Good Old Days In Salford

A Memory of Salford.

I was born in Salford, one of six children to Edith Casey and Ken Casey, their other children consisted of Linda, Alan, Barry, Ken, Paul and of course myself. We lived at number 50 Bury Street which was off Ellor Street. My dad worked at Greengate and Irwell. In those days I can remember playing in the streets, making boogies out of a plank of wood and four pram wheels and a bit of rope to stear it. In those day we were quite poor but we made our own games up and did what we could to keep us amused. The house we lived in was a two up two down with a toilet outside in the yard and a tin bath hung on the back door, with an open fireplace where my mum had to make the fire for the next morning. In the kitchen I remember we had an old square pot sink and an old kitchenette that had a leaf that pulled down. The reason why I remember it so well, is my dad used to put the fire works on the top and during the night I got up, stood on the leaf of the cuboard and it fell over and my mam had to stand me in the sink pulling bits of glass out of me. Then my mum and dad got divorced and we went to live with my step dad George Yates who was a docker at Salford docks. Life was still hard because he did not get much money, so we had to make do with second hand toys and hand me down clothes. My nana, May Whitworth, used to knit us tank tops and balaclavas to wear on the way to school. The schools I went to were John Street, Seedly Vouncil, Tootal Road and Hope Hall. These were all in the Salford area, Places where I lived consist of 128 Nansen Street, 407 Langworthy Rd, 228 Langworthy Rd, 80 Langshaw St, then Little Hulton - moved since then near Bolton/Bury. We had hard times but I will persevere. At the moment I am divorced, have four lads out of the six kids - two passed away, and I have 8 grandchildren at the moment. Our last names then were Casey but now Yates.