Carts and Sundays

On Mr Haircut Roj says: ‘There was a barber I used to go when I was a teenage spotty git. I think he was a Turkish Cypriot and his tiny shop was on the corner of Poets and Ferntower Roads. He would cut me hair then, after asking me, he would meticulously squeeze out all the spots on my neck. Yeah, yuk, I hear you say “I don’t wish to know that – kindly leave the stage!” Nice bloke though.’

Yes I remember that one. We used to go down cats alley just a few houses along to push our carts. I think the barber’s became a betting shop for a while. The synagogue further along on the next corner of Poets Road always had an air of mystery about it.

Just thinking about carts. It wasn’t unusual to push them along in the road with no fear about traffic. Bob Carter’s dad helped him so he actually had a brake and a sort of box to sit in! It was mainly the summer holidays when we constructed them and it wasn’t unusual for them to be held together with nails. Old pram wheels were the best but you needed the axle with the wheels attached either side, otherwise it was impossible to mount them. It was quite normal for the rear wheels to come off at some point. I can’t remember or imagine how we fitted the front wheels so that the cart could be steered!

We could also play football in the road either up by Bob and Dave’s house or else the beginning of Leconfield where it meets Ferntower.

Another completely separate point is Sundays. They really were peaceful days with all shops closed except ‘the Jewboys’ – that wasn’t considered an insult – just a description. Sometimes you could hear the sound of a military or was it Boys Brigade band in the distance which to me was very exciting and the bells from the church on Green Lanes before Clissold Park were very clear. Sundays were generally boring specially the radio with Sing Something Simple being my pet hate. I could never understand the strange locations of the song requests on Family Favourites e.g. BFPO or similar, no doubt British forces but confusing at that time. The songs – How Much is that Doggie in the Window, Sparky and the Magic Piano, Tubby the Tuba, Pink Toothbrush actually I really liked those ones it was the slow crooner ones that I used to hate. But mum and dad would sing along with the radio and thinking back they were pretty good singers. Once my dad had got a car we would go on trips to Epping forest and other “distant” locations.

John