Good Times

My parents moved into a prefab in Foxglove Crescent when I was 2.  They were still assembling them and German prisoners of war were building the foundations.  Compared to my nan's house they had everything, including an electric fridge which was unheard of then.  The only problem was that in the winter everything froze solid inside, windows, wardrobe doors etc because they were all metal.  We used to go to the village to buy broken biscuits and yesterday's bread and cakes.  There was a village school which I attended in 1948 and got the cane on the first day.  I don't think they liked Prefab kids.  I stayed there until Mardyke School opened and then went to Ockendon Lennard County Secondary School on the new Aveley Estate in September 1954.  The Headmaster was Mr Ernie Barratt, apart from him I seem to remember most of the teachers would cane you as soon as look at you.  Mind you there were 50 kids in a class then, even so there were a couple who nowdays would've been locked up.  I did a paper round from the age of 11 for a Mr Phillips, who had a shop in Stifford.  Mardyke Hill was a killer in the winter with a full paper bag on your back.  It was a great time and place to be a kid growing up.  I remember the freedom, the fields, Bluebell Wood, Sandpit down Buckles Lane, Mr Jarman's farm, the village copper who knew all of us, putting 6 inch nails on the railway track so the steam train would flatten them (mad I know), scrumping, pea picking and the 370 bus.  And as I grew older there was Grays for cinemas, the Kursal at Southend, Royal Oak and Knight of Aveley pubs, the Youth Club and Catholic Church hall for dances (even Romford on occasion). Great friends, laughs and incredibly good-looking girls.  Plus of course looking back, summers were perfect and the snow never turned to slush (it seems compulsory as you get older!).