School Days

I lived in Ridgeway, Langwith Junction. Mum would give me a shilling to go to the pictures matinee at the Empire on Saturday morning. It cost 7 pence to go in and 5 pence for sweets, it would be packed with kids, you coudn't hear the film for noise, but what fun. Then out of the pictures and up to railway loco on Eland Road to watch the wagons go up the tipper and emptied into the engines below. Then home, to put on old cloths and get swimming trunks on, a bottle of water, bread and drippimg sarnies and go up to the railway station, on to the bridge and watch trains go under the bridge, and we would stink of smoke. Then into the quarry for a swim, we would make a raft and dive in off it. There would be newts in the water and frogs, but we just played, ate our sarnies and had loads of fun.
Graham Launders