Childhood

[MB]

I was trying to think of a thread that doesn't make everyone want to start screaming at each other (not anyones fault - I think it is the nature of forums)

But I am useless at starting threads that anyone is even vaguely interested in.



However, I wondered what peoples childhoods were like and how they feel it affected them? Was there something in your childhood that encouraged you to be interested in film?

What do you think about childhood these days?



I was born to a single parent and was going to be adopted! But, everyone felt sorry for me lying in the little cot and took me home.



I actually enjoyed my childhood, although it was quite mad, really. I have been a very full on 'mum' myself..possibly to compensate.



Anyway, my nan and grandad were both real film buffs who would have loved it here (my nan is still here but can't type) and watched every classic film going. I think this did affect my love of film and I started getting involved in theatre groups and school Drama clubs as soon as I could.



Watches thread die...



And in the spirit of this - my daughter has just finished watching the Rugrats and wants to type some smilies - hope that is OK.:

[Chevyman]

I was born in, what is now not a very nice, area in Northwest London. I had one brother, considerably older than me. My dad worked as an Inspector in a factory, having served in the merchant navy since he left school at 14. My Mum always had at least two part time jobs on the go..........one in the morning and one in the evening, after I had come home from school.



Everyone else in the area were what people often referred to as "blue collar" workers. We had no fridge, no TV, no washing machine. Shopping was done on a daily basis.



Something I always remember from this time is how everyone seemed to help each other........if there was a heavy gardening or building task, neighbours would pitch in and help. No money changed hands as nobody had any to spare.



I had to share my parents room until I was six when we moved and I was allotted the "box room".



My early years instilled in me a sense of respect for others and for property which I still have.



It was my dad who first took me to the pictures.......as we called them at the time. My eyes lit up as I walked into our local ABC cinema



I joined the "ABC minors" and went along every Saturday morning proudly wearing my badge and watching all those American kids films that were featured so often.



My fascination with film has stayed with me throughout my life, although my visits to the cinema are very few these days.



I had this fixation in my mind that, if you were careful, didn't play on the railway and looked both ways when you crossed the road, you would live to a ripe old age.

When I was ten, I remember the morning when school assembly was cancelled and we filed into our classroom. The headmaster spoke to us all and told us that one of our classmates had died the previous evening. He had drowned while "acting the goat" on a bridge and fallen into a river which was in flood at the time.

It was the first time I had encountered loss. Those of us who knew him stared at his empty desk, his chair and the coathook on the wall with his name above it, and cried.



By the time I was 14, I had a "milk round" every Saturday and Sunday. I hated the cold weather when the empties which had been out all night had frost on them. I remember delivering milk to a very nice lady called Mrs Hornby (I was attracted to the name because Hornby made train sets), her daughter became famous as Twiggy



School, after the primary years, was a blur to me. I wasted my time and the teachers time............bit I made up for it later.



I always looked up to my brother. He was well known as somebody not to tangle with and I think his name got me out of quite a few scrapes!



I adored watching him play professional Ice Hockey and being introduced to his team mates. Many years after illness forced him out of the game, he used to make sure I got into many an event for free.



He passed away eleven years ago, but I still have his Ice Hockey stick, his jacket with his name on, and a pair of hockey skates which he bought for me.



Sleep well bro

[hankoler]

when I was a child we had saturday morning cinema, and then they were repeated in the afternoon.I always went to the morning one,it was this that got me interested in films. I was always asking my mother to take to the cinema afterwards.Films then were classified as either

a U, A or X. I've no idea what they are now as I haven't been for years.

[MB]

I'm also curious about how many people had 'stay at home' or working mums and how that affected them.



I've done it all ways - full, part time, working from home..after months of writing when I was pregnant, I sent off a script - expecting to hear nothing - and ended up getting taken on for a trial - the day after my daughter was born! They actually rang my mobile in the hospital and to be honest - it was agony trying to do it. I had to take my tiny daughter to script meetings and employ a childminder to look after her part time for the first six months - which I had never intended to do! Then they closed the programme and the department down when she was six months old - so we were all out on our ear. I never got a chance to write for the series itself.



Anyway, yes, curious as to how people feel about it. I have mixed feelings - in my heart of hearts I think the mother is best, but understand that practically it is not possible for a great many people. I've been very lucky in that respect - but I've always said that if it got to the point that we were in any way struggling - I'd have to work full time again as I do think a good standard of living is probably more important than the mum being always available..difficult one, though.

[dremble wedge]

My early years were terribly dramatic - full of death, poverty, hospitalisation, various illnesses and the family home getting demolished (and that was just 1972-76!). Saying that most of my memories from back then are happy.



I imagine I got my love of film through trying to escape all that. Having no money really didn't matter if Jason and the Argonauts was on TV and most of my childhood memories of Christmas involve watching a Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan flick every morning. Those were indeed, the days...

[batman]

My memories of childhood are mostly good. The usual family ups and downs and sibling rivalries aside, it was all pretty 'normal' and enjoyable .... however, that all changed when I became an adult!

[bhowells]

I am the youngest of three sons, my Mother was 38 when she had me and my Dad forty three, I have two older brothers my eldest brother was a journalist on our local paper.



My first vivid memory of the cinema was going to see Kissin Cousins an Elvis film at our local ABC. Though I found the experience of the big screen quite awe inspiring I was clearly bored with the film and my parents took me home. When I got older I went with my Man and Dad to see such films as Zulu and a Fu Man Chu film and Morecambe an Wise in the Magfificent Two.



I always loved looking at the cinema ads in our local paper or on billboards on the way to school.



My chiildhood was very happy were are a close knit humourus family.



One of my saddest memories was recalling the Aberfan Disaster, I was six at the time and the village was a mile away from my home, my Mother was from Aberfan and my parents nearly made their marital home there, if they did I could have been involved in the disaster.



As I got older I was a frequent visitot to the cinema, I loved the ABC Minors matinee and went to see all the Disney presentations like Jungle Book.



Most of the films I saw on tv as a child were usually comedies like The Green Man.



I will never forget being 11 years old and filling up at the end of Whistle Down The Wind, I couldnt show my parents that I was affected by this film.

[torinfan]

I liked my childhood for the most part - Mom and Dad introduced me to film, watching many on television, especially the British films shown on PBS on Saturday night. Not too long ago I was thinking of just how much British culture I was exposed to when I was very young - movies, actors, theatre, books. I was only 8 when I learned the spelling differences between British English and American English, not something too many American 8 year olds can brag about nowadays.



Funny thing is, neither of my parents have any British heritage in them - both of their parents came from the continent.



I have one older brother.

[torinfan]

name='MB']I'm also curious about how many people had 'stay at home' or working mums and how that affected them.

My mom was a stay at home mom but she returned to teaching after I got older (when I graduated high school) she primarily taught English as a second language.