Childhood

A Memory of North Ormesby.

I was born in the parlour of 25 Pierson Street in 1954. My Mam's name was Margaret (Meg) and my late father was Alf (or Hank) to his mates. He worked on the tugs on the River Tees. I don't have any memories of him as he died when I was four. I remember we didn't have a lot but then neither did most of the street. Mam had me and two sisters and three brothers to look after, not an easy task with no breadwinner but we managed and one thing I always remember was my happy childhood. Playing in the streets with all the other kids, running messages for people, mam telling us not to take money for doing it (but we did). We were told to mind our p's and q's and always say please and thank you. If you saw a policeman you'd run a mile even if you hadn't done anything. Friday night was bath night. We had a tin bath hung up in the yard and we would bring it into the kitchen and fill it up using an Ascot gas boiler, it took forever to fill. No central heating then, mam would let us light the oven and keep the door open to heat the room, then there was the outside loo which froze in the winter so we burned a candle in there to try and stop it freezing, cor, the good old days. I remember the old cobbles in the road being tarmaced, it was great because we could rollerskate up and down the street, if you only had one skate we placed a book or board on top of it and then sat on it to ride along the road or pavement (that's where skateboards came from?). I started Lawson Infant School at the age of five, all I remember was the sand pit some canvas beds outside to sleep on in the afternoon, and the bigger kids playing with hoola hoops and stilts, oh and plastic money and a set of scales. I then went to Smeaton Street School for Boys until I left at the age of eleven. The trolley buses would turn around and head back to South Bank just outside our playground, we would watch the drivers reconnecting the electric supply poles to the overhead cabbles and they would always send sparks flying to the ground. Market day was always good as I got either a toffey apple or a toffey dab and I would run home as fast as I could. Other things I remember, the big lamps the stallholders used in the winter to light up the stalls. There was a pet stall where we bought our dog Kim. My sister Ann went out to buy a hairdryer and came home with him. All in all it was a great place to live, very different from today. My street and all around it were pulled down in the 60s. Well that's a few of my memories, would anyone else like to add to them - feel free.