© irene waters 2013
I wasn’t a girl who believed in fairys at the bottom of the garden yet I enjoyed fairy tales. My father read to me all of Aesops Fables and other tales involving fairys and magic. I remember fondly Tinkerbell from Peter Pan which my Dad also read to my brother and I as small children. I also loved the sketches illustrating our copy of the book. When older I enjoyed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, then a modern fairy tale.
We didn’t have television until I was ten on holidays at my Grandma’s, we had permission to watch television in the late afternoon, I think to keep us out of the way and quiet whilst the adults prepared dinner. We enjoyed many of the programmes we watched but we were mesmerised by Houdini and his magic. We always returned home after our holiday practicing magic.
http://sharingthestoryblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/bite-size-memoir-no-3-magic-and-fairy-tales/
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I grew up in Perth, where we got TV when I was 16 and almost out of school ! We used to go several houses down the road to Lang Hancock’s house to watch his: even in the fairly wealthy suburb we lived in, TV sets were a rarity for a long time ! 🙂
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Did you have to use binoculars or were you invited in?
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No: Lang was a good bloke, and his real wife was still alive then – lovely woman called Rose. Sickly, though. Ginie (!) was a little girl, and best friends with my little sister. I believe that everything went bad when Rose died.
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Sad isn’t it how life can change so dramatically.
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It surely is, Irene.
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Thanks for sharing your sweet memory 🙂
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Thanks Irene
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I’d almost forgotten all the magic shows. That must have been where my belief that saying ‘abracadabra’ would make things disappear! I love that you have this beautiful picture with Dad I presume, in this gorgeous pink dress and a bow in your hair. I never had bows in my hair!
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Yes the magic shows inspired us to do all manner of tricks. We used to practice Houdini often even to the point of putting ice cubes in the bath. We could never get enough though to make it really cold. The pink dress is my nightie and although I used to have bows in my hair I can’t imagine that it would like like that after a night’s sleep. Mum must have semi-prepared me for getting dressed when Dad started reading to me.
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I love fairies! This brought back many memories for me watching magic shows too! Must have been something we did in the 60’s! Thanks again for the reminder of this bite-sized memoir challenge Irene. Again, love the photo of you with your dad and the shared memories of all those wonderful tales he would tell you 🙂
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Thanks Sherri. The magic shows in the 60s were great. Cutting the lady in half and disappearing acts not to forget the rabbits and the multitude of things which happened under hankerchiefs.
You have a chap, Darren Brown, in the UK at the moment that Roger watches avidly. He does amazing things like walk on the Thames, get from one side of the window to the other. R is fascinated as he just can’t work out how he does. Cheers Irene
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Yes, Darren Brown is amazing. No idea how he does what he does, true magic!
Of course, for me Tommy Cooper was the true magician when growing up. Just one look at him and I burst out laughing 🙂
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Yes he passed me by as a child but Roger said the same thing. We bought some CDs from the UK with I think maybe the Tommy Cooper show? and Roger just rolled around laughing. I laughed too but not at Tommy Cooper.
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Haha! I can picture it now… 😉
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My mother loves to read. She always has. She’ll read cereal boxes if there’s nothing else. While my brother and I were small, she read to us every night before putting us to bed. Those were the days of Golden Books, which could be bought at the grocery store. Most of them were the stories that Walt Disney made into animated movies.
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I remember Golden books. I think you are lucky if you have a parent that introduces you to writing early in your life as so many worlds are opened to you.
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Sounds like we had similar childhoods, Irene. We didn’t have a TV until I was 10 – I spent Saturday mornings listening to radio shows and imagining, or visiting the library for my weekly allotment of three books. My parents challenged me to read the Iliad and the Odyssey and other classics on their shelves. I loved the Narnia Chronicles and read those to my children when they were small, then had them read me the Ring Trilogy. Magic shows and fairly tales – what children are missing out on today with their electronic gizmos.
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Yes it worries me where these electronic things will take the kids of today. I know they don’t have the staying power to persevere with tasks and their memories are not going to be as large as ours as they don’t need to remember with the internet. It does sound as though we had similar childhoods. I still like listening to the radio.
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