George Dawson…. 80 years old
To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to a long weekend in Peterlee with the relatives. It’s a 5 hour drive and I’d have Emily with me. I’ve done the drive hundreds of times and it isn’t really all that bad, but how would a five year old cope?
Well, I need not of worried, she loved every minute of it… at least the bits that she was awake for. Meeting the rest of the “Dawsons” was another concern. It’s not that they are bad, mad or a tad sad…. It’s just that I don’t know who the hell they are. I have vague recollections of cousins, aunties and uncles but because of various family feuds in the past no-one has ever kept in touch. If it wasn’t for the odd one karking it every now and again I think we’d all prefer to forget about it all.
But that’s not gonna happen this weekend as it’s my Dad’s 80th birthday and I’d promised to bring Emily up to meet the family.
There was one aspect of all this I was pleased about, and that’s “Our Susan” (the alpha female of the Dawson troop). I’ve put “Our Susan” in quotes ‘cos apparently southerners don’t use the “our” terminology when talking about their siblings, it’s a northern thing apparently….. Anyhow, for as long as I can remember “Our Susan” has had a thing about owning and maintaining children…. any children, doesn’t matter if they belong to her or not, she just loves kids…. Coming from a very close knit mining community this came in very handy for anyone living in the proximity of “Our Susan”, as she would always “look after the little’un while whoever popped off to the shops for a pound of pease pudding and a dozen flat caps”…. Her house was always full of kids, snotty nosed little gits…. each and everyone of ‘em.
So, “Our Susan” knows all the tricks of the trade in keeping a little five year-old girl happy, so after a complete new hair-do and different nail designs “Our Susan” had a new admirer.
Maybe I’ll continue this at a later date as I can see this could go on for some time. The last thing I want is for you to look at this and feel like its “homework”
3 comments:
I've been there. Oop North. With Dawson.
It's a weird place. They all talk funny and eat black pudding and fly whippets.
And most of them think that doing karaoke at the local social club means they'll be rich and famous one day.
Pshaw! We all know that to get rich and famous you have to write a blog which gets noticed by a publisher and you get chosen to write the next Harry Potter book...
All your fears were soon dissipated, i'm pleased!
Thought your little girl looked gorgeous, really gorgeous!! The black dress and the pearls, then the hair was all very Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast In Tiffanys http://www.longines.com/
eng/html_longines/Ambassadors/
audrey_hepburn.cfm#1.( check out the link) No sign of Pink!!! Just Beautiful, you must be so proud. (if not at least a little shocked)
You see I knew there was something you would miss about this place, Let me tell you more about "our Susans" it was just another house in another street but to us kids at the time it was a night club, home,meeting place,hotel,and all round place to be to feel wanted for us kids who did'nt have ideal parents. It was great to see George and family again after all these years,I feel proud to have known you all Goober.
PS Bollocks to the queen, long live Oue Susans.
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