Mum · Rhona Burslem
What was your dad like when you were a child?
My dad laughed a lot, and sang and whistled. He had a lovely singing voice and used to sing silly songs to us [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rpBAZEVHmI](http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=2r pBAZEVHmI)....and love songs to my mum, whom he adored from the day he met her until the day he died...a favourite was this Jim Reeves song: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSs7o_-8i64](http://www.y outube.com/watch?v =nSs7o_-8i64) He had an amazing memory for quotations Shakespeare and the bible - seememd to have one for every occasion.
He was a very talented artist and used to draw pictures for us, cartoons of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. When we lived in Glasgow he used to take us out on the weekends, sometimes down to a little beach by the River Cart close to where we lived and we used to throw stones in the river. I remember him taking us on the tram to Rouken Glen Park to play in the river there too. There were lots of stepping stones and I remember falling in and getting my clothes soaked.
He had to hang everything out on tree branches to dry before we could go home on the tram. He often took us to Queen's Park, close to where we lived, to play on the swings there, or to the pond to feed the ducks. When we went on holidays to Carnoustie he used to dig an enormous ( or so it seemed) 'room' for us in the sand, a huge hole with steps down into it and a fireplace built into the side so's he could make a little fire. We always had to fill them in before we left the beach in the afternoon, 'in case a blind man fell into it when he was out walking at night'!!!!!
He loved to swim in the ocean at Carnoustie - the freezing cold North Sea and I remember crying hysterically because I thought he was going too far out and might drown. We always played in the water too and had to have 'chittery bites' when we came back out, snacks to stop our teeth chattering with the cold. Dad took me to my first ever movie at the movie house on Sinclair Drive near where we lived in Langside ( Glasgow) - it was Danny Kaye in a movie about Hans Christian Andersen: 'The film was an international success at the time.
It is not a biographical movie, and in the introduction describes itself as "not the story of his life, but a fairytale about this great spinner of fairy tales." A large part of the story is told through song and [ballet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet) and includes many of Andersen's most famous stories such as _[The Ugly Duckling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Duckling)_, _[Thumbelina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbelina)_, _[The Emperor's New Clothes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New _Clothes)_ and _[The Little Mermaid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Merm aid)_.' ( Wikipedia) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJy8u4V_hbI](http://www.y outube.com/watch?v=tJ y8u4V_hbI) Looks as though the song I remember has had some staying power too..... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4klZ-U1Qy14](http://www.y outube.com/watch?v =4klZ-U1Qy14) Dad loved singing the songs from the movie and truthfully I thought his voice WAS like Danny Kaye's, maybe that's just a little gir'ls wishful thinking.
He took us as quite young kids to other movies, one about the Ascent of Everest in 1953 which I think fired my desire, ever after, to see the Himalaya. Another time he took us to see 'The Dam Busters' and also 'Bridge on the River Kwai. I imagine his choices reflected his own taste..... He loved to drive and after we moved to Whitley Bay and got our first family car, we used to go further afield.
Sometimes to the beach at Seaton Sluice where there were fantastic sand dunes to play in, sometimes to the boating ponds at Tynemouth to sail our yachts or for long walks out the length of the Tyne Pier at the mouth of the River Tyne where the big ships used to sail out into the North Sea. We used to walk to St Mary's Lighthouse at the far end of the bay ( Whitley Bay), some 3 miles and scramble around the rocks there if the tide was low enough so that we could cross the causeway.
We were allowed to have ice creams on the way home at our favourite 'Wonder Bar'. They were the best... some people said 'The Venetian' ice cream was better... but they were bigger at the Wonder Bar! We could hear the foghorn from the lighthouse at our house on stormy nights. When we were a bit older dad used to take us swimming on a Sunday morning at Jesmond Baths in Newcastle and later in Beckenham when we had moved there, then we'd go home and he'd cook us a big fry up breakfast with his favourite liver sausage.
Dad always worked hard, he had two jobs whilst we lived in Glasgow, his day job at Denny's Shipyard where he did technical drawings in the design department, and a night job teaching technical drawing at the local night school. But he always seemed to make time for us as children and Mum said, much later in life, that he did way more with us than most dads did or were expected to do at the time - a lovely memory. xxxmom These pics are of Dad with Sheila & I in Carnoustie and one of Mum & Dad on the beach at Seaton Sluice
