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3.2.21

IF IT ISN'T MOVING

 

IF IT ISN’T MOVING

Pa’s smile got him out of many scrapes caused by his impish sense of humour, but he had a short fuse, and Mum backed him up even when he was wrong, so our teenage years were bumpy.

Even so, the love lingers.

It's strange, the things that stick in one's mind. If he had a tin of paint open he'd paint anything that wasn't moving. My friends still talk about the bright red toilet seat in the cloakroom, with half a phone book on a nail. 


For years I believed Pa had torn that book in half bare-handed, like Desperate Dan.     

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Rochelle challenged us not to write about the pandemic, or the Toilet Roll Craze, so instead I've written a little autobiographical piece, every word of which is true.

If you go to Rochelle's blog and follow the frog trail you can see if anyone failed to meet the challenge!  https://rochellewisoff.com/


30 comments:

  1. There's a trick to tearing a phone book in half. You grip the spine in both hands and twist first. This breaks the spine and allows you to appear strong when you continue the rip

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    1. Ahah! In later years I thought Pa probably used a fretsaw!

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  2. Somehow this read as autobiographical from the start; what a fascinating snippet of memory.

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  3. Desperate Dan took me back to childhood and reading the Dandy every week :-)

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  4. Dear Liz,

    You didn't have a dull childhood, did you? I'll forever see the red toilet in my mind.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. It wasn't just the toilet seat - he painted the doo and window frames as well!

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  5. Quite a character it seems, I guess life was never dull.

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  6. Nice blast to the past with good detailing, Liz.

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  7. nobody's perfect. sometimes we have to take the good along with the bad.

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  8. What a memory. I bet the red toilet seat was famous locally.

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  9. You paint a vivid picture of the man and the memorable loo, lol.

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  10. My word, Liz! Did any of his children inherit his sense of humor?

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  11. A red toilet seat and an impish sense of humor...I'm sure there were some fun and interesting times. Lovely piece, Liz!

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  12. Ha! Ha! If nothing else he did leave you with memories of a wicked sense of humour. Desperate Dan bought back memories of a hospital stay in England as a child and my introduction to the quirky world of Beano and Dandy.

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    1. I believe Beano and Dandy are still alive!

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