crossing the road

[geordie]

Can you remember when you could cross the road diagonally?
or walk down the white line late at night after a couple of beers to see if you were still sober?

can you remember playing out on the road in the dark against the only lamp post in the area

can you remember the smog so thick you could walk into the lamppost or the cig machine on the shop wall in daytime?

can you remember when you would sit on the curb with a pal
writing down car number plates? and at the end of the day you both had the same and one and only that had been in the street twice? and the reason it had moved out of the street was because it was Sunday. the man who owned it only drove on Sunday mornings and caught the bus at other times.

can you remember the old H shaped TV ariels and the 40 inch TV with the 9 inch screen that took 10 minutes to warm up?

can you remember the quiet life before transistors were invented? thats the bit I miss

[Shadow]

I can remember some of that

Before traffic levels got mad and pre-by-pass days the roads were so quiet

I remember trying to walk home when the power got cut-and I was in the road more times than I care to mention cos I couldnt see a bloody thing

[Ann1]

I can remember it all - apart from smog and radios. We never had smog and I've always had a radio Used to listen to Luxembourg with all the crackles, and then Radio Caroline which was brilliant Everyone used to carry their radios around and take them down the beach, which was great as everyone had the same thing on!!

[Fairscup]

Trouble is that when crosssing the road diagonally or walking along the white line in those days you ran the risk of treading in horse manure

[Shadow]

Nowt wrong with horse manure-has a lovely smell unlike some other types

[Jazz]

Aye, a good post Geordie, I remember all of those things. I recall, as a kid being told by our teacher, a matronly "Miss", to go home from school in groups of six, each holding one another's hands so we didn't get lost in the smog, it was that bad! Mind, I didn't understand the logic of it as all six of us could still have got lost together! ;D Also the TV's...we were late getting one but used to go round to a friend's house to watch a small "interference" covered screen.....I watched one of the Toon's cup finals as though through a snowstorm! ;D Later, my Dad used to fiddle for hours with the "horizontal" & "vertical" holds at the back of the telly......sometimes it got beyond him and the screen became a mass of zig zag lines......time to switch off!
The same friend who had the television also had a car, an old black Ford Anglia which we al packed into to have a trip into the Northumbrian countryside.....the equivalent to us now of a holiday abroad! I still remember the car's registration number GFS255....GFS meaning "good for scrap"!.........a different world.

[heatonharrier]

All of that and more
Sitting on the kerb with your pal on the opposite kerb with two bricks in the middle of the road trying to "bool" one of those multicolored sponge balls between the bricks.
During the summer the whole street would go from Heaton Station to the coast for the day.
Cycling from Heaton to Washington and back to visit my aunt and uncle with a few sandwiches and a bottle of water.
A street trip to Hexham with just enough time for our sandwiches and drinks in the park beside the Abbey because the round trip took almost the whole day.
Dad taking us to the coast in his "new" old Ford 8 - HPT 921 which was a Durham registration. The Coast Road was an amazing dual carriageway but the road was concrete surface and the vibrations set the whole car juddering.
Packets of five Woodbines, and if you couldn't afford those a packet of four Domino. Tiny cigarettes in a beige and red paper packet that was the size of a domino.

[geordie]

I just wrote the following then BT got a bit peeved and booted me off line so if this is a double take I apologise, Hi Jazz the quote about the snowstorm rang a bell, when I was courting the current Mrs Geordie about 1964 she lived in Whickham, I walked up the bank to meet her in a snow storm that was blowing horizontaly, she had an umbrella and we hid behind it as we walked in the tire tracks of a van towards her house, the snow was at least 9 inches deep, and we could only look down as we walked, we came to a sudden stop when we walked into the parked van and laugheds so much we couldnt stand up, ahh for the stupidity of youth, we could have been run down by a driver that couldnt see us on the road, Later in life about 1980 we lived in the pit village of Greenside near Ryton, we used to have ice on the inside of the windows at times, I remember that the Venture Bus used to go passed my house from Newcastle to High Spen, the bus depot, during the week of heavy snow the roads had not been cleared and the bus came to a stop just passed out house, the conductor and driver just abandoned it leaving the flashers going, they were still going 3 days later as the bus got covered in snow and we could just make out the amber lights through it, its funny but though we had no way to get mobile in those days I never missed a days work and it was about 7 miles each way,
Re the horse manure, when I was younger my dad would pay 3d for a full bucket full. I used to walk miles following Neddy Lowdon the traveling fruit and veg man, he would say to me that Horace the horse was just about to part with its supper any moment now but most of the time he was just fibbing, I think he liked someone to yarn to.

By the way, I think this site is great but dont tell any of the admin staff, they may think we should pay for it? (just my little joke)
Best Regards, Geordie

[geordie]

Hi Heatonharrier. I remember the bottle of water on the bike, I used to go with my elder brother billy and I had the job of carrying the water and bait, (2 dripping sandwiches each), we didnt go far because we lived on top of a steep bank and it always creased us after we wouldnt give in to pushing the bikes uphill, the water bottle, an old pop bottle aleays had crumbs in after Billy had drunk first out of it , it didnt bother me then but I hate to think of it now. The coast road! I used to go past there orten when the Wills Tobacco Company was there, if my memory serves me correct and I seem to remember Burtons? am I right. Later in years I worked at C A Parsons as a driver then Warring and Gillow in Newcastle but they had a shop at the top of Shields Road , its years since I was in that area. last time I was there I was trying to get my hand painted Lambretta Li150 tested but the Italian guy (cant remember his name) refused to touch it, his wife was Verry apologetic, in the end I took it to Kens on Westgate Road and he passed it but I put it in for A BSA 500. I must stop rambling on
Best Regards to all. Geordie

[Ann1]

Don't worry, we won't charge for the site..................yet ;D You carry on rambling geordie, it's dead interesting