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© 2008 Tedwill
I was born in a maternity hospital in West London famed for its expertise in child birth. I was a bouncing 4 or 5 pounds and delivered by cesarian section and totally green when i was first seen by my parents. At the time all babies were dunked, much like Achillies
The stuff was supposed to protect us from unknown diseases prevalent at the time. Such as Polio, menegitis, and all other viral problems like mumps and measles. Well apart from the menigitis I think i could say the green gunk did not work - I had many of the others.
We lived in a three storey terraced house in West Kensington. The houses were built in 1864 and had all of the Victorian facilities built into them. An outside loo, a washplace in the back yard with a big copper couldron to cook the washing in. All of the rooms were lit by gas light until I was about 5 and then we got one electric light in one room. There was one sink and tap in the back room. We used that as kitchen and sitting room. There was another in front which was kept best for Christmas and high days. We had one radio on which we listened to the Archers everyday for country folk. We all slept upstairs. My brother and I shared the back room and mum and dad with Pat, my sister, in the front room.. We had one gas meter on the first floor landing which took one penny (pre 1972 or course). There were no washing facilities at first or top floor at all. There was a lodger who lived on the top floor and she had to carry her water up and down all the time. We were never big enough to help her so she did it all herself. She used to baby-sit us when mum and dad wanted to go out, which was very rare
We had a coal fire in the kitchen and front rooms. The coal was stored under the stairs in the coal hole. A man used to come once every two week to deliver one sack. We cooked on a cast iron fire place with built in ovens and a grid for pans. My dad worked for the Gas Board and was able to get a cheap gas cooker with 4 rings, and oven and grill, all for one farthing. Mum used to make all of our clothes except boys short trousers. My brother an I used to roam the streets playing. Mostly on the debris. A V bomb had dropped on one end of our street and flattened all of the houses. When the bricks were removed to build new houses elsewhere we were left with a large open area of rough ground on which not much grew. It was quite desolate for an area inside of London. Even when it rained we were out making rivers in the gutters and creating lakes. It was a very free time we had with little or no interference from anyone. Yet we never got into any kind of trouble. Well not often anyway. How many of us were there? There was mum and dad,Me the oldest then Mick and Pat up until 1956 when Paul came along and then 5 years later Jean arrived. That made a lucky 7. We went camping almost every weekend from the time I was about 10 to a campsite at East Horsley in Surrey. There was a lake there where we learned to fish and swim and a single hall where we learned to dance. We learned old time dancing like the volita and waltzes. I could never get the hand of some of them, but they were fun. A bag of crisps (chips) and an orange juice and that was my night made.
Life then was quite hard as my dads pay was not that great. He managed to save enough for a car, an Austin 12 that had two doors. May parents who lived in Yorkshire before the war could not stand city life and every chance we got we went out in the car to the countryside. Many evenings and weekends were spent picnicing and enjoying the views.
When I was 15 we moved to a new flat (apartment) on the first floor of a block of 22 flats. Life had taken an upturn. We now had electricity in every room with lighting, a television and still the same old gas stove for a few more years. We continued camping for a good few more years after that until my parents bought a caravan.
My childhood was beset with ailments, disabilities and other conditions that made my young life, from my point of view, hell. I had very many happy moments but due to the awfulness of other children and weekly visits to either doctors or hospitals for the first 12 years of my life I became depressed - until I joined the scouts and found out about the rest of the world. I even attended on a regular basis a hospital for nervous diseases and a psychatrist to overcome my problems. Always in pain when i walked anywhere never helped. The first thin that did help was the operation when I was 12 that straightened my toes. Until this time my toes were curled under my feet like a clenched fist, and that hurt. After the operation everything eased off. I still had problems with my feet because they were twisted and pulled into a high arch which for most part was resloved with a further 6 operations.
When i left school at 17 I had gained one pass in biology. I failed everything else. I think that was mostly in part to my distrupted schooling when I had to visit hospitals and have operations. I did not let that stop me though. I went on to gain passes in english and chemistry at 'O' level standard. I needed those to become a scientist. I ended up working in a hospital as a laboratory technician. Whilst I was getting those exams I worked as an artificial limb maker at Roehampton Hospital for 5 years.