Old Sally port , Ferries ,Fire, and uncle Bill , in Portsmouth .

Old sally port , and ferries , terror in Portsmouth.

Peter my brother was either very daring or very stupid, depends how you look at it , I to this day think of it with horror and flash backs.

we went up to the top veranda of the middle flat at Private house, then Peter climbed up onto the roof apex of 4 story high block of flats , crawled along and around the apex for about 60 yards , ( He was crawling along the roof of our flat ! ) down the side of the roof to picked up a roll of duct tape , then crawled all the way back again, four stories below there was hard tarmac and death , in my mind I can see peter falling , its not very nice, why did he do it , I just stood there on the veranda and watched him go across and then back again , to scared to move or cry out .

This is a photograph of my sisters, Daisy, a friend and Sylvia taken at the hot walls at Sally port , don't get to hot under the collar !! they are in their 70 ,s now.


the other photograph is of my  sister Iris and her husband , Uncle Bill, he turns up later in this story


Peter and I used to go swimming at the Old Sally Port , right at the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour , and opposite Gosport , just there are the hot walls, I think they called the hot walls because it used to be a bit of a Sun trap, the walls used to soak up the heat from the sun, it was a good place to swim and sunbathe , there was no entrance way onto the beach back then , you had to wait until the tide was out before you could reach the small beach that is there, and if you left it to late you would have to time the crash of the tide against the wall to make your escape , as to the round tower and promenade that you can walk along today , well in them days the round tower was fenced off to the public , but we found a way through and onto the round tower , there when the tide was right , we would run and jump out into the mouth of the harbour , then swim onto the shore ,you had to be careful with the tide , when the tide went out of the harbour it would be dangerously fast , or we would swim in the warm waters of the bunny , to my knowledge the warm water coming out of the Bunny’s mouth was the water they used to cool the turbines of the Electricity generators housed in a very large two chimney building at the other side of the camber dock’s , sometimes when swimming in the Bunny you had to be careful because of the speed of the currant coming out of it , it could force you out into the rough sea , when the tide was in and lapping at the top of the bunny walls , my brother Peter and I use to fish with home made hand lines , we did not catch anything but we did not mind , it was great fun .

When we visited Old Portsmouth ,we used to go and watch the Isles of White car ferry at work ,we’d watch the cars going on and off the ferry , in the early part of my life  ,the ferry was connected to a chain that went from Old Portsmouth across to Gosport , it used to carry cars and pedestrians , the pedestrians were allowed to cross free of charge, when the H.M. Dockyard kicked the workers out , often they would use the chained ferry to save them selves a penny , after a while it changed into the Isle of white car ferry, we would watch People coming and going on holiday ,smiling faces ,we could not earn any penny’s there ,there was nothing we could do ,cars on cars off .

Another ferry that we used to go to was Gosport Ferry , it had , has , this floating walkway that leads to the ferry ,as the tide comes in it get higher ,as it go’s out lower ,the pedestrians after paying for a ticket 1 penny they would go down the left hand side ,and the pedestrians coming off the ferry would come up the right hand side ,we used to go down to the floating pontoon ,that also would raise and fall with the tide , sometimes the ticket man would turn a blind eye , and we would go across on the ferry , and staying on come back again , the ticket man would wink and smile at us and usher us of the ferry , that small gesture would make our day , and it’s a memory I have to this day , THANK YOU ! Mr Ticket Man , by the side of that pontoon , on the Hard side there was a smaller pontoon just under the pedestrian bridge,there we used to go and do some fishing, the water was so clear you could see the bottom , we would watch shrimps scampering in and between the pontoon , crabs walking across the mud , big fish would sometime swim by , but we could never catch them with our hand lines .

　

There was a time when I nearly burnt my face off , we used to know the boy who live in the cross road cafe (its on the way to Queen street from Private House) , we sometimes washed up there , when we finished we would go out the back to play , (the same place that we used to make our lead weights, ) Ted Stallards , coal merchants was right by it , well anyway the boy had brought some lighter refill capsules with him , it was good fun , you pierced the end of the rubber tube with a pin , start to squeeze it , light it , then you had a long fiery flame , that’s fine! if you don’t aim it in anyone’s direction! , but when you aim it in my direction and it go’s all over the left side of my face , it gets a bit scary , flames were licking up the side of my face singing my hair , of course I panicked !, I was probably like a Fly with its wings pulled off , I lifted up my shirt tail and covered my face , the flames were out , the pain started to come , it was like a deep throbbing pain , my face was going all blotchy and some of the skin had started to peel off, the boy snuck in and fetched me a wet towel, I placed on my face to cool it down , luckily the burn was not to bad , we made up some excuse , and about thee weeks later my face was all right , It made me the good looking person I am today .

DO NOT PLAY WITH FIRE .

My uncle Bill used to visit with my sister, I’m about 6 years old , he lifts me up and holds me over the veranda , 4 stories up , I look down and see the tops of the washing poles and hard ground , I am squealing and he is laughing and chucking me up into the air and catching me again , time and again throwing me up and catching me again , I still wake up at knight thinking about it ,Flashbacks!!.

There were times when I was requested to go shopping for other people in the flats , and in return they would give three penny’s , with it I would buy , 5 sweet cigarettes with a elastic band wrapped around it and attached to it was a pink plastic ring ,( not a lot is it ! ) , but to me it was Treasure .

In the front of our flats there were Iron works , a storage place for different types of iron lengths , for use in the Dockyard , all out on" A" frames , they use a crane with a long reaching arm for movement and height , well I had to climb that arm , it was wide at the bottom going to narrow at the top , when I got to the top I kind of fell off , I hardly felt myself go , by the time I hit the ground , I was already sitting up , the ground was so soft I did not feel a thing ."I thank my Guardian angle .

I was playing in the Iron works one day ,I remember the ground being soft and dusty,sitting down and playing in the dirt ,I discovered some money just under the dirt ,picking up the coins I counted them ,3 , one penny 4 half pennies , I was a very happy child ,I went to bed that night thinking about the next day , when I woke the next morning I put my shorts on , put my hands in to my pockets to get the money ,it was gone , It had all been a dream , it had been so real , but my family assured me it was just a dream , but I remember the dusty dirt the small of it ,was it a dream?.

　
　
Peter and I were coming home one day , late in the year , near November , we had some "Banger’s", fireworks , on this particular bomb site that was known to us was an under ground wasp nest , it does not take to much imagination to know what we did next , Peter lobed two or three bangers into the nest . "Serves you right"!! I hear you say,those poor wasp’s.

We ran as fast as we could ,nothing would catch us , not me anyway , I herd a noise I turned round and peter was yelling and crying , there were wasp all over his head , without thinking I went to his aid , I picked up a lump of wood and started to hit him over his head with it , he yelled and cried even louder", there are to many of them", I shouted , hitting him even harder , he pushed me away and ran off home with me following , still holding that lump of wood.

Now when I think about it I can’t help but laugh .

　

I remember a large gobble stopper just laying in the dirt , we did not get sweets in them days so what was I to do , it was big and round all covered in dry dirt , I put it in my mouth and sucked on it for a while , spat the dirt out a couple of times , decided it was clean enough and went on to enjoy myself , every now and again it change colour . A gobble stopper , is a round sweet , it is about an inch round , it has lots of different colour layers , and as you suck it , it would change colour , you would suck it until your jaw ache , then save it for the next day .

I once had a beautiful white cat , its name was TIDY , (after the washing powder Tide ,you know whiter than white !!, ) it would meet me on the stairs on the way home from school , it would mussel up to me in greeting , I would pick it up and carry up to our flat , we would sit and play , and all was right with the world , then one day early in the morning mum sent me over to the shop to get a point of milk , then on the way back , there in the gutter was something white , it was my beautiful white cat , it was freezing cold that morning , so the cat was as stiff as a board , I started crying , picked it up , one hand under the front legs and one hand under the back legs , the cats body making a bridge from one hand to the other , crying in big sobs I carried it home to Mother ," look" I said "my cat is dead" , " not to worry" mother said " we will give it a nice burial" , she took the cat off of me and flushed it down the rubbish shoot , I had visions of that cat tumbling down from our four story high flat via the waste shoot , she took me in her arms held me close and we walked into the flat," well that is what should have happened" , but with a shove she said to go out and play .

　

When we were children we used to enjoy Voting Days , we would all get together into the back of flatbed lories , tour the district singing our heads off ,"Vote, vote , vote, for Mr Hochkins , Who’s that Knocking at the door , If it old charley Brown , you can knock him to the ground , and he wont come Knocking any more" , or words to that affect you get the picture, but it was fun riding around for most of the day singing our heads off.

Do you remember when Television first came out , no , neither do I , we used to have a radio , we listened to Dan Dare Pilot of the future , and other stories , the first time I saw a television , I was stood on tip toe looking through some ones window , it was great , Cartoons , Daffy Duck , Wow!! , until they saw me watching through the window, the curtains were pulled across so I could not see , How rude of them!!.

The only real cartoons we could see was in the back of a lorry , we would have to get a bundle of rags , give them to the rag and bone man , we would get a sweet and the privilege of standing there to watch the cartoons on "T.V. until he pulled away , and moved to another location.

I was 13 years old before we got our own Television , it was about this time we had our first chicken for Christmas dinner , my mother and I travelled from Portsea to Wymering , Paulsgrove , to get it from , Mrs Hawkins , I think one of my mothers friends gave it to us, her daughter used to be a friend to me before she moved , that was the best ever chicken I had ever tasted .

My brother Peter and I would watch the sailors marching up Queen street , it was brilliant , we would march behind them all the way to the Dockyard Gate , puffing our chest out and swaggering , just like the sailors , sometimes the Royal Marine Band , would lead the way , white helmets , and smart uniforms , the music beating out the rhythm of the march.

Once in our old flat , my eldest brother Edward brought home a 303 rifle , he was in uniform then , I think he liked to brag , you know , flash it off a bit ,"Shoot it" we said , he pulls out this bullet from somewhere , slides it into the breach , "shoot it", we cry , he lean out of the window and BALM!! , the noise was deafening , we ran off covering our ears and hid under the blankets , it was some years be for we realised it was a blank that he fired .