Good Old Days

A Memory of Goldthorpe.

My memories were of the club trips, they would have been a lot of people's holidays. Our dad would have been a member of at least four clubs so that meant we got a trip to the seaside, a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps, and the sick bucket if you couldn't travel well.
I remember the pit sports days, coming from a big family it was like Christmas in July because I won a lot of races. I remember the matinee club at the cinema, I sang every Saturday and won the competions, I loved it. I remember Walker's fish and chips, Pete's fish and chips, tin can alley, big yard bonfires, Miss Grose at Dearnside, collecting wood for Bonfire Night and the big lads keeping watch so nobody pinched it, scragging Grundie's ( betting shop man's) apples, giving his bulldog sweets while we nicked them, pea picking, and sitting on the wagon at 6 am singing on the way to the pea fields, Horner's shoe shop, my mam ran the shoe club so everybody got a new pair of shoes every 20 weeks, and playing on the council yards on weekends on the big steam rollers opposite the Christ Church. Also Cadman's corner shop on Main Street, Atkin's penny ice lollipops, Revel's tripe shop, listening to the pigs squealing because they shot them at the back of the shop, the smell from there was horrible. Also the May Queen processions through the streets, and the Remebrence Day processions through the streets, with big bands from all over. I even remember the Coronation party in Main Street were I lived, and the Salvation Army every Sunday.
Those were the days, playing whip, we had two teams, one team ran off ,the other team had to come find us and when they spotted us they would run back to the base shouting "Whip" and all the other team would have to get back to base. And standing outside the pubs at night saying "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" for their coins, and meeting the bus coming onto our street on race week, with people coming from races, they would throw their change up in the air,. Also playing whip and top, doing a show in the back yards and charging a penny to watch, running errands for neighbours for 3d to the Globe shop. I loved our Woolworth's, going and buying lipstick from there called Pink Ice, the orange jusoda, I loved it, pinching empty bottles from back of the pubs with a stamp on it taking it back and getting 3d on it, taking out veggy peelings to Smithy's for his chickens and pigs and getting 6d for them, the rag and bone man giving you a balloon for your rags, and Granny putting rags in my hair so I had ringlets the next day.
I was from a family of 11 kids and loved every day of my life, at home we all had manners, we were all fed well and none of us were overweight or rude or had attitudes or we got the cane off Mam and were never allowed to chew chewing gum.