Shirley said I should leave the following generations at least a glimpse into what my childhood was really like so here goes !
I was born in Forest Gate in North East London in January 1949, the third of five sons of the local NHS Doctor whose practice was based in the front room of our house, a room we never entered unless it was for injections from a huge glass syringe and monstrous needle that got used for everyone and which lay in a cracked enamal dish covered in disinfectant when it wasn't causing terror !
These, you must bear in mind are my very hazy recollections !
My mother basically lived in 'the cloisters', the family name for a covered walkway between our house and the neighbours which contained hugely long coat racks with every coat that had ever been owned hanging mouldering from them and which were still there in 2001 when we sold the house, a stinking gas geezer, a washing machine with a mangle on top, three huge Dublin sinks with open drains under them and a HORRIBLE toilet at the end with an old fashioned virtually unflushable cistern high up near the ceiling which I dreaded having to visit !
Along the route to the toilet were two ancient wooden multiple washing lines that were always full of dripping clothing and sheets and which were raised and lowered by ropes that passed through rusted squealing pulleys and which were tied to the wall on double ended hooks you never see these days !
The floor seemed to be perpetually full of baskets of laundry and the sinks full of soaking clothing with the taps running permanently to rinse every trace of life from the fibres !
My mother stood losing control of this empire until it was time to take a break and prepare the meals that were inedibly unpleasant and scarred my infant mind !
I think this autobiography is going to take some time to write !
Wonderful........I look forward to the many upcoming serialised and hopefully "edited" autobiographical snapshots! (A fan from the North West of the country).
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