My memories going back...Some are not related to buses though

My first memories of buses go back to when I was a toddler and nearly getting killed by a National on the 194 in Easington Lane, you would think that would put me off buses for life, it did not, lol

My first favourite bus was probably the Atlantean(the bus with the funny back end as I called it) and the Leyland National. I don't really remember a great deal before I moved to Murton from Easington Lane, that would have been around the time buses were going through Deregulation.

I took an interest in the very early 1990's(probably about 1991 when the Drivers Strike was taken place)

149: Murton-Seaham-Murton(Go-Ahead Northern and Favourite)...Later Scrapped
152: Peterlee-Easington Village-South Hetton-Easington Lane-Murton-New Seaham-Ryhope-Grangetown-Sunderland(Go-Ahead Northern/Wear Buses)...Become 62, 162 later 202
153: Easington Lane-Murton-Sunderland(Michael Franks Coaches)...Sold to either Go North East or Arriva
154: Durham-Hetton-Murton-Sunderland(Go-Ahead Northern/Wear Buses)...Became 65, now now 265) 
155: Murton Circular(East Moor Estate-Woods Terrace-Sea View Estate-Cornwall Estate-Burnip Road-Barnes Road-Wellfield Road-Station Estate)(Favourite)...Withdrawn all together
X93: Murton Station-New Seaham-Herrington Burn-Washington Galleries-MetroCentre-Newcastle Eldon Square(OK Travel/Go OK Travel)...Withdrawn not log after OK Travel was bought out by Go-Ahead

There was also plenty services out of Seaham that I remember was the X95 and X96 that went from Parkside to Sunderland and Newcastle, can't remember exactly but we had a decent service to Newcastle, even though the X93 ran about 4 times a day, Seaham was easily accessed for people in East Durham if we wanted to get to Newcastle, there was even a daily service to Blackpool from Murton, run by OK Travel...Back in 1991 there was a Go-Ahead/Wear Buses driver called Norman, who was a nasty b*****d he once threatened to chuck me off the bus on Broomside Lane for being noisy and screaming my head off when a bee stung me(I was a little soft shite, lol)

While the drivers strike happened, the services were run by different Independents, I remember Bleanch of Hetton running the 154, Scarlet Band runnng the 220, Michael Franks came in around this time, once the strike was over, the Independents were mainly ran into the ground or withdrew the service they covered during the Strike, Go-Ahead Northern added to the 254 to go against Bleanch, I think the 222 was introduced to get Scarlet Band out the way. I remember the day Go-Ahead Northern introduced localised branding(Wear Buses, Go-Ahead Gateshead, VFM, Coastline, Northern) on Wear Buses first day, I stood on Station Road in Murton for nearly 2 hours on my own to get a glimpse of the livery, boy was I shocked when an Opatre Metrorider Minibus turned up in the 2 tone green and grey colours.

Michael Franks was a great service, the drivers looked like scruffs with scruffy coaches, but they were always pleasent to talk to, and a smoking ban was never introduced on the service, so naturally us smokers would habg round for that 

The 254 was a service that went Durham-Hetton-Murton-Seaham Harbour-Sunderland, The 254 was eventually cut back to go Murton-Sunderland and eventually the number changed to 151 which interworked with the 152 and run on a 10 or 12 minute frequency. Now Dalton Park is well on it's way, I would love to see services expanded to take in Dalton Park once rebuilt 

The services in Murton gradually dwindled to the point where all we have now is the 61 and 202 from Murton itself and the 22 from Dalton Park

Between 1996 an 2001 I was in and out of Care when I was moved no less than 14 times, though a few very short placements took place(1 being 3 days, another being 1 week, another being 3 weeks) and got my first settled placement in 1997 where I stayed from July 1997 till March 2001....

What that has to do with buses...Travelling became my get out, I could think alone, my carers also give me an Explorer most weeks till I left Fram Childrens Home and went all over the place, and being a fan of Alan Robsons Nightowls and Metro Radio...I went all over the see Metro Radio on the Road, Morpeth, Newastle, Hexham, Gateshead, Peterlee, Seaham, Durham, Dalton Park and went on a Nightowls mini break Cruise in 2003 and 2004 to Amsterdam where I also befriended Wayne Tunnicliffe aka Wayne Allen and was good friends with Kenny Dick for years...Alan Robson once got mentioned in dispatches for saving my life when I once took and overdose, that was the the night I realised that world did give a shit about me when Alan Robson sent some some gifts my way on behalf of Metro Radio and The Nightowls, and the love shown to me was incredibly emotional, makes me cry today thinking about it today, despite not taking to Alan, Wayne and Kenny for a long time, if we were in a room together again we would find each other out pretty quick.

Back to buses, so yeah, I would go all over, not only the the places above, but Berwick, Alnwick, Darlington, Bishop Auckland(I lived in High Etherley at the beginning of 2001 for about 6 weeks)

Some of the buses I used during my time in Care was(Will list in order of Childrens Homes)

Middlestone Moor 
I would normally use the 6 and 724, if I was going on home leave from Micky Moor I would get the 215(I think thats what the number was)

Crook
would see me use the X46 and whatever went to Darlington and Bishop Auckland

Framwellgate Moor
I went to Newcastle a lot, and used the 722/723 and 724, 722/723 was jointly operated by Northern and United, I was never sure if both companies had to accept the other companies return tickets, but there was a few times I would get the return and use it on both Arriva and Northern, I also did Drama at Stanley Civic Hall and used the 718 and 719...There was a few times I went to Scarborough, Whitby, and once to Northallerton, Thirsk and Ripon...I also used the 240/241/243 towards Peterlee quite a bit...

These days I have created my own memories by going round the North East to watch Darlington play between 2012-15...Seaham Red Star, Consett, Dunston, Billingham, Carlisle, Newton Aycliffe, Hebburn, Ashington, Whitley Bay, Shildon, Whitby, Gateshead, Kendal, West Auckland.

Some of my other early clear memories was sneaking into the Old Murton Bus Depot, climbing on a bus and playing with the Destination Blind before getting caught, I was only about 4 or 5 and did not know the concept of trespassing...

Not long after getting caught I wrote to the depot for some reason, probably saying how much I love buses and asked for some timetables to to be sent out, not only did I get some Timetables, one of the depot supervisers came to see me and give me some model buses, it just so happened I was approaching my 6th birthday and the guy came to see me actually on my birthday which was a coincidence as I never mentioned my birthday in the letter...

When I went to school in Durham, I will never forget getting a bus at Durham Cathedral to the Bus Station, it was rammed with camera wielding American Tourists who took a real shine to me one old lady saying to me 'Aaaaaawwwwww, look how cute he is in lil pants' another saying 'We relly love your County Durrrrrrr-hammmmmm' and I said 'Thank you, it is not just my County Durham'

I was a regular visitor to the Travelshop and whenever new batches of leflets came, they would always put to one side for me, that would go on to get me top marks in a Geography Project where we went to Newcastle on a field trip and I got top marks for providing the Bus Timetables...

Theres my memories dudes