Happy Days

this is only one  of  many wonderful memories i went to school in needham market the junior school and lived at darmsden we were picked up and taken to school by a mini bus we lived in three places in  darmsden the 2nd place was right next door  to a strawberry  field one of many owned by tarston farms further up our road .When it  was time for  picking strawberrys a lot of my friends were bought up in a lorry   and  i  was put  in  charge   to  make  sure  they  picked properly and  didnt  mess about  i was  the  first  one  picking  and  the  last  one  to  finish  i  was  as  brown  as  a  berry  and  loved  it .  one  day  my  mum  came  over  and  and  said  shhs she  then laid  this  very  real  looking  grass snake  amongst  the  strawberrys  well you  should  have  seen  my  mates run  they  screamed   with laughter when  they  saw  what  it  was.  mum used to  litTereally  drag  me  of  i  loved  it  and  i  earnt quite  a bit  pocket  money  i  was  allowed  to  pick  the  special  strawberrys  that  were sent  to  the  tiptree jam  factory  my  friend  susan  used  to  stay  with  us  she  suffered with  hayfever  funny  though  after  staying  with  us  for  a week  she  never  had  it  any  more.she  would  beg  my  dad  to  do  the  gorilla  he  would  come  up  the  stairs  on  all fours  and  making  sounds like a gorilla  and  then  jump  from  one  bed  to  another  thankgoodness they  were  strong  iron  beds.my  brother  and  myself  were christened in  darmsden  church  we  moved  from  darmsden  in  1973  happy  days,