Category Archives: Autobiography

Rationing 1940-1954

Posted on June 21, 2018 by odeboyz

I was born in 1944. My first two years I and my two older brothers were evacuated with our mother to a small terraced house in Bolton (Lancashire). We returned to London in 1946. I remember shopping with my Mum … Continue reading →

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Yobbish behaviour

Posted on June 7, 2018 by odeboyz

Living on a council estate in the east end of London, we are quite used to seeing wrong doing. It is fair to say, the police know this estate well. They know some of our residents very well. One or … Continue reading →

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Bleak Dystopian Future

Posted on June 4, 2018 by odeboyz

As time drifts ever onward Memory’s seem to fade faster, each day Short term memory loss, concerning Like a rubbed out black board Where only the odd word is still discernable. The once busy blackboard’s copious notes Instructions to be … Continue reading →

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A Chance Encounter

Posted on May 25, 2018 by odeboyz

I met this old man in Dagnam Park in the London Borough of Havering in the winter of about 1973. He had an old push chair, for transporting his logs, a bow saw to separate them into reasonable sized chunks … Continue reading →

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Home contents insurance

Posted on May 10, 2018 by odeboyz

In the late 1990s, an elderly tenant living on the estate rang me to asked me to come and see her as she had a problem. I was at her door within ten minutes. I had known Pat for a … Continue reading →

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Window cleaners and their insatiable curiosity

Posted on April 27, 2018 by odeboyz

When I was a teenager I let in the window cleaner into the house. He came round once a month doing the windows both inside and outside. He was a seedy looking thin faced man, with ever shifting eyes. I … Continue reading →

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Family fun days at Easter

Posted on March 29, 2018 by odeboyz

My parents were alive in the 1970s. At this time of year Dad would devote a considerable amount of his time in devising, what he called, his grand-children’s ‘grand Easter Egg hunt’.  There were my four youngsters and my brother’s … Continue reading →

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A Dear Old Friend: an obituary

Posted on March 16, 2018 by odeboyz

June Kight lived on the same  estate as us in East London for more than thirty years. I  knew June via my wife, Jan, who organised and ran the Tenants Association called PASTA – the Parkhill and Sunrise Tenants Association. … Continue reading →

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From opulence to squalor: Gibson Square, Islington

Posted on March 2, 2018 by odeboyz

This desirable row of Regency houses was built in the mid-1800s, in the reign of George IV. It was a highly desirable property with servants sleeping quarters in the two attic rooms. One room for the maids the other for … Continue reading →

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Games Lessons in the 1950s at Sir Philip Magnus school, London

Posted on February 16, 2018 by odeboyz

I have never liked sporting events, especially team games. Every Wednesday afternoon my class, of around 28 pupils from Sir Philip Magnus school in North London had to muster outside the school gates for the obligatory torture session. All or … Continue reading →

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