Happy Times

A Memory of Hopkinstown.

I lived at 25 Oliver Street through the 40's, 50s, and early 60's when I left for University. My grandparents lived at 23 Henry Street. My memories of a childhood in Hopkinstown are all good. The mountain, the Western field and the streets were the places were gangs of us played, and played safely without the kind of dangers that seems to prevent children spending days out of the home. A day on the mountain started at Goslin's the baker to collect a fresh loaf of bread. Dens made in the bracken and swimming in the reservoir above the Tymawr pit. My dad was an underground road man at the Tymawr I used to met him at the pit gate, black with dust and a block of wood under his arm. All this changed with the opening of the pit head baths. We didn't have a back lane at Oliver Street so our loads of coal were dumped on the road and we carried the coal through the house to the coal house out back. Happy times. Norman Thomas