Going back to early childhood,there were lots of firsts which I have good memories of .,The 1st cup final I watched was at tender age of 91/2 1956, man cities goalkeeper broke his neck but played on to win a winners medal,I watched it my granddads sisters house in Edward st ,Lizzie Ellen ,she had 2 sons Jackie and Freddie .Someone mentioned Tommy Steele the other day ,in November sat the 1st part of the 11plus exam and the week before in the Dandy or Beano Im not sure which they were hiving away a t Steele lucky guitar which I wore through both parts of tests and somehow got through .That year was taken to the flee pit The Hall to see Erol Flynn in the adventures of Robin Hood.It was on Shibdon road along from the coop billiards hall.In either 57/58 me aunt Sylvia got tickets for Tommy Steele at the Empire in Newcastle. But back to Poplar road, in my first year at grammar things were OK ,and my sister was born in sept 57 ,then Jacqueline was born the following year Oct 58.I was coming 12 and to get a few Bob done messages for some of the people in the street ,Nancy Doyle,Mrs Dobson and Mrs Clarke 1 bleach green ,and of course for me mum .At the wkend used to take the big silver cross pram over to coop to get rations as The pram would be full to the neck but it had to do the week for 7 people .On sat morning would get Nancies messages and first thing wasthe coop butchers at bleach green,A Pigs Head and 6 trotters and 2lb of tripe and 1lb pigs liver ,Nancy was bout 25 stone but a heart of corn With all this going on schoolwork began to slip and started to get in bother with some of teachers Never got on with Mr Brown (wee flab) he taught chemistry and maths ,Miss ford French teacher Mrs Glover music teacher.There were couple of teachers who were OK Mr Scott woodwork ,lancelot Crass who plauedf cricket for Burnopfield and Bob Stoker pe teacher who played amateur football for Bishop Auckland .As for our Road things were changing ,jimmy and tony were at St Josephs,the Edgars Caseys And Hoskins were at winlaton ,our Ry was at Blaydon east the board school,and we were all m a king new friends .I was spending a lot of time over park head with Ray Murray ,Rob Chapman,Eddy foster,Brian Collier, Hazel Bewick, Ann Thompson, just to name a few.My dad worked for BICC joining cables to the street lighting that was taking over from the gas lights.his best mate was Harry Steed and harry and his daughters called every weekend ,and one of the girls married a good made Stevie Pickering .Colin Pearce and Bob McLeod were also good mates .A lot of the labourers who worked with me dad were from Ireland and they had a nthn Ireland supporters club at St Jamess boxing and wrestling hall .,so a n odd time I would have went to see the toon with him but my real passion was Roker Park and our grandparents had movie up from the streets to no 1 Springfield road,which had a big allotment at the back of the house and I used to go there to do my homework and listen to Radio Luxembourg on the Redifusion Radio.No TV at that time just the radio with 4 channels, radio 1 radio2 ,home service and Luxembourg. Thats when I got my passion for music and on Saturdays calling in to Joe saps ,buddy holly, Elvis ,del Shannon, Tommy Steele times were changing.But granda and me got the bus from the Hallgarth to Roker park many great matches all standing no trouble and peanuts a tanner a bag .you were head lifted down to the front at the Fulwell endGreat Memories.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 22:42:08 +0000