Tab Packets

A Memory of Newburn.

I was eleven in this year 1954 and me and the lads were by this time avid collectors of anything, tab packets was top of most lists, we would scour the streets and gutters wherever we went for that elusive cardboard. The bins behind the Conservative Club proved quite lucrative, so was outside the Imperial Pictures, especially if there was an epic film on and the queue was long, as soon as the doors opened I would be there following behind, eyes darting left to right. Here are a few names to jog your memory, easy ones first. Senior Service, Players, Capstan, and Capstan full strength, which I later found out to be the hardest tab to finish, by, was it harsh, Woodbines for the Geordies and it was Players Weights for the Cockneys, Kensistas, Craven A, Black Cat, Turf with its cards but that's another line. Piccadilly, Passing Cloud, Pasha, Camel by these honked, Gold Leaf, Three Castles, Four Squares, Gold Flake, Du Maurier, Pall Mall, Three Threes State Express, I am sure there was also Three Sixes State Express, Pall Mall, Chesterfield, Churchmans and this little posh one called Sobanie Cocktail, these came in different colours and had a gold band around them. Almost all of these tabs came in fives and tens only, but then came some tabs new on the market just a couple of years later called Dominoe, they were produced in packets of four and cost a shilling (about 5p). Now if I remember right, not many people I've spoken too can remember these. One shop we used to buy these from was the paper shop next to the Engine before and after Walbottle School. "Are you old enough?" was all that was asked. But there wasn't the stigma as there is now, and I must point out that I packed in smoking about 8 years ago and have never touched one since, just thought I would get that in.
The other day a word came to mind and how it came about beats me, it was a word that would get you out of all kinds of predicaments, if you played a game and you were about to be caught you would just cross your fingers and shout "I've got skintchies" then the other lad would shout "Na! I got skintchies first", then the battle would commence, wrestling each other to the floor, it was always quite fair because if you got on top of someone you would say "Give in", if they didn't you would stay on top with all your might until the lad give in, one no-no was hitting someone when they were on the floor. I hope someone can tell me what else the word would be used for.
Down the Winnin was our playground with Samples Yard etc which I've told you about in other memories. We had the monkey puzzle tree on the other side of the burn, loads of bushes where you could hide forever more, these had a name, The ------ Bushes as the Millfielders will know, but because of the racial discrimination these days I don't think I would be allowed to say it. We had many a camp in there and in the centre was a a small meadow where we would while away the days picking sour ducks, digging for pig nuts, and getting broad-leafed grass to play a tune in our thumbs.
Bob Biggins was older than us, and he was a fireman at Kirtons Brickyard, but he was a big kid at heart and we were all in his gang for a while because his Da had a little Austin Seven which he kept in a shed-like garage down there. The recent heavy snow brought this memory back. Bob borrowed the keys to this little car without his Da knowing and I can still picture the night in question. There was about six of us, the moon was full, the snow was thick and there were no street lights here but it was bright as could be, there wasn't a road as such but with the constant use the ground was always hard and it was packed with ice. No one ventured down here at night. We followed Bob to the locked gates, pushed the car out and gave it a bump start, the little car snorted to life and in we all piled. Bob was crashing the gears, and I thought "I hope he can drive", off we went down the bank and up the other side out of the Winnin, only the little car couldn't make it up the ice-packed bank and we began to slide back over, then we began to spin around, heading back towards the freezing water of the Burn which we never reached as we ended up with the car on its side in a snow drift. We all clambered out, pulled the car back on to its wheels and managed to get it back in the garage. To this day Bob's Da never found out. Good for Bob!

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