Child is Father of the Man (Part 1)

So maybe if I look back at my childhood I can find some clues.....

As far as I can remember

My parents come from Nottinghamshire mining towns, mother from a town called Blidworth.My grandfather from fathers side worked for the National Coal Board. He and my grandmother lived in Ollerton, Notts. I'm not sure where my parents were living at the time but I was born at Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, in 1970. I have an elder sister, born in 1967.

My earliest memory is of sitting on my father's shoulders, walking up the hill towards Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.

 I think I was three, we lived above a grocer's shop which was run by my mother. My father worked in the construction industry. 

Before I was old enough for primary school i went to a 'private' school, Dagfa House School. My only memory of that school followed an incident where my sister and I were bouncing up and down on a bed, trampoline style. I managed to miss the bed and break my collar bone. I think I'd been to hospital and then to school in what I think was an orange T-shirt with a cartoon character on the front, rather than the uniform. Then I just remember the 'posh kids' chasing me around because of this. I don't think I was too upset at the time but I may have to speak to my mother to see if she remembers.

 I then started primary school, Middleton School in Wollaton. Only vague memories here, my sister and I used to walk to school, you could do that in those days. I vaguely remember my best friend who lived nearby, a boy from an asian family. My mind may play tricks on me here but I always went to see him, I don't remember him coming to my house. Remember this bit regular readers.I remember enjoying school days there, vague memories of my friends, big scary dinner ladies, and rank school dinners.

My only other memories of living in Wollaton amount to, insisting on lemon curd on crackers for christmas dinner, finding 20 quid and taking it to the police station, a really smelly customer who stunk out the shop, and going with my sister to her friends house nearby.

In 1976 we moved to Castle Donington, in Derbyshire. To a bigger house on Park Lane, "the posh bit." I was gutted to leave my friends but shit happens. In my mind this is where things start to go wrong.

 Now, before I go any further, I want to say that when I was a child, everything that happened was normal to me, I didn't have anything to compare it to. I thought it was the same for everyone. I blame my parents for almost nothing that has happened in my life. I'll mention the exceptions to this in due course.