1st Memory of Holidays up North

Dad was the second youngest in a family of 13 children. 

I know nothing of his parents, except hearsay from Ena (who denied it in later years) but she told me that Auntie Vi’s youngest son, Peter, was so fed up of being asked if he was foreign that he researched the family tree.  He traced it back to the Spanish armada.  Apparently, one of our great grandads was a Spaniard shipwrecked on the Irish coast who married a local gypsy girl and the rest, as they say, is history.  As I now know it is all stories although Dad's people did come from Ireland.  Once again I have to say that being a late child most of my cousins were grown up and so it was on my Father’s side of the family.

Every year we went ‘home’ for our main holiday, throughout my childhood until I was 16.  Every year, come July, we would pack a case and catch the train to Darlington. 

Auntie May lived at

60 Borough Road

with her son Neville, a man in his 40s and a ‘lodger’ who I called Uncle Lionel.  These two men caused the visit to be quite stressful for me but it was not until later years, after Dad died that I was able to talk to Mam about it. 

Uncle Lionel used to enjoy teasing me, like telling me to go get something and when I couldn’t find it (cos it wasn’t there!) he found it hugely amusing.  I didn’t and eventually I never believed anything he said and tried not to have anything to do with him. 

Auntie May was quite strict and I had to be very careful what I touched, sat on etc. but she was always on my side. 

Once she paid for me, Mam and her to go to the theatre, I can remember it vividly as it was such a treat for us and I had never been to the theatre.  Another thing that makes it a vivid recall is that when the clowns came on, as they performed their act, their car exploded with smoke and a loud bang, so loud I ran away – up out of my seat and out to the front of the theatre!! 

Mam and Auntie May came and found me; I was crying and too frightened to go back in.  Auntie May was a bit peeved and Mam said she would take me home but another lady said I could sit with her.  For some reason I was persuaded to go back in and sat with the lady in her box!  It was on the right hand side of the theatre and I could see Mam and Auntie May sitting down in the stalls and could see all the theatre.  This lady allowed me to have an ice cream – where that came from I have no idea – and I watched the rest of the show from ‘up high’. 

Most of the time the grown ups went to the local Men’s Working Club and I was allowed in there until it was time for bed and then Mam would bring me home.  At Auntie May’s I slept downstairs in the front room and I can remember waking one night and seeing shadows on the curtains walking past.  I had this vision of giants or people on stilts and I was terrified, I screamed out and Mam came running in, after I had told her about my dream she explained that I was on the ground floor and these were people going home or going to work – just ordinary people.  Uncle Lionel had a field day with this and teased me for a long time and called me scaredy cat. 

 Me at twelve - never was petite!  The white dog was mine - Gypsy.  The scruffy one was Robin, belonged to the lady next door in this house - both daft as brushes but very dear to me.

Cousin Neville had a boxer dog one year and if I moved too fast he used to run after me and grab me with his front paws, I liked him but I don’t think he liked me. Once or twice Neville and I took him for a walk on the local fields and he was ok with me then.  Neville, as I have said before, was a single man in his forties, he used to be in the navy but didn’t seem to do any work now.  One time we went there, I must have been about ten or eleven, and every time I sat on his lap he would run his hands up and down my sides and across …… I hated it …. so after that I avoided this situation and became ‘too big to sit on laps’.  In later life when Neville was mentioned to Auntie Vie  she just glossed over him as though she didn’t want to talk about him so maybe it wasn’t just me.

Mam, Auntie May and me often used to walk down to the local park; it was quite posh compared to Dad’s park, laid out flowerbeds, play area with swings & slides, river with ducks on.  I loved going there and enjoyed the walk as well, the houses were so different, back to backs so we would cut through the back ‘streets’ from road to road and all the while people talking in that funny way. 

Sometimes we would visit Redcar or South Shields, Mam and Dad sitting on the prom and me on the beach, Dad pelting me with winkle shells – gently of course!! 

I have since found out that Auntie May had at least one other son, maybe two, but I never met them at all – although I did have a meeting with one of their sons but that’s for another day.