Growing Up In The 1950s

A Memory of Great Waldingfield.

Dad was the village policeman, PC 39. Our family name was Moss. We lived outside the village near the T junction to Little Waldingfield (two farm houses, we lived in one of them).  Dad, mum and my 4 sisiters.  We all attended Gt. Waldingfield school (next to the church then).  Miss Bowers was the teacher.  She lived with her mum and brother in a bungalow near to the Shop.  I sang in the choir at church.  We walked to school (1-1/2 miles) every day.  Some days we took short cuts through the fields.  One day a swan landed on the pond at the bottom of the school lane (but the pond was in a field).  Miss Bowers took us to see the swan, then we came back and drew it in pastel. I remember it like it was yesterday.  Sometimes when we came out of school, the cows were being driven home for milking.  The farmer had a black dog to keep the cows walking towards the farm.  I remember catching sticklebacks in a pond near to where we lived.  At weekends, or in the holidays, I would roam along the hedges and ditches looking for unusual things.  The plants in the hedgerows that fascinated me more than anything, had a long mauve spike in spring and red berries in the autumn, and shiny oval shaped leaves.  Once I lost a packet of fruit gums whilst out wandering along the hedges.  I retraced my steps the same day but never found them.   Mr. and Mrs. Sagon ran the farm next door.  Betty, their daughter, was our family friend.  I was a Brownie (gnome pack) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Miss Bowers was our brown owl.  we never had a television so we made our own entertainment.  Reading, writing, sketching, we did all sorts of things in the short space of time before going to bed after listening to the Archers.  We had no electricity, so we went to bed with a candle.  That was a wonderful experience.  Mum taught me at a very early age to gut a pheasant, and when Christmas came round I always helped her by drawing the pheasants.

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