Off Topic I Remember When

Sometimes...life can be so sweet mate....

....we all will cherish the good stuff.

thanks kidda

 

I remember a time when no one in our village, Allendale Cottages, had a TV.

Mr and Mrs Lyons were the first and everyone went down for a look.

It was the first time I realised how poor we were ...

... until then we thought everyone was like us, bliss!

 

You up late Smug, you OK?

 

I remember when my Dad used to make home brew, and house parties were a big thing, and footy shirts didn't have sponsors names on them.
My Aunty on the left...yep, that's a lampshade on her heed...
The shirt was one of Gary Rowells, from the 76/77 season, and what a thing of beauty it is.
Thats when shirts were shirts....quadrupled in weight when it rained.

 

I'm fine mate thanks.

Mrs Smug has some kind of bug so she's waking up asking for more water, etc.

I usually sleep the sleep of the innocent

 

I remember gas mantles and the hiss they made as they warmed up, I also remember the broken English of the female lodger we had in our house back in the 40's, we kept it quiet, as anti-German feeling was running high on the Barbary Coast around that time. Later in the 50's starting work in the "Windy House" the men used to sit round a coke fire drinking tea, ( my job was fire starting and kettle duties ) while they chalked street maps of the Town End on the floor and worked along the street of the day; talked about the families who lived in each house, and the clientele of each pub ( most streets had one or two) it was brilliant stuff very educational. Many years later I saw a film of a gathering in a pub down the Town End , it was full of "Iron Men" in "Fancy Dress" having a whale of a party celebrating the launch of a ship and I recognised many of them as customers at the windy house mentioned, as we stored their tools overnight in duckets with their names on, we also maintained the pipes and hammers repairing them as required, they were a bloody hard lot to please and quite intimidating if so inclined. but blue remembered hills , and then came the 60's and music filled the air .

 

@John Wick What a cracking thread, only just seen it and read through.

By heavens l have some stories.

I was born in London, St. Stevens by Stamford Bridge, my Mam was born and bred in Sunderland. My gran and grandad split up she lived in Fawcett Street, he in Hylton or Hylton Castle by the railway.
My gran brought 4 girls and a boy down south for work, were she found work at Heathrow, my mam had various jobs including Macfarlang Lange biscuits and Queen Anns hospital as auxiliary nurse.
At some point mother moved us to Surrey, l am guessing enticed by a council house and a job. My father never came with us.
So my journey really begins in Surrey.

My first Roker Park visit was Brian Cloughs 2nd come back game versus Aston Villa 0-0.
Disappointed l didn't see the great man score that night. I stayed at my sisters house in Birtley as she had married a local lad.

Oh! There is so much more

 

A bike was something like a prized car for us kids in the villages. There was all sorts of hand me downs and homemade versions kicking about, and we all borrowed them to get about. Then one Christmas, out of nowhere, I got a Raleigh Gtifter! It was like this shining magnificent vehicle and I have never looked after anything so well since. It was the best gift I ever had and I went everywhere on it. I used to spend my odd job money on keeping that machine tip top. Someone could give me a porsche today and it wouldnt feel as special as that bike did.

 

I remember getting my bike at Xmas 1963 opened the door to go outside two foot of snow had to ride around the settee for ages

 

Now that was a fine bike, I had a red one. Being able to change gears was a feeling like no other. Mind trying to pull a wheelie was hard it must have weighed half a ton.

 

I clearly remember making arrowheads by waiting for the trams and placing nails on the line. The resulting flat steel was unbelievably sharp and actually quite lethal. How no-one was seriously injured I'll never know.

 

Mine was a silver grey colour and I it was a heavy beast. Three coloured gears - red yellow and blue I think? Loved that bike.

 

There was a fella in our village would make bows for us younguns if we brought him the right branches. These werent flimsy things either, they were strong things that as kids we thought were robin hood bows. We made our own arrows by sharpening the ends of branches (we all had our own pocket knives back then and nobody batted an eye). We would spend hours shooting the things at rabbits in the dene, but never hit one that I remember. Looking back I have no idea how nobody ever got hurt - maybe it is because as kids in those days we learned something called common sense...

 

I remember when winters were just that - bloody cold and at least a foot of snow, not an inch you get these days and the country comes to a standstill. Living in Horden, used to love sledging down the green opposite the church and trying not to crash into the wall at the bottom. Loads of kids used to congregate there and the next day the paths used to be sheer ice, you could hardly walk on it

 

I remember when airport parking didn’t cost a fortune!!!

 

I'm sure that snow was on the ground for months on end without a break. The footpaths outside the house were always kept clear and we were told to clear the paths of any old folk nearby. The snow was piled up in the gutter but was soon pushed back onto the footpaths by the passing buses and odd car as slush which turned quickly froze turning the paths into an ice rink and it started all over again. God it was a relentless job for a 5 year.old.

 

I remember when the only airports in our area belonged to the RAF!

 

I remember when countless kids could have countless hours of ( no cost to the parents) fun on banana slides, swings, climbing frames, and fling you off roundabouts . Some grazed knees and arms and some tears sometimes. Then H&S came along

 

Does anybody on here actually know anybody who died before H&S came in, I remember broken bones but nowt else.

 

We used to play in the huge gardens at our Methodist chapel, full of trees and places to hide.
We used to go to the hardware shop and buy boxes of staples, having made a catty we used to have teams and fire staples at each other.
We must have been sh1t shots as can't remember anybody ever getting hurt. Thinking back now someone could easily have lost an eye, bonkers really, but great fun.