My Holidays At South Shields In The 1940s And 1950s
A Memory of South Shields.
My lovely memories are of going to South Shields from London to stay with my mum's brother, we stayed in Marsden Street and my cousins lived round the corner. We would leave London about 5 in the morning and get there about 10 at night, no motorsways then. We would stop on the way. We would arrive and my aunt would have fish and chips in the oven, it was a fire with the oven at the side of the fire. Going to the beach, there were great big sand dunes on the beach. What lovely memories I had as a child. My father died when I was 14, that was in 1959, and there were no more holidays but I go every year now I am 64 and would not miss going, just to remind me of the wonderful memories I had as a child. I stand at the beach remembering me in the sea pretending I could swim, my mum and dad watching me, with them sitting on the sand. Going to the sweet shop at the top of the road at my aunt's, the lady in the shop calling me flower, the man on a 3 wheeled bike with a big box on the front selling ice cream, what a wonderful time that was. Time to go home, trying to catch my cousing Donald to give him a kiss goodbye, if I could only go back just for one week and live that all again. Going to North Shields and getting some crabs, my aunt put them in a bucket alive in boiling water to cook. The pigeons in the yard and my cousin Eric shaking the tin for them to come back. So many things, cobblestone roads ... Oh dear, back to reality, only to dream of what we had, wonderful parents who adopted me at 6 weeks old, they were in their fifties. I never went without, I wish I still had them, thank you Mum, Dad, forever in my heart.
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THE MEMORIES FROM MARGARET FOYLE SET OFF MY OWN MEMORIES OFLEAVING LONDON ON THOSE GREAT STEAM TRAINS, TO VISIT MY GRANNY NEAR MARSDEN BAY. HER NAME WAS SUSAN WATERS AND MY MUM WAS AGNESS MAVIS WATERS. SHE HAD THREE SISITERS AND AN ADOPTED CHILD CALLED MURIEL. I KNOW VERY LITTLE OF MY BACKGROUND, SO IF THIS RINGS ANY BELLS PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT. WE WOULD LEAVE OUR HOME IN KENSINGTON AND TRAVEL UP TO VISIT GRANNY AND I NEVER REALISED THAT IT TOOK SO LONG! THIS WAS WHEN I WAS ABOUT 8-10 YEARS OLD AND WE WOULD VISIT MARSDEN BAY. I HAD A TIN BUCKET WITH MICKEY MOUSE ON IT. WE ALSO VISITED LATER ON WHEN MY GRANNY GOT CONFUSED. I WENT WITH MY MUM AND REMEMBER SINGING CLIFF'S 'WE'RE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY' ON THE TRAIN. GRANNY HAD ONE OF THE OLD MINER'S COTTAGES THAT HAD COTTAGE GARDENS ALL AROUND AND A WATER BUTT TO CATCH THE RAIN. MY MUM ONCE USED THIS TO WASH MY HAIR AND PUT THE USUAL AMOUNT OF SHAMPOO ON WE USED FROM LONDON TAPS, BUT THE WATER WAS SO SOFT IT TOOK AGES TO GET RID OF THE BUBBLES! MY MUM WOULD HAVE LOVED GOING BACK IN TIME LIKE THIS BUT WE DIDN'T HAVE COMPUTORS OF COURSE. WHILE GRANNY WAS ILL AND WE SPENT TIME THERE, IT WAS VERY STORMY AND THE WIND USED TO HOWL DOWN THE ARCHED SPACES BETWEEN THE COTTAGES. I THINK THEY'VE BEEN DEMOLISHED. THERE WAS ALSO SOME PROBLEM IN MARSDEN BAY WITH A BOAT I THINK BUT MAYBE IT WAS JUST FOGHORNS, ANYWAY THIS ALL COMBINED TO SCARE THIS KENSINGTON GIRL A BIT AND WHEN MY MUM WENT OUT TO GET FISH AND CHIPS, MY GRANNY STARTED TELLING ME TO MOVE BACK FROM THE FIRE 'TO LET THE SOLDIERS GET WARM'. POOR THING WAS GETTING CONFUSED, BUT I WAS GLAD WHEN MY MUM RETURNED. NOBODY REALLY COMMUNICATED WITH ME MUCH AS A CHILD; MY MUM HADN'T WANTED CHILDREN AND PAID A LADY TO LOOK AFTER ME AND MY DAD WAS ASPERGERS, AND I WAS WOKEN LATE ONE NIGHT BY THE POLICE AT THE DOOR WHO WERE SAYING THAT GRANNY HAD DIED. MY MUM WENT BACK TO BED AND TO MARK THIS SOLEMN OCCASION I SCRATCHED A SMALL CROSS ON MY BEDHEAD AND RUBBED A TEAR IN IT. WE NEVER SPOKE OF HER AGAIN! BUT SHE SEEMED A GENTLE LADY AND SHE WAS ALWAYS ASTONISHED AT THE AMOUNT OF BUTTER I PUT ON MY BREAD...SHE REMEMBERED THE POOR DAYS. I THINK MY GRANDAD DIED OF LUNG DISEASE WHEN MY MUM WAS IN HER TEENS, BUT I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HIS NAME. MUM WAS BORN IN 1920 I THINK, AND SHE WAS THEN MARRIED AFTER THE WAR TO MY DAD, ALBERT (BOB) WILBY. SHE WORKED AT ICI IN HOLBORN AND WE LIVED IN CAMDEN HOUSES,PEEL STREET, W.8.
MY NAME THEN WAS CYNTHIA WILBY AND I WAS BORN IN HAMMERSMITH HOSPITAL IN 1949. ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING AS I HAVE SO LITTLE FOR A FAMILY TREE.
A MEMORY SHARED BY CINDY D'LEQUEZ-SAGE ON THE 25TH OCTOBER, 2017.