We shall start in the middle. No, I’m joking, of course, I’m starting at my birth. I was born Michael on 9th Feb of 1987. We lived in a place called Brandhall in Birmingham. I have my 1st memories of general life around 2 or 3 years old. We lived in a flat called Foley flats. It’s not that video, but there are pictures of the actual building below. Foley House flats have since been demolished. I remember going to watch the demolition which was in the year 2000.
Our neighbour in that flat was Jayne I think. I remember playing with her kids at times. I don’t remember too much of the flats, but I do remember my dad coming to collect us from time to time. Mainly it was my nan and grandad that came to get me. My nan always shouted at my mom. Not sure why, I was too young. I think it was more my mom was expecting dad to come to get me, but my dad was drunk or with a woman or even off with mates maybe. I’m not sure. I think my nan was just sticking up for dad as you would as a mom I guess. I remember my grandad telling my nan to stop shouting at some point when I was much older. That was when we were in the newer house on maypole road.
I do remember I think, he says. We lived on the 2nd floor. Hold on. After contacting my mom, she said absolutely nothing as she hasn’t answered back to my message haha. So I will guess we lived on the 2nd floor. I do remember the newsagents at the bottom that I used to go to as I grew a tiny bit older. We left Foley House around 1995. I presume it was around this year as my younger sister Joanne was born in 96 and I’m almost certain we were in Maypole road house by that point. Mainly because I remember bouncing her in her bouncer chair whilst my mom did the decorating in the new house. So that would make me 8. In which case, would mean I was going downstairs to the newsagents on my own before then. Madness. Even if I lived in a flat now, I would not be allowing that to happen haha.
In the pictures attached. (see the below image). One of the pictures shows some steps up to the shop level. I remember as a young lad, my brother running and I was running next to him and he ran straight into the railing bars. His head opened up. Blood. Everywhere. We did not go to school that day. Most of the day was in hospital I bet. I don’t remember past the initial head injury, but I remember the scar (think Harry Potter’s head scar) and I remember it happening. Nothing after that. Shame. I recall some of the shops but not most.
Some of the shops from downstairs as far as I remember were: newsagents, fruit shop, Chinese, chip shop, William hill or bookies right at the end. Laundrette possibly. I do remember having to head to Brandhall road for the laundrette. That was a long walk as a young child. Not far as an adult, but still. I bet my mom really loved her new washing machine when she finally got one. I have tried searching for a picture of the laundrette from the 90s but couldn’t find one.
For all the times I remember dad or nan and grandad coming to get me at the front door, I don’t remember leaving the flat. It’s really strange what sticks in the mind. It clearly shows I was happy to see them when they showed up because I remember them turning up. As to what happened next, clearly, that was irrelevant. This means a lot of what my mom said growing up makes sense I presume. Seeing how happy I was to see my dad, but not knowing what was in store. I’ll talk more about this in later posts.
I remember around the age of about 5 and my brother was about 3 or 4. My mom had just finished wrapping presents for Christmas, (her words), and headed to bed. I and my brother apparently got up around 2 am and headed to the living room. My mom said she heard some ruffling and giggling and a loud SANTA HAS BEEEEEN!!! and then paper ripping. Mom said she jumped out of bed came in to see we had started unwrapping and told us to go get in bed and sleep because Santa had only just been and she was tired or something. So I presume we did and all was well. I vaguely remember heading into the living room early in the morning, but not a whole lot more.
I vaguely remember out the back of the flats was a parking area. I can only assume it was for the residents of the flats that drove. Well, behind the car parking area on the main road level was a wall that was probably only about 5 or 6 feet high. But being young, 6 or 7 years old, it seemed like it were much higher than it was. Maybe. We used to make a den out in the foliage above that wall. When I say ‘we’ I have no idea who I mean. I just remember being with other kids. I also remember the exit for this car park coming onto Tame road from behind the flats opposite the church.
Strangely enough, I do remember walking to school a lot from Foley house. Mainly I think we had to walk up this monstrosity. (See pic above). This hill is actually a lot steeper when you’re only 3 – 7 or so years old. Not only that. My nan and grandad lived on a hill corner which was mental. Walking down the hill to my cousin’s house, and up was kind of steep still. Going off course kind of, I remember when I went to my cousin’s house as a young kid circa 8 – 12 years old maybe, my nan would stand on the corner and watch me down to my cousin’s house. Super sweet.
I will talk about school in a later post. You can actually find out more about my grandad in this post titled: My Grandad.