Childhood Memories

A Memory of Hayes.

I moved to Spencer Avenue, Hayes, when I was 5 and the war had just finished. My earliest recollections were of starting school at Yeading Lane and walking there through thick snow. Luckily we had school dinners so mum only had to make the journey twice a day. Down our street were what must have been young families as I recall lots of friends all the same age as me, amongst them Rita Stamford, Valerie Moores, Martin Webb, Iris Spencer and Erica Barker. My dad made me a bike from odd parts and I cycled up and down Spencer Avenue really proud of it. It was safe then, as I can only remember 2 cars in the streeet at that time. I went back to visit a few years back and could not believe how small the street looked. We children all used to disappear indoors at 6.45pm to listen to Dick Barton and then all the great comedy programmes such as Life with the Lyons, Rays a Laugh, Up the Pole and Take it from Here, etc. No such thing as television in those days. Saturday morning would be pictures at Southall Odeon with a sing song in the middle of the showings. I would go on the trolley bus with friends and we would buy as many sweets as the ration book allowed (also how much mum could afford). There was also a blacksmith's forge on the Uxbridge Road where a lovely smell of burning hoofs came. We used to lean over the gate-door and watch him hammering away at the horse shoes.

Anybody got any similar memories or remember me? Doreen Perry then. email doreen.w@tiscali.co.uk

---

---