Your childhood

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buckytom

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With such a diverse and interesting group of folks as we have here, especially the ex-pat owner of the site, I've been thinking of where we have all come from.

Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like?

Of course, Ken will probably quote either Oliver Twist, or one of Julian Fellowe's tomes, but our backgrounds could serve for some interesting fare.

Where ya from?

(To add: I'm sure there was food involved, so how did it play a role in your upbringing?)
 
buckytom said:
With such a diverse and interesting group of folks as we have here, especially the ex-pat owner of the site, I've been thinking of where we have all come from.

Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like?

Of course, Ken will probably quote either Oliver Twist, or one of Julian Fellowe's tomes, but our backgrounds could serve for some interesting fare.

Where ya from?

(To add: I'm sure there was food involved, so how did it play a role in your upbringing?)
Click to expand...
Well, I was born in Boston, and we moved to Cape Cod as a young child. I loved living there. We had a farm. Right out side the summer kitchen my mother had a garden that gave us the veggies for our evening meal. Playing outside, we never wanted to go in for lunch, so we would pull up a carrot, grab a cuke, or whatever was ripe. Wash it off with the hose and eat our lunch. We did our chores early in the morning. Feed the chickens, slop the pigs, etc. In the fall as soon as we got home, we knew to go right to the summer kitchen. My sister washed and sterilized the Mason jars, and I helped my mother peel, cut, and whatever was needed to get the veggies ready for blanching. After blanching into the jars. It was all done on an old wood stove. I can still tell the temp of the oven by just sticking my hand in the oven.

We left the farm when I was in the eighth grade and moved back to Boston. I hated it. To this day I miss living on a farm. But there was some consolation in the summer. All the kids in the neighborhood would head to the beach just as the tide was starting to go out. We all had a large pail and would dig for clams and the mussels clinging to the rocks. This was during the war. These clams help to make the meat rations go further. Anytime we brought home clams, we had clam chowder made with evaporated milk. I still make it like my mother did. If we got hit with a Nor'easter, as soon as the storm started to abate, we made a mad dash for the beach and waited until it was safe to go down. Lobsters everywhere. We filled our pails. I learned how to peg their claws. We never brought home a female that was carrying eggs or roe. Those we tossed back into the sea. And baby lobsters were off limits also. The most I ever brought home was ten lobsters. It was all I could fit into my pail.

I got married right after I graduated from high school. The end of my childhood.
 
Food ? We used to dream of food !!:happy:
Actually I was pretty much average North East England city. Food was dull but ok [take away meant fish n chips end of story]. But jobs were easy to get, the war years and especially rationing were fading into the past we had money [well enough anyway] free time lots of new music and hope for a future [sadly that last bit seems to have fizzled out a bit].
 
I was born and raised in Barcelona in the 1970s, however, my parents ( Dad is from Cadaqués, close to where legend Salvador Dalí was born, in Figueras ) and Mom was born in Gibraltar. Both my parents own a hospitality service & product provider corporation in which we all work in different departments, including myself, I am a tour guide & tour operator, a división in which I started after University. I am an only child, so since the beginning, I took a grand interest in the entreprennurial world, travel and gastronomy .. I attended Hospitality Institute in Barcelona and then did my Masters in Tourism in Paris .. We spent summers at our family home in northern Costa Brava in Cadaqués, and we all have a penchant for the sea and nautical sports. I am married to a French Gentleman from Le Provençe de Salon, 35 minutes north of Marseille, France and we have 2 sons, age 26 (un-identical twins who are both married and have 1 son each ).
As a child I had a grand penchant for Mel i Matö, a caramelised honey and rasberry dessert, which in Catalan denotes: Fresh goat cheese similar to Ricotta and Honey .. Always an avid reader, and a typical means for only children to entertain themselves. I am quite an avid history buff ..
 
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We didn't have a telly. We used to sit and watch the fire go out. Then go and order another shovel full of coal. There were so many of us that mother didn't give us names - she had us branded. Im not saying we were poor, but our mouse left us and went to live in the church. The house was so cold, we used to put the milk in the fridge to stop it freezing.






(Courtesy of the late, great Les Dawson)
 
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Born and bred in Yorkshire, buttered in Ireland.

I had a childhood, I know I did.

Think of "Wutherin Heights" and you'll get a good idea of what it's like round these parts. "Top Withins" being within walking range. The actual one used for the book, not the relocated one.
 
epicuric said:
We didn't have a telly. We used to sit and watch the fire go out. Then go and order another shovel full of coal. There were so many of us that mother didn't give us names - she had us branded. Im not saying we were poor, but our mouse left us and went to live in the church. The house was so cold, we used to put the milk in the fridge to stop it freezing.

(Courtesy of the late, great Les Dawson)
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That were luxury! Working upt'mill 18 hours a day at six year old an all we got tw'eat were gravel!

I was born and brought up in a poor area of Leeds (Woodhouse) but it wasn't slums (in fact the house where I was born is still there). Luckily my Dad had a decent job but he died of cancer when I was eleven so it was a little downhill from there.

The house where I was born (now).

7 beulah grove.jpg
 
Yorky said:
That were luxury! Working upt'mill 18 hours a day at six year old an all we got tw'eat were gravel!

I was born and brought up in a poor area of Leeds (Woodhouse) but it wasn't slums (in fact the house where I was born is still there). Luckily my Dad had a decent job but he died of cancer when I was eleven so it was a little downhill from there.

The house where I was born (now).

View attachment 7920
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Bit iffy that.
Window part open, anyone could put their hand in!

Getting it back is another problem.
 
I was on a BA flight (an airline I normally avoid) somewhere to Heathrow. The steward walked past and collected a bottle of wine from my tray. My boss said "Was that empty?"

"Has he still got his arm?" was my response.
 
Yorky said:
I was born and brought up in a poor area of Leeds (Woodhouse)
Click to expand...
Not far away - Armley in fact. Actually our family name can be traced back [within a fifty mile radius] to before the Norman conquest.
We held lands and properties in the northern shires and [I suppose] used to flog the poor people on a regular basis :whistling:. Sadly all that seems to have vanished by the 19th century :(
 
Born in Vanier, Ontario, Canada. A French suburb of Ottawa. Grew up in a small town about 125 k west of there. Been around and ended up back here a couple of years ago after my mother passed. I bought the family home. Full circle...
 
From the time I was 11 to 13:
Let's say macaroni and cheese (boxed) (4 days a week) was a staple food because it was the only thing my brother and I knew how to cook. On Fridays we had fish at a local club. On Saturday night it was usually burgers and fries from Speedway before a dance at the club. Sunday, we all had a big lunch at my grandparents.
No parents were not working nights, they were at the club.

And you really don't want to know about my childhood.
 
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