My 1st Home

A Memory of Oakley.

I lived at no. 11 Elmwood Cottages from 1950-58 with my parents, brother and sister and have fond memories of the village. We used to collect blackberries to sell to a man with a van who parked on the triangle which is just showing in the forefront of the photo. He would weigh what we had and the money we earned would pay for us to go to Thame fair. Miss Kirby was the infant school teacher and in the winter she would put our morning bottles of milk around the inside of the firegaurd in the classroom, to thaw as they would often be frozen with the tops pushed off. We would then have warm milk to see us through until lunch when we would eat gorgeous meals cooked by Miss Brooks. On my first day at school I was handed a pair of knitting needles and a ball of orange wool to make a scarf for my teddy. Those five stitches took forever to grow, as I constantly tangled and dropped them but I did achieve the ability to knit eventually and think of that scarf every time I begin a new garment.