This is when I started remembering a little more! Some very very early memories for me would be my primary school which would have been Cookridge Primary School. I don’t remember getting driven there too much. I was a mile from our house in Moseley Wood Gardens. We’d usually be walked to Green Lane by adults. Green Lane was a busy road and about 400m from home and then we could walk the rest on a quiet road with one crossing that had a lollipop lady to stop the traffic. I’m guessing I didn’t have a great attention span and seemed to spend a lot of the first few years getting told to stand outside the classroom with my head to the wall usually for calling out and interrupting. The classroom was just down the corridor from the headmistresses office. I used to be petrified I’d get spotted by the head, but never did from what I recall! We had a chess club at school, I was a regular and loved it. Giles, my best friend, was who I wanted to beat, and he was into it too, the games were always close! There was one kid who’s name I remember well, Thomas. He would beat us both every time!
School milk was another memory that sticks in my mind. We always got ⅓ of a pint a day, but it was always left outside the classrooms, so summer time it was warm to the point where sometimes it was off and curdled! Sometimes birds had pecked the top but that didn’t stop the teachers getting you to drink it as there was only enough for the number of students! It came in a glass bottle with foil on top. We’d always get a blue plastic straw to drink with. We’d pop it through the foil, if the birds didn’t get there first.
Maths was the subject I loved, it was always a race to see who could finish first, maybe that’s why I loved it, that competitive streak. Paul Moore was my desk partner and who I’d usually be in a race with to finish first! Mr Doyle whose house was just down the road was my teacher probably in year 5. He sticks in my mind as we had drama classes with him and I wanted any part I could, he didn’t seem interested in giving me a part until the position of guard dog came up! I’d have to hide under the desk and jump up and bark loudly when someone walked past. It is fair to say he was suitably impressed with my dog acting ability!
School dinners back then are worth a mention. They were supplied free and looking back it couldn’t have been more unhealthy. Spam fritters were a popular dish, so much so I can’t remember much else. We’d always get 2 stainless steel bowls of veggies for the table or 6 , but the one I remember most was cabbage, it was an obvious choice as it was cheap! But the main reason I remember is because one time I finished off our tables and a few other tables worth! I was so stuffed with cabbage when leaving and walking up the corridor I expelled the lot with enough liquid to cover the corridor from wall to wall! As far as I can remember, every meal came with dessert. Again maybe I’m forgetting but it seems every day was a tray full of baked sponge cake often with a topping such as jam. To wash it all down was custard. This could come in a few flavours and colours, vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, and maybe we had mint flavour sometimes too!
My other memory of primary school was 2 black boys who were twins and were known for being the bad boys in school. I think it was Peter and Paul, well one day there was a ginnel we took to get home that was bordered by some scrub and a big wall that as it turned out belonged to a policeman’s house. There were a bunch of old bottles in the scrubby area so me and one of the black kids proceeded to throw them at the wall smashing them everywhere until the policeman poked his head around the corner or his wall and beckoned us over! We were scared stiff but he was nice and just gave us a dustpan and brush and sent us down to sweep up the mess! My dad had been waiting at the busy Green Lane road crossing for us and ended up walking up to see where we were. He could have a short temper sometimes and shout at us but to my surprise was very relaxed about it all and took it in his stride!
The royal jubilee was this year. My Aunt Dorothy and family lived in London so, in true dad style, we had somewhere free to stay. To be fair dad got on really well with Dorothy and they were really close and she chatted to him just about every day after his stroke and was the one who realised something was wrong when he finally passed away. Their house was in a cul-de-sac and I remember a big street party with a marquee. I got some sort of souvenir spider and there were jubilee mugs, spoons and other memorabilia that we all received. I can’t remember to
o much else about what we did apart from a trip to Hyde Park. John and dad picked up Dorothy and pretended to swing her by the legs and arm into a pond, it was all in jest until they both slipped on the mossy side and Dorothy did in fact go in the drink! She got pretty soaked and the final insult came as she stripped down in the car to change just as a double decker came past and everyone from the bus was able to peer in! There are photos from the next year in 1978 for Trafalgar Square, Heathrow Airport, Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards and Rachel and I on a Bactrian camel, but I’m pretty sure this was 1977 too!
My great grandad’s 100th birthday was this year too! This seemed like a huge deal to me, getting a letter from the Queen to boot! We all went down to Kent for the celebration. We had some half canadian cousins, meeting them in Whitstable was a special treat too as they took us out and bought us sweets, that for us was super generous. He’s been living with my aunty Lilley ever since I could remember and he’d sit there smoking his pipe not saying much when we visited at various times. The other fact that had me in awe of him a little was he’d driven steam trains way back when they first started appearing. His original house was an old terraced house right on the railway line in Faversham, I remember dad showing that to us one time but I never remember going in.
I remember Clifford Pye’s birthday party that year, it was at the Odeon cinema in Leeds. Star Wars had just been released and we’d always gone to the smaller cinemas in Headingley in the past, so a trip into Leeds to the big cinema was a special treat. I remember being astounded by the length of the line that went all the way around the block – no internet bookings back then! It’s funny where life takes people, Clifford and his brother Daryl would have been some of my best mates growing up. Clifford, from what I’ve been told, basically drank himself to death in his later years. His parents were very proper, they always had an immaculate garden with lots of beautiful flowers. They were never too happy as we often used their gate posts as goals for soccer and often the flowers would get smashed up, or the house was close enough and the window would get bashed with the ball, they really got hit hard sometimes and I’m surprised the glass never broke! This would usually result in one parent coming out and shouting at us to go and play up at the cricket pitch or elsewhere!
The house was pristine and I didn’t usually get invited in, it was funny because Clifford was one of the snottiest kids I knew and usually had something hanging out of one of his nostrils. One of his favourite things to do with it all was to spread it on the tops of one of his walls and wait for it to dry before peeling it off!
I think this was the year I started piano lessons somewhere in Headingley, I only continued for one term and I remember Rachel being annoyed as she had to continue. I’m not sure if it stuck with me, but my mum’s comment that I had no musical talent hence I’d have no further classes stuck in my mind. I’m sure she was correct but a bit more of an introduction to music might have been nice. I did start up the trumpet in year 7 or 8 but that was short lived with the neighbours complaining about the racket. I was pushed out into the cold porch to do my practice for the short time it lasted. Rachel advanced off the piano to the flute and up to to grade 8 and performed in Carmen for a small part for Opera North through school. Mum loved her opera, piano and singing and we probably showed up the family when she was once a fairy in Iolanthe for Opera North at what I think was the Grand Theatre and we sat at the back on the balcony sniggering. We’d often hear her renditions as she practised while playing the piano at home.
There were 2 other kids who I used to hang out with who lived close by, one was Stuart Camm and we were impressed with his family as his dad worked for Leed United. His mum Unis was always nice to us and still lived in the same place when my dad passed away. I’m not sure why we stopped hanging out with him but my memory of him would be when he traumatised me by locking me in a cubby hole under his house – I can remember screaming and crying until he let me out and then taking off for home!