The Guy Outside The Post Office

A Memory of West Drayton.

Opposite the post office at the end of the parade of shops was a dry cleaners owned by what I thought was a rather posh lady who would call me Poppet. My mother cleaned house for them and sometimes I would be taken along to keep me out of mischief. They had two boys that went to private school and were only home for school holidays. Though they were older than me I found they acted a bit young. Her husband was a short stout man dressed in a pin striped suit. He worked in the city and took the train up to London every day. On my birthday the lady said “Poppet I’ve made you a chocolate cake”. I don’t know if eggs were still in short supply but my mother said it was very rich and had five eggs in it. All I can say is that it tasted good.

In the photo there is a service road and shops on the right, back in 1953 this area was full of stinging nettles and I believe some advertising boards. On the other side of the road, outside the Post office is where my brother and I pitched our hand cart with the guy for Bonfire Night. The idea was that people were either putting money in or taking money out of the post office so we would get them one way or the other. We lived down Swan Road at the Coln Park Caravan Site and the adults had organized a communal Bonfire Night. They had built a bonfire that stood about five foot high. This would not do, all the kids on the site mucked in to bring wood from far and wide, we knocked on every caravan for old newspapers. By the time we had finished the bonfire was twelve feet tall. The money we collected from guying was handed over to buy more fireworks. Come bonfire night the mothers provided potatoes to bake in the fire. Everyone had a great time.

The caravan site was on the banks of the River Coln. We boys would fish, sometimes swim, and we had made a raft. This was a platform built on three five gallon oil drums. Having only three drums made the raft into a triangle shape. This was a case of fashion follows what you have available, but it floated and that was all that mattered.

West Drayton is busier, noisier and more crowded today, but you can still see the West Drayton of times gone by, if you look for it.