When I Was Young

A Memory of Chester-Le-Street.

I was born in Newfield,about three miles from the Street, and recall the pictures very vividly and the comments by one other person about the Empire Ballroom. We used to go there every Friday night for the dance, dressed in our best togs, and had a great time, all for a shilling. We had to run down the main street to catch the last General A bus home at 10.40. I met my first ever girlfriend at the Empire, a lovely young lass from Barley Mow, I will not mention her name in case she is on the web, and I do not want to embarass her after all these years. The picture of the paddling pool and swings at the park brings back a lot of memories as well. After spending most of Saturday there we used to call into Woolies and get up to the usual mischief of a few free pens and rubbers for school, well you know what scamps are like... I bet it is totally different now. I left just after I finished school and went to join my parents in Stoke-on-Trent, who had moved down there 9 months previously when my dad got a job in the pits after the one in Waldridge closed. As the song says, 'Those were the days my friend', never to be seen again, but always in my memory...

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