Personal Recollections

A Memory of Wingate.

From age 11 to 16 I lived in Station Town from 1950 to 1955, at 2 Rodridge Street,( now thankfully the street has been demolished). When I saw the old photograph of the Main Street it was mostly as I remembered it.  Booth's the Paper Shop was where I had my first Sunday paper job, deliveriing to the Main street, Sinker's Row and eventually finishing with the Pit Manager's House. All for 2/6.  The shop almost opposite Booth's was to feature stongly in our adolescence, it was the Ice Cream Shop, owned and run by Luigi Pirelli. Another prominent place of our attention was further up the Street, The Billiard Room, run by Jack and owned by Domenico's.  I remember an occasion when my Mother, exasperated no doubt by my inattention to schoolwork knocked at the door and demanded I come home.  With the money being won these days, she would probably be telling me to practice more.  I later found work at the Palace Cinema as a young Projectionist with Eric Smith and Walter Gibbons.  I worked there until I joined the Navy.  I have visited the village on a few occasions and have always been saddened by the run-down appearance of the place.  It seems that little attention has been paid to it since the early 60's.  It doesn't seem to matter how old you get, the memories of your childhood, the places and the people you knew, are always kept fondly in your mind.