterns and put stickers all over them, then sellotape them on the stairs and her bedroom door. Wed usually also make (not so) stealthy runs into her brothers' bedroom across the landing and steal their action men/ LOTR figures/ Thunderbirds figures to arrange in the fort (and annoy them). We also both collected crystals and shells and fossils, and I would bring round my collection each time and we would tip out both our collections and organise them along her windowsill, which was inside the fort, and divide them up equally between each of us because each time we met we had both probably added a few new pretty rocks or shells or something to our own collections but we wanted to have the same. Inside it felt really cool because it was quite a small space but we organised everything to fit just right and we would have our little boxes of pens and stickers and just draw and write terrible "joke books" or "poem books" which were literally about 4 pieces of a4 paper taken from her printer, folder in half and stapled together, but we thought we were really cool at the time. Also the lighting inside the fort was really cute becasue of all the different coloured bed sheets and how light came through them and also because she had quite a few stained glass ornaments hanging on suckers on her window so the light coming through them made really cool colours inside the for too."

Graeme - "When I was younger my cousins, sister and I had this hideout in my neighbours field that we used to escape to all the time. It was perched on top of a big Hill that overlooked the surrounding countryside and it had many trees of every kind circulating the perimeter of the hill, it almost felt like an island as the rest of the grass was cut short during the summer from the grazing cattle.  

The hideout itself was in the middle of the highest point of the hill where a massive oak tree had fallen but was still rooted to the ground so it lasted year round. The branches of the trees hung down and arced around the inner part of the hideout it looked like some sort of a wooden carcass that encapsulated us from the outside with a canopy of leaves and braches. We used to swing off the branches, climb off them and try and jump to the nearest trees. At one side of the hideout it was very steep and we created this slide that was really a desire line ran down into the dirt from wear and tear, we would run down or slide down and try and use the branches canopied above us to catch and protect us from getting hurt if we slid too far - we called the slide the deathtrap :D. 

I remember it feeling like a fortress of solitude it was a place to escape too, I used to love to go there during the golden hour because there was an opening in the trees as a few were cut down for telephone poles that allowed the orange glow of the sunset to seep through, it felt surreal, like something out of a movie, it was green. very very green!, 

Nobody else knew about it only my cousins, my sister and I but I used to go there a lot by myself and would be happy too. I still used to go as a teenager and climb the highest trees I could and Just chill out up there and watch the sunset, 

After my parents separated my time there started to become significantly less frequent but once in a blue moon when I visit my Dad and even to this day any time that I do I always go back to my little sanctuary, It has a hell of a lot of sentimental value to me. I've always felt sensitive to nature and light so I'm glad I did stuff like that when I was growing up."