Who is Roger McMann you ask? To be honest I havent the foggiest, a random collection of thoughts mish-mashed together. But he had dreadlocks, and because he was the inspiration of these memories he deserves a mention too.
Now Roger and his dreadlocks got me wondering about other dreadlocked folk that I know and thus my thoughts turned to Brett and Jason, my cousins. Long, lanky, curly haired folk, I thought, they are most certainly not typical Hudsons. And thinking about the children of the Hudsons, really the only one that would be thought of as a "typical Hudson" as far as appearance goes would be Dale. Now having established this line of reasoning my thoughts started to wander in a different direction.
I started thinking about Nanny. What was life like for her when she was younger? I know that she and Poppy Tom (who passed away before I was born) travelled a lot but I dont know what they did or where they went. All those memories lost and all I have to show for their travels are a moonstone necklace and an amethyst bracelet. Now this got me thinking about my own memories and that of course brought me back to Nanny's house.
It was only a small house but being from a generation that felt children should be seen and not heard it was definitely not a child friendly house. It was almost like a mini museum. Starting at the front, I remember a huge tree which we called the banana tree (although it wasnt). It has incredibly smooth grey bark, big glossy green leaves and red flower spikes. And I remember once seeing the most amazingly camouflaged spider in the tree, it matched the grey of the tree precisely and looked like nothing more than a piece of the bark. Also in the front of the house was a loquat tree and we used to gorge on the fruit. I still have a special fondness for loquat.
Walking through the front door, you first entered a small room, the museum part of the house. On the far wall Nanny had a day bed and the two side walls had beautiful cabinet with all sorts of "treasures". The shells were always a favourite with us kids. Dad still has many of them to this day and now they fascinate my children.
From this small receiving room, you went through into in living room. Personally the most memorable thing about this room would have to be the long luscious feathers which once adorned a peacock but now lived in a huge vase. They were amazing and certainly added to the exotic, museum feel about the place.
From the living room you could choose from three doors, Nanny's room, the spare room and the kitchen. As I said before, Nanny and Poppy Tom did a lot of travelling and Nanny's room had all sorts of beautiful things that they had collected in their travels. I remember it being purple (front her quilt cover) and dark even with the light on. To me the most beautiful of all the pieces here was the camphor wood box. The smell of it was incredible, it was like breathing in a lung full of another place. Even now the camphor wood box still has its beautiful smell, and who knows many one day I'll be able to breath in exotic lands again.
The spare room wasnt particularly exciting, I dont think spare rooms ever are but it has to be said that whenever you moved through the hall the sliding mirror in the spare room cupboard would rattle. I can recall that rattle with absolute clarity.
I dont have any long lasting memories of the kitchen although I could probably fairly accurately draw where everything was - table, fridge, sink etc. From the kitchen you would enter the "wet area". This was the laundry with bathroom and toilet off to the side. I remember the laundry being pretty dingy but thats about the extent of that memory. I do remember the bathroom though. When we would have sleep overs obviously we would have a bath and sometimes if we were very lucky we would be able to have one of Nanny's pearly bath oils in the bath. They were so very, very special and it was such a treat to be able to have one.
The bathroom and toilet were on the left of the laundry, to the right was a door to the backyard. You walked down the steps and there was a massive lilac tree next to the house. Sometimes the path would be covered in those squishy, yellow berries that it would drop. And who could forget the "rock garden". A massive mound of rocks, some smooth and some rough, some big and some small. The were a great source of entertainment despite the fact that we really werent suppose to touch them. Right down the very back of the yard was the incinerator. We were allowed to go down there and I didnt like going down there anyway, it was dark and damp and creepy.
Lastly, down the side of the house grew Black-eyed Susan and a purple tubular flower. I remember Nanny's next door neighbour trying to convince me that the fairies in Nanny's garden would come along and turn the Black-eyed Susan into the purple flower. I never did really believe her... but it did always make me wonder.
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