Reading over Part 2, I realised that I have only briefly
mentioned my family. Right, I have 3 brothers and a sister. The order from the eldest,
Iain, Malcolm, Shelagh & Duncan. Shelagh being in the middle was kind of
the glue for Duncan & me to Iain & Malcolm, as they were so much older
than us. The other thing is that Iain went to boarding school & Malcolm, as
soon as he left school, went into the Merchant Navy. This made Malcolm a kind
of mystical person who traveled to exotic places and brought back strange
presents. We also had a world map on the wall where we charted his travels.
Iain just to prove he did not follow the conventional route, once he took his 'A' levels left school and became a Cistercian monk. He stayed there for a couple of years, reading and learning all kinds of things. He left and changed his whole world, he went into the army, Royal Signals attached to the intelligence corp., the bright or unconventional one in the family. He too went to strange places but dangerous ones, unlike Malcolm. This was at the time when the Empire was breaking up and countries became independent. So he was in Kenya and British Guiana as well as other places as they were becoming independent.
Malcolm, after leaving the navy, went into the army too at
the same time as Iain. He joined the Royal Horse Guards, armoured division. Not
sure why a lad from wearside should do that but Hi, why not. Malcolm had a much
easier number; he went over to German as a driver to the officers. No polishing
those fancy metal brass plates and horses for him. When not in Germany, he was
in Windsor and so near the big city.
Shelagh, well she was our big sis. Dumped on at times to
look after Duncan & me as all big sisters are but was always there at home.
Shelagh never left home until she got married. She too went to grammar school
in Sunderland, a different one, a girl’s one and then secretarial jobs.
From Part 2 you can see Duncan plays the biggest part in my life. Iain & Malcolm were close, and Duncan & me, and Shelagh had the best of it by being close to all 4 of us. As I was Duncan's youngest brother, always following him around, I must of been a pain. Also, because of my illness, I was very spoilt and Duncan had to bear the brunt of it. I wonder sometimes why he still likes me.
Sunderland was good, happy memories for a lot of the time,
well after hospital and before grammar school. A place I love and whenever I go
back it feels like I am going home. I
love going back to watch my beloved Sunderland. Of course living up here now it
is very difficult to get there but I do try to go a 2 or 3 times a season.
Sometimes I wonder why as they have a knack of deflating you, but when you have
had a life time of it is just part of supporting the lads.
I have love for both Sunderland & Scotland. Dad and his
sisters (who played a very important part of all of our lives) always made such
a big thing of Scotland. Mum too even though she was from Gateshead. I want
Independence for Scotland but because of my love of NE England and especially
Co. Durham, no one can call me anti-English.
Mentioning my Aunts, I should say more. They never married
and from a early age spent all of their lives in Gateshead, on the outskirts of
Newcastle. They lived with their parents until they died and both were
teachers. We spent every Saturday at Gateshead until we moved. Also when I was
in hospital Mum was seriously ill herself and the rest of the family lived with
them. The eldest 3 even going to school. My aunts took it in turn to come to
the hospital to visit me, as I was too far away for my parents too. It was a
very sad day when my aunts died. All of us were there for them when they died.
They were second parents to us all and we were their children.
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