Post by Les on Sept 28, 2017 21:06:30 GMT
Country: Canada Maidstone I remember it well:
I lived in Peel Street until I was 7 and then moved to Perryfield Street Maidstone. I went to St. Pauls, Northborough, and Vinters Girls School and played field hockey and netball. I was a Girl Guide for four years and St. Pauls Church Hall is where the meetings were held.
My Dad worked at Sharp's Toffee for 42 years which later became Trebor Sharps then Trebor. I was born in 1943 so I don't remember anything of the wartime but I do remember ration books as well as the Parades with the armed forces including the American Airforce marching through the town.
I remember getting up early and going to Maidstone High Street to the Land Army Office to get on the lorry that took my Mum and me out to the farms around Maidstone (East & West Farleigh)where she used to work planting vegetables like potatoes, cabbages in the winter and early spring and fruit picking in summer.
Come September we always went hop picking and I remember getting on the bus at the bottom of the High Street and us, the children, collecting wood to make a fire to boil water to make tea and jam sandwiches for breakfast; and catching the bus to bring us home and how black we used to look after a day in the hop fields.
I worked at Larking and Larking and Sloman & Pettit in Pudding Lane, shopped at Arthur's Ladies Clothing Store, Chiesman's and Dunnings. I loved Maidstone Market on a Tuesday.
I remember Saturday morning pictures and Flash Gordon. I took swimming lessons at the pool when it was by the river and then later at Mote Park. I used to walk over the high level bridge by Maidstone East Station to meet my Dad from work.
I loved the bluebell woods and the Sheep Wash near Penenden Heath. I remember the flooding and the miner's strike when we had no electricity. I now live in Sooke, B.C. Vancouver Island, Canada.
I come back to Maidstone fairly often and how it has changed! But I remember it all so well!!