When we moved up from the back-to-back houses, we moved into a council house in Garretts Green Lane. Er, we were known as ‘the kids from the slums’ when we first moved up there, er, so, er, we didn’t make many friends to start off with but of course, we soon started work.
Oh, it was absolutely, it was absolutely marvellous, to have a garden. Dad had always wanted a garden. Er, in the back-to-back houses, the best, the nearest we got to a garden was a window box. But when we got there, Dad was absolutely thrilled, not just a garden at the front but one at the back. And to have a bathroom.
To go from getting the tin bath out in front of the fire and, er, often getting into dirty water because, everyone… you just kept putting more hot water in and the, you went in order of age. Er, so I was third in line
And of course, we wanted to have a bath every night and it was absolutely lovely, we felt so clean. And, er, it wasn’t just that, it was the, breathing fresh air, because in the back-to-back houses, er, you would, erm… there’d always be the smoke and the fumes from the local factories, because of course, there were lots of factories years ago.
