Born And Bred

Golly - this brings back memories as well - I'm sure I remember Hilltoppers and certainly remember the Carnival ( 1956? ) - I built a 'Robot' out of cardboard boxes and painted it Silver then called it 'Ernie the Government Robot' - premium Bonds had been launched so I guess that was the idea. Anyway I got a prize and I think a picture in the Croydon Advertiser. My Mum worked in the local Co-op and they had those weird wire-guided cash containers and she was at the till - I loved watching these things flying back and forth. My first part-time job was at FJ Brookers Greengrocer's - horrible place and staff, scrubbing celery in ice-cold water then boiling beetroots in boiling water, lifting huge bags of Potatoes - not my thing at all but it was pocket-money. When I left Croydon College I went to work at Clarke & Smiths in Wallington ( my Dad had worked there ) then got a job at Hunts Capacitors in Vulcan Way, and after a serious motorcycle accident a couple of years at Holts Products also in Vulcan Way. I was turned down by Centronics 'on security grounds' as I was in the CND at the time. Spent a year doing the hippy trail to North Africa ( crossed the Sahara in a Mini-Van of all things ) and then worked for Gaskell and Chambers in Thornton Heath ( where I met my wife Evelyn ) and then started my own business making Hang-Gliders!!!! Happy days indeed.

I was born on the boots estate as were my ten brothers and sisters, as like you one my parents were one of the first to own a house in Gascoigne road, went to Wolsey then onto Overbury. Moved away away at 15yrs and still miss the place.

I remember the Spinks family great lads well most of them had a sister she was a nice girl used see them up the Addington Hotel are they still living there

Does anybody remember the Goodyear family lived in Arnhem Drive