Back to Lived-in

There's a park at one end of the road - and we lived on the left, going towards the park

We had a white duck called Donna

Honeysuckle in the back-garden - wonderful smell

Black & white tiled floor in the hall

Billy Bombshell lived across the road from us

Lounge at the front

Bedroom at the rear, together with kitchen

Me sleeping in bedroom one night - and coal from the fire falling out onto a rug/carpet. No great damage but it could have been worse

I think I tried to smoke a cigar in the lounge one day.. all on my own.. sitting in one of our big armchairs, thinking "I'm grown up now" - also crossed my legs (like grown-ups do/did) and opened a big non-tabloid newspaper

First - the Grange Park Infants school - bright, airy lots of light blues and yellows

Walking with my mum to the school - rainy days, I'd be under a big red/maroon macintosh affair she had - I could see out through the 'pocket-holes' - really enjoyable

Bastard other kids in the early days... my mum "made" my clothes, so they were bright and satiny etc.. the other kids had wool and grey etc.. - they used to pick on me - until I wanted to be dressed like them

Having to sleep for an hour or two in the afternoons - on raffia mats (not much padding there!!)

Shouting to a friend over my shoulder.. that I could beat him... running to that wall... in front of ..BANG!!... me (silly sod.. I'd misjudged how far away the wall was - or perhaps how speedy my running was - and had run full-tilt into it..) bruised and battered left side of face... no lasting harm (tick, tick) done!

Then the Grange Park Primary school

Initially (First and Second years) in wooden hut type classrooms

Painting watercolours and playing with plasticine

Learning to write - Capital letters and "the others" - can I just call them "lower case"? - three horizontal lines and capitals occupied all 3, whilst lower case went from bottom to middle - there were some descenders too - I think that is where I started to find that I didn't understand the way things were taught. They (teachers) 'd say "lower case letters must be written between the bottom line and the middle one"...........and then they'd get to g j p q y and z and they'd make some "other" rule. I think what happened with me was.. that I took in and understood their first rule... "between bottom & middle", but as soon as they got to the "except" - I'd be struggling to remember which letters were to be excluded and get it all mucked up. Logically - it would have been better for me, for them to say "These letters are written between bottom & middle. a b c d etc.." - then .. "These letters are to descend below the bottom g j p etc.." - Two positive rules.. not one positive with a BUT.

Then into classrooms in the main school - eating lunch in the canteen - lumpy potatoes - hated apricots

"Milk Time" - where we had to get and drink a half-pint bottle from its crate - which for some reason - always seemed to be stood next to the radiator.... warm-milk - errrrggghhh!!

Clearing out the Games Equipment room/store with Ronnie Stone... he and I locked ourselves in there - lots of moving and stacking of coconut mats, wooden benches/beams and vaulting horses - but also - "Wars" - hiding behind all that and "bombing" each other with bean-bags etc..

Playing right-back in the soccer team and wining The Hawes Cup in 1954/1955 at Hayes Stadium. Mr Frank Taylor (our form master) was team coach.

The shops at the crossroads of Lansbury Drive and Balmoral Road:

	Penny Rolls from the bakers on the way home - stick your fingers inside and eat the warm white dough first - before the crusty outside
	Sometimes HoneyComb Crunch bars from the Sweet shop - buying fireworks from the hardware store, also the Paper/Sweet shop.
	The 90b bus stops and route - aaaahhhhh!! Having to get the 90b to go to Mr Howett - dentist.
	And more shops and other details from Tony Borlace....

I got called "Casanova" in the Primary school by the temporary playground ladies, because I was (apparently) always talking to the girls (separate playgrounds)

Playing in "the circle" (just a widening of the road) in Hurstfield Crescent (Mr Purviss - an ex-wrestler used to live there) - especially in the winter - ice slides

In the better weather, running the block - also a game of leaving messages/clues in lamp posts, road signs, telegraph poles for the other team to find/follow

"The woods" - where Heinz offices now are - that used to be just trees and cows grazing in a meadow with a big old house in the centre.

Roller-skating up at the T Nash old site (Uxbridge Rd) - where buildings had been demolished - but lovely smooth floors had been left

Arriving home from school sometimes, not having a key, everybody out - breaking a small window in the back door - to get in - did this a couple of times... parents - not happy! (What's wrong with the child??).

With Roy in doors on rainy days:

	Jumping from way up the stairs, down into all the pillows and eiderdowns, piled at the foot;
	Rolling around on empty quart beer bottles - lay them flat on the floor - take shoes off, stand with both feet on the bottle - and roll..... supposing the bottles had broken??
	Bandages round knees, gloves on, roll up a couple of pairs of socks into a ball, clear the furniture in the front-room to the sides - and play "crawling soccer"

Soccer up on the "Rec" at the Uxbridge Road.

My dad one year creating a real good fireworks display area in our back garden (milk-bottles buried in the ground for the rockets, Catherine Wheels up on fences etc..) and me going off somewhere else for Bonfire Night.

The Essoldo and Savoy cinemas - Roy Allen's father was a projectionist at the Savoy

Some remembered childhood conversations - around 8-10 years):

	Brian - asking if I knew what a skyscraper was?? And me replying (with what I thought was a very good answer - 'cos I didn't know) - "One of those airplanes that leaves a white trail across the sky";
	Roy asking what sort of car I'd have if I could?? And me replying... "A DeLux" - I thought that was the name of cars that had such badges;
	Me shouting down (from where we were playing in the back of a lorry)  to my dad as he arrived home one evening "Hello you old bugger" - I'd heard it used enough in the house - but got a real whacking for using such words in public!!

I hadn't remembered the move into Hurstfield Crescent, but I can remember the move out - so empty.. and checking the little cupboard under the stairs in case we'd forgotten to clear it out.

Then - into a much bigger house and me racing around as the movers brought the furniture in - choosing the upstairs front room as my bedroom - and accidentally locking myself in one of the cupboards in that room.

Waiting for my mum to come home on the Monday after we'd moved in, for lunch from The Fairey Aviation Co - and deciding to sit on top of one of the big gate-posts to wait for her - good observation post - and she being horrified (at what the neighbours may have thought)

The big solid oak front door, trellis fencing in the back garden - also a little cucumber frame (later demolished), the brick coal-bunkers, asbestos garage and the big Victoria Plum tree

My dad working a weekend and getting paid 50 Pounds - with which we bought a Parnall washing machine (with mangle)... soon to be followed by a GEC refrigerator and a clothes dryer (which comprised nothing more than a metal outer shell with a heating element at the bottom - and hanging racking above)

Ahhhhhhh.... those lovely cold fresh glasses of milk from the fridge!! Also.. my mum getting into (buying) Sasparilla (not great)

I think I still went to Grange Park Primary for a few weeks/months after we moved - which meant getting the faithful 90b bus.

But then I had to transfer to Townfield Secondary Modern - this was (apparently) a tough school - nasty initiation rites for the 'newboys' etc... - worried!!

Mixed-up memories - no sequence..:

	Dad having to "board-in" the bannisters
	Dad ripping the phone out of the wall - because he was being called too often - apparently there was a flash at the local exchange and they came round to investigate
	Boulting Brothers Rolls Royce stopping over the road (at the bus stop) to pick up my dad most mornings - on his/their way in to work at Shepperton Studios
	Dad working for Aubrey Baring and Maxwell Setton - and just reading (July 2005) a book (He who Dares (all about the SAS/SBS) by David Sutherland) which says "April, 1949 I received a letter from Aubrey Baring of the banking family and head of the Mayflower Film Production Company ........." - (NOW!!! Here's something I've just realised!!!!!!! - a number of my family were involved in the UK film industry (Uncle George Pitcher (producer), my father (Company Secretary), Cousin John Flower (Cameraman) AND Aunt May - whose married name was Flower!! Her name was May Flower!!!!) - any connection.....?? - anyway - on with what the book says...."He said he heard...." about Sutherlands exploits and wanted to make a film - so.... "....lunching with Aubrey Baring and his partner Maxwell Setton at the company office in Wardour Street" - now..... my dad worked for both Baring and Setton and used to go to offices in Wardour Street all the time.... what intrigue!!!! The film eventually appeared as They who Dare in 1953 with Dirk Bogarde (whose autograph my dad got for me).
	Mum wanting plates and 'porcelain' to be 'displayed' on a sort of 'ledge' at picture-frame height all around the hall - like the Historic Houses of yore.... - excuse me - 95 North Hyde Road - wasn't a(n) historic house - mum!!
	High jump practice in the back garden
	Tucker and I taking turns at 'hiding' in the tool-shed at the bottom of the garden whilst the other one stood near the house with the air-rifle and shot any appendage that was offered by the silly-sod in the shed
	Shooting flies with the air-rifle - pretty accurate!!
	Uncle Norman's Ford Zodiac being parked in our garage for months (don't know why) - me jumping in and starting it occasionally - so that the battery was flat when he came to retrieve it
	Knocking the old Asbestos garage down and building a concrete-slab new one
	Dad dying - that evening... coming home from Ealing Tech - Tucker and I had arranged that I'd go over to his place and we'd start taking Basketball lessons. When I got home - Mum said Dad was bad (he'd been in bed with pneumonia for a week or two (brought on by too much alcohol and a crap lifestyle)) and that I had go phone for the doctor - did that - he came - Dad was dead........no Basketball... good - very silly game!!
	The Teddy-Boy that used to stand over the road waiting for the 105 bus to take him to Southall
	Mum deciding the back-garden had to be "all lawn" - then "all vegetables" - the front-garden was "all roses" then "more concrete and less flowers" - so much work... for what??
	The bathroom - turquoise wallpaper (yes in a bathroom!!) - with tropical fish all over - the setting sun blasting in through mottled windows - what light/ambience etc...
	Tucker and I - the first night I had the Phillips Reel to Reel Tape recorder - we'd set it up to record, having just decided that he (or I) was the Interviewer - and off we'd go........ "So, Mr Smith - you're just about to swim across the English Channel?" - "What?? No I'm bloody not!! And my name's not Smith - it's Farquhar"... etc... - each effort by either of us - would be a complete surprise to the other - and the muffled laughs and snorts just added to the fun.
	Mum cracking walnuts whilst I was trying to record the whole of Miles Davis' - Sketches of Spain LP (borrowed from Barry Parker) - that tape is now.......... history...shame

	Tucker and I would go out "dancing" at "The Kodak" on Saturday evenings - sometimes his sisters Wendy and Pam would come too. This particular night he was due to stay overnight at my place - and we'd missed the last bus etc... see Nonchalantee - anyway - we arrived at my house - went to bed - both in my room - hot summer evening - all the windows open - and I dreamed there were fireworks fizzing just near my bed - so up I jumped - picked them up - raced to the windows and ..threw them out - wooof!! Tucker hears this commotion and sees me standing there - looking down into the front garden thinking "where are those 'fizzing' fireworks" and asks.... "What do you think you're doing??" and I couldn't believe that he was so unaware that I'd just saved his life... I just said .... something... and walked back to bed....
	Visits from Uncle Norman and Aunty Pat - also Uncle George, Uncle Jack and Auntie May - with Chummie (their light brown Cocker Spaniel) - I thought they were great fun - but I wasn't really involved!!
	Going out with Ron (from across the road) on Photographic expeditions to ...anywhere nearby... then developing and printing the colour photos in his kitchen - thanks to Ron and Audry Catrell - good time!!
	The emergence of "The Plan" for driving the coast of the Mediterranean.

Cannot remember moving in (again).....

The loft was enormous - big enough for 3 or 4 more rooms - but we never bothered to build

Integral garage - rubbish!! When you parked the car in the evening - engine smell seeped from the garage into the hall/rooms etc..

Mowing those lawns - 2+ hours every time...

Mum deciding that mowing was too difficult with the fruit trees there - so down they came - shame!!

Walks up Tilehouse Lane, past Priscilla Black's house up to Denham Airfield - helicopters, small private planes - whole different world.

Driving from Denham to Croydon most mornings/evenings (before the M25 was built!!)

Walks down into Denham village - antique shops and the pubs frequented by film types - John Mills' house and the church

Raymond Baxter's house nearby

Denham Golf Course railway station

Crashing the first Lotus Elan on the M4 Christmas Eve, probably 1965. Stupid.... heard on the news that morning that the police were going to be extra vigilant and concentrate on drink/drive offences. As the Lotus was bright yellow it was difficult to hide - so I decided I'd not drink anything that day... went into work,  didn't even have a sherry that was offered - then off to a couple of parties - no drinking!! Driving home around midnight - it had snowed an inch or two, on the Chiswick flyover heading West, the M4 where it widens to 3 lanes - the outside lane was virgin snow.. doing only 50mph middle lane - no other traffic - easy does it...... Towards Heathrow I was coming up slowly on a mini also in the middle-lane, overhauling him at around 5 mph - stupidly decided not to Undertake him - but to gently venture out into the fast lane.... as the right 2 wheels hit snow - all traction was lost, the left side spun round, and (later on) the mini people said - I overtook them just spinning around uncontrolled (and it was uncontrolled too!!), spun across in front of them and hit a lamp post, bent it at right angles, heard fizzing/hissing (the hot engine and snow), though it was going to catch fire, unbuckled my seat belt, stood on my seat and stepped over towards the passenger seat, out onto the hard-shoulder...... the roof (which was only canvas) had gone, as had just about all of the body (fibre-glass) - smashed to smithereens. The mini backed up (4 girls) asked if I was OK and wouldn't give me a lift (bastards!!). Another car came along - gave me a lift to West Drayton Cop-shop - reported the accident - and the last I saw of that car was a week or two later at Mike Spence's garage in Maidenhead, encased in a great big plastic bag. Only one small scratch on my forehead - very lucky!

Mum having a plastic and metal lean-to thingy built all along the back of the house - not nice!!

The second Lotus Elan 3 or 4 times breaking down - whist parked in the garage overnight - usually the hydraulics for the clutch coming into contact with the exhaust and leaking away - and the Mike Spence guys coming over the next morning and casually reversing it out and driving it clutchless to Maidenhead.

Installing the radio and "soundproofing" into the Fiat 500.