The Pointer, he was an asian oily lamp that used to stand down by Erith market just pointing at stuff/people with his umbrella. Once saw him at outside Eltham Maccy D's pointing so assumed he was on tour!!
I remember Pointy. Don't know how true it is, but the legend was he went mad after his daughter got run over and killed, he spent the rest of his days pointing and shouting at passing cars.
Growing up on Abbey Wood Estate before Thamesmead was built; playing over the Sewer bank or on the old iron Railway bridge over Nathan Way; or exploring the streams and fields that ran between Harrow Manorway, Crossness and the Belvedere gas holders. Happy days.
As a child, going to the Valley on a cold day, standing at the open end, but not feeling cold because there were so many people around you. Very useful on a windy day. Loved the monkey nuts.
Seeing Smoky Joe on his tyreless bike around our road in Albany Park.
Pease pudding and faggot van that used to come round in Albany Park.
Sliding down the parcel chutes at Sidcup station until getting chased off.
Gazing longingly at a pair of Bobby Charlton football boots for weeks in Barnetts window at Cotmandene and badgering my mum for them only to be saddled with a pair of Woolworths finest Nat Lofthouse!! Reason being 'You're only a goalkeeper'.
But later, getting my first pair of screw ins at Bruces in Orpington
Being sent on an errand to the shops 20 minutes before the 1966 World Cup Final.
American Civil War cards with the bubble gum.
Being sent to the chippy every friday evening for the family dinner.
Playing five a side in the gym at school with those Mitre plastic type balls that stung like f**k if you caught one on the thigh.
Football matches during double games lessons on the pitches between Midfield Boys and Girls schools and hoofing it towards the girls classrooms hoping you'd see your girlfriend/girl you fancied.
Gazing longingly at a pair of Bobby Charlton football boots for weeks in Barnetts window at Cotmandene and badgering my mum for them only to be saddled with a pair of Woolworths finest Nat Lofthouse!! Reason being 'You're only a goalkeeper'.
I always had moulded rubber studs when all the cool kids had screw-ins. My parent's impeccable logic was that as a growing lad I would outgrow the boots before I wore down the studs but, of course, that wasn't what I wanted to hear.
Travelling by train to night games from Dartford with my brother in the early seventies. Fast from Woolwich Arsenal to Dartford on the way home. The Slade Green Charlton Herbert's would pull the communication cord just outside Slade Green Station every time and casually bowl down the platform and into the Railway Tavern.
collecting conkers in Bexley Mental grounds and being chased out by the "patients" phillips toy shop in Dartford for Scalextric parts big bus adventures to Welling for the comic shop right down near the station big bus adventures to Bexleyheath for the cinema, where Asda is now, don't remember it being in the Rat and Parrot 21 routefinder bus to school from Hickorys to Sidcup, but a 233 boring bus with doors home again..? chucking the cauliflower cheese (or whatever other unedible guff we'd made in Home Economics class) out the top window of the 233 at cyclists on the way home from school happy daze and lunar jetman on the spectrum (as soon as you'd finished watching dangermouse anyway) the hours spent riding my silver raleigh grifter
- Pyramid lollies (not Jubles as these were on a stick - like frozen Slush Puppies) - Gob Stoppers - Buying stamps in the small covered market next to the Co-op supermarket - Paying off weekly from my paper round money for a pair of Squire's Brogues - and only getting them when it was all paid! - Harrington jackets and Ben Shermans - Six solid sunny weeks of playing football from dawn to dusk in the school holidays - Monkey Nuts - Playing (trying to play) tennis at the courts on Plumstead Common - The prefabs off Swingate Lane - Free bar all day in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee at Plumstead Radical Club - Every other shop in Woolwich being a shoe shop. - Macdonalds opening their first UK store in Powis Street - but still preferred the American Beefburger Bar next to Lord John clothes shop - Looking in the window at clothes in Lord John's thinking how the feck am I going to aford that?
Comments
Dinosaurs and adventure playground at Crystal Palace Park.
Seeing Smoky Joe on his tyreless bike around our road in Albany Park.
Pease pudding and faggot van that used to come round in Albany Park.
Sliding down the parcel chutes at Sidcup station until getting chased off.
Gazing longingly at a pair of Bobby Charlton football boots for weeks in Barnetts window at Cotmandene and badgering my mum for them only
to be saddled with a pair of Woolworths finest Nat Lofthouse!! Reason being 'You're only a goalkeeper'.
But later, getting my first pair of screw ins at Bruces in Orpington
Being sent on an errand to the shops 20 minutes before the 1966 World Cup Final.
American Civil War cards with the bubble gum.
Being sent to the chippy every friday evening for the family dinner.
Playing five a side in the gym at school with those Mitre plastic type balls that stung like f**k if you caught one on the thigh.
Football matches during double games lessons on the pitches between Midfield Boys and Girls schools and hoofing it towards the girls classrooms hoping you'd see your girlfriend/girl you fancied.
And err, has anyone said 'jumpers for goalposts'?
phillips toy shop in Dartford for Scalextric parts
big bus adventures to Welling for the comic shop right down near the station
big bus adventures to Bexleyheath for the cinema, where Asda is now, don't remember it being in the Rat and Parrot
21 routefinder bus to school from Hickorys to Sidcup, but a 233 boring bus with doors home again..?
chucking the cauliflower cheese (or whatever other unedible guff we'd made in Home Economics class) out the top window of the 233 at cyclists on the way home from school
happy daze and lunar jetman on the spectrum (as soon as you'd finished watching dangermouse anyway)
the hours spent riding my silver raleigh grifter
- Pyramid lollies (not Jubles as these were on a stick - like frozen Slush Puppies)
- Gob Stoppers
- Buying stamps in the small covered market next to the Co-op supermarket
- Paying off weekly from my paper round money for a pair of Squire's Brogues - and only getting them when it was all paid!
- Harrington jackets and Ben Shermans
- Six solid sunny weeks of playing football from dawn to dusk in the school holidays
- Monkey Nuts
- Playing (trying to play) tennis at the courts on Plumstead Common
- The prefabs off Swingate Lane
- Free bar all day in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee at Plumstead Radical Club
- Every other shop in Woolwich being a shoe shop.
- Macdonalds opening their first UK store in Powis Street - but still preferred the American Beefburger Bar next to Lord John clothes shop
- Looking in the window at clothes in Lord John's thinking how the feck am I going to aford that?