When I Was A Child

A Memory of Saham Toney.

We lived in the hamlet of Saham Waite - about a 2 mile walk for my mother with the pram and 3 older kids every time she needed some shopping. My Granny worked as a cook/housekeeper for a nearby farm and I think we got the cottage as part of that deal. There were only 2 cottages and Baldrow's Farm in the hamlet. Neither cottage had electricity and Mum and Granny cooked on the range and we used candles and paraffin lamps for light. Us kids had the freedom of the land! We were out all day. There was a pond with coypus that we were warned not to go near, so of course we did and we were also warned not to eat the opium poppies in the field where the pond was - so of course we played shops with them - I don't remember actually eating them! I once found a sword in a ditch but during a quarrel with my brother, he took it and then lost it and we couldn't find it again. We moved to Overstrand when I was about 8 or 9 but I will always remember the feeling of freedom in Saham Waite. I remember one day lying face down in a cornfield, on my own, when I was about 7 and smelling the earth and even at the time, I remember thinking this is an important smell, I will always remember this and I always have! School we went to on the school bus and it was a delight when it snowed too much for the bus to come. Twice a week there was a grocery van delivery and the fizzy drink man was a big treat - cherry was my favourite. We had sixpence to spend on sweets and must have driven the man mad trying to decide, although he never showed it. The cottage next door was where Jennifer Tye lived - my friend and enemy. Her father once told us that we would wake up dead if we ate elderberries and I was frightened to go to sleep that night. I remember chasing a hare across the four acre and how I learned that hares zigzag but rabbits run straight. My brother once turned on the tap for the tractor fuel in Baldrow's farmyard and flooded the place but Farmer Baldrow was so fond of him that he said it didn't matter. My mother was beside herself. He also drove the tractor into a ditch once, at the age of 3, when the farmer left him on the tractor while he did something or other from the trailer - again, no trouble, my brother could do no wrong! Love to hear from anyone who might remember us, the Kelly/Dewar family from those times. My sister and I went to Watton Primary. All the best,
Christina Kelly

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