Geneameme “When I was young”

Blogger friend Alona has today posted a“When I Was Young” Geneameme. I do love a Geneameme, so of course couldn’t resist this one, that caused me to stop and think of childhood memories. Always a good thing to do!

1. Do you (or your parents) have any memorabilia from when you were a baby? (ie. baby book, lock of hair, first shoes etc. I have a small cane chair that I always sat in when I was about two or three years old. It’s in perfect condition still and I love that it has survived the many decades.
2. Do you know if you were named after anyone? I was named after Hollywood movie star Jennifer Jones who was very popular at the time of my birth
3. And do you know of any other names your parents might have named you? Mum tells me that I was going to be named Jacqueline.
4. What is your earliest memory? My earliest memory is Christmas Day when I was 3 years old. I was very excited as Santa brought me a three wheeler bike. I rode that bike very excitedly, up and down the hallway on Christmas morning. I can remember being surprised not to get into trouble from Mum as she was usually very strict about such bad behaviour. 
5. Did your parent/s (or older siblings) read, sing or tell stories to you? Do you remember any of these? I have no memory at all of anyone reading, singing or telling me stories. I am an avid reader and was when I was a child. I do remember spending many hours happily alone, reading.
6. When you were young, do you remember what it was that you wanted to grow up to be? I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. To this day, I am disappointed that I believed those that told me I didn’t have the brains for it.
7. Did you have a favourite teacher at school? Mr Patterson in grade 3. Other than him, there are no favourites , as I didn’t enjoy school at all.
8. How did you get to school? Always by bike and sometimes we would walk. Being taken in the car was very rare and usually only on wet days. Very very wet days, or we would ride as usual.
9. What games did playtime involve? I loved playing hopscotch and skipping rope, otherwise known as skippy. 
10. Did you have a cubby house? Not an official cubby hose. But my friend and I would hide in a neighbours hedge, pretending it was our cubby house.
11. What was something you remember from an early family holiday? Our family holidays every year, were in October at the beach in Rosebud for one week. We didn’t have a car, so my Dad borrowed my uncle’s car for the week. We did think we were fancy for that week.
12. What is a memory from one of your childhood birthday’s or Christmas? Not many birthday memories, but I do remember that my cousin’s birthday was close to mine, so we had combined birthday parties.
13. What childhood injuries do you remember? Very few, but I do have a scar on my knee, from when I fell when climbing a barbed wire fence, at about age 11
14. What was your first pet? Not really sure of the first. But I always had a dog. Our cat came along at about the same time as me and lived to age 19.
15. Did your grandparents, or older relatives tell you stories of “when I was young ..?” My grandfather would often tell  me of how he went everywhere by horse and cart. no matter how far. Long distances were done with overnigt stops.
16. What was entertainment when you were young? I loved going to the movies with girlfriends when I was a young teenager. On Sunday nights my friends and I would gather at one of our houses and play board games. There was also singing around the piano at houses where there was one.
17. Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?) Our first TV arrived when I was about 5 and this caused much excitement. There was a children’s TV show broadcast from my home town and ocassionally as a special treat we were taken to the studio to be part of the live audience. Very exciting!
18. Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get? TV in my childhood was always black and white. Colour arrived after I was married. For many years, the only channels we had were the local channel and ABC 
19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it? We moved when I was about 5. The move also involved changing schools.  I don’t recall that this caused me any stress. We then stayed in the same house until I married.
20. Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (ie.fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake etc) Nothing like this happened to me during my childhood.
21. Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory? I always think of Mary had a little lamb as I learned to play it on the recorder. To this day, even though I’m not musical, I can remember how to play that tune.
22. What is something that an older family member taught you to do? My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a teenager.  I was very proud of the cardigan I crocheted.
23. What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid? Tarax drinks, Marchants Lemonade, Aeroplane Jelly
24. Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.) I collected teaspoons for many years, starting after a family friend bought teaspoons home from an overseas trip, for me. Overseas travel at the time seemed very exotic.
25. Share your favourite childhood memory. My grandfather was caretaker of the showgrounds and lived on site. There were many rabbits under the showgrounds buildings, near their house. My grandfather told us that the way to catch rabbits was to put salt on their tails. We spent many hours with a cup of salt, trying to coax rabbits out of their hidey hole, so that we could salt their tails.