Post by Les on Aug 26, 2017 7:39:25 GMT
Maidstone I remember it well:
I don't know where to start!!! Finding this site has awakened so many memories!! I used the buses all the time, as neither my parents nor I had a car. I went to the Girls Grammar School on the London Road motorbuses, we were so much better behaved in those days, as there was always a prefect around to report misbehavior, or else an irate passenger would write to the headmistress. The worst thing we did was giggle and eat sweets( forbidden in uniform anyway)
My father worked at Tillings Stevens for over 25 years, he met my mother there in 1930. He worked on a machine as a tool setter, and she worked in the Timekeepers Office. I worked for Kent County Coucil, starting in 1959 when I left school. I wore suits and white gloves to work, everyone was called Mr & Mrs unless you were invited to use Christian names. I went back to KCC in 1994 as a matter of neccesity, and did another twelve years. Things had changed such a lot, even bosses were called by Christian names. The last straw was when I had to attend a workshop in which actors showed us how to behave in an office, one example was not eating chips from a bag whilst ignoring someone at your reception desk. I felt this a real insult after all the years I had worked there!!
Penenden Heath was a nice stroll on a Sunday from where I lived, and I always clamoured to go there. When I was little there was only one big splintery old long swing, which the boys would rock till it smashed into the iron uprights at every move!! Elf'n'safety where were you!!! The Di Marco family had a little tea kiosk there, but often we couldn't afford a cup! When I was older, I played tennis very badly on the tennis courts. I adored the sand pit, despite my mother's lamentations about stains on clothing ( no washing machine then). A few weeks ago I was sitting in the car park by Brewers in the area, and realised that it was actually built in the sand pit and I could see a little of it in the corner!!! It brought a lump to my throat remembering the fun I had there.
: My grandparents, Ethel & Frank Simpson, ran the Working Mens Club until 1953 when they retired. I used to think every gran lived in a cavernous old property with mysterious corners and scary staircases. There was a big concert room where all my aunts had their wedding receptions. The smell of beer/vinegar still takes me back to the cellar, with all the tubes leading to the pumps. We used to spend Christmas there, as we only lived in Perry Street, so it was a short walk. The room where we sat was floored with worn brown lino and all the seats were lumpy, but there was plenty of room to do the Hokey Cokey!! When my gran was dying apparently she kept saying "I've got to get down to the bar".
I am still on the Medway now, we have a little cabin cruiser, so I have had a lifelong connection with the river. The trip boat I remember going on a few times was "The Swan" a lovely old wooden boat. I was in the Information Office at the Town Hall last summer and an old lady asked if "the Swan" still did trips, bless her. There were dozens of real swans by the Old Palace in the forties & fifties. attracted by the plentiful supply onf fruit & vegetables from Foster Clarks, and by all us children taking stale bread down to feed them. The water is much cleaner now, there were huge lumps of pulp from the paper mills floating, plus the fruit & vegetables, and the colour of the river varied with whatever Foster Clarkes was canning that day! There were the wood yards on the bank where the Law Courts are, and a narrow alley to access the bank by the palace due to the wharf buildings there. I have slept there many a time on our boat when attending the River Festival, and it still brings back memories.
Your Civil Defence story brought back even more memories!! In 1968 I was picked by KCC to train in their underground nuclear bunker to run opeations in the event of war. It was scary to think how seriously everyone took it at the time.
I started school on 5th April 1947 at St.Paul's Infants School. It was a grey stone Victorian building next to St. Paul's Church, in Fisher Street. The main hall was divided into three by curtains, and three classes were taught in it at once. There was an ancient green stove at the end of each section (by the teacher's desk!!) but I don't remember any more heating than that. When you started you were known as the "Babies" class, and much derided by the pupils of the loftier ages of 6 plus!! We learned our letters by writing them on sand trays, then shaking the sand to make a clean surface for the next letter. (No-one believes me when I tell them this, but it's true!!) The toilets defied description, and the staff toilet was at the end of the row of pupil's toilets. so the staff must have suffered as well!! Friday was Toy Day, when you could take one of your own toys to school, or play with the very motley collection the school had. There was a maypole in the hall in a corner, but it was never used when I was there. We were sometimes given a sweet for good answers, which during sweet rationing was a real treat. Bad behavior in the Babies class was rewarded by being "Put to bed" on a camp bed in front of the whole class, a shaming experience! I left there at 6 to go to North Borough, which was much more modern, and the work harder. Victorian conditions seemed to affect the atmosphere, but I am glad I had such a good grounding in how to behave at school.