more life in Portsmouth+Hospital+Toffee apples+Railwaylines

Go-carts. Hospital . Toffee apples,

　

This is a Photograph of my brother, Peter Ralph and me, it was taken just outside of the Iron work's just in front of our flats that we lived in , I spent many a day playing in there when I was young .

　

　

　

One day being kids we made a go-cart ,we found some old pram wheels , knocked the axles from the springs and was left with two set of wheels with axles ,we found a suitable plank and fixed one set of wheels to one end , using some rusty nails and half a brick to hammer them over the axle ,we placed a wooden box on the plank and fixed it with nails ( that we found at bonfire corner ), fixed the other set of wheels to a piece of wood (2"by 4") and using a metal bar , heated it up in a fire until it was red hot , and burnt a hole through the plank and the 2"by 4", then fixed it to the plank using a nut and bolt ,the box was positioned on the plank so there was enough room for the pusher to jump on when we gained enough speed .

It was my turn to push ,off we went ,me pushing my feet into the gravel to get up some speed , I was just about to jump on when my foot slipped on the gravel ,well I went down fast , laid flat out with my arms out stretched , the wind knocked out of me ,my knees grazed ,and a god awful pain in my right wrist and hand ,blood dripping every where ,I had neglected to remove two large nails sticking up at the edge of the plank , they had dug into my skin about half way up my forearm , cutting , jumping ,and slicing it’s way to my finger tips ,holding my wrist I ran home to mum ,then off to the hospital , I still have the scars to prove it .

Normally if I hurt myself ,grazed my knee , I would go and see Irene Mc Kenssy ,bottom flat left side ,she had a wall just outside her front door ,she was nice ,friendly , she had a dog, a long haired black thing , very friendly ,it would often lick the blood off my knee until the blood stopped bleeding , well the dog was either friendly or he just liked the taste of my blood .

It was a Mrs Mc kendrick, or Mrs Kendrick that used to make toffee Apples, one veranda down ,one flat along , the smell used to hit you first , one minute I was a happy and content child playing a game , the next I was a spoilt child ,"Mum can I have a toffee apple " "no " ,and then it started , I knew she did not have the money , but it was only 2p , she must have 2p , well she never did , so I never did ,pay for it that is ,I would sit on the stairs and cry ,the water work were always at full flow , and there coming round the corner was Mrs Mc --- Kendrick with a toffee apple in her hand ,she was a vision ! very pretty and again there in her hand a Beautiful Toffee Apple , the quiet was amazing .

Nora Monahan , she lived in the flat at the right hand side of the arch in the centre of Privatte house , she was more of a friend to my brother Ralph , but we Peter and I got to know her and used to go into her house ,we hope she is still alive and kicking .

More School and places you should not go .

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We were coming home from school one day , ST, Luke's , School , the other side of The Guildhall , were we used to sit on the Lions , we had come through the tunnel into Victoria Park , we could hear other children playing , we went to investigate , near the railway line , through the fence , other kids were playing and looking for conkers so we joined them , looking for conkers slowly working up the bank , one of the boys got to close to the line , we shouted at him to come away from the line because it was electrified , to late he fell , we all cried out in fright , he was laying across the railway line , hands out stretched to stop his fall , he was screaming , he stood up , his face and arms were black his eyes were wide and staring , he walk away from the line , sort of stiff , like a robot , making these scary noises from his throat , We RAN!! , out through the hole in the wire fence , across the park and all the way home , it was some time later that we realised , that the electrified line was the one in the middle of the twin rows of railway track .

STAY WELL CLEAR OF RAILWAY LINES!!

Its funny what we remember , I remember my brother Edward standing on a chair with his thumb in the light bulb socket saying "BOMBS AWAY", and pushing the terminals ! , I think we were playing Bombers , luckily the light was switched off’.

KEEP YOUR FINGERS OUT OF LIGHT SOCKETS .

Sometimes there were very bad lightning storms , my sister Rita my youngest sister , would hide under the table, whimpering , I would stand up in the window and wait for the lightning, when it flashed I would hold on to my chest , wait for the bang , pretend to get struck and fall down to the floor, I had no fear of lighting it was all a game to me , I just laughed and did it all over again .

Peter my brother , introduced me to a new game of darts , you stand opposite each other and throw the dart either to the right or to the left , about 4 inches from your feet , taking turns until one of you can’t stretch any more , all went well until peter threw the dart into my shinbone, it was just sticking there ," Gotcha" he said and ran off laughing , it funny ? ,there was no pain ,there it was just the dart sticking out of my shin bone and me with an amazed look on my face,so I just pulled it out , no blood just a hole where the dart went in , and more importantly no pain .

I STILL LOVE MY BROTHER.

Ralph one of my older brothers was chasing peter and myself from the bedroom through the living room into the hall landing and out to the front door , we had to escape from our brothers grasp , now I’m in a headlong rush towards the door and I think to myself , if I grab hold of the doorknob , after peter has followed me through , I will slam it behind us , stopping my older brother from getting us , I SLAMMED the door !! , from behind me there came a mighty whale , Peter had run right in the doorknob , I HAD CLOSED THE DOOR TO QUICK.!! there were some words spoken to me that day that I can not print.

Now in those days the door handles used to big and round and of solid wood,Peters eye was black and blue for about two week, I do not think Peter liked me to much, after that we argued a lot.

On another occasion my dear brother Peter and I were arguing again about nothing , he started chasing me , putting his fist up , on the way past the table I picked up a plate and looking over my shoulder threw it in his direction , yes I know , I should not have done it , luckily the plate only smashed into his shin , just a little bit of blood .

My Brother , Ralph was told by our mother, to walk Peter and myself to school in the morning , he would walk behind us all the way to school to make sure we did not play truant , he never used to say anything , he would just follow us until we went into the gateway of ST Luke's school , once we were out of sight he would go on his way , and once he was out of our sight we would go on our way , we would hide behind a corner of the school building until he left , then so would we , we would go out of the School gate and then on down the road and play hooky for the rest of the day.

On the way home from school one day , we came through Victoria Park , Peter and I were doing our usual arguing , only this time it got a bit more heated , by the time we reached the navy barracks in queen street ,( H.M.S. Nelson , I think ? ,) it got bad , Peter threw this punch at my face , I can still see it coming , the walls there were made of rough stone , if you are not careful you can hurt yourself very much , I had my coat in my hands , seeing that fist coming I flung my coat over his head and dodged to one side , how awful the sound his fist made when it hit the wall , I saw the pain on his face the blood and the state of his knuckles , his intention was murderous , I laugh at him and took off running like the wind , I lost that coat , I told mum it was taken from school.

Just behind the Guildhall there used to be a swimming pool , my brother and I used to go there when we could afford to , one day I was being cheeky and started chasing a girl around the pool , whoops I slipped up and bumped my head, ( "serves you right I hear you say",) I just laughed at the girl and dive in after her , I woke up the next morning ready for school ," your not going to school today " my sister Shirley said , "you have been acting funny and asking the time of day since you came home yesterday",I do not even remember to this day what happened after I dived in.

DO NOT RUN IN THE SWIMMING POOL.
more to follow .

more memories of life in Portsmouth ,chocolate,coal ,the Queen, Truancy.

                                          More memories of life in Portsmouth .

                                         Chocolate. Coal. The Queen. Truancy

                         

Of course as life goes on , it can change for the better as , it did for us , my sister Iris , would visit us on a Friday , she would cook us a roast dinner , that was one meal we never missed , Thank you Iris.

It was on the way to the salvation army in Queen Street , that I got run over by a bicycle . I remember I had just came out of an arched way, I was very lucky because behind the bicycle was a big red bus , if the bike had not have got me the bus would have , scratched and bruised , I hobbled across Queen street and had my breakfast .

　

When we got a little bit older , my brother Peter and I would go to Old Portsmouth to the Camber Dock’s , there we watch the cargo boats come in , they would be very busy unloading all sorts of goods , Bananas , Oranges , and our favourite , Chocolate , we would wait , with others , until it all went quiet , then sneak into the store ,( whilst going equipped ), you know , something to cut the sack with , and something to put the Chocolate in , most of it went into my pocket , by the time we got home it was all gone , I think it was raw Chocolate , because it did not taste quite the same as it does today .

Mrs Rene , she lived on the next veranda down , up near the end stairs , she would ask me to go get her a bag of coal ,about 28lb ,I had to go from the Private house flats to the other side of Queen street ,down an ally way to a coal merchant,there he would give me a dirty old sack full of coal dust with the required amount of coal, off I went , for the first 100 yards all was ok ,then the weight would start to get to me, one minute I was carrying it ,the next I was dragging it , then it was all I could do to drag it ,eventually I made it back to the flats , it was so heavy ,you know the song -- "one day at a time sweet Jesus " well in my case it was -- " one step at a time sweet Jesus ,all the way up to Mrs Rene’s flat , I gave the coal to her and she gave me three pennies ,well I started of on that journey looking like a scruffy urchin I came back looking like a chimney sweep .

At the back of Private flats ,there used to be a long row of sheds ,above the sheds there was a long attic ,if you wanted to you could get into any of the sheds , but even as children we had respect for other peoples property, we would only go into the empty shed to get up into the attic, there we would meet and talk about what we will do today ,and play games that boys do , see who could spit the furthest ,play five stones ,and tell stories .

Below is a photograph of my sister Shirley ,with me and my brother Ralph, my sister played a big part in bring us boys up ,she would often come down stairs and look for us ,of course being boys we did not go indoors to easily ,more often then not she use to chase us around the washing lines that was at the back of Private flats ,round and round in and out of the washing lines ,if you grab the washing pole when you run past ,it would fling you into a fast loop ,while my sister was running one way I was running the other ,that worked quite often ,until she got wise ,she would grab hold of my hand when it was on the washing pole , not being able to let go of the pole ,I would run around in circles ,to late I was caught! , up to bed we would go ,she is a great sister ,she always took all in good fun .

　

　

　

　

　

I saw the Queen when she come to Portsmouth Dockyard , she come along the road from the H.M.S. Vernon , she sat in the coach and waved her hand at me , (Well it could of been me ! , ) I was standing on the bottom part of a lamp post , about a meter off the ground , I had a clear view of a very beautiful lady , I don`t think I understood who she really was , there was people on both sides of the road , crowds of them , they were all cheering and waving , so I just copied them .


I was not very good at going to school , often I would play truant with my brother , we would go to a secret place near to Queen street, right behind some large poster boards , there we would dig out a large trench about 10 foot long and about 4 foot wide , we lay sheets of tin across the top and then cover it again with dirt , leaving room at one end for a chimney that vented the oven ,we would often have a fire going , we find mats and other oddments to make ourselves at home ,inside the dugout we made a ledge on one side, lined it with old carpets ,and that was our bench to sit on , back then there was a lot of bombed out buildings so it was easy to find things for our den , even during the summer holidays we spent a lot of our time there.

Just outside the dugout area ,just over a wall was a very large pear tree ,way up in the top branches was this beautiful extra large pear ,it looked all yellow and ripe ,well we had to have it ,I did volunteer to go for it but peter said he would go , so up he went , he made it look easy ,he went from one branch to the other ,up ,and up , and up ,finally he reached it , f--- , bug-- it ,and other explosive words ,coming back down ,he said ,(shouted )! "you can have it !" and trussed it into my hands ,how kind of him I thought , the pear had been pecked by the blackbirds all down the side that faced away from us , the prize had dulled to sadness ,frustrated we went back to the dugout ,we sat there and stared at the pear for a little while wondering what to do with it , finally we stood it on a wall and through stones at it .

After we had been absent for about six weeks , Mum had word from the school that we had not attended , She was very upset , there was talk of six of the best on stage in front of the whole school , well we were not having that , we decided to run away , we set of on two old bikes to go to Peterfield , and live in a haystack., We got as far as Havant , a few miles outside of Portsmouth , It was freezing , my fingers and toes were about to drop off , luckily one of our sisters had a house at Havant , we made our way there , found out she was not in , climbed in through the bathroom window and made ourselves at home , we slept down stairs in front of the gas fire tuck up all warm and comfortable .

Unknown to us the police were informed of our escape and were looking for us , early next morning we decided to head back into Portsmouth , we got as far as the Camber Docks , before we were nabbed by a Bobby ( Policeman , ) on a bicycle , our adventure was over .

We did go back to school on condition that there were to be no caning . When I next got genuinely sick , mum would give me a letter for the teacher to say :- Melvyn has not been to school because he has been very poorly , well I was only sick for a day , but that note was worth at lest to weeks more hooky time to me , I did that on more times than I could count.

I was sat in the classroom one day , the sun was shining , and I was asking myself, what am I doing here , I decided it was time to go , but how was I going to get out of school ? , I could pretend to cry and say I had a head ache , well I can’t pretend , so I lifted the lid of the desk and made it fall on to the top of my head , well that hurt enough to make me cry , the teacher asked what the matter was , so I told him ,"Sir I got a very bad head ache and I feel unwell ", Blake" , he said to my brother Peter ,(who was in the same class as me ), take your brother home and explain it to your mum ", once outside we ran off laughing and went off for the rest of the day playing , making sure we got home at the normal time

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NEEDLESS to say when I eventually left school at 15, I WAS AS THICK AS TWO PLANKS , Knowing what I know now , I would willingly go back to school . Well really , in a sense , I did go back to school, at 15, my sister taught me how to read with DANDY and BENO, comics , then on to the Army ,then knight school, then Collage.    (   more to follow   )

　

　

More memories and making money at Portsmouth harbour station and school

More memories and making money at Portsmouth harbour station.

And of course School .



this is me Melvyn ,and my brother Peter we are about 4 years old


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On other occasions to earn some pennies we used to get a big wooden box, and a set of pram wheels
to make a cart with handles .  Then go to the coach station and carry suit cases to the train station , the price was usually sixpence more often then not the cases would have big scratch marks left on one side of them," always place the case so that they could not see the scratches" , take the sixpence and run , we had forgot to take the nails out of the crate.

We used to go under the Portsmouth station to hunt for crabs, before we went to the station, we would go to a building site and look for Iron reinforcement rods, sharpen the end of the rod on the edge of the pavement.  Often we would stab the crabs with the Iron rods. (not very nice, thinking back).

I do remember walking out along an old railway line that arched across the harbour, then stopped just before it reached the dockyard itself , when you looked down through the slats when walking, it gave you a funny vertigo feeling , when we reached the end we fished with home made lines and hooks.

We learnt to make our own weights on a bit of waste land, just behind the cafe that used to be by the cross roads near Brickwoods brewery, we would light a fire, get a piece of wood use a red hot metal rod, and make holes in it , not to deep , depends what weight you wanted, get some lead from the broken down houses, melt the lead in an old tin and pour it into the holes, put a "u "shaped staple into the top of the melted lead and just wait  for it to cool ,then knock them out ,

In the hard , on the left side of the wharf , (" Fisherman's wharf ") I think it was called, there used to be a row floating pontoons anchored to some pylons sticking out of the mud , attached to these were large tree trunks all joined together in a long line , they had been in the water for so long they were waterlogged , you could jump from one to the other quite easy , so often we would play tag with the other kids , chasing and jumping from one tree trunk to the other , not staying on one trunk to long otherwise it would sink , and you with it , but only when the tide was in, the best way to get into the water was to stand on the end of the trunk and wait for it to go under water, then just swim away .

　

I first went to Beneficial school at the age of 5, on my first day, they sat me on a rubber mat, I was crying, with the want of my mommy, when my mum left and went out of the door, I wet myself, I remember it quite well, and the smell.

At another school, a building somewhere near Brickwoods Brewery, maybe It was part of ST, Georges ? that day, before I went to school , I took , STOLE! two , one shilling , bits off the mantle piece, put them into my pockets, one either side of my shorts, and went to class, some time later my mother came to school to search me, I had my hands in my pockets", take your hands out of your pockets", mum said, with a shilling in each hand I lifted my hands above my head, finding nothing in my pockets she told me to open my hands, whoops! How did they get there? she did not say another word ,  she just pushed me back into class , (You think I got away with it ! ) When I got home from school, she was waiting for me, a 2" inch wide strap in her hand, she held onto my left wrist and strapped me so hard my hand went numb, then she did the same to my right hand, I was in so much pain, I cried for a long time in my bedroom , I had trouble with my hands for years.

If she had asked me why I took the two shillings I would have told her it was just to get her attention. Well I got that all right.
　

　

On a lighter note , M.B was a neighbour, who lived along our balcony we always walked home from school together , often on the way home from school we would play in an old air raid shelter, we did the things that children liked to do when they played, innocent childlike games, we always had fun.

she was a pretty girl, when she grew up she did not want to know me, I expect I had pimples.

I do remember the hardship that was all around me , the poor family in the middle bottom flat , they were Evicted , all of their furniture pulled out of the flat and just dumped outside the front door , looking over the veranda I remember the sadness I felt for that family , it still haunts me to this day.

Living in a large town like Portsmouth , food was not readily put onto the table , tea time for us might be a slice of bread with dripping , if there was any , turn the bowl upside down , turn the dripping out and scrape the dark dripping off then put it on your bread , a pinch of salt if you had any , and off you ate, yum , yum, Or bread and margarine with a sprinkle of sugar if available , lovely .

Breakfast of course was never on the cards , unless like on some occasions mother would give us a Farthing (in old money) and a corner of a paper bag with a spoonful of sugar in it , we then took that with us to the Salvation army in Queens street ,where we would get a bowl of porridge and large mug of hot chocolate , it was up to us where we put the sugar , on the porridge or in the hot chocolate , mine always went on the porridge . I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the Salvation Army, for helping me through the early part of my life , keeping my belly topped up got me through .

　
looks like I put this photo on a second time by mistake " I didn't".

My sister Rita

This is a photograph of my sister Rita when she Was 4 years old , picture her standing on the

Shingle just below the bridge to the Railway Station , people gathered up above casting

                                                          down money towards her

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After Mud larking we would go down the end of the wharf inside Portsmouth Harbour ,and on  the right hand side , it was more sand than mud , that is where we used to clean up our bodies and monies before we set off home , or to the shop to buy sweets .

A lot of people would often tell me at different times of my life ,how soft my face was, and how young I looked,(I still look good for my age, Just little too fat.) so I think mud has it's benefits .


On to the bottom of the Mudlarks statue with all the others that went before him, is the name of my brother Edward Blake .   I believe he is to be the last one to be put on the memory plaque but I must say, I had hoped to be placed there myself with my other brother Peter Blake.

Mudlarking with the matelows

I remember we made our own mats for in front of the fire , we would cut up bits of rags and a portion of a clean sack , we would use a tool with a sharp point on it and a clip near the end , push it through the sack , place a bit of rag in the clip and pull it back through , I think all of us Children had to do their turn , the outcome was a soft rag mat of many colours , apparently our father would bring home some Army greatcoats for the girls to cut up to make not only mats for the floor , but soft fluffy blankets for the bed to keep the children warm . ( this was before my time , ) .


This is a photograph of me in the front pram ,Ralph stood in the middle ,and Peter in some kind of box ?





The first real present my Mother gave me was a repainted second hand bike , it was for my 15 th Birthday , what she was saying was ", there you are son now you can ride 7, miles there and back again to work every day ", thanks mum.!!

We could see the mast of H.M.S,Victory , from our flats , the rigging was sometimes full of different flags , It was a sight to see , it always used to cheer me up , we my brother Peter and I would go aboard H.M.S. Victory on Navy Days , there was no time limit on the Victory then , you could go up and down the deck , sit on the guns , we had a look at the place where Lord Nelson died , I even took my sisters children onto the Victory when I grew older , now its got Commercialised , 15 minutes to get on and off.

　

In the H.M.S, Vernon, just a little way inside the gate , the young sailors used to climb the rigging on imitation ships mast and rigging , there they would perform a dance to the sound of navy pipes , we watched them do their dance , all dressed up in white uniforms , flitting from one part of the rigging to the other, it was a wonder they did not fall , still it was enjoyable to watch.

　

Navy Days, They were the best , we lived next to the Marlborough Gate , one of the Dockyards four gates . When the crowds started to build up my brother and I used to nip in and have a good time , when I say nip in , I mean we would wait until a large family or crowd started to go through the turnstiles and go in with them , we would get lost in the numbers.

We would go on one ship after another , the aircraft carriers were good but the frigates and other war ships were best , we would clime onto gun seats and turn the handles , swing to left then to the right ,up and down , it was magic! sometimes we would sneak into the forbidden areas below decks and nick a packet of cigarettes , we did not smoke them , but we took them anyway , we enjoyed going into the submarines , and watching the frogmen diving under water from the side of the dock basins to plant their mines , swoosh!, the mines went off , water shooting up into the air , confirming a hit , we often went hungry but we did not care , we had a great time.

Talking of a great time , when we were about , 7, years old , we used to go to the old dockyards in Portsmouth , next to the bridge that used to feed the travellers from coach stops to the railway station and vise the versa , along side of the bridge there used to be MUD ! , Glorious MUD ! , that’s when we , my brother and I , like my brother before us , became, Mudlarkers!, Beggars in the mud!! , I love you lady, I love lady, but I love your money the best!, Black me face for a tanner!, roll over In It for a bob", we got black ,mud all over us, Matelows used to take the silver foil from the cigarette packet and mould it around a penny, toss it up In the air to get us all interested, and us thinking it was half a dollar (2 shilling and 6 pence ) and us ager for the plunge he would throw the coin as hard as he could into the mud, and cause a stampede! we would all rush to the same spot of mud bodies flying everywhere pushing and shoving, mud flying everywhere! The lucky or unlucky boy who found the coin would soon show his dislike by throwing mud up at the offending sailor.


It was not always" fun", once when mud larking I managed to step onto a jagged and very sharp part of a bottle ,stabbing my right heel, going in to about 1" inch ,after cleaning myself up,I made the longest journey to st, Mary’s hospital, no shoes

(I did not have any on that day), every other step a bloody heel print, but I got it treated and all was OK.

one day my brother and I took my little sister out to play, mum said we where not to go begging, so we went to the dockyard and started to mudlark, we placed our little sister on the shingle by the edge of the mud, keeping an eye on her we started to call out our mudlark song," we were not begging", we noticed the tinkling sound of money hitting the shingle, the crowed had gathered above our sister and were throwing down money to her, she did not understand ,so we pretended to help this poor little girl. now its not a lot of money at today’s rate, but £1,7/6 was a lot back then, well we could not take it back home with us, so we spent it!, we went to the pictures ,had Ice cream, sweets, sweets, sweets. and Ice cream! Eventually we made it back home, mother, was doing her nut," where have you been! "she asked politely,. After a little time of polite chitchat, we told her all of what we had done, SMACK!!" , but we did not go begging," we said, "that’s not for begging, that’s for not bringing the money back home to me". our sister was 4 years old, and very pretty back then.

My earliest memories of living in Pompey (portsea)

I am now 67 years old, I was born in 1946 at 78, Privett house ,Portsea , Portsmouth.my mother was Beatrise May Blake, There was 11,children in my family, Mum had 6 ,Girls and 5,Boys

I was the second to youngest, boy.

My earliest memory was as a young boy perhaps 5,standing with my elder brother, Peter older by one year, at the bottom of our flats, when two people ,a man and a woman, asked if we knew where Mrs, Blake lived, being young children, we said , yar dats ur mum wheel show u der way, and started to climb the three long flight of stairs ,Behind me , I can still hear the woman, saying to the man, My god Harry, look at the poor children’s pants. They have got big holes in them, you can see the cheeks of there bum.

This is the earliest photo of yours truly, I am between my sister Shirley and Lilly Sprawls , she lived two flats below ,Inor , her sister was a friend of ours .


In them days we did not have under pants like we do today. We were poor , there were 11 of us, we used to sleep 5 Boys to one bed. Mum did her best, there were no carpets, just the odd mat and floorboards, I can still remember mum on her hands and knees scrubbing the hallway floorboards, with a brush, bar of soap, and a bucket of water.

We did not have toilet paper as you do today ,we used to go around to the shops and get the news papers, fold and cut them up using a ruler, then when we had cut them all up into squares of about 8 inches by 6 inches, we would get a large needle with a big hole or meat skewer to allow for string to go through, stick the needle through the corner of the paper squares until the paper was about 2 inches thick, tie up the string loop and place it onto the hook, we should have put a notice up to say, crunch the paper up in both hands before use, the paper could be very hard.

Bath time did not come round to often, first mum would boil the sheets in the large copper that was in the kitchen, about once a month, when they were all clean and white, we would put them through the ringer(mind your fingers !! )and put the hot soapy water back into the copper, the copper was connected via a pipe through the wall and onto the hot tap of the bath, we would fill the bath up then mother would have her bath, when she finished she would call my brother Peter and I in for a bath, I was very glad mother did not put starch in with the sheets., we would have got out of the bath as stiff as boards .

There used to be an attic opening in the hallway, the wind used to lift the hatch cover

When it blew hard , it would move about 3 or 4 inches, and leave a gap , we did not know it was just the wind , as children , we used to think there were monsters up there , so we would always take a run and jump over that part of the hallway.

Christmas was always a good time , cheerful , lots of laughter and happiness , not a lot of food , you would not get fat , but we enjoyed ourselves , Mother would make a few Christmas puddings , with a suit topping , after boiling we would beg for our share of the topping , for presents , we would wake up and find at the bottom of our beds , a bag with a apple , orange , a three pence bit , and a couple of sweets , we were ecstatic , overjoyed , once I even had a plastic Banjo , it only lasted two days but it was fun while it lasted. (if you did not have much , what you had went a long way .) I did not have toy guns to play with, no such thing as a new Bike, or even second hand for that matter, on the roll up just before Christmas , we would make up our own decorations , using coloured strips of paper we would make the loops to make a chain , place the chains all around the room to make it Christmases , we would make our Christmas dinner hats out of News paper , I can not remember what we had to eat ,but it must have been food of some kind.