Re: Bob's Bits.

So here we are enjoying [hopefully] another Monday morning, and while showering I realised that this will be the 3464 th Monday morning in my life.....
There have been many changes in my life over that time....Around 1950 my parents moved into a brand new council house where I was born. I was dragged kicking and screaming into a world where nobody in our crescent had a car, or a TV, or a phone, an old valve radio hissed out the BBC home service on the wall, and a cozy coal fire crackled away in the grate. Nobody travelled more than five miles to their place of work, and holidays in a caravan at Bridlington were a luxury and taken for just one week a year if you were lucky.

As I was growing up I got to know all the names of the people living in the crescent, and there were quite a few. My Dad knew them all, and they knew him. They all looked out for each other, and doors were rarely locked. You were more likely to find some baking on the table when you returned home done by a neighbour, in payment for my Dad's work, done in their garden at the weekend [His path laying was legendary]...Than anything taken.

Where has it all gone?....Apart from my next door neighbours, and perhaps one or two others, I don't know anyone on this estate, and I've lived here over forty years. I say good morning to everyone I see while out walking or running, but that's as far as we get. I recognise their dogs more than them and because we have all aged together, the estate has turned into God's waiting room. All the children have grown up and moved away and have children of their own, some of them visit in the holidays. Some children have grown up and still live with their parents and wear anoraks and are best avoided. Some are housebound and never come out, some still work and are not seen through the week, and some are away on holiday most of the year.

Mondays Eh!.....I like em now though, kids back at school, people back at work, and the rest of the day is a blank canvass......

Re: Bob's Bits.

I never really got to know a place while out doing an event Nom, the route was the only important thing then. But like you say, now I can take my time and it has added a new dimension to my trips out and am finding it very interesting.....Perhaps study nature, or just talk to a local, is fascinating what you can learn from the old locals, and I can talk to anyone.....A bit too much sometimes....

Re: Bob's Bits.

Most of that research is done by talking to local cafe owners, isn't it?

Re: Bob's Bits.

Whilst out and about on Friday, I bumped into an 82 year old geezer, who managed to out talk me, that's a first.

Re: Bob's Bits.

I can relate to so much of that Foxy except we lived in an old terrace house til I married and we got our first new house with inside toilet! But there wasn't the community atmosphere that I was used to and several homes later there still isn't. We too holidayed in a caravan in Brid, perhaps we were on the same camp! (Marton Road) now a housing estate. Always loved Brid.

Re: Bob's Bits.

Life up North Val.......Aye.
We used to stay at Limekiln Camp near the railway bridge, I think it's been renamed now. I remember staying there in winter Val, I had whooping cough and the doctor suggested sea air, so Mum and Dad took me for a week in Brid. I spent most nights listening to the rain pattering on the roof. It did cure the whooping cough though.

Re: Bob's Bits.

Unlike today, you can't imagine those caravans being very warm in winter, I seem to remember everything was run on calor gas. I can still remember the smell when the lights were lit and often having to go buy new mantles(?) when the old ones refused to work. Anyway sounds like the holiday was just the tonic you needed Foxy.

Re: Bob's Bits.

Ah yes Val, the smell of the Calor Gas and the invasion of earwigs after dark....It did it's job though, I very rarely suffer from coughs these days. I have got a photo from that holiday, we had a day out at Thornwick Bay and Dad sat me high up on a rock and took a photo, I'll see if I can find it.....

Found it Val.....

Re: Bob's Bits.

Fab' picture Bob..it's good to reminisce about Our Childhood days..I do now and again and it gets My fingers flying over the keyboard, then before I know it I've filled a dozen pages...as You said..a good way to fill in a rainy day

Re: Bob's Bits.

Cheers May. What happened to that innocent little lad?