Online Family History Blogs are a great way for the elderly to document ‘fun stories’ for their children and grandchildren.
Three of our Singapore based grandchildren came to visit us last weekend, so I trialled it out for comments and they have encouraged me to work on the first 70 years!
‘You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore’, Christopher Columbus.
My very first memories as a child in immediate post war London were random bomb sites in our local streets, images of people sleeping on underground railway platforms, de-commissioned anti-aircraft guns and an enormous bomb shelter in the middle of the lawn in our back garden in North Finchley.
Also, for as long as I can remember, I enjoyed a terminal stutter which made school a very lonely and painful experience for me. However, while I couldn’t talk, I could sing. I was invited to join the school recorder group as the singer where we entertained old people in retirement homes and churches around Finchley.
When I was about 7 years old my eccentric grandfather, Danny O’Shea taught me how to stand on my head. He was an amazing character who ran away from home when he was a teenager to join the circus in America and become an acrobat.
Danny shared a caravan in the Barnum & Bailey Circus with Charlie Chaplain who was the resident circus clown. One night a huge fire burned down much of the circus as well as their caravan. In the morning through tears of laughter Charlie informed Danny that his jet-black hair had turned completely white. It stayed that way all his life!
So you can all see I’ve got a long way to go to bring their story up to date.
Mike…your monthly Blog-writer…Happy writing!”
