YOU ARE VIEWING ARTICLE - ID:20080711023

I have been going back thro my childhood days, which was spent in Runnymede Rd, Intake.

We moved there when I was 4 yrs old from Aneley Road, Balby, I can remember collecting Potato peelings from neighbours and taking them to a guy who kept pigs, in return I would get a bag of Dolly mixtures. I can remember the toilet being in the yard and the tin bath hung on the wall.

We moved to a brand new house in Runnymede Rd, Intake (1929), What a luxury, Toilet & Bathroom indoors and even a coalhouse.

We had a big garden so we grew all our vegetables and during the war years we kept Chickens, I can always remember getting them, I went with my Dad to a Gate keepers cottage on the Railway at Bessacarr and collected these 6 Rhode Island Reds the cost was 10 shillings, the guy stuck his finger up one chickens backsides and confirmed they were on the point of lay. My mother kept a little red book of all the eggs they produced. We would get approx 30/35 eggs a week She would pass some on to the neighbours.

When my brother & I were demobbed (1946) we bought my Mum 2 apple trees. a Bramley and a Laxton Superb, we had Raspberry canes, Blackcurrant bushes, Gooseberries bushes, so we were quite self sufficient.

Dad passed the gardening on to me and my Brother.
We would collect firewood approaching bonfire night and we always had a bonfire in our back garden.

All the kids would come, the Dennis’s, Harts, Nye’s , Hinett’s, Taylor’s, Woodward’s, Gabbitas’s etc.

How things have changed.

Happy memories

Frank Thomas.


Editors Response

Great memories Frank - Thanks for taking the time to share them.

I'm just starting out on a spot of self-sufficiency myself - but not too successful at the moment - plums and blackberries are coming on well - (expect some Villager Jam hitting the shelves in the not too distant future! - ha!) probably because I don't have to interfere, but the cucumbers, aubergines, peppers and tomatoes are less successful!

Regards

There are no pictures to accompany this article