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running up to the end of the road after breakfast to meet Dad cycling home from his night shift

I have many but the first thought that came into my head was from primary school coming home for lunch and finding the rag and bone man had goldfish to give away. Racing home to get any 'rags' that my Mum had and racing back to swap them for a goldfish. What joy!

I remember first bicycle & riding it with a wobble. Frozen school milk thawing on the radiator at juniors . One of best remberances of one Christmas about when I was 5 & receiving my best present ever which was a blackboard that I had longed to have.

Watching world of sport on Saturday the wrestling with people like Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, every week with my NAN , could not wait for Saturday to come

Many wonderful memories. Childhood visits by train to my Edinburgh granny and being given dauphinoise potatoes alternated with visits to my Glasgow granny and being given chips. Still love potatoes now.

Waking up on a cold winter's morning when the frost had made patterns on the inside of the window, to see my Mum lighting the gas fire in my bedroom and hanging my clothes on the back of a chair to warm before I got out of bed. Love indeed.

Getting my first bicycle when I was about 12 years old. It had belonged to the local bobby on the beat who was a neighbour and when he was getting a new one he asked my mum if I would like his old one. I was so thrilled.

Holidays in Wales in a chalet

Spending summers at our caravan in North Wales, where I would just be allowed to go off with my friends for the day - to the beach, the mountain, the camp shop - life seemed like one long endless summer, and the sun always shone!

Mino fishing with my dad and sister; we would both have jam jars, put bread in the jar, cover it with cloth and then poke small holes in the cloth, tie a length of string round the jar and the head Down to the River Aire . Sandwiches in hand we would stand on the edge and throw the jar in time and time again. We always went home dirty and wet.

I loved summer evenings out cycling with my Dad. Every year ahead of the local Carnival there was a competition in shop windows to spot an item that they did not sell. This covered a vast area around Finchley, Barnet and Hendon, and after a busy day as a gas fitter, travelling between homes by bike, my Dad would happily take me out to search the windows from a list on the carnival programme. Mostly in the 1950s the roads were pretty empty with one exception, the North Circular which we had to use from Finchley to Hendon, there we might see a couple of dozen vehicles during our ride. Whenever I drive along that busy road today I'm amazed to think that I cycled it as a child!

Playing games in the street on hot sunny days, games such as 'Simon Says' or ' Rounders'. Also playing mountaineering by climbing garden walls and running along them to the end of the street, at the end of the day we would be tired and grubby but very happy. Taking the neighbours babies in big coach prams to the park ( the very thought of it frightens me now) we would be armed with bottle and nappy for baby and sarnies and water for us. Family wedding feasts in the front parlour where the table would be heaving with sandwiches, cake and of course the wonderful sherry trifle as centrepiece. Roaring coal fires in winter that we would huddle around watching our new tiny TV which was sat resplendent in the corner of the room. Being allowed to watch Bill and Ben and Muffin the Mule when I was very little. Shivering in the bedroom on the cold linoleum floor. Wellingtons and chaps seemed to go hand in hand as. Frozen hand knitted jumpers hanging on the line before being brought indoors to be hung on the pulley in the kitchen. Crates of milk delivered to school, sometimes half frozen in winter, oh the joy. Warm, balmy summer evenings when the mum's would sit in the front chatting while watching us children play some more, happy, hot, sticky children playing safely in our little cocoon. Big roast dinners on a Sunday with all the trimmings, followed by scrumptious apple pie and custard, then feeling too bloated to move. Running our sticks along the railings, making mud pies, picking flowers in other people's gardens or the park (embarrassed now but we thought it was allowed), making rose petal perfume and bursting tar bubbles in the street, so many happy, innocent memories...

Many lovely hours spent on the allotment,the changing seasons there and picking the fresh peas and fruit and eating them.We lived in a two up two down no garden but time at the allotment was precious.On bonfire night we would have a family party.My mum loved bonfire night.She would make amazing toffee and my dad would light the fireworks.My sister and I would gaze in wonder.Mum even had the evening off work from her twilight shift at the factory which was lovely.

My nanny lived a long way from us so it was always exciting to go on the train to visit her. She kept a small box with toys for me to play with and there would always be a new little toy for me to find. She also always had a bottle of cream soda pop for me - I can taste it now.

Simply sausage and chips cooked in beef fat on a Saturday lunchtime.

Standing at the top of the stairs watching my parents and older sisters out of the landing window in the field beyond our garden, helping with the wheat harvest.

Collecting warm eggs and putting them in my dungarees pockets at my grandparents.

Day trips with my mum, aunty,uncle and cousin to Ferryside where we would park in a field and brew tea on a primus stove and eat cold chicken and bread and butter. Then we would go to the beach and pick cockles which you could feel under your feet in the sand or swimming in the river at Brecon on a hot Summer afternoon

There used to be an old lady who lived a few doors down from us and she always used to give us sweets. She invited us into her house and there was a special cupboard with the sweets in that smelt like TCP. The smell of TCP still brings back memories of that sweet cupboard and Miss Barlow.

Staying at my gran's bed and breakfast at the seaside and spending sunny days on the beach making sandcastles with little flags on top.

Going to the beach in Spain for 2 week holidays in the summer. The beach was wonderful, I made lots of friends, went to parties by the pool and the days were warm and very long.

Going swimming in the River Test on long summer afternoons. Everyone, well my neighbours, used to go there. Its now not possible, regulations etc.

summer holidays playing on the beach

Church occasionally with Nana and Grandad from 4 yrs old. Vicar signed my autograph book with a lovely saying when he left which was something like "if I can do one thing before I go, let me do it, as I may not pass this way again".

I remember being so happy when I done my first aerial/cartwheel with no hands. It was a great feeling because I had tried over and over before achieving it. Learning anyway gymnastic skill was always fantastic. I spent every spare minute tumbling about. My parents said I was upside down more than right way up!!