Write a little about your childhood
By Carl Halling
@CarlHalling (3617)
United Kingdom
December 11, 2006 1:03am CST
Here is a small piece about my childhood in west London. Now, please write a little about your own childhood:I was born in the autumn of 1955,
close to the undistinguished source
of west London's famous Goldhawk Road,
and my first home
was a distinctly cramped menage,
occupied by my parents,
a violinist and singer respectively,
and some artistic friends,
in Bulmer Place, near Notting Hill Gate.
My brother was born
two and a half years later,
by which time
my parents were able to buy their own house
in Bedford Park in what was then
the London borough of Acton,
but actually in Chiswick, W4.
And genteel suburban west London
was marked by a homespun simplicity back then
that we can only dream about
in our own troubled day and age.
By '63, with my brother and I
safely enconced in the French Lycee,
radical social change was in the air,
though in truth it had been for some time,
especially in Britain and America,
since the rise of Rock'n'roll, and youth culture,
whose watershed years
were 1955 to 1956,
but especially 1955*.
But for all that, England in 63
was still apparently in black and white,
and the first shaggy-haired beat groups
fitted quite nicely into this innocent time
of Norman Wisdom pictures,
the well-spoken presenters,
of the BBC Home Service
and the Light Service, and the World Service,
of coppers, tanners and ten bob notes,
tuck shops and tuppeny chews,
it was a very long time ago.
I was an articulate child,
cheerful and sociable in this idyllic world,
although at some stage
I became a bit of a tearaway,
both at school and at home,
what one might call hyperactive today.
That said, I yet managed to pass
my common entrance exam,
and so become Cadet number 173,
at Pangbourne Nautical College
in the September of 1968,
officially a serving officer
in the Royal Navy, aged only 12 years old.
Some year and a half later,
we left Chiswick for good,
and took up residence even deeper in suburbia,
where I remain to this day...
My Chiswick childhood
was a very long time ago.
*Read "Seeds of Change Sown in 1955" by Charles Ealy
39 responses
@ElusiveButterfly (45940)
• United States
11 Dec 06
Carl, you writing is exceptional. You should try Gather.com
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
11 Dec 06
You are very kind, Elusive B. I have been praised for my online writing, but no one yet has called it exceptional. That is a very unique compliment, and I thank you so very much. I'm at Gather, EB, are you there too? I love that site! Carl
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
12 Dec 06
My Gather name is carlhalling. Are they OK with us supplying links here at myLot do you know?
@akotalagato (1334)
• Philippines
13 Dec 06
here goes... the story of my childhood.
i was born on august 16, 1976. my parents where church workers. when i was a year and a half old, my parents decided that they wanted to be missionaries. we were sent to singapore, where my parents underwent studies in preparation for being missionaries in thailand. they studied thai there. my brother was sent to a school for missionary kids in malaysia and we only saw each other during christmas and summer holidays. when i was old enough to go to school my parents decided to come back to the philippines and be church workers again. so our family was reunited until i was in fifth grade. my parents where called back to the mission and where sent back to thailand. me and my brother were sent to live with our grandparents. but after a few months i was sent to the missionary school in malaysia too. so our family parted ways again. it was in the second year of my high school days that my parents returned. It was very hard growing up with missionaries as parents. our family were always parted. i had to stay with different people and i never had a set of close friends since we had to move around a lot. being missionaries is a great sacrifice for god. and its very tough on their children especially if they are not old enough to understand.
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
19 Dec 06
"No one loves me: No one cares"
My heart was crying out.
The pain and ache I felt within
I could not share about.
So I buried deep inside my heart
The rejection, pain and fears,
And vowed I wouldn't tell a soul
The memories of the years.
A wall I built around myself
So no one could get in;
And yet my heart did yearn
For love and understanding.
I just wanted to be accepted
As an ordinary being,
And wasn't really stony
As I often was appearing.
I cried out loud unto the Lord
To help me cope with fears,
Then broken, wounded and in tears,
I shared with Him the years.
The Lord, He heard my crying;
He saw my shattered heart:
And He gently healed each year
Of the memories long gone past.
He touched my heart
And healed the wounds,
And replaced the pain with peace.
His Presence so engulfed me
As His love flooded my soul.
I always will remember
The morn my Saviour calloed
And brought to my remembrance
The memories of old.
They can no longer hurt me:
The healing is complete.
To trust completely in the Lord
Is healing that is sweet.
When I had locked inside me
The anguish of the years,
I somehow had forgotten
That JESUS is the KEY!
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
22 Dec 06
That's a very moving and skillfully composed poetic testimony; thank you.
@Alexandria37 (5717)
• Ireland
13 Dec 06
I was born in Dublin in 1944 just after the 2nd world war. I three brothers and one sister and times were a little tough as food was still being rationed. We still used ration books and if my mum managed to save a little during the week, I always got a cream bun on Fridays while the others were at school. My parents couldn't afford to send us to College, but as the boys needed training for an apprenticeship, they attended vocational school. My sister had to go to work when she was fourteen. My mum and dad were very proud and they wanted at least one in the family to do well. With a lot of scrimping and borrowing, my parents managed to send me to secondary school and then on to do a secretarial course. My mum and dad were the proudest parents in the neighbourhood, when I eventually landed myself a well paid job in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. Even though they have now passed away, I will be grateful to them for the rest of my life for all the sacrafices they made for me.
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
14 Dec 06
That's a moving tale, and your gratitude to your parents is a wonderful thing to read. Thank you for telling us about it.
@katcarneo (1433)
• Philippines
13 Dec 06
wow i think you write very well....well here's a piece of my childhood:
this is my earliest childhood memory: i was in our yard, naked, and some people are fussing all over me. i was crying because of pain, and pitcher after pitcher of cold water, straight from the refrigerator, was being poured on me. it was ten years later that i would know my brother accidentally spilled an entire pot of hot soup on me that very uneventful night. one of the women fussing over me was actually my mother,and the others were my aunts. i could not picture how my mother looked like at that time.
i believe the first time I ever laid eyes on my mom (or the time that i remember, at least) was when i was six years old. for some weird reason, we had cleaned the house and made the floors so shiny, but i didn't know why. then a woman in a white jacket and sunglasses came, and i didn't know who she was. as you may have guessed it's my mom.
she left to work in dubai UAE when i was about three (maybe just shortly after the hot soup incident) and she had to do that because my dad abandoned us when i was barely a year old. i have two older brothers and a whole lot of older brothers and sisters from my dad's other wife. growing up in a slump in manila, philippines, i never had the chance to interact or play with other children because i was always cooped up. we weren't allowed to make friends with those "dirty" kids. i always had to play by myself so maybe that's why until now i still talk to myself.
i started attending kindergarten in 1991 and from what i remember i didn't really pay much attention to studying. i didn't review for exams or make lots of effort with my homework. surprisingly at the end of the year i would be awarded with a silver medal as second best in my batch and a bright red bar pin for being best in math.
so it went on. i never did put on much effort to studying but i often got awards. sadly those awards did not seem to be appreciated very much by my aunts who were taking care of me. see, my mom went abroad again.
when i was 8, we moved to the country and i had to transfer schools. that school put me in the lowest section for some reason but at the end of the year i was on top of my class again and by the third grade i was in the first section. because of that i was like an outcast, and many hated me. i was bullied a lot but ended up as third best in class, and maybe that's why my classmates even hated me more.
there' this girl who was always the top student, and she was the leader and promoter of all the persecution i got. everyday when ahe arrives at the classroom she would take my school bag, open it and throw all of its contents on the floor. sometimes it's my lunchbox. we happened to be seatmates and we always both got perfect scores in quizzes so she told teachers i was copying from her. because of that our teacher-adviser moved me to the fourth row, and in philippine culture those in row 4 are supposed to be the dumbest. i still got perfect scores in exams.
she even hated me more when my music teacher picked me to sing in the school choir without having to audition. she was a frustrated singer, i guess. because of the choir my elementary school days became more colorful. i had friends and was able to travel to different places to sing on special occasions, and also join competitions. i, with my choir, have performed several times on Tv and have even met many famous personalities especially the then-president of our country. our choir was the champion children's choir in our province.
oh i think it got too long....got carried away, sorry!
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
14 Dec 06
Not at all; that's a very interesting story, well told and well-written, very eloquent, and a powerful tale, thank you. I'm sorry you had to suffer so much, but I'm glad things turned out so well, and that you truly found yourself through your singing and the power of music.
@ErrollLeVant (4353)
• United States
12 Dec 06
born in 1948 in a small town. Played baseball, went to school, had fun with friends.
@saurabh83 (147)
• India
12 Dec 06
Those were the best days of my life.
means no tension only playing, & going school.
tension time for me was only exam time or when the vacations are going to over.
@sureshbabukk (427)
• India
12 Dec 06
I was born and brought up in Smollett village .Then
i had 5 years old go for school.I've only 1 good friend.
I like him very much.he is my neighbor.he care me very well.
@pedumfio (667)
• Canada
12 Dec 06
Hi my name is Sandy and I was born on December.4/78 in Winnipeg Manitoba in Canada. My parents got divorced when i was 5 years old and my mom decided that she was too young to care for me so she gave me to my dads mom to live with. My father shortly after went to jail (unknown reasons, and don't care either). When I was 11 my mom re-married to a guy in Massachusettes and forced me to go live with them. I then rebelled and at 13 was sent back to Canada by my mother to be taken are of again by my dads mom. 6 months later my grandmother decided she wanted to go to Portugal for holidays, so she made me go with her, after being there for 6 months she told me to start trying to learn how to read and write portuguese cause we were staying in Portugal for good. At 15 my grandmother moved back to Canada and left me there with an aunt, who 6 weeks later kicked me out of the house. Needless o say i dropped out of school and got myself 2 jobs to support myself. I than later started dating a very good friend of mine and so now he lives with me in Canada and we have 2 beautiful healthy daughters. All I have to say is, is the nightmare over yet? TO BE CONTINUED.
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
I genuinely hope so. A moving story. Tnank you. You never know what's around the corner, and most of it could be good. I wish the very best for you.
@risk_taker20 (2096)
• Philippines
12 Dec 06
wow this is a great thread to connect with....
I grew up in Leyte, southern part of the Philippines. It's the place where Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur fulfilled his promise "I shall return" after the World War II on October 20, 1944. There is a monument of him located in Palo, Leyte.
Well, I have a fun childhood despite our family's poverty. My dad was only a driver and my mom run a small food shop where I help at 4 years old. The students from a high school near our shop was amazed of me changing their bills without my mom's guidance thinking that I was only 4 years old then, not yet in school. Well, turned out later in my few years in elementary that I will do good in Math. Garnered best in math awards since elementary till I graduated in High School. Been accelerated in a Special Education school when I was on the fourth grade. Entered college on a full scholarship, earning a degree in Business Administration...all because when I was a child I witnessed my mom's entrepreneurial endeavors.
I vend native food delicacies around our community since I was five till 11 during summer time when there's no classes. But I still have time to play, no computers yet that time so most of the games were out of child's creativity and the native games in our place.
I would be happy when my mom would bring me to the city and watch a movie in the theater and buy me ice cream, we would also attend mass in the big catholic church, but was born again later. I like being a child, no pressure all amazement and all fun.
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
I'm glad you like the thread; thanks for sharing; very interesting...blessings. Carl
@jhonge101 (93)
• Philippines
12 Dec 06
One thing i can say about my childhood is its a joyful experienced I ever had, nothing to worry about tomorrow cause your parents will do them for you, I wish I can turn back time(LOL).
@benoybose (155)
• India
12 Dec 06
its very nice to hear from all about thier Childhood. May I share my childhood experience with all here.
I was born in Kottayam, Kerala, India on 28th April 1983 to my parent, Mr. V.I. Bose and Mrs. Annamma Bose. I have an elder syster, Jolly Bose. She is elder than me for three years.
My first home, from my memory, is at Alappuzha(Aleppy) 42Km west to Kottayam. I was there with my mother, father, sister and my grand mother(mother of my father).
My father was a government employee(retired) and mother is a teacher(still on service). Both of them were working in Alappuzha.
I started my schooling in my mother's school called "Kuppapuram Government High School". My mother got Transfer from Alappuzha to Palakkadu after 3 mothns of my admission there. Then we (mother, me and my syster) shifted palakkadu and father stayed in Alappuzha.
In palakkadu I restarted my schooling onwards 1st standard in Goverment Moyen Model Schools. My mother tounge is Malayalam. We stayed in a place called Dayara Street were no one knows malayalam. My mother used to communicate with neighbours through English, me and my system communiccated with them very seldom.
After my 4th standard returnde from Palakkadut to Alappuzha aside my father. Then me, my sister and father were in Alappuzha and my mother was alone in Palakkadu. She stayed there alone for three more years and returned to Alappuzha after getting Transfter to Alappuzha Plloythay School.
This is the story of my Childhood...
@prncesssly (1373)
• United States
11 Dec 06
I was born in Chicago, IL July 17, 1981. I lived with my parents in their 2 story home. In 1986 my younger sister was born. This is also the same year I started grammar school. I went to a private grammar school for K - 8th grade. Once I graduated, my family and I moved to the north suburbs of Chicago. I attended an all girls Catholic/Private high school named Resurrection. While there, I was on the dance team and in choir. After high school I went to college. However, I did not like the first school, so I transferred to a community college until I decided what I wanted to do. I then transferred to DeVry University where I got my Bachelors in Computer Information Systems. I graduated from college in 2004. After that I spent time looking for a new job. I am currently working as a Database Administrator. This past June I married my Husband and now live with him further North of Chicago!
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
Thank you. I hope everything turns out well for you and your husband. Blessings. Carl
@urzicutza (1971)
• Romania
11 Dec 06
was a curious child. i lived in fantasy world half the time, and the other half i lived in a real fantasy world
it was almost like some kind of half-autism… the part of me that acknowledges and appreciates the importance of the world around me only kicked in when i was maybe 11 or 12 years old. until then, i framed and filled the boring parts of the world with my imagination, and i think occasionally i’d forget the boundary between where my imagination ended and where the real world began.
i never went home after school, but instead my parents paid this strange lady to take care of me. she had a kid of her own, i don’t even remember the kid’s name or what he looks like now… which is odd. i have all these visual memories but in each of them there’s pretty much a grey spot in place of him.
after watching back to the future the night before, i convinced this kid that i’d read scientific research stating that if you spun batteries at 88 miles per hour they would flash and disappear back into time. we pulled batteries out of everything we could find and spun them as quickly as we could. when that didn’t work, we taped batteries to his plastic toys… cars, boats, action heros, even this great big plastic apache helicopter he had. we then carried all these time-machine equipped toys to the edge of his fifth floor apartment window, propped the window open…
...these toys would arc so gracefully through the air, and in my head i could see them spinning faster and faster, until they spun into a blur, flashed hot white, and disappeared mid-air. instead, i had to resolve this with what my eyes were telling me – that there were lots of toy parts strewn across the sidewalk, with baffled pedestrians looking up as they passed. as we picked up his prized apache helicopter, i told the kid “don’t worry, this one is sure to work… it’s aerodynamic”. the word seemed to impress some kind of authority, he nodded, and we heaved the helicopter out the window…
~
the subway exit to 108th street was a human zoo. people there generally had to muscle and shove their way up to the ticket counter, and then run hurriedly to the right platform just in time to catch the next train. my mom was holding tightly onto my hand as she carved a path for us towards the steps of the exit. as we were climbing the steps, something caught my attention, and i slipped out of my mom’s grip.
i ran up to a man standing halfway up the stairs. he was old, very old. his face was covered in thick sag lines, his fingers were wrapped up in grimy blackened athletic tape. he was wearing a grey woolen coat a few sizes too large for him, and he smelled funny. his hand was outstretched, and his fingers gnarled into the shape of a cup. i stood up onto my tippy toes to see what was in his hand and was suprised to find a few quarters, nickels, and a penny.
i thought about it for a moment… reached up… and snatched the coins from his hand.
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
What an amazing and original piece of writing; you have very impressive powers of description. Thank you for contributing; keep writing! Carl
@dholey (1383)
• India
11 Dec 06
it was so beautiful, i wish to be a kid again, no tension of life , most of the time study and games, no burden for earning , no cunningness , the world was so beautiful then , i still remember my childhood, what energy level i used to have then, whole day i can run from hither to thither, my childhood hero phantom , his scull shaped cave house , the deep forest , his adventures , i can read comics for whole day then ... i sill remember my childhood .......
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
You write well; thank you. I know what you are saying: I had so much energy when I was a kid, and also as a young man, life was full of hope and promise. The world seemed beautiful to me as a kid; London was my own personal universe of joy. How things change. Thanks for writing. Blessings to you. Carl
@stoic_cg (31)
• Philippines
12 Dec 06
I was born on june 21, 1984 at cagayan de oro city, philippines.well, i have a carefree childhood days but when i was thirteen, i learned that we are the second family of my father and he also have his third family in which i met my other siblings..all the while i thought our family is perfect but it isn't..since then, i buried deep down my childhood days in the past..by that age, i suddenly become mature and afraid to trust anyone. I blame my parents of what i've become now, i can be more than what i am now if they had just supported me and if honesty was present at home...sad life!
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
I'm sorry for what happened to you. I hope things are better from now on. Carl
@CarlHalling (3617)
• United Kingdom
13 Dec 06
I was a bit like that too, although many people didn't find me cute, and got very angry with me. Ah well, I turned out OK...:o)
Carl
@Devinarun (387)
• United States
11 Dec 06
hey you have written quite alot about urself and i knw this is not all you have to write and if given a chance you will write much more tahn this.well i was born on the 1st of november in India, Kerala.i was sent to the boarding school at the age of 5 to attend my 1st standard classes and from thn on ive always been in boarding.it used to be so much fun.