Cultureshock

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Video transcript

When I was younger me and my dad used to keep racing pigeons. My dad used to work at the pit and that was one of the traditions - to keep racing pigeons. We lived at Redhouse in Sunderland. My dad worked at Castletown pit. We would go to the pigeon lofts, down the road, to put the pigeons in the wicker baskets. I used to have two favourite pigeons - a red and white one and a blue and white one, and they used to come to me when I trained them. The pigeons got put into the transporter and got took away to wherever the race was from. Once ours raced from Redford and Reading. Sometimes it could be from foreign countries such as Belgium or France. We set the pigeon clock the night before, usually a Friday and when everybody's clocks had been set we would go home and wait for the next day for the start of the race. We would make a flask of tea or coffee and some sandwiches and set off to the pigeon lofts. It used to be about 2 o'clock till 4 o'clock when the pigeons got back. When the pigeons were approaching the lofts I would get the tin with the pigeon corn in and rattle it. Once I got the pigeon into the loft I put the pigeon's foot with the ring on into the clock to tell the time it took for the pigeon to get home. Then we would take the pigeon clock to the club and wait to see who won the race. Me and my dad won a few times. If you won it was exciting and if you didn't you'd try again next week.