I thought life was a right pain but looking back, it was so sweet. Just though I would share that, its a quiet night.
All joking aside I know what you mean, never had it so good compared to today. Used to go all over in the summer holidays - and the sun used to shine more often too. You would start off in the cricket & tennis season(Roker Park Courts for tennis) and then football would creep up on you. Happy days
Now then, it was the old days, before we found ****s and snatchers and the like, funny how they did not show. Times when the football came on birthdays or christmas, a flat leather thing with a bladder and you blew it up and laced it. Now we could not lace like the pros so if you had the nerve to head it and caught the lace, well you knew about it. Played in the street with bricks or bins or whatever for goalposts, no worry about cars. At school it was on the sports field but not many had proper boots. I was born and raised in a colliery village, dirty all day because of coal fires and playing outside in the muck but if you had a football you would always have mates.
Its a poem..... Or Mark Knopflers next song.... When I was a boy I thought life was sweet I just thought I`d share that.... ......It`s a very quiet neet.......... lol i LOVE IT!
My Mother was a Seaham lass, we used to get the bus from Seaburn(the 24) to the town, some pick n mix from woolies for my Grandmother, black bullets for my Grandad(he was known in Seaham as the Sergeant Major - he was lamed in WW1and got the George Cross) I spent a lot of time playing football near the miners homes on Station Road - opposite the Kestrel, remember getting absolutely caked in mud and then going to the sweet shop for some spanish gold and the like. Yes the leather casers from Willie Watson's were the ones to have - needle adapter and some olive oil to blow it up, football boots with laces you wrapped around and around your foot, it's all coming back to me. Cheers Syd.
That wasnt meant to be "funny " by the way Syd I could smell the ball......and the concrete of the street after the rain....we played on a bank.....love it!
Could i comment on the two highlighted bits. Your grandad would be a silly old tosser now to may, someone to take the piss out of and that annoys the life out of me. Far to many today have no idea what he and people like him did for us. I see now young men coming back from war, limbs missing and heads screwed. They land as heros but then return home to be forgotton. On a lighter note, thise bloody boots, like pit boots they were.
Cricket - that would be my younger brothers head then, once got him with a lovely one pitched short of a length that reared up and split his eyebrow wide open - we didn't often use a corky - but we did that day - regrettably for him!
Mackemman....Ive lived " away "....there are so many words Ive forgotten... or suddenly come back conjuring up loads of pictures/memories.....maybe a daft question but did you mean Casies or would you have said casers? It was Casies on Plains Farm
we sometimes said casies, but when I got older(11 - 16) we called them casers - "I don't know why"(if you watch Frasier you will appreciate that phrase)
When ah was a lad we used to live in a shoebox in t middle of the road! Dubbin! Sharing footy boots with bigger toecaps than yer Da's steeleys! Leather casey that was like kicking or heading a rock when wet! Hosepipe instead of inner tubes! The hole in your favourite jumper that your Mam darned with different colour wool! Going camping at 12 all the way to Yorkshire just you and your mates. My best memory ever, as I waited so long before I got them, Clarks shoes with animal tracks on the soles and a compass in the heel! Kids today don't even know they are born!
Clarks Commandos and Clarks Trackers - think your were trackers Mackem Rule. I used to roll up newspapers and straw instead of inner tubes, putting lollysticks through your bike spokes so they clicked,cow horn or easy rider handle bars. Did you ever get a balaclava in the winter - knitted by your Mother. Do remember the pop lorries - Sykes was one, Grays another - used to have rubber stoppers. And don't mention the sunblest bread van!!
I once went into Willie Watsons shop in Sunderland and asked him why he didnt sell Adidas Boots....He went crackers and said If I wanted fancy boots like that i should go to Newcastle..... .
MR - A Shoebox! Pure unadulterated luxury, we used to dream of a shoebox for the 19 of us. The kids had to sleep in 3 beds one on top of the other, God, how I hated it when it was my turn to be the mattress, especially the next morning when me ma used to beat the dust out of it (me)!! If you owned a casey you were "it". Fine when new but they always deformed a bit, and if the damn thing got wet and the point hit you it was a trip to A&E with concussion. Don't think I've ever recovered??
A true story of changing times. Around 1965 my future first father in law came out of the village club one night to find a local lad, the worse for drink, giving his girlfriend a beating. He took him in a shop doorway and cliped his ear, rather hard. We found out about it next day when the village bobby came calling, I ear you gave .... ...... a seeing to last night, yes I did came the reply. Just wanted to thak you for helping out said the bobby, then left. The girl was greatful The young lad bought my father in law a drink for stopping him doing something daft The booby said thank you Today the father in law would be done for assault, are we in better times?
Like I said I lived on a "bank" in Plains Farm....When the carts came down there was always drama I remember the gadgee turnin` the wheel brake fast every few yards as he stopped .... Oh Aye....There was plenty of horse **** for the Rhubarb down our way.........some people even had custard on theirs as well.... haha!
