Mea Culpa and a thousand apologies as I failed to get 4 posts in May! Ultra busy and I was away for quite a bit of it but I will make up for it I promise!!
Today's been a day of tears and sadness partly due to over-tiredness and a throat infection and partly due to thinking of my wonderful Dad who is not here in person for me to wish a very Happy Father's Day so I'm giving him my personal tribute here.
Darling dad,
Although I had just 15 years with you they have filled me with enough happy memories,love and inspiration to last a lifetime and beyond. I have realised more in very recent years how alike you I feel I have become.
I have your ever-ready smile and zest for life,your love of young people and educating them and giving them experiences which will shape their futures.I have your love of planning and carrying out travel adventures and researching them to the enth degree!! I remember all the detail - in days before the household computer or internet - you put into planning our magical trip to Canada in 1981 - I smile as I remember during that trip the day in New York when you came out of the hotel wearing a stetson and with your huge Minolta camera round your neck saying "I don't look like a tourist do I?"!!! As soon as we got to New York you took us on the Staten Island Ferry and took me on a huge rollercoaster on Coney Island which scared me half to death especially when about a second before the ride started a huge female staff member yelled at me "Missy,take off your glasses!!"
It was you I remember mostly reading my bedtime stories from being very tiny and the dffierent voices you'd put on for the different animals in the Just So Stories which was one of your favourites even though I found it a bit boyish at the time!You'd often make up your own stories which was my favourite thing. You'd sing me songs at bathtime like "Oh my Darling Clementine", "The Foggy,Foggy Dew" and "I am a Musicman!". You introduced me to poetry from an early age which I loved and continue to love. I assumed all fathers read poems to their children! We loved the funny ones especially of A.A Milne,Edward Lear,Spike Milligan and the cautionary tales of Hilaire Belloc. Jim was our top favourite and you were there for most of my recitation classes in competitive festivals from the age of 7 and always told me to speak clearly so that the deaf lady at the back could hear! I always looked for her but could never find her!!
It was good fun when you put me to bed for as well as the bathtime songs,bedtime poems and stories we'd often do the "Ministry of Funny Walks!" inspired by your and my brother's favourite tv programmes "Monty Python". You would have been to proud to hear many years after your death,your oldest grandson doing the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch brilliantly word for word at the age of 6!
It was you who actively encouraged my love of music and encouraged me to take piano lessons from the age of 8. I was very lucky that the piano was already in the household and both my brother and sister had also been taking lessons for several years. Dad never played an instrument or particularly sang(apart from singing to me at home!)but was a music afficianado and listened to a lot of classical music at home. I don't recall that you could read music but I do remember listening to Beethoven's Seventh symphony with you whilst you were following the score. You also loved the music of Joan Baez,the New Seekers,Nana Mouskouri.
I remember early days of piano practice when I loved you to pretend to fall asleep if I played "Lullaby" softly enough and then to come alive with a bump when I played "Grandfathers Clock!" straight afterwards!
You had a full beard when I was about 4 and I used to love the feel of it and there was a bit that if I touched it made you hiccup and of course I'd keep doing it over and over - so whether it was just for my entertainment or not I'll never know!
When I went to France on my own at the tender age of 11 to stay in the huge chateau with my French penpal with her very scary mother it was you that wrote me several long letters in the fortnight I was there. You told me all about being in London for Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Wedding and what you had seen. You would have been amazed that I was later to be invited to walk behind Diana's coffin representing British Youth Opera along with other charities in 1997.
It was you who queued for over 2 hours for me to get me tickets to see Torvill and Dean skate in Grimsby. You came and joined the family skating club with me on a Sunday night in my early teens and we had great fun. It was you who queued with me for hours and hours to get standing tickets for the equivalent of £1 to see the ballet the Nutcracker on New Years Eve 1982 at Vienna State Opera House.
I had great fun acting alongside you in plays with CADs - Cleethorpes Amateur Dramatic Society and I always loved the aftershow parties you'd take me to from the age of about 12. You even laughed when some of the older teens had spiked my drink with cherry brandy! I remember at the same party spitting out what I'd thought was a grape which turned out to be an olive!! I avoided them for years after that only realising a few years ago that they're actually very tasty!! I loved the bubbly personalities and fun of the CADS members and from a very early age (6ish)remember being allowed downstairs for one of your Cinzano and lemonades at parties at our house. They probably had very little trace of Cinzano but I was none the wiser!
I remember you taking me and some friends to York for the day and having a great time. You were always there - always had time for all 3 of your children and other children as your days of Scout Leader and Youth club leaders showed. You very involved in the local church and helping publish the church Gazette and do the photography for it. Mum's local choir concerts were always a family affair - mum would be singing,you would be helping at front of house and I would be selling programmes and presenting bouquets at the end!
Lots of vivid memories of a very special father whom I remember every day.
Happy Fathers Day!
http://www.justgiving.com/Anne-Shingler2/eurl.axd/8f158799a6747e4fb082e6969278ffe8
Today's been a day of tears and sadness partly due to over-tiredness and a throat infection and partly due to thinking of my wonderful Dad who is not here in person for me to wish a very Happy Father's Day so I'm giving him my personal tribute here.
Darling dad,
Although I had just 15 years with you they have filled me with enough happy memories,love and inspiration to last a lifetime and beyond. I have realised more in very recent years how alike you I feel I have become.
I have your ever-ready smile and zest for life,your love of young people and educating them and giving them experiences which will shape their futures.I have your love of planning and carrying out travel adventures and researching them to the enth degree!! I remember all the detail - in days before the household computer or internet - you put into planning our magical trip to Canada in 1981 - I smile as I remember during that trip the day in New York when you came out of the hotel wearing a stetson and with your huge Minolta camera round your neck saying "I don't look like a tourist do I?"!!! As soon as we got to New York you took us on the Staten Island Ferry and took me on a huge rollercoaster on Coney Island which scared me half to death especially when about a second before the ride started a huge female staff member yelled at me "Missy,take off your glasses!!"
It was you I remember mostly reading my bedtime stories from being very tiny and the dffierent voices you'd put on for the different animals in the Just So Stories which was one of your favourites even though I found it a bit boyish at the time!You'd often make up your own stories which was my favourite thing. You'd sing me songs at bathtime like "Oh my Darling Clementine", "The Foggy,Foggy Dew" and "I am a Musicman!". You introduced me to poetry from an early age which I loved and continue to love. I assumed all fathers read poems to their children! We loved the funny ones especially of A.A Milne,Edward Lear,Spike Milligan and the cautionary tales of Hilaire Belloc. Jim was our top favourite and you were there for most of my recitation classes in competitive festivals from the age of 7 and always told me to speak clearly so that the deaf lady at the back could hear! I always looked for her but could never find her!!
It was good fun when you put me to bed for as well as the bathtime songs,bedtime poems and stories we'd often do the "Ministry of Funny Walks!" inspired by your and my brother's favourite tv programmes "Monty Python". You would have been to proud to hear many years after your death,your oldest grandson doing the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch brilliantly word for word at the age of 6!
It was you who actively encouraged my love of music and encouraged me to take piano lessons from the age of 8. I was very lucky that the piano was already in the household and both my brother and sister had also been taking lessons for several years. Dad never played an instrument or particularly sang(apart from singing to me at home!)but was a music afficianado and listened to a lot of classical music at home. I don't recall that you could read music but I do remember listening to Beethoven's Seventh symphony with you whilst you were following the score. You also loved the music of Joan Baez,the New Seekers,Nana Mouskouri.
I remember early days of piano practice when I loved you to pretend to fall asleep if I played "Lullaby" softly enough and then to come alive with a bump when I played "Grandfathers Clock!" straight afterwards!
You had a full beard when I was about 4 and I used to love the feel of it and there was a bit that if I touched it made you hiccup and of course I'd keep doing it over and over - so whether it was just for my entertainment or not I'll never know!
When I went to France on my own at the tender age of 11 to stay in the huge chateau with my French penpal with her very scary mother it was you that wrote me several long letters in the fortnight I was there. You told me all about being in London for Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Wedding and what you had seen. You would have been amazed that I was later to be invited to walk behind Diana's coffin representing British Youth Opera along with other charities in 1997.
It was you who queued for over 2 hours for me to get me tickets to see Torvill and Dean skate in Grimsby. You came and joined the family skating club with me on a Sunday night in my early teens and we had great fun. It was you who queued with me for hours and hours to get standing tickets for the equivalent of £1 to see the ballet the Nutcracker on New Years Eve 1982 at Vienna State Opera House.
I had great fun acting alongside you in plays with CADs - Cleethorpes Amateur Dramatic Society and I always loved the aftershow parties you'd take me to from the age of about 12. You even laughed when some of the older teens had spiked my drink with cherry brandy! I remember at the same party spitting out what I'd thought was a grape which turned out to be an olive!! I avoided them for years after that only realising a few years ago that they're actually very tasty!! I loved the bubbly personalities and fun of the CADS members and from a very early age (6ish)remember being allowed downstairs for one of your Cinzano and lemonades at parties at our house. They probably had very little trace of Cinzano but I was none the wiser!
I remember you taking me and some friends to York for the day and having a great time. You were always there - always had time for all 3 of your children and other children as your days of Scout Leader and Youth club leaders showed. You very involved in the local church and helping publish the church Gazette and do the photography for it. Mum's local choir concerts were always a family affair - mum would be singing,you would be helping at front of house and I would be selling programmes and presenting bouquets at the end!
Lots of vivid memories of a very special father whom I remember every day.
Happy Fathers Day!
http://www.justgiving.com/Anne-Shingler2/eurl.axd/8f158799a6747e4fb082e6969278ffe8
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