We were 'deadly enemies' with the lads from Dene Bank, if you strayed on their patch you were grabbed and duffed up. But if Leadgate ever came down the bank we would team up against them. If Consett came calling Allendale, Dene Bank & Leadgate would take them on. Absolutely ****ing crackers but, you have to remember, this was pre-Sky
I had a paper round in Spennymoor from the age of 13 til I left school at 15, in 1970 when I started it was up at 6am to deliver all these fekkin papers for 23 shillings a week and then off to school. I didn't get pocket money, looking back we were probably poor as well. I hated that paper round especially Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's when you had the TV Times, Radio Times, Woman, Woman's Own, People's Friend and all the other magazines to deliver as well as the papers. Yeah, life is so different now, my pleasures were going down to the River Wear at Tudhoe with a hook and some hardened cotton and trying to catch a fish. Caught many a fish since being an adult in a smelly fanny kind of way
That was the good thing mate, we were so ****ing naive we didn't realise! In those days using a word like 'naive' could get you a clip round the ear.
Yeah I know, strange fekkin times. I remember my older brother once, must have been having a **** with the sheets down and I switched the light on. Saw all this dairy cream turnip juice and yelled. Mum ran in the room, pulled his sheets down and said, "You can stop that now, you naughty boy", , never remember hearing his sheets rustle again.. Fekkin Joe, the **** destroyer..
