Slight change of plan. Before I progress to my wild and wanton teenage years, here are some snippets that have come back to me from earlier in my life.
The only home entertainment when I was young was a wireless or TV. We got our TV quite early on. Programmes were only on for a few hours each day and in between programmes there was something called an ‘interval’ where either a radio mast of Alexander Palace was shown or a potter’s wheel, or my favourite, a kitten playing with a ball of wool. Each evening just before it shutdown the National Anthem would be played and then the screen would go blank with just a white blob in the centre and a humming sort of noise. Our TV had a small screen housed in an enormous wooden piece of furniture. There were two wooden doors which opened to display the screen, and these were kept closed when not in use. Interference was common from other electrical items, so if something was switched on nearby, even a cars engine outside, it would make the picture all fuzzy and have a crackling sound. I can recall watching the Queen’s coronation in 1953, but not sure when we actually got the TV. It is the only time I can recall my paternal grandparents coming to our house, to watch it. I was only 6 at the time and found it very boring! There were some programmes just for children and I remember Andy Pandy and Lobby Lou, a Mexican called Hank, and Muffin the Mule with Annette Mills.
The wireless was still by far the most common form of home entertainment. Sunday lunchtime would not have been complete without Billy Cotton and his Wakey Wakey Club. For children there was Listen with Mother every weekday afternoon. It would go "are you sitting comfortably, then I will begin", and a story would be read out. This was not to be missed and mum and I would settle down each afternoon to listen. In the winter the coal fire would be alight and we would sit in the twilight with just the glow of the embers, a magical sight. Sparks would sometimes fly off the coals and up the chimney and I imagined them to be fairies.
Of course there were no supermarkets and all shopping was done from small dedicated shops. Bakers, greengrocers, ironmongers, grocers etc. The grocery shop in Cuxton Road was the one that mum used. (I think in later years it has been used as a pine shop) I do not know what it was called but know, I hated the smell inside. I think it must have been from curing the bacons. Rationing would still have been operating but of course I was far too young to understand this. Eventually I can remember mum would have her groceries delivered. She would put in her order book and pay for the previous weeks, and a van would arrive with the shopping. As I got older I used to love the grocery delivery. I would play pretend shops for hours with it. Strange to think we have gone back to this home delivery with online shopping.
The route we took when we walked to Strood would be via the little back streets that ran at the back of Cuxton Road. We would cut through Smith and Temple Streets (now the site of Tescos). I remember that one of the houses had a pond with ducks I used to like to see. The High Street was very narrow particularly opposite the Angel. There was Hills the fishmonger on that sharp bend, and a little further along Pinks the stationers which was my favourite shop. Woolworth of course was there and a large department store, whose name escapes me, selling miscellaneous ‘luxury’ goods. Opposite Woolworth was an old cinema but I never went there. I think it was called the Waldof or Wardonia.
On Saturdays mum and I would often go to Chatham (Dad would always have been working). We would go to either Di Marco’s at the top of the High Street where I would always have a cheese sandwich (the freshest bread I ever tasted, full of finely grated cheese). This would be followed by ice-cream with strawberry sauce on. At some point British Home Stores started doing dinners, and this was always very popular with people. It was at the back of the store and was self service in as much as you queued up with your tray and made your way down shelves displaying cold pastries and puddings to where the hot food was dished up by lady servers from large heated containers. Then you would proceed to the till and pay. Because it was so popular you sometimes had to wait for seats and I was always sent off whilst mum queued to find a couple of seats and save them.
When it was time to go home we would make our way back to Military Road to catch the bus, number 144. The bus stop was somewhere near the surgical appliance store and the large corner store which sold all the military uniforms. When we got indoors mum would boil up a kettle and we would soak our aching feet in a bowl of hot water. At Christmas I would be taken to get my Christmas dress. There was a small clothes shop, up near Di Marcos, that we went to every year. It was quite a treat getting a new dress and I used to get quite excited.
Sometimes we might just go into Rochester and mum would take me to the little gardens at the back of Eastgate House, where Dickens chalet is now. There were large ponds there had the most enormous fish, and they would be full of bright coloured water lilies. There were sheltered seats that were provided for visitors to use. Eastgate House at that time was the Museum. From what I recall of it it was a very ‘boring’ and ‘dusty’ place that had room upon room of stuffed birds and small animals in glass domes. I do remember a large dark, wood panelled room on the left as you went in, floor to ceiling. (I read up much later that it had come from a large house in Strood called the Gables which stood on the corner of Gun Lane and the High Street. It was bought by the Council in 1927 for £2500 on condition that the panelling be removed to Eastgate House Museum. It was demolished later that year for road widening). Anyway I know that eventually the museum moved and Eastgate House became the Dickens Centre.
Sometimes we would go to the castle gardens and play mini golf. You could also buy bird food from a man near where the toilets were housed to feed the pigeons.
There was a very large market held in Rochester on a Friday. It was off Corporation Street on a large site running along side the railway track. Very occasionally we might go, but mum was not much of a market goer.
If we were in Rochester a treat would be to go to one of the Oldie Worldie tea rooms there. Cakes would be brought on a cake stand and you chose which one you wanted and only paid for those you ate. The room would be full of little tables with linen tablecloths and chairs, and the smell of polish used on the highly shiny floors which were all uneven. Tea would be served in a bone china teapot, with matching sugar bowl and milk jug and delicate cups and saucers.
The other thing Rochester boasted was an outdoor swimming pool. My parents never took me there, but I used to go with friends in the summer holidays. It was nothing back then to walk to and fro places, and even as children we were allowed unaccompanied. The only time you would get a bus was if the distance was unreasonable, and what today’s youngsters would consider unreasonable is certainly not what we did. To go from Strood to the swimming baths at Rochester would be considered a walking journey – there and back. Some days in the summer holidays it got so busy they operated time sessions. Only a certain number would be let in for a set period of time. Then when they left, another group let in. Didn’t seem to bother us the waiting, we used to go and sit on the grass bank opposite. This would have been known as Backfields I think which is behind St Margaret’s Church. We obviously hadn’t been given a set time to get home otherwise I suspect there would have been some panicking parents, but this just didn’t seem to happen. Obviously our safety was always assumed.
Despite the relative freedom in certain areas we had back then, there were different types of restrictions imposed. For example a certain standard of behaviour was expected. It was certainly ‘children should be seen and not heard’ when there were adults talking. We had to either sit or stand quietly until we were spoken to. Heaven forbid we tried to interrupt, or even fidget. There were rituals and manners at mealtimes. You were always sent off to wash your hands first, you were expected to clear your plate, and once you had finished you had to sit and wait until everyone was finished before asking to `get down`. You were expected to sit quietly waiting and not fidget and after each meal I had to say grace. Thank God for my good dinner, please may I get down now. At night time I also had to say bedtime prayers and would take it in turn to kneel at either mum or dads feet. "God bless mummy and daddy, nannies and granddads, aunts and uncles and all kind friends, - and teddy".
As children we were always expected to give up our seat on a bus if it was full and grown-ups standing. Likewise, holding open doors for adults, and not just rushing in on our own, and giving way to adults in crowded areas and corridors.
Of course there were set rules for adults too. One vivid memory of such is when there was a death. If a hearse went by in the streets, men would ‘doff’` their hats as a sign of respect and men would always walk on the outside of the pavement if with a female. I witnessed what happened a couple of times when someone in the road where we lived had died. Curtains would be pulled shut when the funeral cortège arrived with the hearse and until that and the mourners had left. Everyone would stay indoors. If the death was in the family it was common to wear a black armband on your sleeve. I remember my dad wearing a wide black band on the left arm of his coat. I assume this was when his mum died in the late 50’s, because it wasn’t done then to talk about such things with children. I do remember having to spend an afternoon with a neighbour whilst mum and dad had to ‘go somewhere’ and I suppose somehow put the two and two together.
Mum and dad were not churchgoers, but on the rare occasions we did all attend I used to find it puzzling that men would be expected to take their hats off, but women were expected to wear one.
