Goal posts made with piles of jumpers
Old ‘washed’ underpants used as dusters
Playing in the street we thought was fine
not many cars around that time

Girls experimenting looking perfect 👩‍🦳
Boys seeing who can spit the furthest
Chopper bikes if you had the money
They were exclusive... not for everybody 

Playing with penknives a game of splits
A bleeding foot if they should miss😫
Dogs roaming freely around the streets
Pestering and begging for any treats

Wheezy chests and chilblained feet
Playing out in foggy streets
Knocking on doors and running away
our adrenaline rush back in the day

lots going on, friends on every corner
News spread fast by the neighbourhood informer
Smoking upstairs on a double decker 
Young and stupid not knowing better

Some were so much worse off than you
Second hand everything.. nothing brand new 
Some thought they were the top of the tree
not to associate with you and me

House decor then seems so incredibly dated 
Clashing colours none which coordinated
Squiggles and zigzags no wall was plain 
enough to give us all an optical migraine!

Houses the same all from the council 
Some could buy..others were doubtful 
That one kid who had every illness conceived 
snotty nose wiped on the back of his sleeve

We all had Saturday jobs and a paper round
Some had pocket money if, dad was around
No time off if you missed just one day
Someone else would take your round away

Winters seemed so much harder
Not much food in the larder
Just one room you could really get warm 🔥 
Paraffin heater on the landing the norm

Crying Saturday afternoons watching lassie
The black and white minstrels, Shirley Bassey
Bet Davis films in black and white
She was the ‘it’ then socialite 

Morris Oxford and Cambridge saloons 
Get 2 x families in there - much more room!
Mini, Wolsey and the Moggie Minor
A pint of beer or a pint of cider

Black jacks fruit salads and cola cubes
Ice poles in all flavours came in tubes
Babycham, Cinzano were the drinks to say ‘cheers’ 🥂
Lager hadn’t caught on only warm local beers

Holidays in this country never abroad
A week in a caravan is all you’d afford
No ‘flexi’ time you WILL start at seven
Time was always a workplace obsession 

It was so very different certainly much harsher
though we still had plenty of fun and laughter 
it’s changed more than you could ever know
Seems like a thousand years ago.....


Kimhicksgmail.com 2020