This series of stories will be titled ‘I’m surprised I turned out as well as I did, given my childhood…’ 9

I have to say back then, we were as poor as church mice but as I was only a toddler, I didn’t realise.

Playing with the other kids could get a bit rough sometimes, but again, that’s all I knew and I had that Hill tenacity (still do, so there!)

The rows were immense to my little self back then. Just imagine, houses running for as far as the eye could see – or at least as far as I could toddle.

There was a shop almost right at the end of the row and if we went up there, it was the only time I remember using the front door – way too far to walk all the way around.

The shop as I recall, was actually a house. They had made it into a shop, with old dark wood shelves and a counter. I do remember all the jars of sweeties (well, I would, I was a little-un and the bright coloured sweets were put there just for that reason).

I remember Kayli (pronounced kay-lie – with emphasis on ‘lie’) which was a crystalised sherbet. The jar it was stored in seemed almost as big as me and the colours were poured in at a slant. When a new jar was put out, the colours were all separate and beautiful, like a captured rainbow.

They used a scoop to get the sherbet out and weighed it on a scale.

Not sure if it was like this:

Or this…

And I could be entirely wrong… it could have been like this:

Judd and Mary ran the shop – Judd was a grey-haired old guy and I think I must have been a little afraid of him.

Mary was a small, roundish lady with a really kind nature.

For some reason, I always think of that little shop when I hear the children’s rhyme, Pop Goes The Weasel.

Everything was bought in little paper bags, either brown or white. I seem to remember everything tasted different, better, more tasty I suppose – or is that just my imagination?

On the day decimalisation came to England, I was given a shiny new 2p piece and allowed to go to the shop all on my own!

I don’t remember what I bought, just that there was a mixture of emotions with regards to the money – sixpence was worth 2.5np (New Pence). And half a shilling as worth 5p.

Right at the end of the rows, the Pendean wall ran at 90degrees to the street. The bigger kids could all climb up the wall, but us littler ones had to be content with just watching. I was never content to just watch and I must have tried to climb that wall every day.

The Pendean was a large, old house which was built for the Colliery Manager (I believe). We were NOT allowed in the gardens, but guess what?

They were massively overgrown and magical, it was always an adventure.

The trees that bordered the road at the bottom of the field (must have been a lawn once were beech trees, old, straggly and twisty branches.

The game I mentioned in a previous post, where we cambered from one end to the other without setting foot on the ground was easier to manage one way than the other. If I set off from the side closest to home, I could clamber up, around and through the branches, but not so if I started at the other end.

This is the bottom row. My great-grandma lived on the bottom row This Post.

The vehicle at the far end of the row was approximately where the ice cream factory was.

The wall across the road is where the sporting events took place @s0u1’s post

On the bottom row, there was an ice cream factory. Yes, an actual ice cream-making factory. If the gate was open, we all crowded around to see where the magic happened. I suppose, it was a small-scale Willy Wonka’s for us.

I remember Teddy Bear ice lollies. Shaped like a bear, frozen flavoured water on the bottom (back) and a delicious, creamy ice cream in the shape of the teddy on top. Biting off the ears, or trying to take the ice off the back, leaving just the ice cream is a memory that just came flooding back. Oh boy, did we get messy!