My Dads Shop

A Memory of Idle.

I always remember my dad's tuck shop in Idle, we were the end cottage on Albion Road next to the school. I was only 5 years old when we moved away but it's funny how memories, even at such a young age, stay with you. I remember walking what seemed a long way up the hill on Albion Road to go see my Uncle Fred, he wasn't my real uncle but my dad's friend, and he had a shop at the top of the hill in Idle. He would always give me some sweets and say 'Does your dad know you are up here?'. I would say yes but he didn't always know. I went to infants school but I can't remember the name of the school, only that I used to walk there which seemed a long way for little legs. It was down the hill on an estate. We had a black labrador called Bruno and because we were the end cottage we had a very small garden up the side and my dog would jump over the gate, it seemed enormous to me as a little kid.
We were always busy in the tuck shop and we sold lots of sweets to the school kids when they came out of school. My dad was called Roy and my mum Irene, my mum is originally from Scotland. The shop always seemed very busy. My memories are good ones of my friend across the road, Janie North, and Susan Pedley who lived down the road. I was always somewhere, and it seems in this day and age you certainly couldn't have the freedom that kids had then. I remember the Salvation Army playing on the green on a Sunday. Lovely memories.
We moved to East Bowling where my mum and dad had another shop, on Lister Avenue. We lived there about 4 years before moving down south, but eventually moving back to Halifax in 1970-71. My dad never had another shop after Lister Avenue. We now all live (including Mum and Dad) in Torquay, Devon. We have been here for 15 years but my memories of Yorkshire are never far away. My mum and dad are getting on a bit now and are both 81 this year, but both remember their days in Idle and Lister Aveniue in East Bowling. I recently went back to Idle and was saddened that our old shop, although it had still been a shop until recently, was not ocupied, and the whole block of cottages were unoccupied. And it seemed very quiet to what had once been a very busy spot, but I saw in the shop window a sign which read TO LET. Does anyone remember the tuck shop in the 1960s on Albion Road? It would be lovely to hear from anyone that does.

---

---