2006: A Reflection

What was your personal life like back in 2006? What are your memories of it and what did you think of the pop culture at the time?

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I was 7 years old and in Year 1 in primary school. In retrospect, I would personally consider 2006 as being my quintessential childhood year, along with 2007. I can remember so much from 2006, so I will list some of my memories/experiences of the year in dot points and go into more detail about the more significant details.

Here are a few random memories I have from the year:

* The Gameboy Advance SP was my favourite console at the time and the game I used to play most often on it was Happy Feet. Most mornings, I would wake up at about 6am and walk into my Mum's bedroom, which I would then lay on the opposite side of the bed (under the blankets/quilt)and play the SP.  

* I loved smileys! They were my favourite side-dish to have with dinner (this is what they looked like) and I used to have them almost every night. I can't even begin to describe how disappointed I was when they discontinued the production of them towards the end of the year, lol. I'd still eat them to this day if they were around.  #Bringbacksmileys 

* I used to have a bit of a recurring dream at the time where it felt as though there was something (which I couldn't see, but could feel the "presence" of) in the corner of the room opposite my bed and the bedroom was closing in on me. I would just lay there with my eyes wide open and honestly, it was a pretty horrible experience. That was part of the reason as to why I used to go into my Mum's bedroom to play my Gameboy Advance SP (besides just wanting someone to talk to in general).

* I can vividly remember getting picked up from school on the afternoon of the 4th September and hearing the news on the radio of Steve Irwin's passing. As you could imagine, it took me by complete surprise upon hearing about it. I can also remember the media coverage and public reactions of his death in the weeks that followed, such as the public memorial service that was held , the reports of sting-rays having their tails cut off on Queensland beaches and the f***wit South Park 

* Another radio memory I have is of hearing about Pluto being officially reclassified from a planet to a "dwarf planet". This was pretty significant to me personally, because I had developed a huge interest in astronomy just a few months earlier and I didn't agree with the reclassification.

* My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade" was the song that introduced me to the Emo movement. Fall Out Boy hadn't yet emerged onto the scene at that time and I had never thought of Panic at the Disco!'s "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" as being an Emo song (as it was the only song of it's kind that had been a hit beforehand), so it was really my first "taste" of what Emo was. I can remember not liking the music video of "Welcome to the Black Parade", in particular. For some reason, the first minute or so of the video (where it shows the man on the hospital bed waking up to the 'Black Parade') reminded me of a war and I found it a bit daunting. 

* I went with my Mum, her friend and her friend's daughters (whom were both younger than me) to see Happy Feet at Greater Union Shellharbour one night either at the tail-end of 2006 or very early 2007 (I think it was the former, but I honestly can't remember now). I'm pretty sure it was the first time I had ever been to the cinemas.

* One night while my Mum and I were staying at my Nanna's/Uncle's place down in Tasmania, my uncle played me some of his favourite songs on his computer (as he knew that I was into rock/metal) and one song that I particularly liked was "Generator" by the Foo Fighters. There was just something about it which really appealed to me. It quickly became one of my favourite songs at the time.

There's so much more that I could share in dot point form, but I will leave it at that for now. I don't want to bore you all with them. There is one memory though that immediately comes to mind when I think back to 2006 and it's a bit of a funny story. There was one morning when I had stayed over at my Dad's house the night before. We were a little bit later than usual for me getting dropped off to school (it was a 15-20 minute drive from my Dad's place), so because we were strapped for time, my Dad asked me if I had wanted to go through the drive-thru at McDonalds and get something to eat for breakfast from there. Knowing that we were behind time, I decided not to have anything, so I didn't have anything to eat at all.

I was dropped off to school with about ten minutes left until the bell. After I was dropped off, I met up with one of my friends in the cola area and talked to him for a little bit. I had only been at school for less than ten minutes, when all of a sudden, I started to get a bit of an upset stomach. I sort of brushed it off and continued talking to my friend, however my stomach only got worse and then the unthinkable happened...I vomited in the garden beside us. My friend became really concerned, so he quickly raced me to the office (which was just a few hundred metres away) and told the office ladies at the reception desk that I was sick. By this point, there was only a few minutes left until the bell, so my friend had to go off to class and I had to stay in the office while the ladies tried contacting someone from my family.

The office tried calling my Mum and my Grandparents, however they were unable to get through to them as my Mum was at work and my Grandparents were out for the day. Fortunately, my Dad happened to be off from work that day, so he picked me up just after 9.30am (i'm sure it must have been annoying having to drive back down again  ) and took me back to his place. Due to the fact that I was 'sick', I just spent the day "taking it easy" at my dad's place. What ended up happening was that I spent the whole day watching Nickelodeon (cartoons such as The Wild Thornberries, Ned's Declassified etc.) and making drawings in my writing book. It was great!

Just after 4pm, we called by my Nan & Grandad's for a visit (as they lived only a few streets away) before my Dad dropped me back home. My actions unfortunately came back to bite me in the end, because my Dad and Grandparents had caught onto the fact that I wasn't really sick. I just had an upset stomach in the morning because I didn't have anything for breakfast. I didn't get into too much trouble for it, although they warned me not to do it again (which I never did). 

Another thing that comes to mind though when I think back on the year is the 2006 World Cup. The Socceroos had qualified for the World Cup for the first time in almost 30 years, so there was a huge amount of anticipation for the World Cup. This was a big deal at the time, because football was only just starting to gain public acceptance in the country and it was still trying to overcome the hurdles that had held the sport back for the past century.

The Daily Telegraph held a competition during the tournament where you could collect medallions of each member of the squad in each issue of the newspaper. I got my own collectors case (which I still have), but I didn't go down to the newsagencies often enough to actually collect the little medallions. Australia went pretty well during the World Cup. We actually progressed to the Round of 16, but unfortunately, we were knocked out by Italy in a close-match. I had wanted to watch the match, but it was on during the early hours of the morning and I had school that day as well.