MEMORY: My two older brothers playing marbles in the gutter in East Street, Feniscowles. I sat on the doorstep and our Tom promised me a big, shiny glass marble if he won. All the children's games had seasons, top and whip, hopscotch, buck and stick.

KISS: I was 12 and he was a tall, blond, good-looking 13-year-old. I cheated at Postman's Knock so that I could go out of the room for that kiss..

LOVE: A young boy at Cherry Tree School. He once brought me some Maltesers. I was a little disappointed to find they were lumps of malt bread rolled into balls. So much for romance. I often wonder if he turned into one of life's big spenders.

HEROINE: Dianne Durbin. I used to sing into a hairbrush, cracking on it was a mike.

HOUSE: A two-up and two-down, with outside lav, scrubbed wood seat, donkey-stoned step, tin bath hung on the back yard wall, black leaded grate, cosy, warm, that's if you were near the fire. But best of all, safe.

PET: Macduff, a scruffy Manchester terrier my dad brought home, but how we loved him. He was fed on all the household scraps because my mum said no-one in their right minds bought tinned food for a dog.

JOB: Dickinson's Printers on High Street. I had to pass Dutton's Brewery every morning and the lads all used to whistle. I never thought of it as harassment. I always thought it rather flattering and, if I am honest, it made my day.

LIE: I told a rather posh gentleman friend who had taken me out for a meal that I had left my gloves on the table so I had an excuse to go back and pick up the five bob tip he'd put by the plate for the waitress. I was on piecework and didn't earn much more than that in a day.

EMBARRASSMENT: Having a bad squint as a child inured me against being embarrassed -- being called skenner, four eyes and "who are you looking at, me or him?" It thickens the skin a little. So I was hurt, angry, annoyed, but embarrassed? No.

HOLIDAY: During Wakes Week the entire village went to Blackpool. Mums on the sands with us kids, jugs of tea from across the promenade, gritty sandwiches, donkey rides, a hand-knitted swimsuit that dropped down to my ankles the minute it got wet, digging for pennies in the sand. Magic.