Some memories of No. 1 Farmstead Road

* 'Playing' on the horribly out-of-tune piano in the back room.
* Drinking Snowballs at Christmas time.
* Playing 'Find the Black Bitch', while scoffing licorice allsorts and coconut ice on Sunday afternoons.
* Chum...

Playing billiards in the living room and chalking the cues against the ceiling.
Cricket along the front path, using the back gate as the wicket.
Ken, Vic and George's all night sessions of card playing, usually 8,6,3.
Playing the card game 'Cheat' and Stan declaring that he couldn't go.

My first Christmas after I came out of the RAF, (1961 or 62 - can't remember). Getting the plates out of the kitchen cupboard,Ted standing on a chair passing plates to me - I put them on the table - Ken passing them to Vic who put them back in the other end of the cupboard. Every time Ted asked if we had enough we said "No we've only got about six". They had Ted going for about ten minutes before he twigged and called us some rude names!!
Also that Christmas a solo school that seemed to go on into the New Year!

When we first set foot inside No.1 - onto a grey, cold looking hard compo floor.
Waking up on a cold winter morning, summoning every ounce of courage before testing the temperature outside the bedclothes and then scraping the ice off the INSIDE of the window to see what the weather was like outside.
Putting a heater in the bathroom prior to taking a dip. Not that it was a cold house, just B****** freezing!
Ted getting up for work in the early hours of the mornig, coming into the front room and, through the haze, enquiring if any af the card school would like a cup of tea.

First memory is of delivering bread to No1. I used to assist "ted" our baker when living at our previous address in Elfrida Crescent. My next memory is my first visit to our new home as I arrived in the early hours of the morning, on leave from the army prior to demob in April 1953. I was not expected as, I and my compatriots, were rushed home from Egypt to Liverpool and then sent home at once with no warning.