Distant Memories (3)

~ beetleypete

The early memory flashbacks I wrote about recently have slowed down. However, some came to me late yesterday, as I was settling down to sleep.

A metal spinning top, brightly coloured. It worked by pushing down on a knob at the top, and would spin for a long time if the rachet caught properly. I remember this toy from when I was older, but last night’s memory was perhaps the first time I was given it. Sitting on the floor, my dad kneeling in front of me pushing the top to make it spin. I can feel my mouth wide with a big smile.

Being given a ride on a man’s shoulder’s. Not my dad, probably my uncle, mum’s brother-in-law, judging from his thick black hair that I am holding onto. He runs across the room, and I feel very high up. An old glass lampshade is in front of me, and I can see dead insects inside the large illuminated bowl. He swerves just in time so my head doesn’t hit it.

There is a gold-coloured fire-guard in front of a glowing coal fire. I am either sitting or crawling, and I grab the edge of it. I can feel the heat as it burns the edges of my fingers, then I am swept up, to be carried away somewhere by my mum.

Just fleeting seconds of my life, and all as real as if they happened this morning.

43 thoughts on “Distant Memories (3)”

  4. It’s so strange how memory works. For some people, it might be a smell, a song, a noise, but for others, it is a word or a sentence… Thanks for sharing those snippets of memory, Pete.

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  7. You will be please to know that spinning tops are still in vogue, although no longer played with by the girls, we may even have passed it on to a younger cousin. Coloured stripes around its circumference and a note played like a single cord on a mouth organ as it span.
    Your memory of the gold coloured fireguard took me back to my Grans little cottage with an open fire 🙂

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  9. I had forgotten all about those spinning tops but now I remember them so well. I too have a memory about fireplaces. I had a piece of orange peel in my hand and thought I would try touching the bright orange glow of the electric fire. I succeeded and have been a great respecter of electricity ever since!

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    1. When I was older, I picked up a piece of coal that had fallen onto the carpet, and had to go to the hospital casualty department for that burn. I must have been at least 7 or 8, as there was no fireguard to stop me. That much younger memory of a hot fireguard only appeared late last night.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. It’s hard to describe how short they are. Like a photo taken with a flash, or mere seconds of an old cine-film. But the details are clear, as are the sensations of feeling things like heat.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. My main older memory of that spinning top is how stiff it was to push down. I suppose this brief earlier memory is to remind me of how much I enjoyed watching it spinning when someone else pushed it, Lucinda.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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