The Internet, Channel 2

You can find the backstory here

Currently, all of the information is on "The Internet".  The Good The Bad, and The Ugly. It's all there to find, but there's such a mishmash of information that it's really difficult to find the Good stuff.  

Imagine an internet with only the good stuff.  Only the pages, photos, videos, articles etc. that will make positive changes for the greater good.

Think of it like Wikipedia.  The people populate the pages.  If you see something on the Internet that could change the world, like a new idea for an education system, you click a button to transfer it to The Light Side.  There, it goes to the Moderation forum, where it's picked up by the volunteer Moderators.  The Mods are initially made up of people who are involved in websites like Ted Talks, Soul Pancake, Kid President, Upworthy etc.  New Moderators could be added, based on their own personal posts on the likes of Facebook etc.  It's easy to spot people who want positive change, and to be honest, I believe that everyone does.  The problem isn't finding people who want change, the problem is getting them to believe it's POSSIBLE at all!

Imagine an Internet where there's no religion.  Inspirational memes are ok, but organised religion isn't.  

Imagine an Internet where it doesn't matter what colour you are.  Where racist posts don't even get published - or if they do slip through the net (so to speak!) they can be removed by one of the growing number of moderators.

A self regulating internet.

Where the porn is on another channel.

Where the violence is on another channel.

Where the hatred is on another channel.

Where the destruction of the environment is on another channel.

Where the photos that girl sent to her boyfriend don't go viral, because everyone's too busy looking at the good stuff on channel 2.

We know what we want our kids to see, but we don't want the government to choose for us.  It's far too clear from our educational and vaccination programmes alone that the government can't be trusted to make decisions on what's best for my children and my grandson.  They can't be trusted to make decisions about how to look after our planet - but we can!

Imagine how quickly Channel 2 would populate with good stuff if it was just a matter of clicking a button?  Once a page has been suggested for Channel 2 it goes into a queue for moderation.  The moderators get a control panel, and whatever has been waiting for approval the longest, is at the top of the list.  Once a page has been suggested, the moderator panel has a log of how many times it's been suggested, but it only gets listed once for moderation - it could be that a given number of moderators have to approve it before it goes through, and there could be a separate list of pages that are "under query" for moderators to review if one said they don't think it should be passed - then there can be a discussion or some sort of fact check done.

The people get to decide, not the government.  

Companies decide what ideas they want to take up and manufacture, and we could have a financial ideas section as well.  Ways to change the financial state of the world - Social businesses, micro economies, co-operatives (I particularly love co-operatives - I was born in Rochdale, which is widely known as the birthplace of co-operation)

This is the ultimate co-operative.  

There could be some sort of organic filing system with sub files within it -for example Innovation, with subheadings for environment, social, disabilities, homelessness, farming...  etc. and it would be like an online library for entrepreneurs to set up their own business or invest in an existing business that's announced it's going into production of a particular innovation.

Can you imagine how many people would want to be involved?  More people than all of the governments in the world contain.  True People Power.  The Light Side would easily and quickly overpower the Dark Side - and the Children of the Force would have a safe online place to play, free from violence, religious indoctrination, advertising, bullying, abuse...

You might remember I mentioned in my previous blog about all the information about homelessness being put together.  All the ideas, demonstrations of things that work, investors who want to help, companies who want to be involved, volunteers all working together towards a common goal...

This could be extrapolated for every single thing that's wrong in the world today.  Child abuse, environmental issues, poverty - bringing every single person who has an interest in a particular subject together in one place.  So instead of having 500 organisations trying to solve one little part of the problem, all of the people involved in those 500 organisations come together and work together to solve the problem as a whole.  

A one stop solutions shop, for every single problem.

Internet2.  Built from Internet1, by the people, for the people.

Utopian?  Absolutely.  

Impossible?  Not at all.  It's already been proven possible by Wikipedia, and there will be a way to stop every possible abuse of the system, because we'll all have a vested interest in it working for the common good - because we'll ALL benefit from it.

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one".  When I was about 7, I came at the top of my class for spelling, maths and... I don't know, something else.  My family were so proud, and my Grandparents bought me this poster and it lived on various bedroom walls of mine for several years 

I can imagine it, but I don't have the technical know-how or the worldwide net to reel in the number of people needed to achieve something so big...

Google, over to you my friend :)

The Backstory to the Google Suggestion

This was originally published on a site that is no longer online, so I've retrieved it from my sent emails and am posting it here for posterity - you never know, someone might want to look at it sometime soon ;) 

In the beginning of publicly transmitted television, here in the UK we just had one channel.  The BBC. They provided all of our entertainment and programming, and it was only available at certain times.  Transmission ended at 11pm (or whatever time it was) and that was it for the day.  Soon most homes had a TV set, and the family would gather around to find out what was going on in the world, to watch the moon landings, and whatever else the BBC decided would be good viewing for the family as a whole.

I was born in 1970, and without spending any time researching for facts, I can tell you my memories of television as a child.  When I first started at nursery school I was 3, almost 4.  I don't have many memories from that time, but I do remember that I went to nursery in the afternoon, and before we had to set off to get there, I always had time to watch Rainbow while my mum was doing whatever she needed to get done. Even the theme tune was inspiring (and I remembered all the words as soon as the intro started.. "up above the streets and houses, rainbow flying high, everyone can see it shining, over the sky.  Paint the whole world with a rainbow!")  

Later on I went to school, and because mum was working, I went off to the childminder's until mum came to pick me up.  Now at home we always watched BBC1 in the afternoons, but when I was at the childminder's house, they preferred ITV.  So instead of watching Playschool and Blue Peter, I had to watch Tiswas.  I didn't really like Tiswas, it seemed really silly and messy.  Lots of gunge tanks and messing about - I was used to Blue Peter, where we learnt about new things, learnt how to make really cool stuff using old washing up bottles and sticky back plastic, and were encouraged to organise and attend "Bring and Buy" sales to raise money for good causes.  Then along comes ITV and Tiswas, and everyone's throwing custard pies at each other and behaving like idiots.  Little did I know it was a glimpse into the future!

I was no older than 7 years old when I was feeling internally annoyed about this disparity, but I was in someone else's house so I was a good little girl, remembered my manners, said nothing, and watched the inane tv with everyone else.  I doubt I could have managed to explain myself then anyway.

TV as a child was mostly governed by my dad, as well as the BBC (and ITV had it's place as well I'm sure).  I remember watching Dr Who, hiding behind a cushion for the scary bits, but knowing my dad would protect me from the Daleks etc anyway.

We watched The Goodies, Monty Python's Flying Circus (I didn't really understand that either, more silliness really, but Dad loved it), every David Attenborough programme available, and lots more besides.  I learnt a little bit more about the planet and the animals on it, learnt about recycling before it was something people talked about as being a necessity - it was just something we did.  Good clean fun, and education that wasn't labelled as such, so we learnt without feeling like we were at school.

Then as I got a bit older, we got a VHS video recorder and a membership to the local video shop.  This article I wrote last week explains that side of the story (now re-posted on my new blog, here)

I've been thinking about this quite a bit since I wrote it and how it relates to the ills of the world.  Watching this Ted Talk last night about changing the world galvanised me into action

When I was little, entertainment was made for the whole family.  The original Star Wars trilogy for instance.  That was proper family viewing!!  We all sat down together to watch them, and I carried on playing Star Wars games until I was about 14... Things had changed a lot in those few short years - and they've continued to go downhill since.

Where there had once been ONE TV channel, there were now 4.  Each of those 4 stations had something of a theme.  BBC1 was viewing for all the family, BBC2 was a bit more for grown ups, but still educational and more themed towards the arts (loosely, and remember I was a child at this time, but that's my impression)  ITV was family entertainment, but with advertising, so it was funded by whoever paid for advertisements. There was (and still is) a lot of entertainment in there, but BBC1 on a Saturday night in the 70s was the absolute epitome of family entertainment.  The Generation Game with Bruce Forsyth - a game show where family members of different generations would play together, eg Mother and Son, Grandfather and Grandaughter etc. and they came up with new creative games each week.  Copy this artist and make a vase like the one they've made, or learn how to do this short dance routine in the next 15 minutes - every week was different, and obviously different people had different skills, so it was next to impossible to predict who'd win each game. Then at the end there was a conveyor belt with lots of different prizes, and the winners took home everything they could remember from the conveyor belt as their prizes.  These could be anything from a foot spa, to a new game, and every single conveyor belt contained a cuddly toy - that was Brucie's catchphrase for a while... "Cuddly Toy!"  The whole family loved that programme!

Then there was Dr Who.  Dads loved it and introduced their children, and the vast majority of us who watched it as little kids still love it today.  There's really no end to the imagination of the writers, and certainly no shortage of new writers with new ideas.

However, we now have hundreds of channels being beamed into our homes either from satellite or cable.  The entertainment has been spread so thinly that it's a real struggle to find the good stuff, and children are so exposed to advertising that it can easily seem that all they want is the latest gadget.  In all honesty, that's all a lot of kids DO want!  But there are so many children who want so much more than that.  They want positive and real change, they want to cure the world of bullying, or hunger, or homelessness, or poverty... that list of their wants really does go on and on.  I know, because despite the constant bombardment of adverts, my youngest daughter came home at the age of 16 and told me she's not standing by any longer for children to be driven to suicide by bullying, and she was going to do something about it.  She then spent the rest of her summer organising a Summer Fair, and that raised over £800.  

The problem she then had was getting access to schools to talk about the work she was doing.  Her old high school said all their assemblies were planned for the next x number of months, so she couldn't come in to talk to the pupils.  This is a school that utterly denies that it has a problem with bullying, but the reason she wanted to do something was because her best friend committed suicide when he was 12 years old because he was being bullied.  He went to that school at the time.  There has been a stabbing and another serious incident involving bullying since she left two years ago, and probably (almost definitely!) many more minor incidents that I have no knowledge of.

Back to Star Wars - the middle set of new films, the prequels... I did go to see one of them, but I hated it.  All that CGI meant there were millions in the battalions, and it was all about war.  Yes, I know, Star WARS, but war isn't family viewing.  I didn't take enough notice really, but I remember Queen Amidala as being really miserable and not at all a like-able character, but Princess Leia had been a female lead character that any little girl loved to emulate, and most male fans loved for different reasons lol.  She was a really good, positive female role model.  Queen Amidala just wasn't.

The reason the trailer got me so excited was because I could immediately see the metaphor between today's world and the Dark Side vs the Light Side - and the words "There has been an awakening - have you felt it?" 

Over the last few years there has been an awakening.  More and more of us are seeing through the lies of our governments.  We're seeing beyond the lies of the massive corporations that are pulling the strings of our governments, like Monsanto and the petroleum companies.  We're finding references to years old data about renewable energies, and ideas for positive change are being uploaded on a daily basis.  We're starting to find them, and there are a LOT of us that are being vocal about these ideas, as well as a lot of people trying to get the masses to see the reality.  Unfortunately most of those particular people are labelled as conspiracy theorists.  Look at Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.  When I first heard about them, I thought it was ridiculous that they weren't just handed over to the authorities by whichever country they were hiding in at the time.  Why did I think that?  Because mainstream media told me that's how I should feel, that's why!

Those companies (Monsanto, petrolithic companies etc - AKA the Dark Side) are spreading their lies, with the aid of mainstream media, and a lot of people are still believing their lies.  The problem is, The Dark Side involves an awful lot of governments as well.. Let's just use the UK/European and US governments as examples for now.  They're trying to push the TTIP and other international trade agreements through behind our backs.  The uninformed masses are going on with their lives, completely oblivious to these agreements and their consequences, and by staying uninformed, they're unwittingly helping them to be agreed and signed, thereby helping The Dark Side, because they're still voting for the baddies with no real idea that they're baddies!!

On the other hand, we have the Light Side.  The Dark Side refer to them as "conspiracy theorists" in many cases, so they (we!) don't get listened to by the masses.  

But the Light Side have a lot of REALLY good ideas!  They know about how to make renewable energy into an affordable reality, but they don't have the money of the petrolithic industry.  They know how to make life easier for people with disabilities, with new inventions and herbal remedies, but they don't have the money of the pharmaceutical industry.  

Look at the benefits of cannabis as an example.  It's not the big bad "drug" it's made out to be - there are states in the US where it's legal, and it's bringing in ridiculous amounts of money in taxes (IMHO the problem there is that the money is almost definitely going to the Dark Side).  However, the plants themselves are creating oxygen for us to breathe, they can cure all kinds of illnesses, including cancer, and the hemp from what's left over when they're harvested can be used to make practically anything that's currently made out of plastic.  Bags, rope, bridges, homes, roads, even concrete!  

I could go on all day about the great ideas that are available on the internet - mainly thanks to my good friend Google.  I can find anything I want to, thanks to you!

So here's my big idea.  

Mother's Day - late as ever!!

Happy Mother's Day, to Mothers and Grandmothers everywhere!

I'm not sure how many other countries are celebrating Mother's Day today, but I love to share, so I'm extending it to all of you wherever you may be, because mine has been the best ever!  So far, anyway ;)

I've seen my eldest daughter, and spoken to my youngest who's away at uni.  I've seen my scrumptious grandson, and I've found some photographs I didn't even know I had.  Then, about half an hour ago I got the best present I could ever have wished for - and it came from the unlikeliest of sources!!

I've made a lot of friends over the last few months, particularly on Facebook where I've joined a vast array of groups and learned an incredible amount about all manner of belief systems. From Native Americans to Egyptians, from Nature to Astrology, and Hinuism to Judaism - and all sorts in between as well.  All of it has been approached with an open mind; some bits of info have been discarded, others explored in depth, more still have been stored away for future investigation.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to one of my new friends, Cyprius Sky.  Her name stuck out to me originally because Cyprus is my favourite place in the world.  I've spent a lot of time there over the years and a big piece of my heart will reside there forever.  We'd made friends a couple of months ago but then hadn't communicated, but we commented on the same status and once I'd explained the connection I tagged her in one of my favourite photos of the Cypriot sky.  

I've only just noticed the purple/violet (Fairy Godmother?) in the front. I can't call it an orb, what would you call that?

In the conversation that ensued, something really beautiful happened... Please bear in mind that neither of us had spoken to the other up until this day...

This is interesting! I copied the wrong image URL, the photo above is the next one in the album.  The one I actually tagged Cyprius in was this one... Curiouser and curiouser!

Was this the Fairy Godmother's arrival??  This is the photo the conversation took place on

One of the projects I've been working on is writing this blog, but I've also started writing three books.  I've always been a bit "flighty" - as in, I start something but then get distracted.  I did read earlier this week that it can be a sign of genius, so it's not all bad!  

According to the original study (which can be found here):

Overall results suggest that leaky sensory gating may help people integrate ideas that are outside of focus of attention, leading to creativity in the real world.

Where was I? Haha!  I know really... so I've started writing three books, and everything I've been doing has been to try and make positive changes in the world.  To get people to at least think about meditation, about Ancient Knowledge, to open some minds to more available possibilities than they currently imagine, and to do it in an entertaining way.  This blog is perfect because I can get some ideas down in writing without the commitment of adding to the mix on a daily basis.  

One of my books has the following dedication:

For my beloved Grandad, who taught me so much about

life, love, humour, and the joy of giving <3

The idea for one of the main characters came directly from my Grandad who told me stories when I was little, so it was only right that he be credited before the story even started.  

The other book will take a lot longer to write... well actually, I thought it would take a lot longer to write, but now I've come up with a much quicker and more interesting way to do it, and it's all thanks to my wonderful Grandad and Cyprius Sky!

Earlier this evening, Cyprius posted a link to a meditation, with the following introduction:

I have decided to put up one Meditation a week. Some are guided, some are binarul beats( not for people with severe epilepsy) the guided meditation help ur visualisations, as well as distracting your mind so it is easier to clear it. Hope you enjoy, please comment your experiences with the family. Blessed be

Grounding Your Energy

This meditation took me on a wonderful journey without me going anywhere, and I'll be writing more very soon about why it's had such a huge impact on me.  I hope you'll learn as much from it as I did!!

Thank you Cyprius Sky - you're an amazing woman and an absolute inspiration!

Rochdale - Part four - Including the big bet!

Continued from Here

I've heard the moaning and complaining, and even joined in a couple of times when the Metrolink took SO long to be completed, along with all the disruption it caused to Drake Street and every other place along the route...  It's finished now though, and although it's really not that convenient for travelling to Manchester, it's great for reaching other places along the way, and when your mates live in Shaw then it's ideal for popping over to see them on a whim!

That's where I was when this bet was agreed.  So I'll get back to that forfeit now, when I told him that I plan to change the perceptions about Rochdale.  He doesn't believe I can bring it back from the depths to which it's reputation has plummeted, but I disagree.  However, I can't do it on my own.  I live in Castleton now, which was once one of the best nights out in the area.  My friends and I used to spend our evenings in the pubs here between Thursday and Sunday nights, so Friday and Monday mornings were always very much hung over affairs where we ate lots of chocolate and junk food (along with the obligatory crispy bacon butty from Sweaty Betty's and a combo meal from Andy's Pizza Place (jacket potato, coleslaw AND half a club sandwich!) and drank Jusoda and Buttercup Syrup (I have no idea...) but now there are 4 pubs left that I can think of.  FOUR!!  We used to have a full on pub crawl where we might actually have to crawl to the last pub, and now we could have a drink in every one within the space of an hour.  

This is not an improvement.  How are we supposed to behave like a community when we don't even see our neighbours?  Where are we supposed to socialise when there are only 4 available public houses?  I just looked up the population of Castleton, and whilst I fully appreciate that drinking isn't the only way to socialise, it's never going to happen if we have to fit almost 2,500 people in each of those four buildings!  

Sorry, I completely sidetracked myself there... Rochdale is the Birthplace of Co-Operation, so I'm relying on you now, fellow Pioneers.  Do you have some fond memories of Rochdale that you'd like to share?  Or old stories you've heard that are worth passing on?  Do you have some photos you can post to enhance the hard work Derek's already put in?

I have so many weird litte facts about Rochdale that I really could be here all day, but I have a headache now so I'm going to draw it to a close (Hah! I can hear your cheers from here!)

My friend has said that if I can change the perceptions of Rochdale, he'll come to our local ASDA, the one on the old cricket ground, and he'll do his full weekly shop - whilst nakie!  Now, this was supposed to be just a bet between two mates, but I'm never really one to do things quietly, so I'm upping the stakes and therefore changing the rules a little bit.

I'd love for this to have more than one good outcome, so I suggest we make it a charity event and he can choose 2 charities to gain from his bravery (or rather, his misguided bravado, since neither of us had any clue then that it would grow into this!)  He also mentioned that his Aunty (or another relation, I'm not sure) appeared in one of the ASDA Price ads and patted her back pocket - I love the connection in that as well, so I'm going to ask a friend of mine to film him as though it's a new ASDA advert...  

As it's now being filmed and is for charity, and so many people are saying "it'll never be allowed", maybe we'll have to allow him some boxer shorts... Or am I being too soft on him??

However, if I fail, and Rochdale continues to be seen as "just a town full of paedos" then I'll have to come up with a forfeit.  The best I've come up with so far is for me to do the shopping in a swimming costume (there's no way I'm doing it nakie, not even the remotest chance!) or to whizz down a zip line as per my Note to Self earlier.  I'll consider either of those, but let's try and get the new advert instead please!

I love my home town, and I hate the thought that all of its dirty little secrets are now seen as our definition.  There are many more towns with similar secrets, but I don't live there so Rochdale is my priority.  I'd love to see other towns take this challenge on though, so please do let me know if you decide to do it in your area.  

I think it's time for a change in thinking.  People make mistakes.  People sometimes do really horrific things to other living beings, whether that means other people, animals or the planet itself - but generally, I believe that those same people also do many really good things.  Everyone has good and bad in them, and every place has good and bad stories that accompany them.  We're the ones who get to decide which stories we tell, and we also have the power to replace a negative story with a positive one.

Can we try and remember where we're from, who we're descended from, focus on the positive stuff for once, and make those people proud?  I'd really like to give it a go, and I know I'm not the only person who loves this town - we could even raise a lot of money for good causes if we're really clever about it ;O)

I googled "home of co-operation" in an attempt to find this image, and ended up with a load of photos from Cyprus - anyone who knows me and my obsession about everything being connected will know why that made me smile!! <3  I guess home really is where the heart is!!

At the beginning I asked whether you felt that Rochdale is beyond redemption. Now I'm asking whether you still feel the same now as you did then.  Times have changed a lot since my arrival in 1970.  Mums don't really make clothes for their kids any more, haircuts are usually from a professional hairdresser, little kids don't get to walk to school and go on stealing sprees at the age of 6, and we no longer have Maypoles or Morris Dancers to look forward to at school fairs.  I'm not convinced that we're progressing anymore, hence my rewind.  

Here are a few quick snippets about Rochdale that I may expand on at a later date:

• The River Roch wasn't always covered over by a road.  
• There used to be two bridges between the banks at the bottom of Yorkshire Street and the buildings that back on to Packer Street and one of them was known as The Kissing Bridge because it was so narrow that people were close enough to kiss as they passed each other.
• There used to be wooden cobbled roads before the stone cobbles were introduced, and you can still see these behind the fancy dancy public toilet that's been installed near Mango's.
• The market in Rochdale used to be the best around, and was one of the first in Lancashire to receive a Market Charter.
• The cobbled tunnel leading down from Baillie Street to The Butts is called Bull Brow, and until recently I thought it was for a cattle market, but apparently there were bull baiting displays there!
• The Royds Family built a beautiful church near Spotland called St Edmunds. Its a fantastic building, but closed down years ago due to lack of parishioners.  I found some info on it a couple of years ago that made me want to see inside, but I don't think it's possible.  Can we change that please?  A small donation on the door should help towards the cost of upkeep and bring more visitors to Rochdale - what else could they go to see while they're here?
• The Central Library and Childrens Library next door were also great places to explore as a child.  I loved that smell of old books, but now I have to go much further afield to get that kind of experience.  Yes, we have a new one in the Wheatsheaf Centre, but it's not exactly an inspiring place from what I remember.  The building that now houses Touchstones was (and still is; one of my kids once admitted that they used to think that was were the Princess of Rochdale live! Cute!)
• The Royds family were actually from Yorkshire, but they brought a lot of wealth into Rochdale.  They had family pride as well; many of the streets around St Edmund's church are named after their family members.  Yes, that does include Emma Street.  Our disgraced ex Councillor used to live on a street named after Hemorrhoids - isn't that a nicer story than the ones we've had to read just recently? ;O)

One of the things I've always loved about Rochdale and its inhabitants is our ability to laugh at ourselves.  That hasn't always been easy just recently, but I really think we can get back to that.  I genuinely believe we can have a town to be proud of again too, but one person can't make this happen alone...

I've just realised I only used one song in this blog!  Totally slacking, so you get to share the song that was playing on my magical mystery shuffle as I finished. It's fairly magical... The lyrics really couldn't be more perfect as it appears I've just nominated myself as one of The Voices of Rochdale.  Are you really going to make me sing a solo now I'm here? 

This is my plan.  

It's so cunning, I stuck a tail on it, and now it's a Fox ;)

Thank you Rowan Atkinson! <3

Rochdale - Beyond Redemption? Part 3

Continued from here

From Louise Gardens we moved to Shelfield Lane in Norden, where we got to explore even more!  This was in the days when the land at the side of Whittaker Moss School was full of Pussy Willow trees and we'd pick the buds and take them home (I'm really not sure why I did that, because I never planted them or anything as I recall!)  We had strict instructions not to play near the reservoir, but obviously we did know how to climb over the wall so we did - but every time without fail, that inspired a need to run straight home because the sound of the water rushing into the rez (short for reservoir, keep up! lol) always made me desperate for the loo!  

We'd go blackberry picking and come home with nothing to show for it except purple fingers and tongues (although my sister always managed to smear the purple all around her face as well, mucky kid! Hah!) I remember getting stuck in a tree too.  My friends had somehow managed to convince me to climb it, despite my fears and pleas to the contrary!  It had a long wide branch that my friends stood on to swing off, and I'd seen them do this loads of times every day for weeks - but I just couldn't shake that fear I'd learnt by the stream at Smallbridge, and no matter how hard I tried, I just could not jump off that branch!  In the end, one of my friends had to run back to my house and ask my dad to drive down to rescue me.  I was again mortified, because I felt as though I was letting my dad down by not being a big enough, brave enough girl to just swing on the rope, but now I can see that it was because my previous experience had frightened me.  Adult eyes... they really do see the things that children can't comprehend!  Dad saved me that day by parking his car under the branch and eventually coaxing me to climb on to the roof and sliding down the windscreen... One day I will get over that fear and whizz down a zip line!! (Aha! Note to self for later!)

While we lived in Norden, I went to St Vincent's and learnt all about how we shouldn't talk to "the proddy dogs next door"... I refer you to my earlier "Wait... what?" gif!  Religious intolerance goes back a long time, but teaching it to little kids?  I have no idea who ever told me that the kids at Caldershaw were "Proddy Dogs", but I do remember not understanding why we weren't supposed to speak to them - especially because my cousins didn't go to Catholic school and they weren't that bad! Lol.  I tended to ignore that bit of advice, and although I didn't talk to any of the Caldershaw kids on the way into school, we all played very nicely together on the streets and fields near our homes.  

I did make some good friends at that time though, and although things weren't perfect (yes I am aware, and I'm lucky enough not to have been a victim of that injustice either - we don't need to bring it up, I'm trying to increase the positive now) my friends and I were all pretty much happy children from what I remember.

I got to know all the little back streets and short cuts, found out where the best blackberry bushes were, cut my knees from falling off my adjustable metal roller skates, ate home made fudge from Mrs Jenkins across the road, clambered about in the building sites when new houses started to spring up - I can still remember the smell of concrete drying - went sledging down the hill in front of St Vincent's (and got in trouble from Dad for laughing so much when my little sister failed to stop and crashed into Mrs O'Hara's classroom wall! Sorry sis!) and made loads of new friends both in and out of school, some of whom I'm still in touch with today, thanks solely to Facebook!

We went for walks in Ashworth Valley (Ashfield Valley was a big shock to the system when I discovered that a few years later!) 

Climbed to the top of Knowl Hill, 

Got confused between 10CC and ELO when I discovered that one of them had a house on Norford Way (it was 10CC, but I still have to check every time I hear one of those bands even today!)

I spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandad's on Elmsfield Avenue, trying to find out what goodies they had in the bottom drawer of the dresser where the treats were kept.  I became known (to Grandad at least!) as The Phantom Jaffa Cake Eater, even though Brandy Snaps were my favourites.

I climbed over fences, camped in the back garden, knew the neighbours, always had somewhere to go if I needed help, and knew to set off home when the streetlights came on and actually in the house by the time they'd turned yellow! (Only at certain times of the year though, I still had to be in bed well before the street lights in the Summer!)

We moved abroad for a few years in 1980, but I moved to Bamford for a few months in 1982 and went to St Wilfrid's School. We have a Facebook group for ex pupils, and last year a reunion was organised.  When you think how many children must have attended over the years, there was only a tiny fraction of us at the party, but it was brilliant to catch up with a lot of people I've neither seen nor thought of for a long time.  I'll try to keep it brief about this school, but most of us really have very fond memories of our time there.  Mine wasn't a brilliant experience because my accent had changed in those 2 years and now some of the kids I went to primary school were calling me names for being posh or a snob, so I ended up going to boarding school instead.  (Yeah good idea Sarah, that'll show them for calling you a posh snob! Haha!)  Mr O'Laughlin was either a fantastic headmaster or a complete tyrant depending on who's story you listen to, so I'll just go with my own impression of a very nice, but sometimes shouty man who ran our school and who I tried to avoid at all costs, because being called (or sent) to the headmaster's office was a very bad thing.  

I only had one bad experience with a teacher there, and that was a History teacher who took exception to me for no apparent reason.  I was a good girl and a bright student, so having an angry red faced man bellow at me to "Go and stand outside the class young lady!" was really scary!  I don't think I even knew what I'd done wrong, but I seem to think I had to stand outside his class every time after that.  The only purpose that served was to put me off History for the rest of my education.

In 1984 we moved back to the UK and into Whitegate in Dearnley and made a whole load of new friends. We played on the street, on the lodge behind our house, down the road towards Lightburn we'd play Hide and Seek, sometimes we'd feed the horses in the imaginatively named "Horse's Field", and generally muck about being kids and trying not to blind each other with our pretend light sabres... 

We got into trouble from "Handlebars", the local Bobby, for sitting on the steps outside Dearnley Methodist Church, "It's freezing out here here, haven't you got homes to go to?" to which we'd usually reply that we weren't doing any harm sitting there counting cars, and home was boring lol.  He was always friendly enough, we just didn't take him seriously when he tried telling us we'd get piles from sitting on the cold wall - why do adults say such ridiculous things sometimes?

We explored all over the place in Littleborough.  Most of my friends had lived there for their whole lives (and many still do live within striking distance of our old stomping grounds) and we played cricket up on "The Wreck".  That name always confused me because there was no ship wreck in sight, just a big empty patch of grass, a couple of goats and a Jehovah's Witness Church.  It was only later I found out it was actually "The Rec" and the rest of "Rec" was "reation" - and now here we are in my attempted Re-Creation of the views of Rochdale 

This is my "Smug" smiley, because I do keep telling people that everything's connected! 

We had some great times during those years, and then a couple of years later we discovered that we could pop into Alec's shop and occasionally get away with buying Clan Dew (Clan Ewww more like! The lengths teenagers will go to attempt drunkenness is really quite sad haha!) We started to go further afield, like up to Hollingworth Lake when there was a fair on, or up to the "bottomless pit" on Blackstone Edge to swim in the summer (another thing we probably weren't allowed to do!) then when it got dark or rainy some of us would pop round to one particular house where we could smoke and play cards without any parents getting in the way of our fun.  I did hear a couple of rumours about inappropriate behaviour by the owner of that house, but I spent a lot of time there, both with other kids and alone with the man in question and I never once saw or experienced anything untoward.

I think this is a big part of my point to be honest.  Sometimes judgements are made based on one person's experience.  Now I'm not saying that anyone was lying, nor that one person's experience should just be dismissed - of course it should be properly looked into!  Wrongdoing and illegality should be tackled head on, and appropriate actions should be taken - but I prefer to look at the bigger picture.  There must have been about 20 of us who spent time there, and to my knowledge, only one or 2 people ever expressed any discomfort about being there - yet they still came back.  I can only judge people based on my own experience of them, and since I never experienced anything other than good there, I have fond memories of being there.

Somewhere along the way, we've all forgotten the town we grew up in.  We've managed to forget that the reason we have so many beautiful buildings is because Hitler made it a "no fly zone" during WWII because he wanted our Town Hall - Hitler did some really REALLY terrible things, but I will always thank him for preserving that beauty for us.

http://i1.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article1234312.ece/alternates/s615/rochdale-town-hall-nightJPG.jpg

I remember being outside there one day in the 70s and seeing a big black car pull up.  I remember how excited I was that it contained a local celebrity!!  I was pretty awestruck that there was a famous person right in front of me, and I also remember giggling to myself when I noticed he was wearing his red tartan slippers.  I watched him waddle into the beautiful Post Office building, and felt important because I'd just seen him with my very own eyes and not just by looking at a photo in the paper or watching a link on a TV programme.

I had no idea of the terrible things that man was doing behind closed doors, and in all honesty, I wish I still didn't know about them.  I didn't imagine anything other than lovely things when I was laid on the floor with my chin propped up on my hands watching Top of the Pops either.  

For some reason, I was something close to embarrassed when Lisa Stansfield appeared on one of the Saturday morning TV programmes and her Rochdale accent filled the airwaves.  I really disliked being compared to her because of that accent... Seems I was a posh snob after all!  (Sorry Lisa!  I'm over it now though, and I love your music and that you still have your accent!) Gracie Fields was too old to be cool, and Mike Harding was just a bloke who'd made everyone think it was hilarious to call me a cowboy... How moody was I?!

The thing is, I wasn't alone.  I think I caught that attitude from other people around me.  I've discovered that Attitudes are like viruses.  If you spend a lot of time listening to bad ones, you end up adopting them as your own, and when a lot of friends are leaving the town they grew up in and telling you it's because "it's gone to the dogs" then you start believing it.  When you hear Rochdalians referring to their own home town as "Dogdale", and see all the pubs and clubs closing down because of violence and trouble, you start to wonder whether you should maybe leave as well...

That's what happened to me anyway.  But the thing is, I remember all of these great things (and many more!) about this town. Now I can call on the help of Derek Parsons, who's name seems familiar but I don't (to my knowledge) actually know him.  However, I'd like to thank him for the work he's already put into this project and the photos and information he has on his page.

This photo for instance.  I've now discovered that it was due to be demolished in January so it's probably gone now, but I remember my childhood confusion as to why they kept pulling that big building down and then rebuilding it before we drove past again...  That childhood innocence is lost forever when you start learning the truth about things, but it was a source of great wonder to me for YEARS before I discovered it grew and shrank depending how much gas was inside it!  This is the point I'm trying to make about the way things are looked at now.

Our innocence has been stolen.  Our pride has gone with it.  Everyone knows that terrible things have happened here, and we just hang our heads in collective shame and apologise on behalf of the bad guys.  

Well I'm not apologising any longer for the mistakes of people I've never even spoken to.  I didn't do those things, I didn't hurt those people, I didn't ruin those lives.  My heart breaks for the lives that were ruined, and I hope with all of my heart that they manage to find some peace, but I cannot - and will not - live my life in penance for someone else's mistakes.

I love this town.  I love that I can see signs of it coming back to life.  There are new market stalls next to the new Metrolink and Bus Stations, and the traders there have a petition going to get it covered over and made a permanent fixture.  I've signed the petition, because I can see how the new position could be really good for our town and all the business who still have their homes here.

Continue here for part four and the bet!