I cant remember my brother being home much he was eleven years older the me so by the time I was toddling about he was off doing his own thing. I can remember him babysitting once or twice when I got older and he wanted somewhere to do his courting .

Mam and Dad loved a night out and when possible went out most sat nights.Some of these nights I remember very well ,there weren't many  where they didn't come home arguing Mam did have a bit of a temper .One night when gran had been baby sitting me ,I must have been about 6 at the time,Dad came to pick me up ,which was unusual,when we got home all the lights were out and the door locked when dad knocked and asked to be let in the door opened a crack and mams arm came out to grab me in, I was being pulled in half cause dad wasnt going to let go without being let in too,anyway he got in and I was told to go to bed while they carried on the argument but I just sat at the top of the stairs.As he argument got louder I came down to see if I could stop them shouting as I walked twards the kitchen I saw a knife flash I panicked and ran out of the house and back across the street to grans and  banged on the door shouted "quick quick dads cutting mam up into little pieces" gran put a coat on over her nighty and we hurried back to the house.All was quiet and mam and dad were sitting at the kitchen table, it turned out it was mam who had the knife and was only using it to cut meat for sandwiches, they hadn't even missed me .From then on, although they still had arguments, they were a bit quieter.One of these rows I don't remember but my brother must have because on thier fiftieth wedding annivesary he presented them with a plaque ,The row had started while Mam was ironing, with a flat iron, and had thrown the iron at Dad, luckily he ducked and it got imbedded in the door.  So the plaque is of an iron stuck in a door and the inscription says ..LOVE IS SHARING TOGETHER and its true after fifty years they must have shared a lot together good and bad.

 

Whenever mam and dad went to a party they would have to take me along . I remember there was one party at their friends Mr and Mrs Wishart's house at the back of the house was a very high wall behind this wall was a graveyard ,at the time the only toilet was at the bottem of the garden next to the wall it was very spooky going to the toilet in the dark .At some of these partys dad and his friends would dress up one time they dressed up as babies with just a white towel round them and mop caps on their heads it was very funny.Of course there was always plenty of beer around at these partys and everyone was always happy and it didnt matter how far away these partys were we always walked home.These were some of the memories I had of a my early childhood.