FOND MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD This short story is a memory from when I was around 12 years old I think! Probably going back 45 years after all! Can’t exactly remember my age but remember the experience with great fondness. Saturdays were my absolute favourite! At dinnertime Mum would give me (I had 1 sister and 2 brothers) money to go to the ‘op Shops’. This was a small group of local shops that had a grocers, greengrocers, clothes/wool shop, hairdressers, sh and chip shop and a newspaper/sweet shop. Firstly I would go to the sweet shop. We were allowed a few pence each. I would get a selection of sweets including fruit salads (which you could get 4 for ½ pence back then) and sherbert fountains amongst other things. Then I would go next door to the sh and chip shop and buy sh and chips or steak and kidney puddings with chips and gravy for us all. These were of course eaten right away after returning home (having added more salt and vinegar of course)! Sometimes after that we would watch the wrestling on TV. (I can remember Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Mic McManus). On occasions we would watch Saturday cinema instead. These were lms were black and white and had either, Shirley Temple, Norman Wisdom or Hatty Jacques in them. Around tea time we would have a snack. This would be called cheese and onion dip. This was basically Philadelphia Cheese, chopped onions and salad cream mixed together. This used to be served up on a small plate with Ritz or Tuc crackers. Later on in the afternoon the papers would be delivered. I used to get comics called Bunty and Mandy and would literally sit and watch waiting for them to come through the door! When they did I would go upstairs jump on my bed and read them straight away. In later times I got Diana and Jackie magazines, read them in the same way but by then I would have posters of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy on the bedroom wall. Later Dad would come home from work having been via `The Offy’ (Off Licence) rst. He would have bought us small bottles of Jusoda pop, tubes of smarties, mint humbugs, pear drops, midget gems and bags of crisps. As you can imagine we were always so happy for Dad to come home on a Saturdays! That evening whilst eating our sweets and drinking pop we would sit together in the lounge watching TV. The programmes I remember are It’s a Knockout and The Generation Game. We did not do this each and every Saturday however. Normally it was during the winter months. During the summer we would travel up to Ambleside in the Lake District and stay at my parent’s caravan. Please write a story telling us about your childhood memories. Ps Hope you enjoy reading this one Pam! (Debs Lovell) LIVErNEWS Issue 74 ~
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~ Spring 2021
