The Day I Was Born

A Memory of Burnt Oak.

I was born on 22nd June 1948 at 95 Dryfield Road in the front main bedroom of my nans's house. We lived there until I was 8 when we left my nan's and moved to St. Johns Wood in London. My nan lived there until I was in my teens when she was asked to down-size and moved to Kilburn. The railway from Mill Hill to Edgware ran at the bottom of our garden with three trains a day (it may have been two, I can't really remember). I can remember playing in the street until it got dark. We used to walk in the summer to Mill Hill open air baths for the day and if mum could afford the bus fare we would get on the number 52 at the top of the road to Kingsbury lido. Another highlight was a walk through Watling Park on a Saturday with my nan to Watling where we would go to Sainsbury in the Edgware Road. We would queue up at different counters i.e the butter counter, the tea counter and the fresh meat counter. This was so boring but had to be done because if I was good we went to the Express Dairy on the corner of Watling and had a drink and a cake. After moving away I used to travel on the tube to Burnt Oak station and get the bus to the tope of the road to visit my nan and spend week ends with her. My best friend was a girl called Kathleen Mizen ( known as Shushee - I don't know why). She belonged to a big family but always had an open door. Another neighbour was Smithy. (Mrs. Smith). She lived 3 doors away from us. Next door was Mr. and Mrs. Mills. He was a window cleaner and kept chickens. He would always give me and my brother and sister the first new lay eggs on Easter Sunday morning. My nan would boil them for us and we would have them with soldiers.

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