Well, I thought I’d post a few of these photos on here. When I was searching through my parent’s photograph collection for the photos used in my previous Blackpool post, I stumbled upon quite a few images which really clarify why I have grown up to be the person I am.
Firstly there is my cat-passion! Being a long-term geek and internet explorer, I am fully aware that cats were (and in some respects still are) the internet animal, the mascot of the internet you might say.
This has spawned uncountable sites dedicated to the delights of the feline race, from I Can Has Cheezburger? to The Infinite Cat Project.
Old news as they are, these sites are now a staple source of memes all over the world, and I can tell that frankly, most people are getting really bored of the comedy of cats.
Having been accused of following cat-fashion, and only joining the obsession to be down with the internet kids, I present to you a rather scary photo taken of me about 9 – 10 years of age. I decided it would be brilliant fun to get every cat item I owned and pose on my bed with them proudly. Even with a dot matrix print-out of a cat picture I had drawn on my PC.
Showcasing Cats
No to mention the last two years of Primary school, when I decided to clad myself as a cat for Fancy Dress day. Note the subtle detail added by my mum, just incase it wasn’t clear what I was supposed to be dressed as! o_O
Fancy Dress Cat with Brother
Scarlet Cat
The second thing that struck me was the roots of my obsession with all things kitsch and fun.
The following two photos were taken when we lived in Benchill, Wythenshawe. The house is that of our then-next door neighbours, Jack and Lil, with whom I used to spend a lot of time with. I remember enjoying Lime Cordial with Soda Water and having a chat with all of their fluffy friends (none of the animals are real… they are all toys!) … along with playing simple songs on their upright piano.
But really, can you blame me for liking kitsch things spending so many of my formative years in an awesome house that looked like this?! :
Jack and Lil's House
Seminal Kitsch
As for clothing, well, my parents have always had a keen-eye for interesting attire, and this made for a fun childhood. I was pretty much allowed to wear whatever I wanted. If I happened to go clothes shopping with my parents, they would always allow me to pick items I preferred, which usually meant something ridiculously bright and flowery.
I found a funny photo of one of my most distinguished outfits; the cowgirl. I am brandishing a very tiny key, what it unlocked I don’t know.
Cowgirl Kitty
And then we have the Clockwork Doll – granted, this was a costume for a party, but the dress is an original 1950s number, which I still have upstairs at home.
Clockwork Kitty
I can’t truly make it clear how much of a dork I was at school. Not a geek, not post-modern cool, oh no. I was an utter dork. A swat. School wasn’t a nice experience for me. Why? Probably because instead of going out and chasing the boys, I spent my time at home doing exciting things like:
1994: Installing my first Creative Labs CD-ROM drive on my 386 (perhaps a 486).
Back in the PC days
I have been very lucky throughout my life to be surrounded by various technology. This is due to my dad being obsessed, as most dad’s are, with cutting-edge gadgets and gizmos.
It was a profound moment in my life when my dad came home one day with a giant metal box with a TV on top of it. “A green and black screened TV?” I thought to myself… flicking through the pages of my newly-acquired “Ferranti International” MS-DOS 3.3 and Windows 2.0 user-guides. Two books which I still have to this day. Within a month I found myself a fully-fledged DOS-wizard… yet with absolutely no one to share my new-found love with.
I remember my dad always saying to his friends and customers “One day, every house will have a computer” and they pretty much laughed him out of the room, the idea was absurd to them!
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
We continually upgraded our machine bit by bit, adding exciting things like a mouse, sound cards, new graphics cards, motherboards and processors, until finally, I arrive here… using an APPLE MAC.
Oh dear, I have dishonoured my PC heritage, but I don’t care. I have enough experience to know what I want, I don’t have an Apple because they look sparkly or they are cool, they just let me do my work without crashing all the time. So that’s that.
Although I keep meaning to put together a 386 or early Pentium with Windows 3.1 and DOS, so that I can play all my old Apogee and Id games! I will get around to that, someday.
Finally, an explanation of the title of this post; Amrick and the Monkey.
Below is a photograph of a tiny Amrick, sitting in a pram with a LIVE monkey. Yes, it’s real! Apparently this sort of thing was commonplace in Wythenshawe! Thankfully this wouldn’t happen now due to it being pretty darn cruel keeping a monkey in North-West England, and making it sit with babies in prams… but I look pretty chuffed (and perplexed) to have had the experience!
Amrick and the Monkey
YAY!
