Where did you say?

[cappy]

#60no mince pies john but more important no buns in the oven.......don't want any more of them

[Stan Carter]

cappy, when you were down south, did you ever go to the "three bridges junior school". Iwould have been there from 1943 on.
regards, stan

[cappy]

#63 not during the war stan born in 1940 ,,,but did go to school in 1950 at 3 bridges .....stayed with auntie in2 new cotttages woolboro road aunt was stella penfold .....big scrapyard at rear of house filled with wrecked planes spitfires etc enjoyed it

[Stan Carter]

cappy, that just made the hair stand up on my neck. i too lived on woolborough road, as i remember about 6 houses up from the penfolds. knew them well.believe person living next door to you was an old man called " sambo sayers" right next to the brick yard, as you say was full of scrapped planes and stuff. first trip to sea there in the pond aboard an old bath tub, pushed out by my older brother and his freinds. there was also an old hermit that lived in the woods that we used to torment quite often. good times...
stan

[cappy]

small world remember the old tramp he lived I a clay cave in the woods .......my uncle frank penfold worked on the rail line after the war .......I have a walking stick cut from a hazel tree in the wood at the back .marked aug 1950.......my aunt stella was my mams sister and came down to sussex from shields in 1937 or 8 sadly she died about 4 or 5 years ago she was I think 93 or 94 followed by my mam 90 .....john penfold worked at Gatwick .but now lives on the coast down there somewere........there was a kid called chisolm I remember its a small world and the older we get the smaller it gets

[Lou Barron]

Like Ivans Mum told him the Germans will get him Post 5 .Well the Germans got me but the did not like me so the past me over to the Japs

[Roger Dyer]

I was born at the County Hospital, Hertford, in 1940. I have been told that this momentous event occurred during a visit by the Luftwaffe, apparently Adolf Hitler was after me from the get-up go (nasty man). My first home was a caravan located at Blackfields Farm, Brickendon, Herts. In 1941, the caravan was relocated at Cherry Green Farm near the beautiful Hertfordshire village of West Mill (which I have revisited on several occasions during holidays in the U.K.). Following my parents separation in 1944, my mother and I returned to Hertford where we lived in three separate locations until War's end. In 1945, we moved to Cheshunt, Herts, where we lived with my grandparents. In 1946, we upped stakes once more and this time went to live with an aunt and uncle at Hockley, a village in Essex. In 1948, we moved on to Southend-on-sea, Essex, then to Leigh-on-sea, Essex, before returning once again to Southend. From there we went to live above a sweet-shop run by an aunt in Manor Park (East London) then in 1951 it was back to my grandparents home at Cheshunt. Later, that year, we went to live with another uncle and aunt who had a sweet-shop in the High Street, Cheshunt ( it was a time when sweets and other commodities were still rationed. I took great delight in removing any boiled sweets that remained stuck to the inside of otherwise empty jars). In 1952, we moved to Brentwood, Essex, where we stayed until January, 1955, when I joined the T.S. Arethusa at Upnor, nr Rochester, Kent, which became my home for the next 18 months. In 1956, I returned to live with my mother and a step-father at Rayleigh, Essex, whilst undergoing further education which I hoped would earn me an engineering cadetship in the M.N.( it didn't). After joining the M.N. in 1957, we moved into another new home at Rayleigh. Married in 1962, my wife and I lived in New Southgate (North London). In 1966, we emigrated to Sydney (Oz) where, during the next three years we lived at three separate locations in the suburb of Auburn. Finally, in 1970, we moved into a new home in the outer western suburbs of Sydney where we have lived ever since.

Much of the nomadic existence I lived as a child was courtesy of a darling, Mother, who collected husbands like I collected Dinky toys. My father was her first husband. Her 4th husband (a true Kiwi gentleman, to whom she was married for 37 years) passed away in 2009. Mum, now aged 93, suffers from Alzheimer's disease and lives in a residential facility where she recieves excellent care. We visit her regularly and take her out to lunch each fortnight. As far as I know she has no plans to marry in the future.

They say you can never go back and there is some truth in that. Of my former homes, the two farms are little changed in appearance, 4 of the houses have been demolished, and of those that remain, very few have survived unchanged and some are barely recognisable. Courtesy of Google Earth I revisit them often.


.........Roger

[happy daze john in oz]

born over a shop in seaforth moved about 6 times still in seaforth greatest place on earth Liverpool.jp

John I take it that it was you who moved six times and not the shop>

[happy daze john in oz]

............................I would have looked a right pillock working on deck in a Davy Crocket Hat.
Brian

Brian with your lovely round face it would have looked a treat,

[happy daze john in oz]

Born in East Dulwich Hospital in South London early 1943 Adolf dropped a bomb on Dulwich station the morning of my birth, some welcome into the world. I was an ugly child and according to my mother the nurse slpped her not me for bringing someoen so ugly into the world. We lived for the next 3 months woith my grandmother just around the corner from the hospital. She had the middle floor flat in an old Victorian three storey house. On the top floor a doctor, the ground floor an undretaker and us in the middle, well cared for in all events.
Excluding my time at sea I have lived in 38 different addresses over the years, including two pube we owned. Lived with grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and others but never in laws, though my wife spent a week with hers just before we came to Oz. Here in Oz built 4 houses and reconditioned one. Started life all those years ago with nothing and still have some of it left.