Living History

The Gift

The year was 1948 and it was my fourth birthday, I had been taken to the pictures with my Mam and Dad and my older brother then we were going to call in to see My Granddad and Grandma.

My Grandad was my most favourite person at that time of my life. We had lived with my grandparents until just the year before when we got a brand new council house with our own bedrooms, the council estate was teaming with kids all the same age as us so we were never bored and had gangs of kids to play with. We all wore the same things, either hand me downs from our bigger brothers and sisters or something passed on from a neighbour’s kid who had outgrown it before it became too faded or worn out to wear, no one snickered or pointed the finger because you had the dress on that the little girl across the street had worn the year before, heck she was most likely wearing your older sisters stuff so it all worked out. On our feet we wore black plimsolls and if we had a growing spurt Mam cut the toes out for the summer, we skipped with old washing line, played Cowboys and Indians with our fingers as guns, played Tiggy, or if someone was lucky enough to have chalk or we found a good stone that would leave marks on the pavement, then we were all up for a game of Hop Scotch.

We were never in the house until our Mothers called us in, then we went in reluctant to leave our friends but slept like tops because we ran everywhere. And many a night I would fall asleep at the dinner table head in my Hash Bowl so Dad had to carry me to bed. Morning would come, and out we would be again running playing and only popping home to eat a butty and go again, and if your friends Mam was willing to give out the butties, well you never made it home until Mam called you in. We felt so safe then, there was no one to hurt us, not with every neighbourhood Mother on the estate watching out for us, if you were bad, the news would have reached home before you got there and there was sure to be Consequences. We didn’t worry about kids getting fat, we ran everywhere and sweeties, fats and meat were still on ration, the favourite meal at my house was ‘Ello Pie,’ if you found a piece of meat in the Pie you shouted ‘Ello Ello’, favourite drink Cuppa tea or you got Welfare orange juice so sour it made your teeth ache. But Birthdays were special, you got extra treats, like cake! I had two pieces saved of mine for Grandma and Granddad and Mom had baked some bread and the whole picture house had been smelling really nice. But Granddad had out done everyone, he produced like a magician the funniest thing I had ever seen, and to this day, no one has been able to top the surprise and delight of my very first Banana!

Julia, Canada]

Look at more contributions:

previous | next