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Talking of painful memories. I remember exploring the Abbey ruins at Lilleshall in the early 70’s with my dear old friend Teasdale who, for no apparent reason, decided that it would be interesting to experience first hand the sensation of peeing on an electrified fence. Seeing him thrown backwards holding his crotch in agony put me off trying it myself. So funny. That reminds me that i had a C-scope metal detector back then, very simple tool, only 2 knobs and it worked a treat. We found a rotted metal (?) box buried at depth and under a stone with what looked like medieval seals in it. They were wrapped in a rotted grungy leathery material as I recall and I thought I’d found the crown jewels. I often wonder what happened to them. I took them to school once for a project and they were unfortunately ‘mislaid’, never to be seen again.

Talking about Vimto, I loved that with fish, chips & mushy peas from the local chippie, when I was a kid. I remember back then (about 7 or 8), I never used to eat the batter, but every last chip would be savoured, accompanied by salt and vinegar, and the aforesaid vimto (extra nice if the guy at the shop had only just taken it out of the fridge) - that was a fantastic Friday night treat for me and my sister, that Mum would get. Although I don't think my sister enjoyed it as much as I did. In fact I sometimes finished her's off as she often left most of them. It's a wonder I never put on any weight, the amount I consumed. Two more memories from childhood, one very painful, the other great. On one occasion a friend and myself had wandered off quite a long way from home, and were in some woods at the back of the estate. There was an old dead tree in there, with a hollowed out branch, which he stuck a large twig down. A few seconds later a swarm of wasps flew out and repeatedly stung us. I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. I was throbbing in different places for hours afterwards. My friend actually got taken to hospital with anaphylactic shock. The great memory was in an amusement arcade in Southend, trying to work one of those grabber machines that always let go of the prize before you could drop it down the hole. I'd tried it a few times before a guy wandered across, and literally just lifted out the glass panel from the wooden surround, saying, "take what you want Son, we're getting rid of this machine today". Couldn't take it all as I didn't have a bag with me, but stuffed a load into my pocket. To be honest it was all worthless crap, but it gave me a thrill on the day. I also remember the great storm of October 1987, seeing things flying down the street outside, and the general racket of the wind, falling masonry and objects banging as they collided with walls. Scary, for sure, but also absolutely fascinating.

Mine too! It is incredible how well children remember an unexpected extension to a school holiday!

My Dad had a photo album full of pics from that Winter. One that sticks in the mind are milk bottles on the doorstep in which the contents had obviously frozen, expanded and lifted the foil tops off - which looked like little silver hats on top of cream stalks. Also, the ice patterns on the inside of the windows of his bedroom. No double glazing or central heating in those days, and the overnight temperature in the bedroom itself was close to freezing point, he told me.

I was too young then to know what happened to the stock market ...😀

Yes, I remembered that well. Michael Fish so famously predicted that we would not be badly affected the night before. I woke up the next morning and was shocked to see that so many of the wooden garden fences and tress have fallen over. The wind blew off part of the school roof and the kids enjoyed an extended half term break.

Our favourite saying was; "The job where you don't learn by your mistakes".

When I was about 6 or 7 I nagged my Mum to buy me a pack of Corn Flakes because there was a "skull" mask on the back of the packet but she made me wait until I'd eaten the whole packet before I got the mask. I haven't been able to stomach corn flakes since that day.........................

I can't say I have any food related memories that get me that nostalgic, however I do recall the annual family performance in the lead up to bonfire night! At that time local stores could provide only a limited range of smaller fireworks, so we were taken on the train (a treat in itself) to central London and the Selfridges store, where we were allowed to select the fireworks we most desired from the dazzling display beneath the counter. On the train home we took it in turns to take out our favourites and read the descriptions on the labels. (Can you imagine what "Elf n Safety" would say about that now?) At home, the fireworks were stored in our own bedroom for the week until bonfire night. On the great night we were allowed to light a range of fireworks for ourselves, making the displays they made even more exciting to us. The morning after, we would explore the local area trying to recover as many of the spent canisters and rockets as we could. On the rare occasion we found something that had failed to ignite properly, we then set that off in the field on our own. I can still feel the excitement today! Is it any wonder I spent a career in the army learning about and using explosives - eventually in Bomb Disposal?