Favourite childhood memory

As little value as I now put on physical objects and material things, I still value one item more than others. It was a Christmas gift from my brother. I cannot remember if he was in the army, or working already. But only if you have an older brother will you be familiar with the pedestal they occupy.

My brother is worthy of his pedestal. He is tall and handsome, learned and well read, and has the manners of a chivalrous knight. He is an attorney and he has fought for many innocent people. Not just the ones not belonging in prison, also the ones who were wronged.

The first Christmas gift I ever remember was a little puppy in a box; just a silly little teddy bear. I cried when I got him and called him Boxer of course. No one knew me like my brother and he was always leaving. I told him once, I miss you. And he replied, you cannot miss me because I am right here with you! Only now do I realize that my seven-year-old heart was mature enough to realise that his visits always came to an end too soon. And I meant what I said, I was missing him already because he is just the most interesting person you will ever meet. I slept with the puppy next to me for years.

My second-best gift I ever received was my favourite perfume. Willie got me a large bottle of Exclamation! Nothing comes to that smell, it is fruity and innocent, and I cannot wear it anymore but as a teenager, it was the only smell I liked.

But the gift I still have in my cupboard after about twenty years, is a Mickey Mouse Clock with a Pink Border. I refuse to hang it until I own a house. I don’t know why, but hanging that clock will mean that I have settled, and I have never felt like I really ‘belonged’ since I left school. It’s not as if I felt like I ‘belonged’ in school, but the fact that my parents owned the house we lived in must have made a difference. The clock is without a battery so that battery acid doesn’t ruin the mechanism. And should the mechanism be ruined, I will have it replaced. Because that clock is literally the only possession that has travelled with me all my life. And I am hopeful that one day, and I have a feeling that day is just around the corner, I will take it out for the last time and hang it.