From: danielthomasandrewdaly@live.com.au   
      
       
   The Book of Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly   
       
   Chapter One   
       
   I am not really sure what my oldest memories are, but I do remember being in   
   the kitchen at Berridale (7 Bent Street) playing on the chairs we had, which   
   had black vinyl, being chairs I had played on often, doing a rocking horse   
   motion on them around the    
   kitchen, and thinking right at that point, in thoughts which had slowly   
   developed for a while, I will remember this time for the rest of my life. And   
   I have never forgotten it.   
       
   I was born on the 20th of November 1972 Kingston upon Hull in England in the   
   United Kingdom. I was born at the Hull Maternity Hospital, which Mum tells me   
   is no longer there. What had happened was my older brother Matthew was born in   
   Cooma Hospital on    
   the 21st of October 1969 and my older sister Brigid was born in the same   
   hospital on the 26th of October 1971. But when it came to the third child,   
   myself, mum decided to have me in England in Hull, were she likewise had been   
   born. She was born on the    
   7th of July, 1937 (meaning she turned 70 on the 7/7/2007 – which is probably   
   why 7 is her favourite number). My mother’s name is Mary Philomena Daly nee   
   Baker. Dad was born Cyril Aloysius Daly on the 11th of August 1922 in Sydney.   
       
   I remember, in those early days, the world book dictionaries we had, and the   
   set of world book children’s encyclopaedias. We still have the dictionaries,   
   but the children’s encyclopaedias are long gone. They had a games section of a   
   jungle map which you    
   followed from page to page, as well as a volume of kids activities which I   
   liked to look at. I remember a big box which dad brought home from work one   
   day, which we played in in the back yard for a while. And I remember the first   
   day thinking that when    
   the ‘Goodies’ came on (on ABC at 6) that I would still keep on playing in the   
   box. But I think that the others went inside when the Goodies came on, and I   
   went in shortly afterwards. The Goodies were big to me as a kid, and so was Dr   
   Who which ABC put on    
   right after the Goodies. They are my earliest childhood TV shows I remember,   
   alongside The ABC News at 7 (which is still the time they show it) and the   
   Saturday morning Cartoons. I remember ‘Point of View’ which they showed before   
   the cartoons at 12    
   which was a political commentary show. When ‘Point of View’ came on I was   
   usually watching TV, waiting for the Cartoons. The ‘Whacky Racers’ was a show   
   I remember, were the hero turned into a bad guy as well. Star Wars was a big   
   thing because every one    
   was talking about it, and when what I thought was Star Wars was supposed to   
   come on TV I was broken when the blackout occurred and we missed nearly all of   
   it. In fact it was just the Star Wars holiday special (but I didn’t know at   
   the time) and perhaps    
   it is a good thing I missed it because Mr Lucas maintains he would prefer if   
   it was totally forgotten. I read online that some people consider it Star Wars   
   canon, because it contains plots which supposedly tie into the saga (ie   
   Chewbacca visiting his    
   family). Later on, when I learned about confirmation names, mine was going to   
   be ‘Luke’. It was going to be ‘Luke’ for a long time, mainly because of Star   
   Wars ‘Luke Skywalker’. But I ended up choosing ‘Tarcisius’ just a few months   
   before my confirmation    
   because I read a book in Year 6 at St Pats in Cooma in the back on St   
   Tarcisius. I also read one on St Pancratius, but was scared of the way St   
   Pancratius died (I think he was beheaded) and preferred the death of St   
   Tarcisius. I guess I ended up choosing    
   Tarcisius because I thought that was the spiritual thing to do.   
       
   I pinched my dad’s 2 cent and 5 cent coins almost straight away from his jar,   
   because I knew they bought lollies. I kept on pinching from mum’s purse into   
   my teens. It was where my arcade money came from. I was convicted a lot and   
   felt guilt, but always    
   brushed it aside. I remember, later on in Cooma, getting busted for pinching   
   lollies from Woolworths, and they took us to the police station. We were under   
   age and just got a warning. It is the only time I have been to the police   
   station for illegal    
   activity. I have never been arrested, and have worked hard to make sure I   
   won’t be.   
       
   Anyway, God dealt with the pinching gradually through my life, and I learned   
   my lesson eventually. I do remember, though, that whenever I pinched some   
   money and mum asked who was pinching from her purse, it was normally always   
   me, but I would deny it to    
   her face. I am not really sure if my siblings ever pinched money. There was   
   this time, though, in Cooma, when Aunt Molly accused me of pinching a dollar,   
   but it actually wasn’t me that time. I think she had just mislaid it.   
       
   Like ‘Swiper’ from Dora the Explorer, pinching was my main problem, but apart   
   from that, looking back, I usually feel I was a good kid with a good heart. I   
   was usually gentle throughout my school years, and did not like fighting, and   
   was picked on    
   because of it. I was extremely unpopular all the way through to the end of   
   year 10 at St Patrick’s. Fortunately, they were never too violent towards me,   
   usually just occasionally calling me names and letting me know my place at the   
   bottom of the    
   hierarchy. Throughout those 11 years at St Pats there were a lot of hard   
   times, but there was an occasional moment here and there when things were just   
   a bit okay.   
       
   My teachers were Mrs Macminnamin in Kindie, Sister Susan in year 1 and 2, Mrs   
   Jones in year 3, Mr McHugh in year 4 & 5, Sr Ann in year 6, and then various   
   teachers in high school.   
       
   I first went to the pre-school in Cooma north before kindie, but only   
   occasionally. I remember a few times staying at the big house up the top of   
   crisp street at the top of the hill in Cooma – the very big mansion like one –   
   after pre-school for some    
   babysitting. I can’t remember the people, but they had a shack were I remember   
   thinking there was a fox there. It is a big part of my memory. Mum tells me   
   they asked me questions but I was playing them for fools as a little devil.   
       
   The first day I got home from kindie, mum tells me I undid my shoes, took them   
   off and said ‘Thank God for that.’ I remember I was trying to be dramatic.   
       
      
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