Cultureshock

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Video transcript

My recollection from my youth was growing up in the West View area of Hartlepool. My father was a strict man but my mother ruled the house, cross her and you knew what to expect. Times were hard back then as everything was still on rationing, food, sweets and clothes so most of the clothes were hand me downs, even if you didn't like it, you wore it.

My gran lived next door to Mr Flounders and when it was time for a new haircut, he was the man as he cut our hair for nothing. He used to put a basin on our head and cut round it and you could see how many of my friends also went as everybody at one time or another also had basin cuts. I had lots of friends and we used to play games in the streets or on the sands. There were different games reflecting times of the year. Summer holidays were spent mainly on the sands and dunes or going hunting for frogs or newts in the bomb crater near the golf course. We used to take jam sandwiches and one bottle of lemonade, which we all shared. We didn't get much to drink as there were about eight or nine of us. It was also a time for arguments as who took the bottle back and claimed the three pence deposit. I can still taste the sandwiches as when we came to eat them they were full of sand. Still, we didn't mind as that was part of the fun.

We used to leave home about nine in the morning and didn't arrive home 'til well past 9.30 at night. Except for one day when we were playing on the sands, our mothers appeared looking for us which we thought strange. It turned out they had heard that a boy had been drowned playing on the sands and they were frantically looking for us to see if we were all safe. The boy in question was a boy who was in the same school as most of us.

Carnival time was a happy time as we had saved up all year for the rides and parades. It seemed to on for forever. We had three parades at that time, two in Hartlepool and one in West View and we always dressed up to see if we could win the first prize, which came to the princely sum of five shillings.

After the shows had gone it was time to make our own version of them and the charge was button a go. This is a time when my mother used to hide the button tin so it was round to the button factory on the factory estate on the hunt for buttons in the spoil heap. By this time the nights were drawing in and the games reflected the time of year again. Come November and bonfire night. My dad used to fetch some tarry wagger and didn't you feel important if you had the longest piece of tarry wagger as you were the one who lit the bangers and fireworks. We used to collect bonny stuff and two of us guarded it from the other gangs who tried to raid us and steal our bonfire while the rest of the gang tried to steal theirs. The bonfire was also in Bardo's house as he had the biggest garden. How we didn't burn the house down remains a mystery as the bonfire was huge and used to burn for days afterwards.

Also this time of the year, Georgie Butcher came up from the Central Estate with his horse and cart and charged a penny a go to ride round the streets of West View. There was always queues in Miers Avenue to board his cart and when we passed our house we always waved to our parents. The only time we called in was when 'Dick Barton Special Agent' was on the wireless and all the lads ran in and listened to the story. The girls weren't interested and played outside until we came back out. Yes times were hard but didn't we have carefree times back then.