Morning Ray - Sounds excellent

I would very much like to contribute, I'm 45 later in the year and as such would be one of last Crowle Street kids.

My first teacher was Miss Beatlestone. I carried on living on Hedon Road until I was almost 17, and saw the houses ('bomb buildings') etc demolished.

Fortunately I was not in them as my Mother (me Mam) and Grandmother (me Nana) owned the famous Hedon Road landmark of The Ocean Cafe," purveyors of the finest hot bread cakes", at which they worked and we lived.

Quite a good memory of the 60's in that area, and the bits that are missing I just fill in with romanticised notions!; if I sit in a dark quite place I can recollect a number of names of friends from that time.

Just to authenticate myself try these, Ping-pong alley, 7 allies, 'cemi-fields' and one for yourself 'Bellis's shop just under the railway bridge

I know nostalgia ain't what it used to be but a friend sent me this recently, not strictly the Hedon Road area, but may just be right to season your taste.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, and 70's probably shouldn't have survived, because......

Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a glass bottle.  Not too
many gardens in this area  - tasted the same.

We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it,
probably stolen from the Tizer yard on Wkye street never overweight because we were always outside
playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find Craven Street hill out we forgot the brakes.

After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was
able to reach us all day and no one minded.

We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms.

We used to swing around 'lammies' on proper horse hair rope though. Friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and  teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again. What trees?


We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.

We walked to friend's homes.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would
happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by  only the hood.  Did not
know 7 kids with bikes.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.   Imagine that! They actually sided with the law. Remember Sergeant Barker?


This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations! Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow
up as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us).
 

Good luck,

Let me know if you require any further ramblings/recollections.

Here's some to be going on with,

Tommy McHugh - The coalman

'Baggy' Foster - The fruit and veg man

'Stivis' - The white ice cream van man

Lavine's sweets and toy shop on the corner of Hedon Road and Wyke street; Claire & Eva Lavine remained family friends for many years long after the area had disappeared.

And for those persons not believing in coincidences, in my late twenties in had a relationship with a girl ( just to point out I have had more than one).

It transpired that her mother, Audrey Swatman owned the small shop
directly adjacent to the school gates.

I did try to get her to reimburse me for some everlasting toffee I had
bought there as a child, as I remember, a group of us finished in about a minute!!, mind you her wagon wheels were massive compared to the one's you get now, you know.

Hope it goes well, let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Best regards

Paul