David Dickinson. Memories of. Introduction ( )

Transcription

1 Memories of David Dickinson ( ) Introduction My name is David John Dickinson. I was born in Knottingley in 1949, in poor circumstances and, by the age of 9, I was the oldest of four children, my siblings being Maureen, Margaret and John James. Our late dad, who came from a large family in Airedale, had fought with the army in North Africa, Italy and Germany in the Second World War, and our dear late mum was a Knottlingley lass, also from a large family. Due to financial hardships caused by dad s health problems, we found ourselves evicted from our council house in 1958 and, after a brief time being split up among uncles and aunts homes, Maureen, Margaret and I came together again when we were placed at Carleton Homes. John was still very young and, so far as I know, he was placed at a nursery on Halfpenny Lane in Pontefract, so I didn t get to see him hardly at all while we were in care.

2 I remember the day we were taken to Carleton Homes. We went as a family to the Registrars Office on Button Park, Pontefract, which I guess also housed the equivalent of Social Services in those days. I don t think I really knew what was about to happen that day. After waiting around in an office for a while I found myself in a car being driven away without my parents, and soon after arrived at Carleton Homes. I was taken to house number 1, and my sisters to house 3 or 4, I can t remember which. Among the first things that happened was that I was given a bundle of new clothes, and then sent to have a bath. This was my introduction to a communal bathroom next to the kitchen, where anyone could walk in at any time. It was also my introduction to the red Lifebuoy soap and the black stinky bar of Derbac insecticide soap which was for washing hair to kill lice. I m pretty sure I didn t have lice, but its use was mandatory in any event. It s hard to remember after all this time how I felt in this new situation, but I think I began to be anxious and afraid of doing anything wrong, because that feeling never really left me all the time I lived there. My parents eventually persuaded the council to give them another chance and, in 1960, we moved into a low-grade council

3 house in Knottingley a house with no electricity next door to some families with gypsy backgrounds. It was a stepping stone and after a year or so we were re-housed in the England Lane Estate where I lived until I got married in So, what do I remember of living at Carleton Homes? Breakfast consisted of very milky porridge, made by Auntie or the daytime housekeeper before we came downstairs. Alternatively there was All-Bran cereal. Dinner was generally good food, which we often had to help prepare. I was always in trouble for taking the potato skin off too thick. We often had broad beans, which I truly hated but, in this disciplined situation, I was not allowed to leave them on the plate. There was always water with Rose s Lime Cordial, which was very sour. We were generally expected to wash the dishes in rotation, and in the summer it was hard because the kitchen was warm as you worked over hot water, washing up after 8 people. I once felt sick and dizzy doing that job, but Auntie thought I was just being lazy. Sometimes it was my job to go to the main house at the

4 top of the drive to bring weekly food supplies back to the home. Bread doesn t last a week in summer and I do remember having to remove spots of blue mould before eating it. Shoe cleaning was a rota job too. I didn t mind this too much. Sorting laundry was a chore, as was polishing the dining/living room floor. You had to put solid Ronuk brand wax polish on a rag, then wrap it around a broom head and apply the polish all over the linoleum. Then you had to go over it again on hands and knees with a fresh cloth to bring up the shine. You haven t lived until you ve had to scrub stone steps outside and put yellow chalk around the step edges. We had a TV in the house. We watched it for an hour or two each evening, sitting on dining chairs lined up like theatre seats. Sometimes we were given sock darning to do while watching TV. We were sent to bed at either 8pm or 9pm, depending on seniority. There were two dormitory bedrooms in the house, with about 6-8 boys in each. In the morning, we had to strip our bedclothes off and remake them with hospital corners on the sheets and the blanket folded up at the bottom, military style. There was a small bathroom upstairs for nighttime use, but during the day we had a couple of bathrooms in an

5 outbuilding behind the houses. If you needed toilet paper you had to get it from Auntie, and, believe me, three pieces is not always enough! Between the two blocks of houses, and behind them, was a big wooden shed that was normally locked up, but from time to time we would get to see a movie in there. Surrounding our block was the play area. I remember swings at the back, near a sand pit. I used to make roadways in the sand and collect ladybirds to walk on the roads, when they were around. There was also a covered shelter with swings inside. I got a harmonica for Christmas while I was there and spend many a happy hour on those swings, sheltering from the rain and trying to learn to play it. My two friends were brothers David and Ernie Betts. We used to play soldiers, pretending we were the English and imagining Germans shooting at us as we dodged and weaved around the buildings. We got wounded so many times; I don t know how we ever survived to grow up. There was a girl about my age in one of the other houses who nominated herself to be my girlfriend. I remember dark hair, rosy cheeks, and Irish accent and, perhaps, the name Bridgette. A couple of times she persuaded me to meet her behind the toilet block in

6 the evening where she insisted on kissing me. At 10 years of age, it wasn t really comfortable, but she was a nice girl as I remember. On Sunday mornings we would go to church which was just up the village maybe 100 yards or so. I remember the vicar was kind of ugly a screwed-up face. I wouldn t have minded church at all except for the incense, which was thrown into the air in copious clouds and smelled like the worst perfume ever. I once fainted in church, probably due to excess incense inhalation. Occasionally on Saturday we would go into Pontefract town on the bus, a few kids together, to either go to the barbers, or to the swimming baths. Every week we received pocket money but nobody ever knew the total amount, because it was put away for holiday and Christmas gift money. We were given sixpence weekly to buy sweets and Friday evening would see me in the nearby sweet shop buying 2 times 2 ounces of boiled sweets. These had to last the whole week.

7 I was enrolled into Carleton Junior School, which was right next to the church. The school was very small and almost opposite was a large building called the Community Centre. Some of the classes were held in that building, and that s where my class was. I can picture being in the classroom, with its inkwells in the desks and the scratchy pens (ink blots were a constant problem in those days). I can t remember the name of the lady who taught us though. When I d been there a while the 11-plus exams came along. This exam determined whether you went to grammar school or not, in the two-tiered system that existed at the time. I was the only pupil is the class to pass the exam and, come that September, I found myself attending the new Don Valley High School in Doncaster. This meant getting up extra early to take a bus into Pontefract, then catching a special school bus at 8am to finish the journey. It also meant that suddenly I had homework, and so television was out of the question for me most evenings. I recall that the manager of the homes and his wife took me in their Ford Consul car to Doncaster to get uniform clothing for Don Valley from Cliff s shop on Printing Office Street, which is still there, by the way, 56 years later.

8 Bridlington Other than a couple of day trips, I d never had anything resembling a holiday until I was at Carleton Homes. Twice during my stay we all went to the seaside at Bridlington for a week. We stayed in a boarding house and were generally free to roam the town during the day. We were given a shilling of our saved holiday money per day. My usual practice was to go down to the harbour pier. There was a little shop where you could rent a fishing line and buy sand worms for bait. I would also get a packet of ginger nuts and then spend the whole afternoon catching flat fish and little crabs off the side of the pier. I know that some of the kids got to go to Wharfedale on the Yorkshire Moors for a holiday too, but I missed out on that for some reason.

9 Christmas Christmas was a nice time at Carleton Homes. We would get our saved money a week before Christmas, and the Aunties took us on the bus to Leeds, where we would shop in John Lewis store, buying little gifts for family. It was a real juggle trying to make the money spin out across gifts for my parents and siblings. But the day out was fun. We would have to let Auntie know what we d like for Christmas and more often than not the kids would get what they asked for. That s how I got my harmonica. I would also get a couple of gifts from my parents too. I m pretty sure we heard the radio a lot in the home, because I remember quite a few of the songs that came out around that time. Living Doll and Travelling Light Cliff Richard. Do You Mind Adam Faith, Little White Bull Tommy Steele, and the kid s favorites at the time: Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour and My Old Man s a Dustman Lonnie Donegan.

10 Life after Eastwell Lodge After our family came back together we still had a hard time making ends meet, and two more siblings came along, but at least we managed to stay together. Having been in a children s home was seen as a shameful experience by many in those days and it was not a topic for discussion in our house any more. Even when I was living in Carleton Homes I hid it from my school friends at Don Valley. Living in poverty and being split as a family has an impact on a young person s self esteem that not everyone is able to get over quickly. Fortunately, when I left school at 17 and started work, and especially when I went to part-time college, I started to gain self confidence that I d not had before. I worked in offices for a while and then joined the Police Force in 1969, which really gave me a fresh outlook on life. I married, had two fine kids of my own and completed a full 30 year career in the police, retiring as a sergeant in 1999.

11 Sad to say, my marriage failed at that time, but I met my present wife, who lived in Los Angeles, California, and now we live there together in relative comfort and security. My kids had almost everything I never had and, as adults in their 30 s, they re doing fine. As of today I have one grandchild, Freya, who s 3 years old as I write, and she s a perfect treasure. I return to the UK periodically to see my kids and wider family. Unfortunately, our time in Carleton Homes is still not a topic of conversation between the oldest of us, but it never leaves my mind. You carry the memories, good and bad, and, let s face it, the stigma, with you for life. Thank goodness there are these facilities available to help in a crisis, but the experience of being in that situation is not without a price on a young child. Thanks for reading David Dickinson