East Ham 1966/1968

A Memory of Barking.

I moved from Dulwich in 1966 as my father was in the army.We lived in the TA camp on Vicarage lane and I went to Vicarage Lane School. My maiden name was Mcnickle. I attend it for 18 months then went to Burges Manor which I have since found out is called Langdon School. I only went for one term as my father retired from the army and we moved to Northern Ireland as both my parents are from there. I have lovely memories of Vicarage Lane school. In my last year we went on a school trip to Germany. I remember my mum giving money every Monday morning to pay for the trip, if my memory is correct, I think it was half a crown, not sure how long it look to pay for the trip but in those days I'm sure it was hard getting the money together to send me. I really did have a great time. I also remember every Saturday going up the high street to do my mum's shopping and going into the market which I loved and would walk around for hours maybe having enough pocket money to buy a single record before getting the bus back home. There was a sweet shop in Vicarage Lane and every night my dad would give me 6d for a 1/4 of bom boms, by the time I got home I had eaten half lol. There was also a clothes shop were my mum used to buy me dresses. She worked in CA in the stock room, her name was Marina Mcnickle, sadly she is no longer here as she died 5 year ago. My father is still living, he is 85 this December. As I have said, we lived in the TA camp on Vicarage lane. I do remember one funny thing, my brother Clifford found these kittens; as my mum didn't like cats she told him to go and give them away to good home. My dad had been away from the camp that day and on his return he saw my brother with a box and a sign which said kittens for sale. He didn't sell any, he was always a bit of a step toe. He himself went into the army and served for 22 years. He now lives in Gloucestershire. I am still in Northern Ireland in a little village in the Mourne mountains called Annalong.