Is this Rob's first practice at 'propping up the bar'?!
Every Christmas Dad would get in the Christmas drink for all the relatives and friends who would call over the festive season. We as a family did our fair share of visiting family and friends too. Mum's tipple was usually sherry, but Babycham, Cherry B, Pony, and also Drambuie and Crème De menthe were favourites! (I'm painting a picture of an alcoholic Mother here!!) However, Dad would buy in all these bottles, but Mum rarely drank, so the majority of them would stay in the cupboard for the best part of the next year. Mum had a really sweet tooth hence these type of drink! I can't actually remember Dad's drink at that time...I think it may have been bottles of Brown?, or Mild?
I think Rob went on to enjoy a pint or two!! When he was a late teenager he would sometimes bring home mementoes of his night out, such as a library door knocker, a road cone, and once there was a park bench outside the front door! (I think he couldn't get it up the stairs!!!) Please correct me if I'm wrong Rob! ;)
We had those decorations for years - each year they would be brought out again and repaired with cellotape if needed...but I loved them!
Dad also made a Christmas cake every year, and as he stopped Dave took over. I miss those cakes.
I wonder if the cake on the sideboard is one of Dad's?
aha!!those slippers!..yes wasn,t christmas a fab time dad really made it...he would take us to the off licence near Wirral Grammar and virtually empty the place...and for 2 weeks we could help ourselves..always remember the poor postman was hardly able to walk after dad gave him a pint of sherry or whatever..dad liked mild at the pub and brown ale at home i think i loved dubonet and bitter lemon..and looking forward to playing risk....you,ve got a good memory Anne ..the park bench was from the dell!!in fact when Dave mentioned a bench i thought surely he was too young...xx
ReplyDeleteI do remember the ‘park bench’ story but was too young to remember at the time. How did you get it back to the Dell? Did you & Dad carry it back??!!! :-))
ReplyDeleteAs for the traffic cone, I’m sure you weren’t the first or the last to do that!!
I loved playing the board games at christmas. We’d all sit round the dining room table to play risk and I loved playing monopoly too. We also used to have a small snooker table and the dining table had table extensions so we could all fit round for the xmas dinner and later we would play table tennis on the extended table. There was also that small red table that was used for jigsaws (that’s something I still do every year with Sarah) and we would always have cold turkey sandwiches for tea and then all watch a film together in the front room.
ReplyDeleteSorry for another Alan Partridge link but he is so funny! If you don’t want to watch the whole clip just watch from 6 minutes in.
The last christmas cakes I made were in 2004! I made two, one for Mum & Dad and one for me & Sarah.
ReplyDeleteCake photos (NOT another Alan Partridge link!)
Just as well the village warden isn't visiting this blog, or you may be getting a knock on your door Rob having 'solved' the mystery of the Dell's bench disappearance all those years ago!!
ReplyDeleteTotally forgotten about playing Risk...my memory's not so good after all! I think I used to just sulk as I couldn't fully understand the rules so couldn't join in properly.x
Lovely cakes Dave...you should still make the Christmas cake. However for me to have a slice nowadays it would have to be wheat/gluten free without any dairy or eggs in it either!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember Dad made quite a spectacular cake, possibly 2 tier, and it was made to look like a house or castle or similar? It also had a tiny torch light in it? Or have I imagined this!!?
dad didn,t say anything about the bench!...as regards the library knocker it was over the christmas period 1968 on the way home from a party ...very drunk and not in a good mood i thought it would be a good idea to break into Mayer library for a book...i broke of the metal handle and put my fist through the window severing a vein in the process...the door was locked and dad opened it i kept my fist in my pocket...the next morning it was still bleeding ..dad took me to a and e to get it stitched...after he said he didn,t want to know what happenned but hoped i wouldn,t be putting my fist through anymore windows...2 years previous i bashed my way out of my bedroom window!...i always was the most normal of us all!!must admit i was impressed with dads reaction...
ReplyDeleteI didn't know (have forgotten) you'd put your fist through a window and severed a vein!! I hope your being under the influence deadened the pain?! I remember the bedroom window one - wasn't that because of a nightmare?
ReplyDeleteThat red table had a strange covering...similar to a table tennis bat?
ReplyDeleteDad would choose a new game most Christmas's, usually a 'Waddington's one.
I think the snooker table was a billiards table?