Memories of the past

Bad memories. My younger sister - not quite 4 - and I were sent to have our tonsils out out together. However, she got an infection and we were kept there on our own when all the other children went home. Parents were not encouraged to visit in those days. We both believe that this experience left a mark on our lives.To this day I believe that I was sent to keep my sister company as I was sure I hadn't had any throat problems though I knew she had.

Yes I can remember having my tonsils and adenoids out aged 6. My experience was roughly the same as yours anno, trying to swallow jelly and not being able to, lots of blood! 'brisk!' nurses, and the feeling of being smothered while being put under!! The hospital for whatever reason decided to take me and another little girl home in an ambulance during the morning without informing our parents!!!! We were to be collected by them in the afternoon (I expect they needed the beds!) but weren't told of the change of plan! Luckily my S.Father was at home, but my mother was out shopping and I can remember sitting on my S.F lap sobbing till my mother appeared! The other child's parents were both out and she was left in their garden shed with an accompanying nurse to wait for someone to come home!!!!! Even in 1949 this was unacceptable, and I know the s....t hit the fan from both families! I don't know what the outcome was- nothing I suspect!!!

I can still remember my first childhood home, which was my grandparent's house.We lived there until I was almost five and due to start school.
I can remember every room, even the colours they were painted. There was a huge backgarden where my sister and I played making daisy chains on the lawn. My grandfather seemed to grow loads of flowers including sweet peas on a climbing frame.I used to play with two of the neighbours children who were both boys of my age. Their names were David and Leslie, and somehow I still think of them as my first boyfriends!.David also lived with his grandparents and his granda always addressed us as ''The young lady and gentleman''.
This house came up for sale about twenty odd years ago and I wanted to buy it but DH was not keen on moving.I often wonder who lives there now, and hope they are as happy in it as I was, 65 years ago.

I also remember having my tonsils out when I was nine.
I got an infection afterwards and had to stay in for a few more days. No parents were allowed to visit at all until the day they took you home.
My brother must have been 4 weeks old, and I can remember my mother coming to the outside window of the ward, with him in the pram and one of my sisters who was aged 3 sitting ontop of the pram.She had pushed that pram about two miles to see me through that window and then pushed it the two miles back home.
There were toddlers in cots down the middle of ward who cried for their mothers all day.
Thank goodness this does not happen today.

I am welsh too Anniebach and remember Aberfan vividly although I was only 11 at the time. We were playing outside and someone came out and said what was happening and I remember watching it on the tele and being aware of how momentous it was. I remember my grandmothers house and helping her turn the mangle in the garden when she did the weeks washing and her moving to a brand new council house when I was older and my grandfather coming home from the steel works with the tin can he carried his tea in. Also my dad taking me to the local shop for chocolate on a Friday when he finished work chocolate was a very big treat we didn't have a lot of money. No central heating, ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in the winter and freezing cold Lino on the floor. My brother being born when I was 7 and being taken to see him by the midwife( he was delivered at home) and me crying and telling them to take him back! My grandmother, who had more money than us bought me a big silver cross pram and a baby doll so I could push my pram when my mother took him out in his.

I too lived with my maternal grandparents (on and off!) for the first four years of my life and I can remember the layout of the house, the swing in the garden, the birdbath ( now mine!!) the large, to me, kitchen table, the ideal boiler, in fact nearly every nook and cranny. My younger uncle's toy milk float making an ideal pram for my teddy, my Granny making a dolls bed out of a shoe box. It's amazing what can be remembered 70 years along the line!!!