I know, it should have been five, but I found pictures, of when I was seven!

And if this stirs some memories for you – go on, share them in the comments box or email me – lets reminisce together!

For me, home was Hillfield Avenue, Selsey. Dad had fairly recently left the Marines and opened Selsey Photographic, mum sold handbags there, too (it’s now a tattoo parlour!).

It was home and shop, with a developing and printing works in what I guess was meant to be the garage. I remember it being dark….our love affair with lighting wasn’t much in evidence in the fifties but brown furniture was!

After a while the shop moved up to the High Street and we moved to live, to Latham Road, but it’s where we were when I was seven.

One day, thinking I was on my own in the house, I heard strange noises from the cupboard. Dad had decided to develop some wedding photos there rather than the workshop and was working his magic on rolls of 35mm film in his dark room. Opening the door let the light in…the wedding photos were ruined….disaster all around! Must be where my horror of having to open closed doors comes from!

Patrick Moore would bring in his pictures of the planets for developing and we’d all gaze in astonishment at the results! Well, to be honest, the adults would, my seven year old eyes got a bit bored with all the blobs!

In 1960, foreign holidays were an unimaginable dream, and finding time to leave the business almost impossible, but Mum, Granny and Grandad and my brother, Paul did head off for a few days to Butlins in Bognor, with Little Bo Peep outfit made and packed!

Main memory? The door to door salesman that came often with is brown suitcase of delights produced a glorious red cardigan with, oh, rectangular shiney buttons. Must have been the start of a love affair with haberdashery! I can spend HOURS on button websites!

I still have the hand puppets, bear and dog, that I saved my pocket money up for and bought from the newsagents a few doors down, although they could do with a visit to the Repair Shop!