Childhood

High Street c1955
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I was born at Peartree Cottage which was half way down the high street. For a young boy growing up the war was one big adventure. The fire station was opposite our house and they made me some really great wooden toys. As kids we would watch the aerial dog fights, not appreciating people were dying. We made canoes out of jettisoned petrol tanks and collected persex from plane canopies which could be carved into rings etc. After the war my father who had been a Royal Marine returned home and after many and varied 'recession' jobs became the village postman for part of Minster and all of Monkton. He was a village councillor and an ERDC councillor for Monkton and was awarded the Imperial Services Medal for his work. In those days everyone knew each other and my god father Mr Cheesman was the sub Post master. I went to the two village schools in turn and then on to St George's in Ramsgate. It was a really safe place to live and was a fantastic childhood. In the 1950s we moved to 9 Rose Gardens where both my parents lived until their deaths in the 1960s. Now both they and my three sisters, one brother-in-law, one nephew and a niece are buried in Tothill Cemetery.