There you go - said I would!

Clarky, I do remember that game with the lolly sticks - it was great - but I can`t remember what we called it.

I also remeber the blue lollies - flavour? Who could tell!

I notice you can still buy `jacks` in toy shops, but I haven`t seen any `chucks` for years.

Oh, by the way, `aerobic ironing` - not a pretty sight! ;o)

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Answers

Not forgetting Bays (aka hop-scotch) of course

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

We called hop scotch OXO and can you still get space hoppers?

Have they banned pogo sticks yet? Ruddy dangerous things they are ;o)

Jay

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Jay,

You're too young for this thread! You'll be getting nostalgic about Duran Duran next! :o)))

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

oooo!! Duran Duran!! Now that's some nostalgia common to some of us across the pond! :-))

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

To the more seedier aspect of early teenage nostalgia, what creative materials did people try smoking in those, thankfully pre-drug culture, days?

Cinnamon sticks were a favourite with my gang! I also recall one time managing to acquire some Rizlas from one of the lad's dad and 'rolling our own' - with tea of all things. I was GHASTLY - surprising we didn't terminally poison ourselves!

One of my favourite nostalgic recollections of those "wonder years", is of sitting on a garden wall, in short trousers, smoking a pipe, when a 'big' lass came around and would you believe it, she stole me pipe! I'm sure this must have left deep physcological scars - but you couldn't possibly relate that story, even to a 'shrink', could you?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Eee! Nostalgia. Not what it used to be tho!

(Sorry, but if I didn't, I'd bet my Liverpool ticket on Jonno or ITK saying it).

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Sod it Screacher.....I said it on the other posting.......

I'm nothing if not.......... . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. Predictable

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Ebs on yer gowk, Galaxy. Games: Hot rice -hurling a hard rubber ball at a defenceless child armed with a small bat usually from 6 inches. Releivo: Trampling and laying waste carefully tended gardens within a radius of 1 mile from the base - two teams, one looking for and coralling the caught, the other avoiding capture (by being touched) and able to relieve the captured by touching them. Great game - especially if there were some lasses.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

I shall qualify this by pointing out that these are all memories prior to my eighth birthday! `Cos I`m not really, really ancient yet!

Huge family outings, by train to Tynemouth, from I think it was Howdon Station - just up from Willington Quay? Frys chocolate bar machines in the waiting room, posters saying `Come to Sunny Bournemouth`. Tynemouth Station exotic with incredible flower boxes. Setting up camp on the beach with several square changing tents, windbreaks, deckchairs etc., just down from the Plaza, which was still complete with it`s roller skating rink. Freezing half to death in woollen bathing costumes which had unbelieveable capacity to absorb water and sand. Strongest member of the family struggling down from the Plaza with a huge tray containing a giant pot of tea, cups, saucers, milk etc.

Or fishing for tiddlers in Tynemouth boating lake with a piece of thread and a shirt button.

Sliding down the ballast hills on big pieces of cardboard.

Going to the Green Market for our first `real` Christmas tree - wonderful smell there.

Setting fire to our last artificial tree by lighting real candles on it!

Pretending that I was brave enough to go to South Shields on my own through the pedestrian tunnel at Willington Quay, and losing my nerve the minute the opening was out of sight.

Chinese burns.

Always getting a new outfit for Easter - bought at Walkers in North Shields.

Those wonderful airtube things in Bon Marches in Wallsend - you know, for sending the money shooting round the shop.

My first visit to the Town Moor, when they still had boxing tents, peep shows, freak shows etc.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Good one True! Nobody`s had my gowk for a long time!

There`s more:

Hearing the dreaded words uttered by my old Ganny ` gan an` fetch the craket for the bairn`. Upon which I would be installed so close to the range that I was being slowly grilled!

Friday night really was Amami night, complete with the vicious many toothed steel clip things for putting waves in your hair. Not as bad as having your hair put in rags though! Pure murder!

Comics that had really good freebies in them, like `bangers`, those cardboard things that you flicked and made bang.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

When I was a nipper the highlights of the year were as much things like Race Week (when the Hoppings were on), and Guy Fawkes night, as the more commercial events, like Xmas.

The preparations for Bonfire night started towards the end of the school summer holidays, ie August! We collected 3-piece suites, tables and chairs - it still amazes me nobody missed them! - tea-chests, railway sleepers - in fact anything remotely combustable. The back doors on the houses in our streets were invariably painted on or around November 6th to get 12 months wear before it was all blistered off again on 'Bonny Neet'.

Bonny Neet itself was simply carnival time: bonfire, bangers, rockets, catherine wheels, sparklers, the smells of roast (ie. burnt) potatoes and gunpowder. 'Jumpy Jacks' were the best, set off among the feet of a gaggle of lasses, get 'em hoppin around in all directions - especially if one went up their skirt.

We virtually lived on 'The Moor' during race week. It was positively Utopian with the lights, the rides, the crowds, and the smells of hot dogs, chips, toffee apples, diesel, candy floss and strippers (!).

I used to eke out my pocket money over the entire week. Chatting the lasses up on the waltzer and trying not to puke, trying to look dead cool on the dive-bomber, looking geet hard in the boxing and wrestling booths, sneaking into the strip shows to make sure no relatives or neighbours saw us gannin in and then telt me mother. Me best marra shouting some really smart comment at one stripper (keep 'em on, or something really innovative like that!), and the dreadful embarrassment when the stripper with a withering glare shouted back " shut ya gob, and take your hands oot ya pockets sunshine"!!!

All part of growing up on Tyneside. Wonderful, magic memories.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Great posting Clarky! I`d forgotten all about Guy Fawkes! Also, do you remember the Autumn half term as school being called Blackberry Week? I used to love that holiday, and it still is my favorite time of the year.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Eeeee! Tynemouth Lake! I remember going there with wor kid with a net and catching sticklebacks which we put in a jam jar with string tied round. We then kept them on the kitchen window sill till the poor little beggars died then we buring them in the front garden in an empty fag packet - always did it properly with a few appropriate words. Me brother used to make a cross! He became a woodwork teacher!

Does anyone remember all those paving stones around Whitley Bay with "NW" stamped in the corner. This we decided, stood for NitWit so anyone that stood on one was a nitwit. It took bliddy ages getting home from school because there was one part of the road where you had to climb on a garden wall to avoid them all!

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Yep! I do remember the paving slabs! We moved to Marden Farm Estate when I was eight. Had a reasonably misspent youth in Whitley. Spanish City, of course, Don`s Coffee Bar, the 45 Club where I discovered Soul music, and of course the Hop! Any of these ring a bell?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Blackberry pickin week! Bliddy posh that. Nah, in Windy Neuk it was Tatty Pickin' Week. Also me dad in high state of anxiety as THE LEEK SHOW approached. Wun it once - a table or washing machine as far as I can recall. In fact most of me ma's furniture and other stuff came from that source. We had a secret supply of leek seed from Blaydon.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

The family gathering round stretchers in the living room, kids busy cutting up old clothes , rags etc, the proggie mats were in production,Scotts emulsion and Castor oil, three wheel bikes, eating the pitch off the road when it was hot, collecting rose hips 3p a lb, Lying in bed on a Saturday night listening to the bus revellers renditions of hits of the year, solo artists at 10 at night unreal.!! Been allowed to gan to the woods for hours at a tender age,two a side under the street lights, there was always one garden where the wifie would threaten to keep the ball, knockie 9 door , messages for the auld uns, baccy and snuff usually. Dick Barton, Snowy Jock on the radio, Flash Gordon at the local tivoli. Trips to Whitley Bay caused more planning than a expedition to the Himalaya`s. Agog at the little crane grab in the Spanish City that picked up little shiny trinkets, short pants, stiff sleeves aaaaggghh, how come every kid lasses included walked around with cut and grazed knees aal year round?? Church in the morning, church at night, keeling ower due to fasting, not knowing why the milkman collected slips of paper on his rounds , a nod ,a touch of the nose and a looky at the Daily Herald. Racing Outlook. Like this thread, Buff

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

You`re quite right Bill. We were allowed a kind of freedom that is jusst about unheard of today. I shudder when I think of how much time I spent in pretty isolated places at such a young age. I think the change started to happen round about the time we moved to the Coast. A little more affluence, more people starting to buy cars, and of course, people moving out of the extended family situation. I can`t think of any time when my daughter was young that she could possibly have been faced with any kind of danger. I can think of plenty things I did that were extremely stupid and dangerous!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

True We called that one hot rice as well, but relievo was tally ho. There was also cannon, duckstone, and the one we called monty kitty ( officially mount the cuddy I think). And what happened to glass alleys ? Great stuff.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

I wish I could remember how `kick the can` was played. It was something to do with an empty tin can with lolly sticks on top. All I can really remember was that I was too little to play, generally got trampled under foot as the game took off, and that is was closer to street warfare than a `game`!

Something else that has gone now, and I think it is a great shame, is the wonderful big coach built prams. I know that they became an impracticality as soon as people had a car, but they were so lovely to push, I can picture them now in the summer with those lovely fringed sun canopies! And talking of babies, one thing that has been handed down through our family is what we call the `kiddlin` or `kittlin` walk. It`s that wonderful short step, bouncing walk that you use when you are getting a baby off to sleep! Small baby, carefully wrapped in a blanket (quite tightly), and off you go, up and down the room with those little bouncy steps, usually patting it`s backside to the tune of `Come up and see your Ganny`, or `Keep your feet still Geordie hinny`! Works every time!

y hubby spent an enjoyable half hour last night reading these postings! He still finds it hard to believe that, although I am still in my forties, I was brought up in a tiny terraced house with gas mantles, a range, flat irons, a wash house, outside netty etc.! He reckons they were getting their first microwaves in Surry then! However, at least he now appreciates that I am telling the truth, and not regressing to a previous existence!

I still delight being able to stop my two in their tracks with the odd saying or two. I told my daughter that she `looked a right clip` the other day, and got the usual `Oh God, she`s at it again` look!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

All games had their seasons - jacks, liggies etc.-what has aways intrigued me is that by some amazing innate collective instinct these seasons were rigorously followed. Cricket in the back lane of Nursery Lane - pitch was 3 yards by half a mile - wicket was a dustbin lid. But we played with a corker. 6 was ower anyones back yard and out. Disputes on the finer point of the law (in the absence of video replay)were handled by the time honoured and ultimatedly fair method of "stannin' yer ducks". I recommend this to the authorities. Your mention of glass alleys Pit Bill brings to mind one of the more obscure dialect words. Nee prizes mind, but how many of you lot were fullickers?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Right then.... those coach built prams eh?.... and Tynemouth boating lake. Legend has it (I was only a bairn of 1) my big sister was "looking after me" by pushing me round the lake. She parked the pram and went off to do something else. Unfortunately she didn't realise these things had brakes (or that's what she says now!) and it didn't take long for the pram to roll gracefully into the murky depths of the lake. I survived.
That lake is about 2'6" deep but when I was a nipper it seemed massive!
The pram also survived and me dad made the body into a shuggy-boat in our back garden to get many more years of service.
We lived just up from The Broadway pub so going to the beach was a daily stroll in the summer holidays... whatever the weather! That pram came in useful again for loading up with the wind-break, blanket to sit on, towels, football, and the lunch.... sandwiches and a tupperware bowl of rhubarb and custard.. magic! Our dog was so lazy she used to jump in the pram to get pushed back up the hill.
I say we took towels but I'm not sure why we bothered. Me mam would never let us use them. After coming out of the sea we were always told to "run around and dry off". I'm shivering now just thinking about it. eeee well, must get on with me work.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

OK. you got me on that one! What`s a fullicker?! Can`t wait to drop that one into a conversation!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Geordie your posting made me laugh! Especially the bit about having to run around to get dry - exactly what my mother used to say! And yes, my teeth started chattering as I read it! Did you used to go to the sea water pool in Tynemouth too? I used to think it was so exotic with that big fountain in the kiddies pool. And Cullercoats Bay - lost a brand new pair of shoes there by leaving them at the waters edge when the tide was coming in! Had me backside skelped that day! Thinking about it, it was a pair of those incredible Clarks school sandals! One size bigger than I needed, of course, with those amazing crepe soles with the huge bumper round them. Made them totally useless for their intended purpose - ie. walking! Could be why we all went round with scraped knees!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Was anyone ever threatened with `being sent to the Little Sisters`? Or if you did something really stupid `being put on the Blue Bus to Morpeth`?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Galaxy,

Tynemouth open-air pool! Used to have a season ticket. We'd go down after school. Remember they had the blackboard outside with the water temperature on... usually 54 or something!

Cup of oxo on the way out was essential to remove blue colour from face and extremities.

It's a mess now mind. They filled it with rubble and called it a rock pool. Cheaper than knocking it doon.

There was a rock swimming pool along towards Whitley Bay wasn't there? Must still be there I guess.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Pilgram

I was more a Frankie goes to Hollywood and The Jam kind of girl I never did care much for Duran Duran

Jay

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Ooop - Sorry Jay. You grew up a bit sooner than I thought!

For me it was the late 60's and early 70's that were magic. I played in a group as a teenager and we used to hire North Seaton Welfare and put our own dances on. Just about every kid between 7 and 17 used to go along. We made peanuts but had a lot of laughs.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

OK Cut it out will all ya. Reading all this nostalgia 12k miles away makes me all maudlin. It's like everyone has taken small snippets from my childhood memorys and pasted them on the walls. I still think we invented the Skateboard. Beano annual on a six wheel skate,couldn,t beat it. Conkers in vinegar............you got me at it now. Who pinched my politcally incorrect birds egg collection!!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Hi Hiro! I thought you were still lost in cyber space - I`ve been asking after you. Sorry if we are making you feel homesick - kinda got started on this and my brain started working overtime!

For instance: Pork shops! Also a game we used to play called `fly on the Pork shop window`. Unfortunately the name is all I can remember - I`ll have to ring my cousins for a refresher course.

Tomato sausages from the Belvedere in Whitley - I had a craving for those when I was pregnant.

I`m ashamed to admit that the glorious art of stotty making is now lost in our family. I just didn`t inherit those great big bread making hands. I do try, but my attempts are pathetic!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Anyone else from Ashington remember Marching Day? Getting your sandshoes blancoed sparkling white and marching in schools up to the Peoples Park for races and your half dollar from the Miner's Welfare fund. Great days out. Also the street parties on Coronation day (ER not GR mind) followed by the huge bonefire at the park that night.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

What a wonderful thread. So many evocative words and phrases cropping up. I spent my first seven years in Derbyshire but so much of its the same; childhood through a looking glass. Those summers went on forever. I grew up on a private school where my dad was a housemaster. We (my big brothers and I) had the run of the grounds, about a three mile radius, lots of it woodland. My Dad used to play "Come to the cookhouse door boys" on his cornet when we had to get ready for tea. We would always be well away playing war or Robin Hood, when you put a tee-shirt on over your anorak as a tabbard which magically transformed the anorak into a chainmail shirt and coif. The woods were filled with huge ferns like in my dinosaur books and we knew that there was a Tyrannosaurus in there somewhere.

There was also the legendary bomb-pit, which I discovered really was caused by a German air-mine when I went back to lay some ghosts to rest in my 20s, which was some 40 across and required you to pull yourself up along some nobbly tree roots exposed around the sides to get out again, which always stained your tanktops green. The bravest boys would swing on a rope out above this dizzy drop, despite the truly frightening number of knots splicing the old threads together, their faces set in a big grin that was fooling nobody.

The perimeter wall of the school grounds marked out a firm boundary beyond which we could not go, and I used to watch combine harvesters in the fields in the distance and thought they were paddlesteamers. My rites of passage entry to the world of deception came about when we joined the Richmonds boys in sneaking over the wall to visit the Anchor Caves. The eldest of the Richmonds owned a Chopper, so whatever he said went. The Anchor Caves were a hermits cell carved into a sandstone bank, and were some 2 miles from the school. Every step took us to views of new horizons, and the sense of adventure was incredible. Inevitably one of my brothers fought with one of the Richmonds, as he seemed to do every day at school, and at least an hour was taken up deciding whose fault it all was. By the time we reached the caves, the summer sun had been replaced by a black sky and strengthening wind, and Home seemed like the place to be. We arrived back soaked to the skin with no good account of where we had been all afternoon and were sent to bed with no tea. Probably the only time in History that people have been sent to bed without plotting to run away; wed tried it, it blew.

School was a nightmare. Didnt know my left from my right (not my bloody fault, my parents bought me some shoes with left and right written on the toes, so I didnt see any point in learning; sheesh, I could read, couldnt I? What did they want, blood?). My mum said that wed get on the bus as little Lord Fauntleroys and immediately switch into the local dialect, Ay oop etc. I got bullied for holding hands with a girl called Donna who also showed me her belly buttonat least, thats the way I remember it, might not have all been safe in the Good Old Days, mebbes just not talked about.

Susie Quattro was Top of the Pops, and the girls used to do an improvised dance number to Devil Gate Drive that ended with hand- stands-against-the-wall which left the onlookers with a vast collection of 70s underwear to admire. The lads favourite was always bundle, whereby you would leap on a feeble-looking victim and shout (well shriek, if the noises on every playground you ever pass are the same) Bundle! which brought everyone running to dive on top until a huge mound of wriggling bodies was formed from which would issue screams for help. Heh heh heh!

P.s. Galaxy, I live in Willington Quay and it IS Howdon station at the top of the hill - I get on there for work every day and yesterday evening saw a van that played chicken with the Metro and lost. That'll learn him!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Cliff - I remember Empire Day! Similar sort of thing, marching singing etc. `Sandshoes` - something else my two laugh at me about - they`ve never heard anyone else call them that!

Geordie - we seem to have shared a past! If your name is not really Geordie, if it happened to be say Stuart, I could be getting really embarrassed now!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

What a magical description Softie! I can`t believe you live in Willington Quay - we lived in George Street right opposite the church - very handy for hoy oots. I understand it`s quite `des-res` there now. Not so in my day! The houses were all divided into upstairs and downstairs flats - are they still? Is my first school still there, the Addison Potter? I guess the ballast hills have gone. Oh I must get back up and visit soon!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Stotties to Galaxy.
Can you believe that they have stotties in Japan. Yes stotties!
I couldn't believe it, they're not great but much better than usual.
This thread should be framed for ever it's excellent, the best for a long time

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Stotties in Japan! Incredible! When I was frog-marched South by my parents, they couldn`t even understand what I meant by a cut loaf! And as for getting six pennyworth of chips with batter - well the number of times I was told that the fish was battered but they didn`t batter the chips - I gave up in the end!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Galaxy that was below the belt BATTER BITS we can get some kind if fish and chips at extortionate prices but hey, come on batter bits. You don't realise how hugry and homesick I've just got.....where's that travel agents telephone number?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Des res? Willington Quay? Can you tell the estate agents please, the houses round us have dropped 5k since we moved in...oh, Ithink I've just spotted the mystery link:-)

We live on Byron Avenue and when walking up the pedestrian walkway up between the rwos of houses, looking up the hill, Mrs Softie and I reflect on the view: Softie "Ah! Look at those lovely gas-risers. Industrial landscape at its finest, wonders of the Western World."
Mrs Softie: "Urgh! Look at those dirty great gas tanks. It's like something off Coronation Street."

I don't know about your school, but I have a vested interest in finding out whether or not its still there! The ballast heaps are gone, and they have just built a children's playground and a garden centre on the brow of the hill. Still haven't joined the Social Club; might be because everyone affectionately calls it 'the morgue', and someone mentioned karaoke; a pernicious invention which should be discouraged with extreme violence if necessary.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Eeyabuggas. Bringing tears to my eyes you lot. Chips with scranshims from Billy Wighams on Whickham Front Street. Coach built prams; you can still get them (oddly enough I worked on putting their web site together) www.silvercross.co.uk...don't know if it's live yet. We used to sledge on the big dipper midway between Whickham and Dunston, within site of the Fed brewery....winter nights plastic-bagging down a ludicrously steep hill separated from the really busy road by a barbed wire fence at the bottom. We used to run the gauntlet from Dunston baths in the summer back up to Whickham; we'd take the back route up through the fields and past the big dipper convinced that we'd get pounced on and chinned by gangs of Dunston kids. Never happened, but still get butterflies just at the thought of it.

Getting chased all the way back from Blaydon by a gang of lads after I'd got off the bus in the wrong place (I was heading for Blaydon youth club for a footie trial).

Climbing over the wall in Whickham park and playing hide and seek in the flower beds whilst avoiding the parkie.

Mm. Isn't it. Jumpers for goal posts??????

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Bundle, Softie. Now that hit the re-call button for forgotten memories. Probably because I was under the bundle more often than not. As I remember it the attacker(s) gave you a task, say, name 10 types of cigarette, before they'd release you. Bloody sadistic really.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Jimmy Schoular fouling people so bad that our OWN fans booed him,sitting on the little wall right at the front behind the goal at the leazes end,changing ends at half time,cinder terraces on the 'popular side,suede jackets,later crepe soled wedgies,luminous socks,D-A's,drainpipe jeans(sown on and shrunk by getting into the bath with them on,,derailier gears on the bike,skiving off from Heaton Grammer School and going to the coast on the same bike,and getting 6 of the best with the cane after somebody split on us,getting your own back for it ,working on the hoppins and getting free rides on your time off,and going on the dive-bomber with two lasses in the same cab. Oh God it was good!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Galaxy,

naaaaa.. you're safe. Not named Stuart. It's the same past though...!!!

`Come to Sunny Bournemouth` did you? I recall you live doon sooth now.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Who's old enough to remember McMorrans fish shop in Worswick street ? Best bleedin fish and chips in the world, bar none.

Couple of pints in the Grapes Vaults (there's a building soc or a bank or summat there now). Up to the match for about 2, out the match, queue for the pictures, with a Pink to read while you're waiting, out the cinema, down to McMorrans. Absolute bliss.

And who saw Buddy Holly at the City Hall ? I'd love to come across somebody else who was there, cos loads of folk give me funny looks when I mention actually seeing the Crickets live. None of your sophisticated mind bending crap them days. Basic, dead simple but bliddy great.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Originally moved to Bournemouth - not out of choice I might add - when I was sixteen. My father worked for Parmatrada (sp?) and then Wallsend Slipway. If my memory serves me correctly, they were closing part of it down then, and Dad moved, with the blokes who worked for him, to Hamworthy Engineering and Hydraulics in Poole.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Well, we might be boring the pants off the young `ns, but it certainly beats listening to the budget.

By the way, anyone else go to Tynemouth High? I hated it - never learnt a thing because I was terrified of one particular teacher!

Also spent a lot of time at Whitley Bay Ice Rink. Used to walk from Marden Farm Estate through the big field with the horses in, round the edge of the Quarry and into the ice rink the back way. Always wanted to be an ice skater, just as soon as I could afford to buy a pair of boots! The ones that you hired where terrible! So worn out that the blades were practically horizontal - so there we all were, pretending to skate round with this incredible knock-kneed style. God your legs were aching by the time you`d had enough! Happy days!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Fulliking Ah divvn't kna if ye'll appreciate this Galaxy pet you being a lass, but its cheetin at liggies. Fullickin' is when the fullicker moves his or her hand towards the target at the same time as flicking the marble. Josie Rackstraw was a fullicker as was me twin brother Bobby. Couldn't say worse aboot yer own blood. Pit Bill- Saw Little Richard, Joe Brown, The Tornados, The lass with the deep voice (Walking back to Happiness, Woa Woa), The Stones on their first tour (Poison Ivy and a bum waved at the lasses) etc... Took lasses with pretensions to The New Orleans - (Mighty Joe Young - great jazz sax), otherwise went to the Odeon or the one at the top of Northumberland Street (Tatler?). Cartoons and Easy Rider.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

Softie - Derbyshire

You're not from anywhere near Great Hucklow by any chance - the german bomb hole rings a bell (if they could not find blacked-out Manchester, the Gorman bombers used to drop their load on the first light they could find - usually some unfortunate Derbyshire farm house).

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

To Softie,

I spent many a happy afternoon in the park directly opposite the Gas Works. Ah - the smell of the gas works, the smell of the piggery behind the park, the sound of bowls, and the indescribable feel of the think layer of slimy green algae between your toes in the kiddies paddling pool! I guess chlorine hadn`t been invented then - it`s a wonder we didn`t catch something awful!

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2000

Lordy Lordy save wor Geordie, giv him a tanner te gan te the Vaudy !! The "Vaudy" or the "Lophoose" the Vaudeville Cinema, Church Street, Walker. The Cisco Kid, Gabby Hates, Zorro, The 3 Stooges, Hopalong Cassidy, Flash Gordon..........can't remember ANY of 'em !! Gettin' me picture taken in with THE Cup, backlane in Jackson Street, Byker. Sholiftin' Zubes......pinching copies of Jackie to give to me cousin and her mate in the mistaken belief they would "show me theirs" The Maj on Saturday afternoon, following Rosemary Sutcliffe round the dancefloor fro three hours getting up the nerve to ask her to dance, Billy (effin) Colvin, gettin' in forst when I finaaly DID get the nerve. Jim Illey WITH hair, Dickman's pies, the Lion and Lamb, the Blythe and Tyne, the Tiger, talking to George Best, Dennis Law AND John Fitzpatrick in the Long Bar, .................as you can guess, this expat Geordie ia a lang,laaannnnggg, way from Walker.....

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001

Well done Harry you Bastard, reviving this thread , BB`s sub-section golden oldies , organising tea dances next!!!!BTW Lion and Lamb,>>> bar or loonge on a Saturday? , auld lady served (Alice)!!, everybody had a peace offering bag of knocked off veg from market, loved that boozer, used to meet up with mates from Byker in there

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001

How odd, I was just sat here this morning waiting for the computer to boot up, and I was thinking about the nostalgia thread. It is actually really cold here at the minute, and when I went to get the papers out of the post box, I could `smell` snow. That doesn`t mean we`ll get any, but it triggered a mental picture of us making `slides` on the compacted snow and ice. Used to spend hours polishing them with our feet until they were like ice and making them as long as possible. All that exercise and fresh air - never used to feel the cold until coming up to tea time and you`d used up all your energy reserves. Suddenly it would hit you and you`d be so cold you could hardly get your legs to work! (:o)

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001

......or even `polishing them until they were like glass`....sorry, brain still in neutral! (:o)

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001

I was the captain of the darts team in the Lion & Lamb. A group of us in our 20s took it over. The previous team must have been ruffians. We went to the Ord Arms for a match and the guy was clearing the optics off the bar. He told us to go if we had any sense as the Lamb team were due and they had wrecked the bar last season. He was relieved to find we were the new team This kind of thing happened in the first four matches (Fox & hounds -West road, Blackie Boy and Belle Grove ) til word got round we were a different lot. Mind you I saw people get some terrible kickings in the L & L on practise nights. We kept wor heeds doon Alice's daughter was a hard case mind. Hope nobody on here married her or I'm in trouble.

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2001

The Argyle, back High Bridge Street now THERE was ashit hole if ever there was one !! Lance and Betty .......... and for the Byker lads Jackson's anybody, first place I ever saw a UV lamp , had to ahve one for me bedroom didn't I, got me face wiped down the netty wall for trying to have one away ......... big fat bastard with a soft brother called Lawrence who evntually got a rght duffing off me mate Dotcher ..... and still no mention of the Go Go ???

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2001

Yes Galaxy, I went to Tynemouth High School. I used to cycle from the Marden Estate - always a southwest wind in the morning and a nor- easter in the afternoon. The NorEaster was the name of the School Magazine - remember? And the game you referred to we always called "steam on the porkshop window". Everyone has to chose a ridiculous saying, such as "steam on the porkshop window" or "black pudding and ice cream" and you take it in turns to ask each other questions. "What have you got in your pocket?" "What's the name of your girl/noy friend?" The person being asked must respond with the saying they have chosen and when you laugh then you are 'out'. Last one not having laughed "wins". Most people just succumb to the cummulative effort to required to supress giggles. I thought Tynemouth Swimming Pool was a dank and horrid place - particularly to get changed in. I guess that was because it only opened during the summer and I don't think there was any heating in the changing areas. Sometimes we had the school gala there but sometimes it was held in Hawkey's Lane pool just a few streets away from the high school. We all thought we were pretty good swimmers - we spent so much of the summer in those two pools. But I remember being entered into the Tyneside Schools Gala held at Heaton Road and EVERYONE from Tynemouth High School was LAST. I used to like going down to the Fish Quay on my bike, even if I did have to push up some hills on the way back. I was just fascinated by the boats and the thought of them going to sea. And in those days there were many more than there are now and from different countries.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Sounder - well I never! So you went to Tynemouth High School AND lived on Marden Farm Estate - I lived in Shaftesbury Cresent. I`m trying to work when I was there. I think it would have been from around `64 to `68 - God how ancient am I? I detested every second I was there, truly hated it! My greatest achievement there was winning the `twist` competition at the first year`s Christmas party! Shortly after that there was the famous `skirt tucked in the back of knickers` incident, followed by the emergence of hormones and puppy fat of telly tubbies proportions. Combine that with the home perm my mother insited on giving me (now that I was grown-up), and my life at the seniors was destined to be hell!

Can`t for the life of me remember the name of the Headmaster, but I know it was something really appropriate. The only two teachers I can remember were `Flossie` Biggs - Geography, and Mr. Harland (Maths and Chemistry), who terrified me so much I used to be physically sick before his lessons. The games mistress was possibly Miss Bryce. I do remember the school magazine though. Quite impressive if I remember rightly.

The summer that I left Tynemouth High was also the summer we moved away from the North East. When were you there? (:o)

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001

Galaxy: I was there 1953-60. The headmaster while I was there was called Cantle. Of course, even though I had left by the time I heard about the famous - skirt tucked in the knockers, sorry, knickers - incident. Very much recounted throught the Marden Estate it was. I lived in Derwent Road. Actually I was quite a little snot, sorry, swot, at school. How can one look back on adolescence and maitain any sort of equanimity. Even "courting" was a trial. Did you ever go for a walk along the sea front on a winter's evening? Sheesh! The best 'treat' was the Carlton Cinema in Tynemouth Front Street. It showed ancient movies but was "the cheapest darkness" that could be had. It even showed "White Christmas" in July.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001