Growing Up in Sunderland. A baby boomer's tale

I am in my late 60's now and although I retain strong ties ( family, property ) I have in essence spent over 40 years living overseas.
I still have a strong accent ( I am told), I still use vernacular that other english speakers still find amusing ( give owa man, haway man, nee chance ). My football team still affects my mood disproportionately to its importance. Win and I'm on cloud nine etc etc. I could never live permanently back there but growing up has left large indelible marks on how I think and live.
I can afford to eat whatever I choose but give me the choice of lobster thermidor, filet mignon etc vs pork dip, puddings in the corner, Yorkshire pudding starters..well the latter wins.
Were the good old days good or has time softened the edges.
My dad was a welder at doxfords. As a bairn I remember him being diagnosed with sciatica. It made welding in 'double bottoms' impossible for weeks on end. The time he had off on sick???My mother must have been at her wits end making ends meet but we did.
I remember one year winning a school excellence award where I was awarded a prize given by the mayor at the empire. Sadly it was bingo night for me mam and me dad would never miss a slurp at the royal marine. My nana accompanied me.
I never resented it or owt. It seemed normal.
Any others with inane reminiscences?

 

Although not born in Sunderland or the north east of England, I grew up there from the tender age of three weeks.
I lived in Middle Herrington with my grandparents until I was 13. My mam and dad were around and a part of my life but for reasons I won’t go into here (and it’s nothing to do with drugs/alcohol/prison or anything remotely unlawful) I didn’t actually live with them until 1979 when I was 13. At that point they were living in Carrville on the outskirts of Durham City.
My first football match was NYD 1974 when Sunderland played Notts County. I went with my grandad and as has been my experience of our club they lost. The first memory of Roker Park was just how green the turf looked.
I’ve never had a Sunderland or NE accent even though I was brought up in a home where the accents were strong. There are probably a few words that I use where you could identify as being a NE accent though.
I joined the army when I was 17. The YTS at Janet Frazer in Hendon that I was on were never going to take me on - it was 1984 and mass unemployment was the name of the game back then. Apart from six months in 1987 with a broken leg when I was visiting my mam and dad anyway, I haven’t lived in the NE since. I moved to Australia in 2007 via Reading (twice), Bulford, Colchester, Abingdon and a couple of other places the army sent me to until 1995 and then Northampton where I was a cop for 12 years.
Like the op I have eaten some fantastic food in my time but my tastebuds still know the value of a ham and pease pudding stottie or a saveloy dip from Jacky Whites.
We are hitting the old country again this year and hopefully catching up for a beer or two with @Smug in Boots just to thank him for all his posts and I believe @Confucius might turn up to play gooseberry. If anyone else wants a chat over a pint, it’s Boxing Day at the Premier Inn in Sunderland before the game.
And lastly, I might not sound like I’m from there and I haven’t lived there for over thirty years, but if anyone asks me where I’m from the answer is always Sunderland. It might not be the prettiest city or the cleanest or the most affluent and it is considered to be in the shadow of Newcastle but it’s where I consider home is and to me it’s the best city in the world. Just a shame about the football team.
EJK - I’m 53.

 

I'm going back ( I think, graft permitting ) in march april. Hopefully we may be in the promotion mix. Quite nervous actually inasmuch I get very toey after a week. I have usually caught up with everyone from the past by then.
It will be last trip 'home' I think.

 

Let me know the details please

 

Born in 1975 at Sunderland hospital, family from Millfield and Seaham.

My uncle (rip) took me to my first games, standing in the Fulwell end watching the mighty Chris Turner. I will always remember the drive to the game, the radio going off as we went over the bridge, being sat on the crush barriers, not having a clue where my uncle was but being transfixed with the game, watching the Roker End bouncing up and down.

Moved away when I was little as dad got a job in Essex and lived there, Nottingham, Port Talbot and now settled in Somerset.

Got taught to speak like a southerner at school, used to get a right bollocking of the teacher as I kept telling her there wasn't a 'r' in bath and who was this mum she mentioned? It always will be Mam.

As you can imagine growing up down south being the only Sunderland fan was interesting, surrounded by man utd, Liverpool and which ever team where doing well at the time fans, but loyal I stayed.

Have visited up home a few times in my exile, but looking back they haven't been enough, pretty impossible with family life to get there now and despite a managing a few games in the quinn / keane years, I doubt I will manage to see the lads for a fair while.

I may be an exile and may only have lived in Sunderland for 5 odd years but it will always be home, I will always support SAFC and I'm incredibly proud to say both those things

 

Well my story is nowhere near as interesting but who cares. I have never lived in Sunderland and was brought up on Tyneside, just about equidistant from Roker and the dark side. My dad was a cockney and his allegiance was Arsenal. He had been in the Navy during the war on HMS Glasgow, when it was bombed on the Russian convoys and limped into the Tyne for repairs. One day he was going ashore and noticed this fine young 18 year old maiden in overalls going about her business. “Mam to be”, was in fact just about to crawl up the inside of the funnel and do some welding. She had volunteered from her office job in the yards to progress as a welder. They married and lived happily thereafter, well I mean happily that was after mam gave him an ultimatum after a year living in London. “ I am going back to Jarra, you can come if you want”. Dad as he did all his married life just did as he was told.
Anyhow, I used to watch South Shields in the Northern Premier League as it was about. 10 minute walk, but I always yearned for “proper” football. One day my dad said he had found someone to take us to the Sunderland match, one of his mates but dad couldn’t go. The bloke picked us up in his Reliant Robin, left me and my brother in the car, freezing whilst he had a couple of beers in the Prince of Wales. We beat Wolves 2-1 and I was hooked. I still went to South Shields when I couldnt get to Roker and I remember jumping up at peoples windows on Stirling Avenue trying to catch our score on the videprinter. From the age of 15 through to 28 when I moved to Leicester to be with my future wife, I was home and away with the Supporters Association. All of my drinking was also done in the town, Upper Deck, Londonderry, Dun Cow, Greens etc. At the time I was an electrician at Pyrex, so on a Friday, I’d go to work, only to return back to Jarra on a Monday evening after work, sleeping at my mates house just off Chester Road.

My time in Leicester didn’t diminish my love for the club, I couldn’t get to games as we were saving up and my matchdays were listening to five live or whatever it was back then. Back home now after 13 years away and love it. My lads all born in Leicester, only one likes football and he is Sunderland daft. I also got the club instilled into the wife’s younger brother when he was about 14, and I was his father figure, he still jokingly wishes me happy Father’s Day. He’s in his forties now and can be seen at a few away games and he has met some good mates, especially lads from Melton Mowbray, again a couple who had no links to Sunderland whatsoever. But he always wears his Sunderland shirt on a Saturday, amidst all of the **** he gets off LCFC Fans. His missus is staunch Leicester and even she has a half and half Leicester/ Sunderland strip put together by her own fair hands. You may have seen her at Wembley or a few away games around the Midlands. Those people are the reason why I want SAFC to be successful, nothing to do with the **** storm of the football we have been and continue to go through, but the sheer coming together, meeting great north east people and being hooked.

 

No man, from 15 to 28 I went home and away, then I moved to Leicester.

 

I thought you were one of them lucky sods that had been groomed by a fit teacher.

 

When did hair loss become a major problem?

 

It’s never a problem, only vain bastards would say that

 

I’ve met you. To be fair you are quite a dish

 

Cousin just been to Turkey for a hair transplant... silly sod

 

I’m fortunate, my hair is thick.

Now that’s an open goal for someone

 

Late 60s and I thank god for Jarra Grammar... 1st of my family to go to university. Now retired living back up North just outside Durham... and far too obsessed with Sunderland AFC hate it when we lose (should be used to it by now) and I abhor being in the turd division

 

Yeah - pink blancmange

 

I’m quite scared now,

 

Only if you like it with a massive banana

 

me mam took me to roker park to see the f a cup in 1973 (me dad was busy a hard worker, bakery shift then Aux fire service !), before i saw the players' bus and parading the cup. I talk crap sometimes but will always support SAFC, seen Jimmy twice in the town as well.

 

Only ever seen the lads play three times live. First time was at Roker with my grandad then a pre season match in NZ during the 70's and the 3rd time was the home leg of the 1990 playoff final.

Born in Chichester as my old man was in the RAF and it was he and my grandad who got me hooked. Grandad was my hero and it was he who got me truly hooked.

Moved back to Washington when my dad left the RAF for a year, then over to NZ and finally Oz where i've been for the past 39 years.

My grandad used to post me copies of the footy echo as well as anything else SAFC related that he thought i'd be interested in. Still remember receiving the Centenary book in 1979 for christmas, didn't put it down for weeks.

As you can imagine growing up in the far flung reaches of the southern hemisphere not many knew who Sunderland were but there's no way i could have ever switched allegiance.