´óÏó´«Ã½

Before television, mobile phones, computers - and yet we always had a great deal of fun. We loved swinging and doing tricks on the iron bars alongside the river. Looking back we had very few toys, and yet we did not feel that anything was missing. We really made use of what we had.

I had a black doll with a cracked head. Every time my brother and I quarrelled the doll gained extra damage and more glue to keep it together. It was still my little darling which was dressed and undressed regularly with a wardrobe of home knitteds that my mam had made. My brothers had a red pedal car (I really do not know how that luxury came in to the home). One could sit in, and one of us would sit on the bonnet as a passenger or else we would both be underneath it repairing some imagined damage.

One of our best possessions was an old pram after some baby in the family. We had wonderful fun with this! The pram was the type with a deep cavity underneath the resting area. The board covering this central area was taken off and there instantly was a ledge on each side like seats. With the wheels dismatled, my eldest brother and I could sit either end and rock back and forth like a swinging boat see-saw. We could even put my little brother in between our leg. The wheels were banished from the house and became another plaything - a trolley in the back lane. It was the envy of our friends.