Cultureshock

I am the same age as you and its only when you look back that you see what hard times they were ,we had outside netties a sculery one cold tap a zink bath that hung on a nail in the back yard ,coal fires and a big black cast iron range me ma used to bake wounderful bread in oven me ma usrd to keep the range blackleaded to make it look nice .we had gass lights with gass mantles. the rent man called every week ,many wifes would take their mens suites to the pawn shop on a monday and get it out of hock friday so the men would look smart going out for 1 or 3 pints,shops gave tick. the butcher boy deliverd meat on his bike,women hung washing right across the back lanes and would have to run out and take it all down when a coal lorry came down the lane ,wash day was monday we had a wash house in the yard ma would light the fire under the copper colthes would be left in soak boild dolly blued washed and rinsed before going through a big wooden rollerd mangle ,men worked hard but so did women ,new colthes came from secondhand shops or were handed down from a big sister,mothers could make a lovely meal out of nothing,all the kids in the street would play togeather dads would join in with football and mums would use the washing line as a skiping rope right across the lane so we could all get to skip ,I was one of the lucky ones we had a nice home for the time some of my mates had news paper on the table and had to drink tea out jam jars nobody looked down on anybody we were all good at sharing if you played out and had a slice of bread and jam youd give all your mates a bite ,I with me ma at 40 Church street walker me ma had a heart of gold she took in her mother who was bed fast and really looked after her ,we had a big family and at times us younger ones slept 4 to a bed George had cancer and ma looked after him at home untill he died at 16 she had also took in a couple who didnt have a penny between them and as well as giving a home to 2 boys whos family didnt want them ad they ended up becoming part of the family we never had much but my lovely mum would share her last me da would come home from work and share his dinner with some poor soul having hard times .when I was little I thought I was poor its only when looking back that I can see I was rich only I dont count my wealth in money . Posted on 13/02/2012 at 21:26:26

I lived at Tynevale terrace low Walker Facing Walker Dean in the 1950s old army huts on the dean were taking over by families of squaters apart from the fact they were squating they wre normal working people who had moved out of slums in the East End of Newcastle one of the families had 14 cats but they were all looked after really well ,some of the folk later moved to Tynevale Terrace and some to Rodchester Dwellings . the kids in tynevale terrace would have 3 huge bonfires every year we allways wanted ours to be bigger than Daisy Hill kids. we had some lovely people living in our street , her was Katherleen,Noreen,Ronny,George, Aderline Fredy,JImmy,Pauline,everyone new everyone ,we all went to East walker school and one day we were told a boy in our class has been playing on the ferry landing by the bone yard when he had falling in the Tyne and drowned all of us were very upset. ,Posted on 13/02/2012 at 21:54:53