"Trains and Boats and Planes" "The Runaway Train"
The train journey took ages and a lot of it was in the dark. Not because we didn`t travel during the day, but because there were a lot of tunnels to go through. When the train went through the long ones we had to keep shutting the carriage window to stop the soot and smoke from the engine coming in. The little round light bulbs in our carraiage flickered all the time.
We`re under water now" said Dad. He said that the river Severn was above us, I was worried we might drown in all that water. Rosie wasn`t worried though and she said she was looking forward to meeting our cousin Jessie.
We arrived at the house and were soon outside in the street. Our uncle John was working as a dairy man and his cart was parked outside in the cul-de-sac. The horse was very placid, so we were allowed to play around on the cart. It was a sunny day, and we pretended to be milkmen and women going off on a journey some where. Jessie was a bit older than us.
A lasting image that sticks in my mind from this visit to Caldicot was of my Dad and another man chasing my auntie around the living room trying to catch hold of her. She was very pretty and I suppose was very popular with the men. She tried to avoid them by standing behind some chairs, but they still managed to reach her. She gave a few shreeks and the horseplay stopped very quickly.
We went to our other grandparents cottage and there we met our Dads parents. Their names were Thirska and Mark. They had lived at our home in Bath for a while until just after 1948 when I was born. They had to move out as there was not enough room in our little terraced house. I remember them using our front room to live in, and my bedroom to sleep in. The bedroom was not very big, but you could just about get one single bed in each alcove either side of the fireplace. Mark was an A.R.P. warden in Oldfield Park, Bath during the Second World War. (Air Raid Patrol)
"Back to Oldfield Park, Bath."
This year was quite busy for Rosie and me. We were being allowed out in the streets on our own by now. We used to go up to the park together quite a lot when Rosie was not at school. Rosie was at Moorfields Infants school in Oldfield park. Me an Mum used to walk up together to meet Rosie from school. I was due to start school there at easter term next year.
On Saturdays we used to go into our Dads bedroom very early, he gave us our weekly pocket money then. We started off getting one ha`penny (half old penny, worth about 0.2p in 2010). We would rush off down the road to Mr. Reynolds shop and decide what to buy with it.
Sometimes we would stand outside the shop in the telephone box and wait for children to buy sweets from the machine that was fixed to the sweet shop wall. These machines were set to give out two packets of sweet chews (4 pieces in a pack aboit 1"(2,5cm) x 3/4" (1.8cm) x 3/8 (1 cm)" in size every fourth coin. We would rush out of the box after counting how many coins had gone in, then we would put our penny in that we had got from Mr. Reynolds for our two Halfpennies. This way we got a whole packet each (a very early buy one get one free shopping experience!)
On Sundays we were sent off to the Church in The Triangle, (a road at the far end of Moorland Road not far from the Oldfield Park railway station).
This weekly occurence was a bit of "quality time" for our Mum and Dad.
At "Sunday School" we were taught about the bible. When you reached 8 years of age you were given your own copy of the Bible with your name in to keep. (I had to wait a long time then for mine).
After Sunday School we used to go round the corner to the Railway bridge at the top of Brook Road and watch fro any trains going by. We tried to get into the steam and smoke as they passed underneath the bridge. It used to take your breath away, as it was hot and tasted funny. We couldn`t be too long or Mum would go mad if we got home too late.
