Great thread, and some great posts....brings back memories. Coal fire in the sitting room and a Rayburn in the kitchen ...the only rooms in the house that were warm. Bedrooms were bloody freezing, with about two tons of blankets on the bed, there was more chance of being crushed to death than there was of getting hyperthermia. Ice on the inside of the windows! Playing footy from morning till night, and going home covered in clarts and hungry. Didn't matter how muddy/dirty you got, bath night was still on Sunday. People used just open their front door and let the dog out....it would come back later. What does come to mind though, is that most of the stuff me and my mates done as young-uns, cost nowt. Even bikes seemed to last for years and were passed down when no longer needed. I had two older cousins lived in the same street, so got all sorts handed down from them. If it was still decent, my younger brothers then got it.
Did all of them, brilliant, climbing up the Alexandra Bridge Stantions until you were on the very top of the bend and have a game of Chuck stones. Can’t even start to think how dangerous that was.
Pop Truck - limeade, american cream soda, tizer sold in glass bottles. Money for handing back the empties Pools man calling on a Weds night - Dad leaving out his Pools slip and the exact money Smoke filled pubs
This has jogged my memory of so many things, Mackem tiz made me remember when I was 4 stood outside the shop window in Pooley Bridge where my dad said I could buy a tractor for my holidays, I looked down and saw £1 note, I picked it up and showed my dad and he gave me a cuff round my ear and shouted I told you to keep your money in your pocket, loud enough so everyone around us could hear. Then he dragged me away round the corner and said well done son you can have two toys now. He kept the rest for holiday beer money, 9pennies a pint then.
Another memory, camping at Finchale abbey when I was 12 me and a lad called Eddie State had half a crown each for food at the little shop next to the Priory. Anyway I put a penny in the penny bubbly machine and three came out so we put all our money in and got 90 bubblies to last us the weekend but no money for any food another time bird nesting over in Boldon the little shop next to the bus stop had a 5 boys ( remember them? ) chocolate machine on the wall and the sun had been on the glass front all day and we managed to rake them all out with a lolly stick. Never stopped spewing for two days
In bed late, hearing the train going along the tracks in the distance during the night, and the foghorns from the coast.
My mam used to make sure I’d washed my face but couldn’t care less about the great tide under my coat, that was for Sunday nights bath time
My mate who I mentioned before had a fixed wheel racer ( death trap ) and when his inner tubes were totally knackered he just forced hosepipes under the tyres and was off again
Making dens and swings down the westy and fighting the castlers, pop van, video van that used to come round. Freddo bars being 10p, going to Mr Lee's chippy at Witherwack for dinner when I was at school. Putting a can on the back tyre of my bike so it sounded like a motorbike, water bomb fights around the streets in the summer, footy on the field and getting 'shifted' when the ball hit a window. All good fun.
Tommy Vance Friday night rock show. Could never miss that. Used to have an ear piece that allowed me to listen under the pillow without any bugger knowing.
Sundays were visiting days. Into the car and around all the aunts and uncles houses to visit. Kids in one room, parents in another. Always got a brilliant tea at Auntie Megs, homemade pies and cake. On the way home stop at the pub, mam and dad go in and have a drink, kids stuck in the and if lucky a couple of bags of salt and shake sent out.
