The Days Seem To Go On Forever

A Memory of Pode Hole.

I was brought up in Pode Hole from 1967, my mother Joan is still alive but now living in Spalding, sadly my Dad Ken died in the Fishermans Arms pub on Sept 23 1977. I have a brother Nigel and a sister Susan. We lived at 8, Council House, North Drove. I went to the village school, St Matthews Junior School, and we had to use the Bromley Hall as a classroom, Mrs Cooling was our teacher and the Headmaster was firstly Mr Mills and then later on Eric Long. We had a good upbringing even though times were hard and Mum and Dad didn't have a lot, but they made sure we were fed well and clean. I can remember the school holidays when we used to go fishing in Goldsmiths Pit which is now Lake Ross and playing football on the village playing fields, sometimes leaving the house at 9 in the morning and not going home until dinner time and then straight back out again and then home in time for tea, Mum had no idea where we were but in them days it didn't matter (sadly not the same today)./ Football and fishing was all we had to do as there was no computer games apart from ping pong on an Atari console. Those days went on forever and the weather seemed to be better than it is today. Obviously we used to get into mischief, what child didn't, playing on the drainage board pipes down North Drove and Stan Roberts used to chase us off, we only hoped he never told Dad or we would be in big trouble. I can remember one day Mum gave me 10p to go and get a loaf of bread from Fishers' shop, well in those days I used to run everywhere and I got the bread which was Mothers Pride and always wrapped in a greaseproof type of paper, I was running home just past the pumping station when Walt Fisher shouted and told me that the bread was falling out of the wrapper. I stopped to look and there was a trail of bread behind me so I quickly scooped it back up and put it back in the wrapper and took it home, I never told Mum what happened and to this day I don't think she knows but we all ate it although I inspected it closer than anyone else. Arthur and Gwen Fishers' shop was great and you could get some good sweets from there such as Spangles and Sherbert Fountains. Of course there was Frears Shop a bit further up the road but I prefered Fishers because it was nearer to our house. Then there was Gordon Frear's Garage on the opposite side to their shop, it was in the days when a fiver would fill your car and it would last all week. Dad used to put a pound's worth and got the best part of 3 gallons, oh how I wish it was that cheap today. There was a Youth Club in the Bromley Hall, I think it was on a Friday evening, and I think Bob Hughes used to run it, we couldn't go until we were thirteen, Bob Hughes was very good at table tennis and beat us all. There was a Dansette record player on the stage and I can remember I loved the song of Redbone, 'Yhe Witch Queen Of New Orleans', and I would dance on the stage for ages, the stage was a good place to chat up the girls but I never had any luck, never mind. Some Saturday nights there used to be discos with Pete Marks and Mo Deck and they were good dos. They used to have a bar served through a serving hatch from the kitchen,and if I could I would sneek a quick drink thinking I was all grown up, boy we had a laugh, sadly there were a few fights at the hall and the police were called so the dances came to an end, shame. I recall Edgeley's Garage and I worked there for a while serving petrol, it was ok and gave me a bit of independance. It would be wrong of me to say Pode Hole has not changed, of course it has, it had to, but I still think of it as my home and I do still drink in the Fishermans on occasions and it's nice to see Shaun O'Conner (one of my school friends) doing a grand job and keeping the pub running.

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