Memory Lane

Childhood in the fifties and sixties was a much different experience to childhood today.  It was a different world.  Pleasures were simple, and summers were spent almost completely outdoors.

One of my favourite activities was making up skating routines outside in the street.  You could do this easily, as there were virtually no cars.

We would all sit on the kerbside and applaud each others' routines, maybe even give marks for them.  The rules were simple: you had to stay in between the lines formed by the concrete sections of the road.  If you look carefully, you can see the lines that formed the section that we used (still there today!)

This skating rink road seemed huge to us as children, and we made full use of the extensive space, by giving our wonderful routines in our state-of-the art skates...

 When we were all skated out, we would sit underneath this lamp post and wait for our mothers to call us in for bed.

We would each of us desperately hope that we weren't the first to be called in - the horror of that was almost too much to bear.

Likewise, being last was no picnic either - it could get lonely under that lamp post in the dark after everyone else had gone in, but childhood etiquette of the time meant that no way could you just go in without being called.  That would never do.  I mean, you couldn't just give up control like that could you?