Return From The Wilderness
We last left our hero returning from the wilds of South Africa, hence "Return From The Wilderness". If you missed the earlier parts of the tale, check out "The Early Years" and "The South Africa Years".
I was 10 when we returned to the UK, and went into what we called "primary 6" at Kirkstyle Primary school. My maternal grandparents had a small three bedroom house, that we moved into with them. I cannot recall the exact sleeping arrangements, but I know they were tight with 3 kids and four adults in three rooms. I think I recall having my own room, I guess because I was the oldest, my sisters being 8 and 2 years old that time. I cannot remember how long we were there either, but I don't think it can have been very long, because I remember having to walk from our new house, in Cuillin Place to the old school, approx 1.5 miles each way every day.
I quite enjoyed that school, and actually am still friends with one guy, David, I met there, although we didn't actually become friendly until secondary school. I was only there for two years, but in that time, I gained a position of some responsibility, Milk Monitor, and also lost my front teeth in a sporting accident, knee in the face whilst in goal. You often here people say that their dentist is a butcher, but mine truly was. At the tender age of 11, mostly due to laziness and I guess some NHS funding restrictions, he pulled out my two front teeth, rather than try to repair them. Nowadays, I would probably have had bridgework or crowns, but I all I got was some falsies. A dentist recently offered to replace them with bridgework at some exorbitant cost, but after all these years, I have gotten used to them.
When I moved to Cuillin Place, again I had my own room, and the girls shared a room. It was a good house, and I guess I am being overly dramatic calling this portion of the story the wilderness years, as my life was actually pretty good for a few years. I made some great friends, again guys I am still in touch with today, 26 years later. Billy, who used to live in the same street, came over for the wedding in fact. Craig would have come too, had he not being through some difficult personal circumstances. I got into computers with the very first affordable home computers from Sir Clive Sinclair. Billy I believe had a ZX81, the successor to the ZX80, and I had a 48k Spectrum. (these pages are worth a read, especially for anyone with a home computer!)
I also got heavily involved with cycling, due to my maternal grandfather, with my very first real racing bike. Again, I am, or at least was until very recently, still in touch with some guys I befriended from the cycling club. I remember Stephen and I used to spend hours cycling to and from Ayr, about 30 miles round trip, quite far when you are 13/14 years old.
It was great having both sets of grandparents too. I spent many happy weekends at sleepovers, eating cheese on toast and playing in the local rivers. However my dad continued his drinking, which is probably why being a bus driver didn't really work out too well, although he did do it for a while. He moved on to being a roustabout on the oil rigs in the north sea. This meant that he could not drink for the two weeks he was on the rig, and therefore felt that he had to make up for it all when he came home, and spent most of the next two weeks in the bar. Being a teenager, I was getting worse, rebelling and challenging him at every opportunity, and his reaction as always was to lash out. My mother put up with it for a few years, I guess trying to build the courage and financial wherewithal to takes us all away from it, and we moved out when I was around 14/15 I think.
Come back soon for the "Divorce Years"
I was 10 when we returned to the UK, and went into what we called "primary 6" at Kirkstyle Primary school. My maternal grandparents had a small three bedroom house, that we moved into with them. I cannot recall the exact sleeping arrangements, but I know they were tight with 3 kids and four adults in three rooms. I think I recall having my own room, I guess because I was the oldest, my sisters being 8 and 2 years old that time. I cannot remember how long we were there either, but I don't think it can have been very long, because I remember having to walk from our new house, in Cuillin Place to the old school, approx 1.5 miles each way every day.
I quite enjoyed that school, and actually am still friends with one guy, David, I met there, although we didn't actually become friendly until secondary school. I was only there for two years, but in that time, I gained a position of some responsibility, Milk Monitor, and also lost my front teeth in a sporting accident, knee in the face whilst in goal. You often here people say that their dentist is a butcher, but mine truly was. At the tender age of 11, mostly due to laziness and I guess some NHS funding restrictions, he pulled out my two front teeth, rather than try to repair them. Nowadays, I would probably have had bridgework or crowns, but I all I got was some falsies. A dentist recently offered to replace them with bridgework at some exorbitant cost, but after all these years, I have gotten used to them.
When I moved to Cuillin Place, again I had my own room, and the girls shared a room. It was a good house, and I guess I am being overly dramatic calling this portion of the story the wilderness years, as my life was actually pretty good for a few years. I made some great friends, again guys I am still in touch with today, 26 years later. Billy, who used to live in the same street, came over for the wedding in fact. Craig would have come too, had he not being through some difficult personal circumstances. I got into computers with the very first affordable home computers from Sir Clive Sinclair. Billy I believe had a ZX81, the successor to the ZX80, and I had a 48k Spectrum. (these pages are worth a read, especially for anyone with a home computer!)
I also got heavily involved with cycling, due to my maternal grandfather, with my very first real racing bike. Again, I am, or at least was until very recently, still in touch with some guys I befriended from the cycling club. I remember Stephen and I used to spend hours cycling to and from Ayr, about 30 miles round trip, quite far when you are 13/14 years old.
It was great having both sets of grandparents too. I spent many happy weekends at sleepovers, eating cheese on toast and playing in the local rivers. However my dad continued his drinking, which is probably why being a bus driver didn't really work out too well, although he did do it for a while. He moved on to being a roustabout on the oil rigs in the north sea. This meant that he could not drink for the two weeks he was on the rig, and therefore felt that he had to make up for it all when he came home, and spent most of the next two weeks in the bar. Being a teenager, I was getting worse, rebelling and challenging him at every opportunity, and his reaction as always was to lash out. My mother put up with it for a few years, I guess trying to build the courage and financial wherewithal to takes us all away from it, and we moved out when I was around 14/15 I think.
Come back soon for the "Divorce Years"
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