Age 7
A chapter from a life in seven-year intervals — shared on allthe7s.
How this age felt
Joyful1.What do you want to be when you grow up?
A Lorry driver like my dad or maybe a train driver
2.What is your favourite thing to do?
roam around the docks and humber foreshore with my friends. We spend most of our spare time down here watching the ships come and go. Wonder where they are going or coming from. Wandering around in the huge wood storage yards and getting chased off by workers.
3.Who is your best friend, and what do you do together?
Steve Smith we do everything together, sit together at school and play after school
4.What makes you really happy?
my mums stew and dumplings and reading "Just william" books. My dad coming home from a long trip in his lorry. getting to go with my dad on some of his trips.
5.What are you scared of?
Dying, girls and the kids from the next street, Waller street they are pretty tough.
6.What do you think about grown-ups?
They are ok but usually grumpy. I have a lot of uncles and aunties in the same street so lots of cousins and my mums parents.
7.Where do you think you will live when you are big?
Here in Craven street by the docks in Hull.
A reflection on this chapter
At seven, your world is framed by the rhythmic pulse of the Hull docks and the warmth of a crowded street where family is always within earshot. There is a beautiful, grounded consistency to your joy; it’s found in the smell of your mum’s stew, the comfort of a *Just William* book, and the quiet thrill of sitting in your dad’s lorry cab, watching the horizon shift. You spend your days balancing the wide-eyed wonder of the ships at the Humber with the necessary toughness required to survive the kids from Waller Street. It’s clear that, for you, belonging is everything—whether it’s side-by-side with Steve Smith or tucked into the familiar geography of Craven Street. You have a keen sense of place, a comfort in knowing exactly who you are and where you are, even when the looming mysteries of the adult world—and the occasional terror of the opposite sex—feel a bit daunting. It’s a bright, salt-aired chapter of life you’ve captured here.