DO YOU REMEMBER 01

DO YOU REMEMBER 

Marion Anthony

 I can remember going to our nan and granddads house on a Sunday morning with my parents, two sisters and baby brother. I was about four years old.

We had to walk over a railway bridge where the steam train passed and was excited to see it coming down the track, with all the plumes of grey/white smoke.

We would stop at the sweet shop on the way.

Our granddad’s garden was square and had borders that held dahlias, pinks and carnations. He loved his garden.

We would race up to the front door, to be the first to knock.

The flooring was Lino in the hallway and on th parlour floor.

The living room had a large fireplace, with seats either side of it. Nan had a toasting fork too!

The smell in the scullery was of brussel sprouts cooking, mixed with the heat and smell of washing powder from the copper boiler in the corner.

There was a coal cellar where we would play hide and seek but only when it was nearly empty.

Nan would get out the Nice biscuits in her tin and hand them around.

We would stay all day and have tea with them.

We would sit on the tall black leather dining chairs with arms and ornamental backs. We called them the king chairs.

On Sunday mornings the fresh seafood man would push his barrow through the streets and stop outside the pub to sell to passers by. Granddad would bring them home to nan, after his midday drinking session. There were cockles whelks and shrimps in brown paper bags.

When we sat up the table for tea, we had a pin and had to pick the winkles out of their shells, and take the heads off too.  The heads & tails of the shrimps had to be pulled off too!

Nan would hold a crusty loaf of bread under her arm and slice the end off after, buttering it first.

I remember a large kitchen back door step.

My big sister, Pat when she was small, caught her finger in nans mangle and lost the top of her finger.

In his garden granddad kept rabbits and chickens. I remember all the hutches and the chicken runs.

 He grew cabbages and we would count all the caterpillars on them. 

At the end of the garden was a wooden gate that led to an alleyway,that led to the road.

I remember one day granddad was having a shave and he said Give me a kiss. As I lent forward, he moved his face and I got all the shaving cream on my face. It was a shock. We laughed!

One Christmas our six cousins came to nan and granddads house.

I remember the sausage rolls and, chocolate cream father Christmases, wrapped in coloured paper. They tasted so good. I have never forgotten them!

Until recently moving out of the area, I would stand outside nan and granddads house and remember my happy childhood and these very special times that shaped my adulthood.

 

Copyright Marion Anthony