THE GOLDEN YEARS

By John Barber

THE GOLDEN YEARS

 IN THE EYES OF JOHN BARBER

THE PATH I TOOK IN MY LUCKY LIFE

What a start I had in my life, my father died when I was two and my mum was left with five kids .My two brothers, Charlie and Derek were put into a home and my two sisters Lyn and Cindy were put into a different home and me I was left with my Mum as I was to young .Mum had to do this as she couldn’t afford to keep us all, it must have been an absolute nightmare for her. After losing her husband and putting her children into a home. She had to visit my sisters on a Saturday and my brother’s on a Sunday .Mum got through it, people were a different breed then (stronger). Mum remarried and had two more children we seemed to come back as a family & we would go on holiday to Jaywick and the Isle of Wight, they were great holidays. Now as I said at the beginning I had a lucky life a Mum who loved us so much and who would do anything for us and did. Growing up was great in our house especially at Christmas even with seven of us. Mum would find it hard to keep food in our mouths and get us presents especially when our stepfather had no work. I remember Mum taking us to our local mayor and Mum would tell him of our plight and he gave her some toys (what a great man)I don’t think that would happen now days. I remember bread and dripping that was the best (not very good for you in this day an age with all the dogooders watching what you eat.) Now you read some of the bad things I have written early on in my life I'll give you a few good things. I was very good at sport, football was my talent. I started playing for Lancastrian school football team a year early as I seemed to show good skill with the ball and I was a strong runner (bread and dripping see what I mean?) Mum would come down the school with sweets for my brother and sister and I, normally penny sweets, do you remember flying saucers, penny snakes & shells? Great all right, so over the years I have lost a few teeth I still have got my own. Click here . http://www.pennysweetshop.com/ .to order your own penny sweets. Television programs that I liked were Steptoe and Son and Dads Army they were great, even at a young age the whole family would watch. We had a TV that had a coin box at the back, you would put sixpence in the meter and the TV would come on. Then just as you were getting to an interesting bit bang the screen would go off, never mind we were lucky to have one. The man who use to collect the money from the meter was called Sammy and he was about 30 stone but would always be smartly dressed in a suit. He would bend over the back of the TV to collect his sixpences and us as kids would laugh at his bum cheeks above his waistline (I'm sure he knew but wouldn’t let on.) He would always give us a sixpence each, another nice man. Some of the programs we watched when I was very young were Windy Miller (From Campbellwick Green) and Andy Pandy . I remember for my birthday when I was six getting a Windy Miller and being overwhelmed by it and taking it everywhere even to bed. Andy Pandy, Teddy and Loopy Loo was a classic in it’s day and was the top children’s program. Me and my brothers and sisters would sit in our front room and watch programs like this and be totally wrapped up in the stories. Later in the late 1960s we moved to Devonshire Gardens in Tottenham. Which in it’s day was a lovely street (and to this day even now that I have moved out of the area I still class it as my home.) It was a Cul-de-sac which meant there wasn’t many cars that went up the street. As a kid growing up in Devonshire Gardens we could play out quite safely sometimes we were out all day playing. I used to play football there would be loads of kids (in those days there were so many more big families ).We would have a match from one end of the street to the other, it couldn’t happen now day’s with all the cars and the safety aspect of kids going outside. My kids will never have the freedom I had which is a real shame. Another thing I liked alot was going to jumble sales with Mum on a Saturday morning at St John Church in Tottenham Mum used to buy a lot of our clothes from there .I remember Mum buying me a bike from there because I drove her mad, pestering her for it I think it was £2 and about 4 sizes to big for me. I never had a bike before and I remember riding over the park . I was riding towards the park gate putting the brakes on the brakes not working and me going straight over someone’s wall. It was all great fun, I just picked myself up and put it down to being stupid(basically next time make sure the brakes work properly!) There were many things that I could mention but that’s just a little taster for now of my life in the sixties

THIS IS A TRIBUTE TO MY MOTHER.

    HAZEL MAY SAUNDERS

.   WHO SADLY PASSED AWAY 15.01.02

VISITORS CAN E-MAIL ME WITH THEIR STORIES OF THE 60S AND 70S AND I WILL USE SOME OF YOUR COMMENTS ON MY VISTORS PAGE CLICK HERE slicks@johnbarber1.co.uk