Forgetful, Responsible er..

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
Colin Powell

I have blogged before about living in Scotland and some of the adventures (?) that befell me.  One that I have laughed about so often with friends and family is..

We were about to move to Scotland where we had selected a new house that would be completed just about the time the baby was due.  The baby was born in London while her father was in Glasgow – but that’s another story.  Anyway, my mother being a first-time grandmother was besotted with this baby of course and when the doctor advised against taking her into a new house that hadn’t had time to dry out, she was overjoyed at the thought of having the baby to herself for a couple of weeks.

At that time it was considered that a brick house needed to dry out after it was built.  Probably the thinking has changed some 50 years on.  So my husband moved into the house, lit fires and aired it ready for us to move in.

I did leave Cate with my mother for about two weeks while I got the house properly ready to welcome this little princess.  I made the journey to London a couple of times I think, during this period.

 Silver Cross Balmoral Pram in Midnight Navy 

Prams then were so different to today’s models that fold up to fit into a car.  My parents bought me the Silver Cross pram like the one in the photo.  Very smart indeed!  We had a pram and a separate stroller that folded and could be taken in the car.

One day after mother and father had delivered my baby to us and returned home to London, I took her shopping.  No car at that time, and a big hill to climb up to the local village.  Baby was ensconced comfortably in her pram and I was gratified at all the admiring comments of the people whom we met.

Anyway, back to my confession.  There was no mall or supermarket in the village and shopping took a long time as we had to go to each individual shop for groceries, meat etc.  And at that time we left our prams with baby inside, outside the shops while we did our shopping.  I finished my shopping with the chemist being the last stop and then took the bus home.  Yes, I had forgotten that I had the baby.

Imagine my chagrin when the pharmacist called to ask had I forgotten anything.  My baby was still sleeping in her pram outside his shop.  Oh dear, it took a long time to live that down.  And it was only years later that I started to tell it as a funny story.

And Cate – well she used to say when she was a teenager and in a rebellious mood, that if I really loved her I wouldn’t have left her behind.

My rainbow

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