The little girl who loved to play in the mud dressed in her fancy clothes

memoir

So let me tell you a little bit about my childhood. I lived in Zimbabwe for the first seven years of my life before I moved to England in June 2004, where I of course picked up the Geordie accent (very quickly). Oh my goodness, I laugh at the memories attached to it. I don’t know why, but I can remember my childhood memories more from when I look at the blue top I’m wearing and the braids on my head in this picture.

This is a photo of me when I was four-years-old at my little brother’s baptism. My mother, who was then a teacher at a primary school, bought this top from me from a shop called Candice which was a popular civil servants clothing store. The top was blue with a mesh material with different sized bubbles printed on it, just perfect for me to fit into.

My mother doesn’t actually remember the price of this top but she always tells me that it was an expensive piece of clothing for someone who was only four-years-old. This was because my little brother was only a few months old and everybody knows that babies are EXPENSIVE, so it had to be something I would grow into hence why it’s not exactly fitted to my body. Anyhow, she had bought me this top because where I lived was very hot and she thought it would be nice for me to keep cool whilst at special occasions.

I was so obsessed with this top because blue was my favourite colour at the time even though I had a billion favourite colours.  I remember that I always loved to wear it with a pair of jeans and trainers. However, for special occasions the look was finished off with either my black shoes with a small heel or the white ones.

I was such a diva. I remember my mother used to always hide away the blue top and other pieces of clothing kept for special occasions in her wardrobe in case I stole them and wore them to go and play with my friends outside in the mud. This was a result of not knowing the difference between clothes that are for playing outside in and ones kept for special occasions. I didn’t care because I just wanted to look nice all the time, so I was always known as the little girl who liked to dress up in fancy clothes for playing outside.

I remember that I always used to get old off for getting the blue top muddy and having sand all over my braids but I never understood because I was just having fun. Sometimes, I would bathe up to three times a day just because I had rolled around in a ridiculous amount of mud and had so much sand in my braids. The really funny thing is, whenever I had a bath I would always change into a new outfit. Yes, three fancy outfits in one day so I loved bath time.

The blue top lasted me up until I moved to England when I was seven. I had grown out of it but I loved it so much that my mother even packed it away for moving. The top was over stretched, had a few holes on it and the seam was coming off the bottom but I just loved in anyway. Yet, mother did ban me from wearing it in public because it was so worn out and apparently looked ugly.

Sadly, it was finally time to grow up. It came to the day when the blue top had to be thrown away as its life had come to an end. It was a sad day for myself as I had to say my goodbyes to my mischievousness of my childhood and those funny memories which still stick somewhere in the back of my mind. I remember being moody at my mother for days after the blue top was disposed of but I always will miss the good old days where my biggest worry was being told off for having sand in my hair or mud on my clothes.

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