Meme

These blog memes are starting to look like a modern version of a chain letter. Mr Berlin Bear sent me one and who am I to refuse? I have said no to bears in my sordid past and here's my chance to make amends. So here goes:

Name 5 things you miss about your childhood.

- The smell of the North Sea during holidays in Wenduine. A week's stay in a lovely old informal hotel on the sea front with mum and gran, which for most of my childhood was my only annual holiday away from home. A week of sand castle building, rollerskating, go-karting, paper flower selling, shell collecting, swimming, dune climbing, tram riding (the tram stop was underneath our hotel window and I was obsessed with the tram time table) and Bruges-visiting
- Related to the previous item: the sight of men in bright white overalls (with a green BP logo on their backs) setting up and organising motorised go-karting races just off the beach. I never took part but always watched and it never failed to impress me. Undoubtedly the reason why I still like uniforms.
- Christmas and winter at home. We had a fake silver tree loaded with sparkly balls and ribbons (no minimalism there!). Home heating was provided by a massive coal range which went for about 6 months of the year. Dad used it in his bread baking efforts. I loved it when it snowed and the railway embankment opposite our flat was covered in white, with the promise of sledging down it in the morning.

- The Eurovision Song Contest. I watched religiously from the mid 1960s. (Have I told you I was an early starter?) I distinctly remember watching Sandie Shaw win barefoot and Cliff Richard being beaten by a Spanish diva. When ABBA won I lost interest because it couldn't get any better than that. I avidly collected the score sheets and kept my own versions on the night. It usually was the biggest night of the year for me.
- Going to the pictures, which included a shortfilm, news, publicity and an icecream break. There were over a dozen cinemas in Antwerp at the time and they all displayed stills from their current features next to the box office. I never understood why anyone wanted to go watch films whose black & white stills showed reclining females dressed in little else but black panties and bras. It was only much later I realised the stills poorly represented the actual R18 films. But it sure looked arty.

Sent the meme on to:
- Paul at Buggery.org
- Peter at DubDotDash
- Joe at JoeMyGod
- Jock at JockoHomo
- Doge at Yadoge

This meme has a rule to link to previous entries:
Chaos Theory
Wired JAFA
Bad Aunt
BerlinBear
Uroskin
Add your own blog link at the end and delete the first link, if you be so kind as to pass on the meme.