History Lesson

What a busy day! Dropped Hendrix and Buddy off at school, but before getting there Hendrix walked into a metal pole (it was the pole with a sign saying 'School 20mph). He was obviously hurt, but maybe more shocked as the crying only lasted a minute or so. Glad to say there are no bruises showing.
Got back home after a quick nip to the shops from school, filled up the car with fuel, got home and took Betty to her day care centre.
Marlane has been really busy sorting out, and making stuff, for the Christmas decorations.
Off again at 13:00 to go back to school but this time to talk to Hendrix's class about what it was like in the 1950's for a young boy.
The photos are from South Shields, me and my father at the back of my Grandmothers house and us again posing for a photo in our 'living room' in Corbridge Street, which is shown in the bottom photo.
The photo of the street was not taken when I lived there, for two reasons[
1 - the road was not tarmacked, it was cobbles when I lived there. You can still see cobbles at the beginning of Taylor Street in the bottom left.
2 - that huge shed was not there, you saw the ships being built, towering over the railway embankment. They built that shed so they could construct the ships under cover, maybe they were for military contracts.

It's all gone now, of course. We had two rooms, a living room where we lived, ate, bathed (in a tin tub in front of the fire), listened to the radio, read books, and later even watched some TV (in black & White and only BBC). Childrens TV was only from 5 to 6pm but I loved the children's radio programmes, especially 'Dick Barton, Special Agent', 'Flash Gordon' and 'Journey Into Space'.
The other room was a bedroom where we all slept. Thank goodness I was an only child, maybe it explains why I was!
The only other areas were a wash-house, with a 'Copper' where my Mum would have to light a fire underneath to heat the water up for washing the clothes. A scullery with only cold running water and a gas stove.
At the bottom of the back yard was a toilet which was shared between us and the people that lived upstairs.
It sounds really corny but, we were poor but I had the happiest childhood. And you can see, I was always smartly dressed, probably my father's military background had an influence there.
Things looked up when I was 10 years old (during 1959) and we moved to a brand new council house, bathroom with toilet and bath!, bedroom to myself, twin tub washing machine/spinner, what great luxury that felt like at the time.
The children seemed to like the lesson and asked me some questions;
"Did you have an iPad"!
"Did you have a bike" - Yes, I had a bike, my father was very good at mechanics, and he would get me a second-hand bike and make it look, and ride, as if it was brand-new.
There were others, internet related. What surprised me was how much these 4–5-year-olds knew about the internet!