How Jimmy.....get that dog round the back!

In the nineteen sixties, Shields had gas lamps , cobbled streets snow and ice in winter steam powered ferries, trolley buses, corner shops and on the Lawe Top (where I lived) a Roman fort.

The Roman fort must have seized everybodys imagination as the street names all laid a homage to Rome, there was Vespasian Avenue, Julian Avenue, Roman road, and Urfa terrace, Caer Urfa being the roman name for Shields.

We had a big (happy) family Joan and Stan, Valerie, Martin, Mel, Wendy and later Linden, complete with Roger the dog and lodgers, mostly marine students studying to pass their tickets, which would be a gateway to the sea, abroad and the world.

My role in the family and the community seemed to be the messenger…I would run to the paper shop for a Gazette, go messages to the grocers or at night the ‘offie’

On top of that I would deliver orders for Bains and Duncans, either with a home made cart (oh the shame) or on the grocery delivery bike which was top heavy when the groceries were placed in the front basket. It was slavery of course and child labour, but was seen as enterprising and character forming.

The Lawe Top was surely the best place in the world to grow up. There was the view of the sea, the nearby parks, the Hilltop play ground, various chippies and best of all three cinemas within walking distance. Ocean road is now the curry centre of the world which is another plus, but in those days there was only one Indian restaurant.

The Lawe Top was an island in the days of the Romans with the river to the north and ocean road to the south a tributary of the Tyne all shallow, as it was before industrialization and the dredging of the river.

My favourite fare those days was curried fishcake and chips usually bought on a Friday night coming home from the Scouts.

It was an outdoor life, it needed to be, what with black and white TV and two, then just three channels. Then there were the songs, the songs to sustain, the melodies the ‘yeah, yeah, yeahs’, the mop heads and melodies.

‘she was just seventeen, you know what I mean’…..

We had the boat to go fishing, the dinghy to row over to North Shields, the parks and the beaches, I just remember running, running everywhere over the hills, banks, parks and beaches, running, running , running to school, to do a delivery, running for a bus, running everywhere, and at night after all the air, weather and freezing nor easterly, sleeping forever. The sea fret would envelop the Lawe and our dreaming minds and carry us away.

This was written for our Joan and Stan who will always be with us.