You're It!
As a kid I used to play various versions of 'tag'. We called the game 'It', as when you were caught you were 'It' and you were duly awarded the lurgee (pronounced lerr-gee)!
We also played a very British version called British Bulldog, which involved trying to make it from one end of the playground to the other without someone holding on to you whilst shouting, "British Bulldog 1-2-3". It usually involved the risk of being brought down on the cold, hard concrete floor and often ended in arguments about whether or not someone had let go before they finished saying the whole sentence. There was one particular person that springs to mind that had to win everything, and who repeatedly lied about whether he'd been 'got'. Guess I'm still bitter about that. I'll work through it :-)
Anyway, I never got chased by the girls I wanted to be chased by, but now I'm older, I've been tagged by the prettiest girl in the playground! This is a new, more adult version (keep it clean please!) and it's called 'Blog Tag'. The idea is that when you get tagged by another blog owner, you have to reveal 5 things about yourself and then tag 5 other bloggers.
Read on for my 5 'secrets' and to see who I tagged...
1. I started my working life as a paperboy at my local newsagent. I started as soon as I could (I think 12 was the age limit) and muscled my way in by covering for a boy called Robert who has broken his collar bone.
Neil, the ex-policeman who owned the shop couldn't bring himself to get rid of me when Robert came back so he split the round in 2, giving me the grueling Lec (the fridge people) run. This involved me taking twice my own body weight in newspapers (that's how I remembered it), in all weathers, to the factory on my scooter with a basket adapted from my Mum's shopping bike. She never used it for shopping.
Neil would often see my Dad at the pub and tell him what a great worker I was, to the point of my Dad being embarrassed at how much he was talking about me! I remember feeling a great sense of pride that my work was being acknowledged.
After proving myself I moved up to a 'proper' paper round and some other poor sod got to go to Lec.
2. As soon as I was 16 I started working at Burger King as that's where the big money was for someone saving up for a car! I worked all the hours they could give me, which turned out to be a lot, and was promoted to the heady heights of Area Supervisor.
Now I know that you're thinking that 16 is very young to be an Area Supervisor, but if I tell you that the areas I supervised weren't towns or counties; they were Kitchen or tills, then you get the idea! I used to have great fun telling people I was an Area Supervisor and letting them think I oversaw the operation for West Sussex.
I think I worked there for a couple of years and ate there every single shift. No surprise then that this was when I developed the skin problems that stayed with me right throughout my teens.
3. I went to art college twice to do a Foundation Course in art. I didn't complete it either time. I always wanted to be a graphic designer, although I didn't really know what that was! I used to visualise myself in a loft apartment in London, working as a graphic designer (as best I could without knowing what one was) and living the high life.
I loved art at school but when I went to art college they had a specific way that they wanted to see the work done. A lot of my ideas would just evolve in my head but when I presented my final work to my teachers, they would want to see all my workings. They would set me the goal of filling up two A1 sheets of paper with my 'ideas development'. I can remember just staring at those blank sheets of paper, not knowing what to do, even though I had my final pieces of work finished.
That killed the creative process for me and so I left both times without my certificate. It seems a shame that I didn't continue with my studies in art because what I did didn't fit in with the 'correct' way of doing things. This is partly the reason I'm very suspicious of traditional education. You get taught to be an employee, and in my case, have your individuality of thought stifled. Having said that, there we're people that went to that college that did some great work. I think if that was what I really wanted to do then I would have done it anyway.
4. I was on TV as a child. I went to South Bersted Primary School who were the main school associated with the Bognor Regis Clown Convention. The local news station came to our school and wanted a pupil to do a short 'sketch' with that involved the journalist pretending to be the headmaster telling off a pupil for dressing up as a clown. I was chosen because I looked like the best clown according to him (thanks for the outfit Mum!). I wish I had it on tape but my Dad hadn't embraced technology by then so we didn't have a VCR.
5. When I was a teenager just starting at Felpham Comprehensive School I did something that I've never owned up to. I think now is the time. Myself and my mate James were sitting behind two girls; Katie and Christine. They were good friends having just met a few weeks previously. I was playing with my bicycle pump and thought it would be funny (it was funny as it turned out) to blow into the end that usually attaches to the wheel, thus causing the handle end to shoot out and hit one of the girls on the back of the head. Really mature, I know, but I was only very young. I can't remember which one I hit, but because James and I were sitting down and at quite a distance from them, the one I hit accused the other of hitting her, not even thinking that we could have done it. They actually had quite an argument and were never the same since. Aren't teenage boys horrible? Ahhhh, the memories!
I'm tagging (in no particular order)...
Hey, that's not fair. I'm going to start a blog so I can get tagged...
Wait for it cause it's coming!
Posted by: Carla | December 15, 2006 at 08:54 PM
Carla I would definitely tag you if you had a blog! :-)
You have to start one, it would be so popular, there are so many people out there who want to read about the daily ins and outs of bringing up a raw baby.
I know you're very capable but let me know if you need any help.
Posted by: Russell James | December 16, 2006 at 09:11 AM
Okay, you can tag me now = )
http://www.myspace.com/organicbliss
http://blog.myspace.com/organicbliss
Posted by: Carla Stout | January 17, 2007 at 09:04 PM