Journal Jar RP 19 – Between the ages of 5 and 10 what was your favourite activity?
This is Jar 4, Topic 1.
Hard to think on this one! I guess I first need to list where I was living and what school I was at in order to put the hooks in place.
Age 5 – Living in LVA, going to school at LVA (started school in the January before I was 5 I seem to recall!). I remember getting to school in a kind of red snow suit affair and it being snowy outside. That would have been just before I was 5. My fifth birthday itself, I have already written about in an earlier Journal Jar. I was the eldest of 4, so at this point I was the only one at school. We left LVA the day before my 8th birthday, so that means I can start to narrow down certain activities.
From age 8 – 10, I lived in a mining town in South Wales, went to WSJ school for 3 years,
Age 5-8, we lived in a country vicarage, it seemed huge at the time, but I’ve been passed it since I was an adult and actually it’s quite small. It had a large orchard. We had a swing in the garden. We lived next door to a farm and I used to have to go there to get eggs for my mum – can you imagine – in those days I was sent to the next farm alone (or later with my sister when she was a bit older) to collect 2 dozen eggs – wrapped up in little pieces of newspaper.
There was a big barn in the farmyard, piled high with straw bales, and me and my sister and the farm kids – who I can’t recall at all other than the fact that they existed – used to have great fun climbing to the top of the bales and jumping off in to loose straw below. I used to have a scooter (the kind that you put one foot on and kick along with your other foot) and used to ride it to school – probably 6 or 7 at that time. I remember one time falling off that scooter and badly hurting my wrist. I was lying on the side of the road for ages. It was nearly a mile from school to home. No one came to find me and no one drove past to help me – wahhhhhhh. My parents have always been fond believers in the philosophy that if you hear nothing, everything’s ok :rolleyes:
Some of the games we used to play, I also talked about in another Journal Jar posting. I did enjoy ‘sums’ as we used to call it at school, and was a bit ahead of most of the other kids. I do remember my dad buying me a book designed to stretch me a bit, it introduced the idea of number bases and so on.
I used to love reading adventure stories – Famous Five, Secret Seven. I used to have ‘school fantasies’ at that stage I remember. The local girls’ school had a uniform that was a maroon box-pleated tunic and I used to tell my mum that I wanted to go to that school. (I did eventually and hated it – lasted one year there but ended up going back there to do A levels a few years later). I do remember playing ‘schools’. I was forever making up exercise books with sums and things written out in them for my teddies.
In LVA, the night sky was very clear and you could see the stars. Dad would take me out in the dark and tell me what the constellations were. I used to read a comic where there was a boy in it who had a torch that shone black light and if he shone it at a star, he would be transported to ‘that planet’ (ok, which planet – never mind – let’s suspend disbelief for the purposes of the 5-7 year old dreams!) and experience life on there for a while. I used to dream of being able to do that.
I think Star Trek first aired in the UK around then and grabbed me from the word go in a way that Dr Who had never quite mustered. Dr Who always seemed to be on Earth and I guess there were no uniforms – I had a thing about armies then as well. Hm.. Uniforms and armies – where on earth did that come from age 5-10?
I used to go to Brownies I remember – that started when I was about 6 – I used to go in to the town on the bus on my own up to the venue, pay a 6d (2.5p) subscription, dress up in a brown uniform 
I can’t recall whether I enjoyed brownies that much – I guess so.
The day before I was 8 we moved to a Welsh mining town up the valleys and I started at my new school on my 8th birthday. I was there until I was 10? I just did 3 years there as I went to ‘big school’ after that. I won’t digress in to school activities but trying to recall other activities is proving difficult.
I went to sing in the church choir (nice red robe uniform – a theme continues) but possibly mainly to be with my dad. I used to enjoy the father/daughter conversations we used to have – I used to ask my dad questions like “how do we know Jesus was the only Son of God?” “How do we know God didn’t send other Jesuses to other planets” and he introduced me to C S Lewis and said he had written books on that sort of idea – so I think that is when I first read – now what was it called – I rebought the trilogy just a few years ago but had to give it away when I emigrated. Out of the Silent Planet, Voyage to Venus and That Hideous Strength (not as good to my mind as the first two).
Yes, I used to love that. I still loved maths.
I expect I did go to Brownies or Guides, but for the life of me I don’t have a picture of it in my head – maybe I didn’t! I remember going to Guides when I was a young teenager. Oh gosh, I’ve just remember friends used to try to get me to go to ‘chapel’ with them, so I think there was something I recall doing in connection with that – may or may not have been Brownies?
All things considered, and weighing it up, I would say, my favourite activity between the ages of 5-10 was contemplating the possibilities of life on other planets and having junior philosophical discussions!
Interesting! I never realised that before! I have to say I am learning things from these Journal Jar scribings!
Word count: 1157
Tags: JJ
