An
eDiary of
Some of the
Key
Things in
Don's
Life
As my memories are slipping away in my 70's, I've set up these eDiary pages for some of the key threads that had meant more to me than any others…
these may well get "tweaked" as I recall others and/or replaced!
I started my eDiaries in the mid-80's, organizing them into these decade-based pages…
each are sorted by year and months, showing from Jan to Dec;
click on any of these sections to visit that decade?
Main page |
2010's |
2000's |
80's-90's |
70's |
50's-60's (this page)
You should also consider visiting my profile
page
that shares more info about me vs. just these eDiary pages,
or, see my list of the
Global Places
I've visited?
For an "historical" view, start at the very
end
of my eDiaries & then scroll up to read then backwards in time?
Also, the embedded textual event content reflects the time of the events vs. current time—view the pages full-screen?
I regularly updated these eDiaries until the creation of FaceBook's
2011 "eHistory"
feature, whereupon I stopped… sadly, my account crashed out in 2019
( while I was updating my profile )
and I had to redrill some of the "lost years" to get them back!
Have fun, regardless ;)
To begin this, my earliest eDiary page, I will share that in late July of 2024 a thought came into my
mind:
Capture the key childhood & early-teenage events before they become no-longer-recallable!!
I then sat down to improve the structure and details on this page (and on some others) with data from my
CV
as well as some memories…
This story of my youth begins with my
birth event,
ending abruptly in January of 1971 with my
Dad
evicting
me
at age 15½ from my
childhood home
(literally, a forced & permanent departure!)
to head off to the British Army & onwards…
With dozens of threads in
my
memory from the late 50's
(when I became aware after being a baby for 18-20 months)
through to the end of the 1960's,
please take each event as you read with a small dose of salt vs. a frown—memories aren't a guarantee!
Thoughts, comments, etc are welcome… Cheers!
My Early Life in the 1950's
Early on a Monday morning in July of 1955, I was born at the
Aston Greys Nursing Home
(the snap of the property shown is from 1927)
at 21-23-25 Knole Road(+)
on the north-west corner of Southcote Road in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England—the county was changed by the local government to Dorset in 1974
The nursing home was just a few minutes walk (~500+yards) from the flat at
10 Carlton Road
(scroll down the linked page for details?)
where
Mum
(who was aged ~24½ at that time) &
Dad
were living in late 1954.
Mum would have visited the nursing home several times prior to
my
birth, with zero costs: the
National Health Service
started up in 1948
Aston Greys was operated at that time by the owners, Misses Adams & Birkhead, Proprietors, with skilled nurses;
today's address for the nursing home is in Boscombe—the building has also been replaced by a block of flats (or a business) at #21 Knole Rd & at #23-25 by the
Curtis Lodge
retirement complex, built in 2007 with 66 flats
An interesting web link also popped up in my research: an
Aston Greys
Facebook page!
I was advised (likely in the '60s) that I had arrived at "5:05am" & that I was a tiny baby… with
my
reported low birth weight of 5 pounds/5 ounces(ish), my
Dad
said that when he held me as a baby, I was like "a ball of string with 5 pieces attached" for
my
head & those skinny arms & legs!
-
After
my
birth, we lived in the flat at 10 Carlton Road (shared above) for a few months, moving in the Autumn of '55 to a detached brick house (built in the 1920's) at 70 Elmes Road(+)
in Moordown that my Granddad
(my Dad's dad)
had
purchased
(scroll down for details?)…
I lived at our home until
my
early '71 eviction (shared above)…
Here are some of my infant-age snaps (click for larger views?) that Mum's camera caught in our back garden…
Me (aged about 2) playing with
Dad
Wearing
my
new jumper with my
Dad
(around the spring of '57)
Me on
my
pedal car
-
Some of
my
early childhood memories (before 1960) are too fuzzy to be precise on the dates. but they are stored in my memories…
I recall being caught one morning peeing in the living-room fireplace [back then; it was replaced later to make more space] at our house one early morning!
I remember playing "chase" with Dad around the clothes pole in the garden; no pictures etc but it's in my mind
I helped myself to some "yummy" flour & syrup, standing on a chair to reach them in the pantry… what a mess!
Dad got me a pet tortoise (could have been later) that lived in our garden; it sadly managed to get stuck under a fence & died
I was playing in the soot (with water!!) out back of the shed… had to take a bath ;)
I recall sitting with Mum to watch these and other shows on the TV: Andy Pandy and Bill & Ben, the “Flowerpot Men…” such a delight!
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Many recalled events (shared below) are from
my
10+ years of school life…
With around 175 school-days per year,
a total of ~1,900 days for me
were actually idle
(e.g. "not in school")
making >1,000 days to sadly get into all kinds of trouble!!
The Start of my Schooling in the Early 1960's
My school life started at the age of 5+ after the summer in 1960 (around September 5th) at the Infants' School for Boys on Coronation Avenue(+), Moordown, Bournemouth, a short walk from home—Mum walked with me there & back every day for a while as there were (most likely!) tears… The school was changed in the late '90s to the "Moordown Community Centre" (it shows when you click the school location, above!), replacing the then-abandoned school from several years before
- I spent 3 years at the Infants School from Sep-1960 to Jun-1963
(see the historical school data)—I
clearly remember
my
teacher, "Mrs. Parsons"
(I have her face in my mind)
First few days [a week, maybe] where some kid wrecked my block castle in class
Some of my vague playground recollections… the smelly toilets there (urinals), the fence to the next-door Senior school,
a future friend across the fence: Stuart Pierce
Had my leg smacked [was wearing shorts] for a "bad mouth" comment, probably “shit”
Forced to eat the beetroot that was on my plate for lunch—threw up on the lucky dinner-lady!!
Playing with the Meccano construction set in final [??] class
Accidentally managed to fill my pants one fine day in the 3rd year class (Mrs. Parsons / "who was that ??") -
Some early non-school memories from the '60s (thru perhaps '64)
The making of the playing fields on Redhill common—used to be all gorse & scrub; was dug up & flattened for the green areas
Checking out a torch battery after reading about them (summer '62) in a book—cut my left index-finger to the bone trying to open the outer case
(which was lead) with a sharp kitchen knife; still have a neat triangular scar with 3 stitches to remember it by!
Saturday morning movies at the Modern with my friend, the little black kid who lived in a flat upstairs somewhere behind the cinema
Sunday school picnic, crying on the bus as it left because I didn't know what time it would return & couldn't tell Mum; too shy/afraid to ask someone!
Drilling holes in my bedroom wall… that pissed my Dad off endlessly!
A goldfish pond in the garden & my garden next to it
Mitch the cat, my very own
Stole a big pocket penknife from Terry the lodger; got found with it at school…
Cat on Wimborne Road, scratching me badly…
Arthur the Parkie, in his room, warming his hands with the stove -
In addition to
my
early school memories, at some time (around '61) I discovered that riding on a bus seated facing the back of the bus just wasn't a great idea: I threw up! This was
Mum
& I, headed out to see something (not remembered) outside of Bournemouth…
As another active memory around this time (sadly, with no photo's), Mum worked as a bartender in the Queen Victoria Hotel
(on Wimborne Road in Winton, which today has become the Parkstone and Heatherlands pub)
letting me play outside, where it was safe… this was in the walled garden, where there was a unique tiny chapel (dedicated to the airmen who had died in the second world war). The pub originally opened there in 1860 as The Fitzharris Arms and was changed to the Queen Vic before October of 1915; it was owned at that time by W.H. O'Brian… -
While I suspect that the
Cuban missile crisis
of 1962 wasn't something that I knew much about back then, it almost brought the world to the very edge of being gone!
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The Mid-60's
-
In the summer of 1965
(at age 10, possibly for
my
birthday)
I brought my 1st pack of fags, 10
Players No.10's
(with a box of matches) for a few bob over at the
newspaper shop (now gone, but near the bus stop);
I climbed the nearby tree & smoked one…
They
looked just like this only they were No.10
- Also in '65, Dad built a bike for me & painted it white—I managed to crash it one fine day as the brakes (I recall) were reversed!
-
Back to
my
school memories, I spent 3 years (starting at age 8) at the
Junior School for Boys
on Oswald Road (Sep-1963 to Jun-1966) which was right around the corner from our house (as shown in the link).
The school is today for both Boys & Girls through age 11 and was renamed as the
"Winton Primary School"
after closing and restructuring in 1995—consolidated from Coronation Ave and others
Sitting in the front of the class with Maria Swejian in the 2nd or 3rd year class
Leslie Baldrey, David Langdown, Colin Edwards, Simon Pittwood, etc
Violet Irving, Christine Green, etc
Steven Miel ["Look—he bit me…" ]
Playing "Mr. Big" with a rolled-up newspaper on the playground; caught by the hag who was the playground monitor… "You disgusting boy!"
Mum/Dad visited with Mr. Janda (the headmaster) to discuss my behavior; Dad was (reportedly) threatening & ready to do him in…
I was chuffed at the time, but it probably was NOT the best thing for him to do!
Our French teacher (Ms. ?) who was a "real nice" young lady…
Jimmy ? brought in some brown-painted Plaster-of-Paris "dogsmuck" one day
Fighting with ?? on the playground—hurt my eye pretty bad
I was late to school on a regular basis… told Miss ? one day that "all the clocks in our house were an hour fast" (instead of "slow"); she didn't believe me!
I was fighting with Leslie Baldrey in the classroom (?3 rd year);he had earlier created that mocking sing-along poem,
Donald Duck did some muck
Behind the kitchen door;
Mother Duck cleaned it up
And Donald did some more!
Mum had changed my registration name to “James Donald” for my 1963 transition from the Infants school to the Junior school in an attempt to
redirect the bullies (Leslie Baldrey et al)… her efforts didn't work at all—that was so f***ing bad when they trailed me home,
chanting the poem that left me in tears!! -
My mid-60's non-school memories (’64-’67)
I managed to wreck Dad's electric train-set in the attic—sprinkled salt as "snow" everywhere to decorate… oops!
He also kept rabbits for food; an open-based triangular cage for them, moved around to "mow the grass" & later living inside the shed
A damned wasp stung my elbow as I was leaning out of the window in my room
My new bunk beds in the larger bedroom
My chemistry set—boiling meths (!!!) to make a burner
Cyril Cox & fishing with Dad on the pier, where I was taken a couple times
I remember watching Blue Peter & Dr. Who on TV every week around this time
Uncle Peter crashed his lorry & was in hospital
A day playing at the river with Paula Gunshon (with the gang) & some river mud
Neighbors Lorraine & Paul next door; Julie, across the street & Lynne Wraith
A day-trip to the roller-coaster park at Southend-on-Sea with Mum & Peter, and later to Brownsea Island with Simon Pittwood & Mum; noisy peacocks!
Our Butlins holiday:
2 different camps (Swansea/Barry Island to Minehead) for some reason
Ice cream race & up-chucking consequences…
Dad's jobs…
Merchant navy (but I don't really remember him gone…)
Gardener; put his back out one year
Plumber/etc; he fell off of a ladder? with Peter T
Mechanic at the local bakery
Lodgers: Terrence, Alan, Steve [who I recall was a tough SOB]
Students: Giacomo (Italian) with some girl -
After my 8th birthday in 1963, my
Dad's
visit to New York as a ships' cook in a merchant marine ship brought
me
a beautiful gift, that
Silk Jacket…
scroll down to the "Property/about 1963" event & click the links?
Just a few days later, I managed to take it off while playing over at Redhill Common (where it was a hot day, so I recall) & it was then taken from the bush (or on the ground) where I had dropped it :( -
My 2nd sister,
Dawn
(Mum had twins, a boy/girl in 1953; they died prematurely)
arrived in August'63 yet sadly with a stillborn birth…
about 4 months after this disaster, my
Mum
unexpectedly left home for a few weeks with my
"Uncle Peter" / scroll down to the November, 1963 event?
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My Senior School Years in the Late '60s
In September of 1966 I moved up to the Winton & Moordown Secondary School for Boys at age 11, where I stayed until my
eviction
in September 1970…
This was a return to Coronation Ave from the Junior
school
on Oswald Road—I had to walk back & forth to the Annex for metalwork, physics, TD, etc.
The school was shut down in 1999 with the consolidations and has been restructured as the
Moordown Community Centre
- I have many, many memories of
my
4+ years at the school…
Teachers:
The Headmaster—William H. Gould; his German language class using the "das/den-die/den-dem/des" vernacular
and who also energetically caned (THWACK!!) both my backside & my hands many, many times for my continuous recalcitrance!
The Deputy Headmaster—F. P. (Peter) Day on the left who also frequently punished me
English Lit—Reid
History—??
Math—Vic Loosemore
Art—Denham [who I know died summer '84]
French—Pete Kingswell & my 4th year room leader
Religious Education—Mr. Mole
English & swimming lessons—Gus Popham
He seemed a little queer at the baths, looking over the changing-room door!!
Yelled at Nicholas Bishop in class one day—"Get out… No, NOT THROUGH THE WINDOW, you stupid boy!!!"
The PE guy—??
"You're just yellow…"—bastard… He tanned me with a rope-end another time
Playing "pirates" in the Gym… we placed equipment around the gym: pommel horse, beam (low and high) benches, right way up & upside down,
crash mats, wall bars and ropes—if you touched the floor or were tagged by the catcher you were 'out' and stood at the side of the gym
The winner was the last one standing; no recall of ever being that one!
Chemistry—??
Sugar conversion (using acid)
Physics—"Abbo" Reid
Caught playing with the gas-taps (WHAPPP!!) -
Kids:
Ray (Loopy) Loopine—whipped me once, leaving a bloody nose… he was a Decathlon sports jock too
Colin Whittaker—I whipped him when he "insulted" Liz, my girlfriend -
Classes:
Stales from the bakery & the sweetshop, eating while walking over to the Annex for a class and back
Woodwork class, made a nice turned bowl
There was a music class every week (with Simon Stone) that was played on the big old wooden record-player, managed by my Uncle Reg…
Graham Young was 1st to start going to the Drama school in Boscombe; Geoff Bown & I started to go with him
Art class
Built various pottery items
A sketch of a tree, many branches & leaves
A reflective tea-pot sketch
School trip to France/Belgium
Lost a shoe in the mud
In the "Atom"
LB had a flick-knife; Pete Kingswell it threw overboard on our way home
Field trip (2 nights) to the Leeson House in Swanage
Snow
Rugby songs with Cess
"Harry's standing on his head…"
(THWWWAAAACK!!!—Uncle Gus…)
Metalwork class
Made a poker for the fire
Knuckle-dusters
Planishing something… -
More out-of-school memories of the late 60's/early 70's (68/69/70)
Ran off from home for a day… all the way to Meyrick Park; sure did piss Dad off though!
Working for my Uncle Reg at their shop in downtown Bournemouth on Saturdays
I had a job for a short while at the local newspaper shop, delivering daily papers to a couple dozen houses;
he fired me after discovering that I was stealing his Mars bars and the like!
Cafe near the Modern (now a bingo hall)
Fair on Columbia road
A girl called "Finger" (whose name eludes me) & Liz Willis ('68)
YOBrothers—Jonathan Thorneycroft, Geoffrey Bown & myself; we thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread…
I remember the old fart in the TD class at the Annex sneeringly criticizing my green pocket-dictionary book with "YOBrothers" scrawled all over…
I just quietly hated him & said "Yes, sir"
"Careful with that Axe, Eugene" (Pink Floyd, UmmaGumma) with Thorny at Geoff's house…
Geoff asking if Jimi Hendrix was saying "Kiss the sky" or "Kiss this guy"… we know today!
"Little Muscles…” Beverly Hebditch hanging w/Thorny after school (down by the park)
The Dustbin Men's strike (?68) & the huge pile of rubbish dumped onto the common that I danced on & subsequently fell into… such a laugh
Peter Vigg, down Throop Lane? & Haggis, some kind of Haig (Michael?)
While the timing of this fact is not precise, around ’67 I learned from Dad that he knew of Cockney slang… he would tell me about how he would
"take a ball of chalk” over to “under the apples & pears” for a “hit and miss,"
which translates to peeing under the nearby stairs that he'd walk to! Many other phrases exist: view?
I had 2 loudspeakers in my bedroom, used for "earphones"
Drawing "Wheels of Fire" on the wall
Car burned-out on Boundary Rd, up by Talbot Woods; shorted out cigarette lighter with screwdriver & made it red hot
That barn ½-way up Slade's Lane, always full of hay, good fun to climb in/on/roll around in… it burned up one year - My brother Alan was born in 1968; he was a youngster when I went off to the Army a couple years later
-
Caught a snap of my room in 1968
.jpg)
-
My school life ended in the 3rd week of
my
5G class on Wednesday, 16th of September, 1970, where I was evicted (at age 15+) for my stupid
recalcitrance…
Jules Stravinsky was hit just before me (as the 1st kid, me as the 2nd)
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Some of the Places that I Actively Recall
-
The Drama School over at Boscombe;
this got started with Simon Stone doing our "drama" classes in the Gym at the Winton & Moordown Senior School
People
Simon Stone [& his wife Lucy, later] who was Best Man at my 1975 marriage to Jane
Geoff Bown
Graham Young [floating]
Kay ["we can still be friends, bit no kissing or anything… "]
Janice ["your conscience will be the end of me"]… some spectacularly stupid sharing of my neck Hicky with Mum who was fussing downstairs
Things
Chasing a bus on my bike (for Kay)
Honky-tonk Woman & dancing
Yelling at girls out of car [green mini-van] w/Simon Stone
Trip to Chesil bank/beach (?) on the beach to collect stones -
Various other schools that I've attended… these are all outside of
my
childhood years, but they *are* each additional schools!!
1st is my time at the Army Apprentices College, Harrogate (click to view details?)
Jan-1971
I leave my childhood home at 70 Elmes, evicted by Dad—pretty much for ever & ever (amen; described above)
Apr-1973
Graduated with high honors… then off to Germany (via Catterick)
Then in the Control Data Institute, London
Oct-1977
Started after my Army Discharge
Apr-1978
Graduated with honors… off to work at Burroughs
Many years later, in Montgomery College, near Germantown, MD
May-1984
Took a class or 2 there
Then on to Carroll College, Waukesha, WI
May-1988
Signed up to take a class or 2
With a break at the Kennedy Western, Idaho
May-1991
Started this as I'd become a GE manager… fully funded with GE tuition
Dec-1996
Actually started up the 75-page graduation document which sadly was never finished
Jul-2007
Several years later, I contacted KW for a restart / found that they would not… what a waste!
Also at the WCTC, Pewaukee & UW-W, Waukesha, WI
Jun-2009
Took a class 2 there to save a buck
Graduated at the Carroll University, Waukesha, WI
May-2009
Started back up to get my degree
Dec-2011
Graduated, completing my BS-CS, IS Focus -
Places that I recall
Close to my childhood home
Redhill common, rec & paddling pool
Sandy Way
Moors across Wimborne rd, @ end of Sandy way
Malvern rec
Talbot woods
Kinson
Moors across road behind Talbot woods
River—2 or 3 places; also out by Haggis' house (some kind of Haig?)
Bomb shelter—2 places
Fairly close
St. Catharine's hill
Throop mill & area
Hurn airport
Meyrick Park
Brownsea Island
Horseshoe common—lake with dragonflies
Beaches
Bmth & Boscombe piers
Alum chine
Boscombe Cliffs
Shell bay (ferry—swimming)
Driving (Sunday trips) to…
Durdle Door
Worborough Bay
Corfe Castle
St. Alban's head
… Mounds
Winchester Miniature town
Granddads grave
Hengistbury Head
Brownsea Island
… Gardens (worked at a hotel near here)
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My memories of things around the "Old Common" (my terminology for the 1st set of
my
memories there), a place near my home ('66 to '68)
Guys:
Alan Walker
Stuart Pierce
Bobby Hayes
bells
he broke my [white] bike
stole his shilling & got my ass kicked
ghosts in the woods
Girls:
2 girls (blonde, brunette)
Lynne Davies
Rosemary Venn & an anonymous [age 13] female who stripped for us in Sandy Way
1967
Playing darts
1968
Arthur the Parkie
[little] twins
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The "New Common" (2nd set of memories) was in more recent years ('68-'70)
Youth club
Church
Cafe
Fish & Chips (Pea fritters)
A big party near the river; little bottles of barley wine & lotsa cider!!
Kids
Quackers (& brother Dave??)
Paul, a friend of cousin Gary—his Dad was a vet
Johnnie & Paul Barton
Geoff Bown & Kim Gunshon
Thorny & Beverly Hebditch
Steve "Cess" Esses ??
Steve Usher
Michael
Geoff (Swimmer)
Haggis
Some kind of Mike Haig, perhaps?
Ray "Brad" [Bradbury??]—wrecked his car showing us "how good he drives"
Maggie… dear girl; I wish I had known her better & I really wish I still had her photograph…
Maria Swejian (long wet kisses), died of flu in 1968; learned about at church
Linda ?? [Fire station house] (Spin the bottle party)
I had very early tendencies towards being homosexual (apparently not that unusual—will share that it *vanished* at Harrogate!!) with some boys,
Alan H, David & Nigel whom I once squirted in his eye with washing-up liquid through a hole in the back door where the doorbell wires used to be…
Cigarettes:
St. Moritz
Gold Leaf—my regulars
Piccadilly
Turkish [coloured]
Diplomat
Players no 10 (described above)
1968
Off to Wheeley for the weekend—a pop concert
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The Kinson people, many of whom became
my
close friends in '68
Guys:
Johnnie Early
Dino (Paul Dean)
Gary (with the car)
John Willis & his brother Bob; drunk at our club, laying down… something with lightbulbs
Dave Ellis, wanking drunk in the car headlights
Vick, pounding dear Dave for me
Sean, that pug-faced twat ["so you're in the Army… "] who punched me in the face
Girls:
Jane Fearn—long, blonde hair & blue-blue eyes, horse-back riding
Cheryl "Shagroll"
Sandra Beauchamp, bluest darling eyes… w/John Willis at the Embo once
That Swanage trip
Gary rolled his Mini
Cutting beer lines
Burning a chair!!
Things
Fight in the Bournemouth gardens; retaliated at the club—Dino & David Grey
Embassy club
The Pie'n'Chick Inn place to eat
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Things around Christchurch in the late 60's
Kids/etc:
Dave Worthy
Bill [Tall, curly hair, hippie]
Short, chunky [fat—be honest!!] girl
AJS 350—riding up & down St. Catharine's Hill with [? I think ?] Loopy Loopine… also doing the ton (for sure with Loopy) on the Christchurch bypass!
Met David in Christchurch (I was with Dino & Dave Worthy, I think & a couple of girls); he was in the Navy by then & obviously hadn't outgrown
his early teen queer phase—he had heavy eye-shadow & rouge on, with perfume of some kind & looked like he was out for a killing! I was really
amused to see him, but he wasn't real happy to see me…
Walked w/Dino along the beach from Bournemouth Pier to Christchurch one Saturday;
We met up with a couple of dog birds in a bar that night & caught a bus home later
Dino's girlfriend who really wanted to get to know me better…
Setting fires on St. Catharine's hill (with a cop out jogging…)
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The End of My Childhood & Teenage eDiary Threads…
Well, that's pretty much the end of my early life events! Visit the more recent decades here?
You could also go to my
Bio summary page, the
profile page that I created a few years ago, my family tree
profile or visit me on
FaceBook where you can scroll down to view my events year-by-year.
As I expect that parts of my eDiary will improve and/or change as I tag more year-by-year info or clarify some of the threads… watch this space!
Please also visit my
privacy page
to be aware of some legal stuff?
As a final thought, view some snaps of me & my family in my
older album? Enjoy!! ;)