tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post394535936373419214..comments2024-03-13T08:18:08.922+10:30Comments on Catdownunder: Someone I really want to meetcatdownunderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189081688973141295noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post-26638492409107644402016-09-02T13:42:23.021+09:302016-09-02T13:42:23.021+09:30I enjoyed this post and it evoked many happy memor...I enjoyed this post and it evoked many happy memories. I think I am older than you but of much the same sort of upbringing and social constraints. My father was alos a teacher in another state at a time when teachers were very poorly pid. Dad's tax refund paid for christmas and a time at the beach.<br /><br />My grandmothers gave us clothes, made by them of course. They were well made and always useful in a time of little money, but they were not exciting presents to open. <br /><br />My grandfather on the other hand had an understanding of my feelings which I now find amazin for the time. He was a top level accountant who worked for a large firm from a beautiful huge office filled with expensive, well polished furniture. The office had a bank of windows overlooking Hyde Park in Sydney. However he was good with his hands and did beautiful work. He understood my hunger for books so there was always at least one or two well chosen books at both birthday and Christmas..<br /><br />He helped my father make us a proper cubby with doors and windows from a container used for shipping an individual car. As a very young child, I had a beautiful red truck made of wood. More of his handiwork. There was a set of table and chairs also made by him for the cubby. I too had a Hornby train at an early age, again from him. Then there was a clockwork London bus. Wind it up and it would set off around the loungeroom. One ding and the bus would stop, two dings and it would be on its way again. There was a tugboat which I still have. It had a boiler and waas heated by a stub from a candle. Once warmed up, it would chug noisily around the bath til the boiler was emptied. It was called and Atomic Tugboat. Another much loved present was a small drk green Matchbox brand Jaguar car. I still have the car but the caravan which hooked onto a towbar on the car has been lost.<br /><br />Lovely childhood memories to look back on now I am in 70s. Even better was the the thought he put into getting things which he knew I would enjoy. No dolls etc for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com