Christmas

A Memory of Newburn.

This is about Christmas Day 57 years ago, and how things have changed. Even though we had nowt it was still a very exciting time, as it is now, but money was tight and we could only have the presents that each family could afford. What I mean by this is, there wasn't such a thing as credit like today when you, 'buy now, pay later'. We always had our stockings on the end of the bed, filled with nowt fancy, just a handful of nuts, a few sweets, an orange and apple and maybe a tanner (silver sixpence) if you were lucky. The crackers were hand-made as were the decorations, or streamers as they were known then - paper chains were a favourite. We would sit for hours making these in front of the coal fire on long winter nights, the glue was a bit of flour and water mixed. Then there was the alcohol, home-made of course, ginger wine and ginger beer from the ginger beer plant that every household had. I remember, I had learned to tell the time from an early age but a watch wasn't on the agenda in those early years. But wow! What a surprise when I opened my main present, it was a watch and it was a luminous one. I strapped it on my arm and I was off, I called on Bryn and Clem Winters opposite who had also got watches, and off we went around to a little row of terrace houses at the bottom of Albert and Victoria Terrace. These were single storey with the toilets and bin sheds next to each other, across the lane from the houses. How they managed to get across there quickly after a night on the 'broon' beats me. Anyway, there the three of us were, in someone's toilet with the door shut, in the pitch black checking whose luminous watch was the better one in the dark. The door was flung open, and this big bloke (Ivan the Welshman) who was living over the brush with some wifey hollered, "What you doing in there?". We didn't say a word but flew out, Bryn and me each side of him, and little Clem through his legs. To this day I wonder what he thought we were doing in there! If we had said, "Telling the time" I don't think he would have believed us - would you? And I just had to get that in about him livin' over the brush. In fact, I have a photo of him standing with me da and Mr Syrett the rent collector, Ivan is holding a baby, I later found out this was my sister. Another great toy was a bagatelle, this was a wooden small table-top toy that worked in the same principle as the pin ball machine. It was about three feet long, arched at the top and had a skirt around it about inch and a half high, to keep the ball in. The bed was covered in small pins which guided the ball, and a spring pull to set the ball in motion. Maybe this was the first patent of the game! The kaleidoscope was another great gift but after a while of seeing all the different shapes I took it to bits to see what was inside (just like the trumpet in the Sally Bash). There was nothing fancy in there, just some different coloured bits of foil and a few mirrors, but then it wouldn't go back together. Then there was the Roy Roger uniform and six guns, funny how no one ever wanted to be the baddie. I once got a wooden fort with all the soldiers etc, but it really never did anything without you having to put a lot of imagination into it. Me Da, came home with a dolls' house for my sister one Christmas, it was massive, and had electric lights in it. The whole front opened up to reveal all inside. The Dandy and Beano annuals were a firm favourite, then came the Topper and the Broons. Vicky used to fill my stocking with this one up to about three years ago. Roller skates were another favourite, but they were too tame for me. My request to Santa was for hobnails for my boots, which I always got a packet. It was more fun getting up speed on the footpath down Francis Terrace with me hobnail boots on, and sparks flying off the bottoms as you got up to a hundred mile an hour. The train set was a toy to die for, even though it was only a circle about two feet across, the thing was you never had room to lay anything out in those tiny little flats. If you got some points and a siding you hit the jackpot. Then there was the little toy tin boats which were propelled by lighting cotton wadding soaked in paraffin, these we sailed down the Winnin. Mechano was a brainteaser which soaked up hours of your time, trouble was we only got the basic one as that's all our parents could afford, so there was only a limited amount of tasks to carry out. The well-off kids whose houses I had visited got motors, cranes and pulley wheels with theirs and could build a multitude of things. I won't name these kids as it might cause a little bit of embarrassment. But there were a couple of very wealthy families not far from our little terraced streets. But Yi Na, the best toys cost nought, two ostermilk tins and a length of string was our walkie talkie. Then the flying arrow, a thin straight bit of wood with dart flights at the end (actually these were made out of tab packets), a notch near the point, a piece of string with a knot at the end fitted snug in the notch then you sent it flying with the length of your arm. By did they go, if one of these hit you it would be curtains.

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