'My memoirs...by Margaret Smith
I have so many memories I don’t know where to begin
When I was a toddler I led the way for my mam and my 21month old brother Mark, to go to church where we lived as the caretakers.
My dad's brother John had been the caretaker but he and his family had gone to live in Canada, - so we moved into the church house as our home…...until then we hadn't had a house; we lived with my grandma Snee (my mothers mother).
I loved being caretaker, I felt so useful helping to clean and polish the fittings. I also put bits of bread out for the birds to eat.
We had our names down on the waiting list for a council house. This was a new thing and we really looked forward to being lucky – and we were.
We were given a three bedroom semi with a big front garden and a very big back garden.
My dad grew lots of vegetables, the address was 11 Churwell Ring Road, Beeston Leeds 11...but soon they built two more houses at the beginning of the road, so all the house numbers changed by two numbers, so our house became 15 Churwell Ring Road.
It was along walk to school,….it took me five minutes to get to the tram terminus at Old Lane and fifteen minutes to walk to Jessamine Avenue and round a few corners to St. Anthony's |school.
Kathleen McGowan – (Michaels girlfriend) Michael was in hospital for 18 months with a broken leg after a car crash (he wasn’t driving) – he only drove a motorbike.
When he came out of hospital he stayed with Peter and Me in Morecambe.
When he became really fit he bought a house a bit higher up Albert Road opposite my house and ran a boarding house business there….(My house was 70, I think his was 79)
Kathleen McGowan married her boss, - so Michael was free.
He married Pat and had Jill and Julian & ** when my family went to live in Cornwall, Michael and family went to live in my house; 70 Albert Road. ** .....[editors note;- not accurate!'
The three teachers I had at primary school were Miss Briggs, Miss Flanagan, and Miss Doody.
One day Miss briggs wanted 13 penny stamps and 12 halfpenny stamps to stick on some Charity gifts she was posting – so – she announced to the class she was going to choose the child who was most reliable to cross the roads carefully and come back safely with the postage stamps
She chose me.
I took the money and was so thrilled to be chosen that I set off and ran all the way to my grandma's house to tell her that I was chosen.
She told me to immediately go to the post office as my teacher would be worried by how long I was away.
I bought the stamps and crossed the road to the school.
Miss Briggs sighed with relief when I entered the classroom.
She said “ Was the post office very busy?”
I answered “ Yes; it was full”!
My explanation wasn't queried – so I got away with visiting my grandma during school hours.
One day we were told we were going to miss singing lessons as the usual pianist teacher was absent.
I said that Rosaleen would play all the songs that I had been singing at home. They were very difficult to persuade as Rosaleen was only five years old.
However my persistence persuaded then to fetch her from the babies class and they padded the stool with books and stuff so that she was sitting in a comfortable position to play.
She said “ What note does it start on?”...They said “B flat”– She said “Where's that?
They said “Oh it doesn’t matter: Go back to your class”
I called out “Touch the note for her….she doesn’t know the the names of any notes”
So Miss Briggs touched the first note and Rosaleen played the song with both hands...(she was marvellous at playing the piano straight off).
She played marvellously, and we all sang and everyone, staff and children alike, really enjoyed it.
From then on Rosaleen was often called on to play piano for school singing etc.
I worked very hard at school to get a scholarship aged ten to go to grammar school – Mount St Mary's Richmond Hill Leeds.
We removed to a new large council house in Seacroft, Leeds.
I have so many memories I don’t know where to begin
When I was a toddler I led the way for my mam and my 21month old brother Mark, to go to church where we lived as the caretakers.
My dad's brother John had been the caretaker but he and his family had gone to live in Canada, - so we moved into the church house as our home…...until then we hadn't had a house; we lived with my grandma Snee (my mothers mother).
I loved being caretaker, I felt so useful helping to clean and polish the fittings. I also put bits of bread out for the birds to eat.
We had our names down on the waiting list for a council house. This was a new thing and we really looked forward to being lucky – and we were.
We were given a three bedroom semi with a big front garden and a very big back garden.
My dad grew lots of vegetables, the address was 11 Churwell Ring Road, Beeston Leeds 11...but soon they built two more houses at the beginning of the road, so all the house numbers changed by two numbers, so our house became 15 Churwell Ring Road.
It was along walk to school,….it took me five minutes to get to the tram terminus at Old Lane and fifteen minutes to walk to Jessamine Avenue and round a few corners to St. Anthony's |school.
Kathleen McGowan – (Michaels girlfriend) Michael was in hospital for 18 months with a broken leg after a car crash (he wasn’t driving) – he only drove a motorbike.
When he came out of hospital he stayed with Peter and Me in Morecambe.
When he became really fit he bought a house a bit higher up Albert Road opposite my house and ran a boarding house business there….(My house was 70, I think his was 79)
Kathleen McGowan married her boss, - so Michael was free.
He married Pat and had Jill and Julian & ** when my family went to live in Cornwall, Michael and family went to live in my house; 70 Albert Road. ** .....[editors note;- not accurate!'
The three teachers I had at primary school were Miss Briggs, Miss Flanagan, and Miss Doody.
One day Miss briggs wanted 13 penny stamps and 12 halfpenny stamps to stick on some Charity gifts she was posting – so – she announced to the class she was going to choose the child who was most reliable to cross the roads carefully and come back safely with the postage stamps
She chose me.
I took the money and was so thrilled to be chosen that I set off and ran all the way to my grandma's house to tell her that I was chosen.
She told me to immediately go to the post office as my teacher would be worried by how long I was away.
I bought the stamps and crossed the road to the school.
Miss Briggs sighed with relief when I entered the classroom.
She said “ Was the post office very busy?”
I answered “ Yes; it was full”!
My explanation wasn't queried – so I got away with visiting my grandma during school hours.
One day we were told we were going to miss singing lessons as the usual pianist teacher was absent.
I said that Rosaleen would play all the songs that I had been singing at home. They were very difficult to persuade as Rosaleen was only five years old.
However my persistence persuaded then to fetch her from the babies class and they padded the stool with books and stuff so that she was sitting in a comfortable position to play.
She said “ What note does it start on?”...They said “B flat”– She said “Where's that?
They said “Oh it doesn’t matter: Go back to your class”
I called out “Touch the note for her….she doesn’t know the the names of any notes”
So Miss Briggs touched the first note and Rosaleen played the song with both hands...(she was marvellous at playing the piano straight off).
She played marvellously, and we all sang and everyone, staff and children alike, really enjoyed it.
From then on Rosaleen was often called on to play piano for school singing etc.
I worked very hard at school to get a scholarship aged ten to go to grammar school – Mount St Mary's Richmond Hill Leeds.
We removed to a new large council house in Seacroft, Leeds.