A Picnic To Remember< My Visit To The Buddhapadipa Temple In Wimbledon | Blog | Below Zero > Earlier this week I was bored at home and I had a lot of free time, so I thought to look through some old photo albums for childhood pictures of myself in them. It was interesting looking through the old photos of myself, as I was happy creative child, and a completely different person to what I am now as an adult. Most of the old photos of myself were in a very bad condition. The colour pictures had faded and gone a red colour. There were also scratches, staining, and dirt on most of them. So, to give myself something to do, I thought to use my scanner, to scan the old damaged photos. I could then restore the old pictures of me on my PC, carefully removing the red fading and scratches from them. See some of the results below.
Whilst I was doing this, I also found an old newspaper clipping with myself included in a group photo from my nursery school. This newspaper clipping brought back memories of that day. The article was entitled 'A Picnic to Remember' and was featured in the Surrey Advertiser back in the summer of 1981. See the article below, I am the one with the red circle around me. The photo was taken of my class at Shepherd's Hill Nursery School of us all dressed up in fancy dress, as it was a special occasion. Prince Charles and Lady Diana were getting married that day! I remember my mum and my granddad 'Pop' making me a King outfit, complete with a cardboard golden crown with wine gums stuck on it, as different coloured jewels, and a British Union Jack flag jacket, which was made out of a plastic carrier bag. The other toddlers were also dressed as Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses that day, to celebrate the grand Royal occasion. We had Union Jack bunting flags decorating the nursery, it was all very British. These days' people are not so patriotic in our multicultural society. I even remember some of the toddlers who are also pictured with me. In the bottom left hand corner of the picture there is a young boy waving, he was my friend Russell. We used to play together at the nursery. He was half American on his Dad's side. I remember once when me and Russell got to make some brightly coloured green mint favoured sweets together at the nursery. We loved the sweets so much; we even ate up the remains that the other kids had dropped onto the floor during the process of making them. Me and Russell used to quarrel a lot though. I remember we used to bite and kick each other. Russell's Dad once came into the nursery to tell me off for biting his son. There is another boy on the far right hand side of the picture. He has fair blonde hair and is wearing a crown, but he does not look quite right, like a rabbit caught in the oncoming headlights of a car. This boy is called Robert. He was mentally disturbed and very slow. Robert needed special attention from the nursery staff. During one lunch break at the nursery, he spent his time spooning bake beans and then custard into his cup of water. I used to sometimes see Robert as a young adult when I was living in Guildford. He did not remember me from nursery school though. Robert grew into a very big, butch and tall lad. He spent his adult days collecting supermarket trolleys from all round Guildford, and from the river for the Co-op supermarket. He did not get paid for doing his good deed; he just did it, as it was his vocation in life. The trolleys though, that he used to collect for the Co-op, often did not belong to the supermarket, and instead belonged to Lo-Cost, Spar, Sainburys, and Tesco instead, pretty much everywhere but the Co-op, as Robert could not read, or write. Much to the dismay of the Co-op staff there. To the left of Robert there is a boy in a stripy t-shirt with blonde hair. I don't remember who he was, but the boy behind him who has dark hair, with a stripy t-shirt and crown, with part of the right side of his face obscured, is called Mark. Mark used to be friends with me at the nursery school as well. My mother used to chat to his mother. I remember myself, Mark, my mum, and a nursery school teacher who took us on a special trip in her car. The lady nursery school teacher was driving, with my mum sat in the front of the car, and myself and Mark sat in the back. The car trip was to visit a local farm. I was quite an impatience toddler, so me and Mark started arguing with each other in the back of the car. The nursery school teacher pulled in at the side of the road to stop us arguing, and my mum was very annoyed with me for showing her up. Anyway, we arrived at the farm, and a young farmer lady there gave us some goats milk to drink. I for some reason refused to drink the goats milk unless the farmer girl put some blackcurrant in it. She did, but I still didn't drink it, as it tasted foul. That's all I remember about the farm trip, as I have no memory of the farm animals or anything else there. Mark went to my middle school as well. We still used to argue with each other there too from time to time. I remember he once found one of my milk teeth which had come out in the playground, just by me naturally pulling it out, as it was loose. Mark proudly held up my milk tooth in class to show off to the other kids, he told them all that he had knocked it out of my mouth, which of course was not true. There is also a chubby girl in the top left of the picture, who is standing wearing a checked dress. I remember her too. I think she was called Gemma, and she had ginger hair. She used to like walking round the nursery school holding my hand. Gemma went to my infant school as well. She was all excited that we were in the same class at infant school, and she left me a token love gift on my chair, which was a turd, as she had shit herself whilst sitting on my chair! Another memory I have of my time at nursery school, was of my mother leaving me there alone without her everyday. I used to get distraught seeing her walk past the window after she had left me there. I always used to rush to the window to wave to her, and when she had gone out of sight I would cry, thinking she would never come back to collect me. Everyday at the nursery I would paint the same picture. It was always a painting of three stickmen figures standing together, which represented me, my mum, and my dad. My mum still has a number of these paintings I did of us all together, and its quite funny, as they are all painted exactly the same way. I miss my toddler and infant days, as they were happy, fun, and interesting times to be had!Related ContentComments on A Picnic To Remember |
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