I am interested in local folk history so I will definitely ask around and pass any info on I can find. I can remember going to the "Pitch and Toss" at Mountsett (before the Crematorium was built) with my brother in law, they had lookouts all over, watching for the police who must have known the score, I was crapping myself but didn't see any raids when I was there.
You'd love to talk to my auntie at Chopwell, she's traced our family back to the Reivers. She's lived in Chopwell all her life and knows more than anyone else I know about the area. Incidentally, I went to her Mam's funeral this year and met a woman who'd been to the 1955 cup final with Newcastle, lovely woman.
Aye but it's strange how mine mean nowt to me yet my dad's & grandad's mean everything. I still have a paper clipping from the Ronnie Gill dated 1957 I think when my dad took out 2 Mau Mau in Mombassa. Makes me so proud yet he hated it. When I was a kid I onced asked my granda what it was like in WW1. He never talked about it much & all he said was, 'son, it was hell on earth.' My granda was DLI as part of the 34th division. My dad was RNF.
Your right, I would love to talk to anyone with an interest in local history or local folk music. Here's me thinking there are more people alive who remember D Day, than Newcastle winning a proper trophy
Billy, you should check the archives at the DLI museum, I bet there is a record of that and much more.
It's been an emotional time watching the brave owl fellas gazing into the far distance obviously thinking of their mates who weren't so lucky. Their first thoughts always seem to be for the fallen. I sold poppies in France one year and was amazed at how many of the old French wanted to come up and say 'thank you' to them.
I have watched quite a bit of the coverage this year, having just retired and found it very emotional. One thing that I hadn't thought of, but heard quite a few veterans mention this, was the sea sickness. I don't suffer from it but I have seen the effect it has on people who do, how those brave souls managed to fight up the beaches suffering the way they must have been is incredible.
For many of them it would have been the first time they'd ever been on a boat. Before he was shipped overseas the closest my Dad had come to a boat was 'Miners Week' at Cullercoats.
I can remember my dad telling me that before the war they used the unemployed men of the North East to plant Keilder Forest, my mothers brother was one of them, so when my dad was back in England on leave he cycled up from Dipton to Keilder and back to see him. 110 miles or so on a bone shaker, it pains me just to think about it.
Read all this thread and that is rare for me. I find it comforting that so many on here are proud of their dad's / uncles/ family. No brothers, huh? Sign of the times........(or, more accurately, the years). Look lads. Hope you don't mind but I just want to jump on and say my dad was a Royal Marine Commando. During D-Day he was on operations in Belgium as a diversion to what was really going on in Normandy. He only opened up with a few stories about a year before he died. I just feel so proud of him and want to thank you for the opportunity of mentioning him on here. We are nothing compared to those guys from that era. We simply cant hold a candle to them x
It must have been very difficult for your dad Bobby, diversion forces don't have the support that the main forces do and are vital to the success of the operation. It is good to have this opportunity to recognise the bravery of our fathers and grandfathers.
