Friendship Part 1 of 7

I've been thinking of friendship and what it has meant in my life.  The kind I've had and the kind I've been.  But it's more the former I am blogging about-how they have influenced me.  A few stories came out in 5 posts I wrote late last night.  They happened to fall in a kind of chronological order.

So here's how I'm going to do this.  7 posts covering  7 periods of friendships from birth till now.   My first post last night started at age 11 with a key memory so I have come back to fill in a gap and make this the start instead. I'll then post them in order.  This one may be a bit haphazard, I'm trying to cram a lot in here because to be honest I've lost interest now:).   Ok here goes.

I'll begin with my earliest recollections.  

We lived out in the countryside in a house we referred to as "the cottage" and my early childhood was very free and ididlic in some ways.  

That grey patch used to be the front door, the cottage has been extended now and is bigger than when we lived there.

The view from the old front door.

A lot of adventures started by going down this lane.

I spent lots of time outdoors in the garden and neighbouring fields.  Hours and hours were spent exploring or making perfume from petals or creating fairy dens out of twigs, moss and leaves.  I picked flowers, jumped streams, ate berries that maybe I shouldn't have till I was directed to the ones I should.  I have lots of flashes of memories of being alone but utterly content.

We had two houses "The Cottage"  out by Knockhill and a flat in Townhill.  We moved back and forth between them over the years, no pattern that I can make out but I have memories of both of those places.  

Our flat was on the bottom left of this street.

That white window was the old corner shop where we got our sweets from.

When in Townhill it was much like "The Cottage", except there were street-fulls of children.  We spent hours together in the woods, making dens, or crop circles in the fields.  We invented games and played all day long.

In the village we exchanged juice bottles obtained from behind the pub for mix ups at the corner shop.   All the other children in the village gathered outside the church when there was a wedding for any sign of a "rushie".  This was a tradition where handfuls of coins were thrown to the children as part of the celebration.  My knees were constantly bruised and scabbed over, I was likely pretty dirty too but for me these were very happy memories.  I was probably lucky to enjoy the freedoms and innocence more common to childhoods of the generations before me, before parents became over scheduled and fearful.

I didn't have one particular friend that I remember, I'd have been very young pre school and primary one.  These are among some of my earliest memories.   I was probably as happy playing alone as in a group at that age from what I remember. 

Early school...hmm I had a few special friends.  I probably was introduced to the fallings in and falling outs that a threesome of girls can create.  But nothing stands out as being too worrisome.

I moved house a lot by the time I went to high school I had lived in over 10 houses, lived in England twice and moved between some of the houses more than once.  Kind of chaotic, you get the picture.  

So inevtiably I also attended a lot of different schools,  wait let me count....ok 6 primary schools, but 9-10 moves I went between the same school a couple of times. 

Since this post is about friends, I'll stick to that topic.  Through each of those phases I can always  think of friends I made and enjoyed being around.  When I moved schools I don't remember feeling lonely for too long, maybe I did at times but my overall sense was that I'd always found someone to play with.  From a making friends point of views I think the moves probably helped me learn to make friends.  It wasn't all good but I like looking on the bright side so we'll stick with that.

Like you there are hundreds of stories I could write about my memories of childhood friends good bad and lets face it just plain boring stories.  So I will spare you.  Let's hope I haven't put you off reading parts 2-7:)