Living In Waterbeach As A Child After The War

A Memory of Waterbeach.

My parents took over The Chocolate Box, a little general store which sold mostly sweets in 1946. I lived there in the old thatched cottage and the attached house, which was called the new house, as it was only two hundred years old (which also included the shop). I always thought the house we lived in was haunted, and my dad, Russell Oddy, thought so too. In fact, he used to swear that he had a very strange experience in that old house. Alex Smyton was our lodger and he experienced it as well. Anyway, it was an interesting house. I remember that we used to get our water from the pump on the Village Green, and our toilet was at the back of our yard, right against the Salvation Army building, and on Sunday mornings you could hear the people singing while you were sitting on the toilet. There was also a poor soul, and I can't remember his name, who used to come and empty our toilets every week. Mum would lock the shop door and pretend it was closed when he was around, because he didn't smell very nice. I left Waterbeach when I was twelve when we moved to Earith, Huntingdonshire. I attended Ramsey Abbey Grammar School, until we left for Canada in April, 1957 and where I live now. I live in Red Deer, Alberta about three hours drive from Banff. I have many happy memories of Waterbeach, and am still in touch with Clara Hayes who still lives there, and Hazel Whiterod (Dickfoss) who lives in Wisconsin.
When I was a little girl, I remember playing with Jeanie Hardingham whose parents ran the White Swan pub and I used to covet her doll and baby carriage, her nice "bought" not hand-knit cardigans and her long dark brown braids. I also remember Crystal Burling and Susan Cook who were my playmates. I often wonder what became of these girls.
My Dad died in 1989, but my Mum, Betty Oddy, is still alive and lives in Perth, Ontario.