My Northern Roots.

First of all, I want to thank my Facebook friend for suggesting the theme for this blog post…..so thanks to you, Gordon Williams.

 I  was born in 1949 and lived in the North with my Northern parents until I came to live in the South in the summer of 1973.

I feel I am a true Northern woman and am proud of my Northern roots and I have tried to make my children be aware of being half Northern…..or North Eastern. I am proud to have been born and bred in North East

I sometimes think that the North East is sometimes forgotten especially down here in the South….even though I have found that I have met an awful lot of people that have moved down here like I did….usually connected to jobs etc.

I wonder what life would have been like if I had stayed up the North East. One thing I would have been a “mam” and not a “mum”….but hubby always talked of going back South and that is what we did.

I like to think that I have still got my accent, but am told that I talk “posh” now…..no I do not think so. I only know that I have a better accent than Brenda Blethwyn….”Vera”.

Apart from one brother……the rest of my siblings still live in NorthEast and any trips”back home ” have never been forgotten.

Have never forgotten my school days in the North and finding school friends from my senior school on Facebook has been very special……I was picked on a lot when at school…I will not call it “bullied” even though today it would be called that…..but I am sure it made me the strong person that I feel I am now…..I know I am.. no “snowflake”.

I was 24 when I first left the North East and now I am 71……so work that out…..those roots have never left me.

I miss the North East….the people……the family still up there and their friends that have become like family….stotty cake and I can still make a  decent panackaly.

I miss not being able to see the sea in the distance…the drizzly rainy days that last the whole day….the smell of crisps in the air when the wind was in the right direction

Have travelled back in the coach and by train and love every bit of it…..hearing the Northern accents around you as you travel north. The feeling of not being the only person talking like that and also fully aware that you are also a stranger……that’s one of the hardest things.

But my mum and dad are buried up there so it’s always “home” at the back of my mind as being here in Guildford is “home” for my children and that is why I have stayed “down south”.