There was social life before girls and social life after girls. Looking back I think the former was definitely more fun. Sorry ladies! Firstly there was no cinema in Weaverham, the nearest being Northwich, but I think regular cinema going came into the ‘social life with girls’ era. Secondly there were no computers available and no computer games. But the old saying “we made our own� fun was true and we had plenty of it.
Looking back and analyzing it with hindsight, I would say that we certainly had more direct contact with our outside environment and nature. Staying indoors for socializing was never a good option. We usually had a collection of ‘mates’ from within a small radius of surrounding streets, lanes, drives or avenues. After homework was rushed and finished we got out and about. My first home was in Gerard Drive, so my ‘mates’ were from Gerard drive, Farm road, Gleave road, and the Crescent. Apart from the odd game of soccer and cricket, we often headed for the woods (Owley Wood) and a wooded area, the name escapes me (perhaps a reader can help, which was at the bottom of the steep decline that Wallerscote road made before leveling out towards Winnington.
The areas were a treasure trove for rabbit hunting, frog spawn collections and ‘John Wayne – western type games’. We could keep ourselves amused for days. I remember vividly in the summer months playing in the wheat fields that were adjacent to Farm lane and often getting chased off by irate farm workers. The River Weaver was of course another favourite spot, were we would gather raspberries and strawberries for pie making and head for a swim in the Weaver. It was pretty brown in colour in those days and after reading Steve Williams notes on factory pollution I am beginning to wonder how we survived.
The challenge in those days was to swim the whole breadth of the Weaver from the Weaverham side to the Barnton side, which appeared from a distance as a foreign country with foreigners living there! My uncle Bob initiated the ceremony for me. First by getting me to swim a certain length of the river and then after he was confident I could make it, set out alongside of me to swim the breadth. I had much less confident but plenty of determination. As I got to the middle of the river my anxiety increased. Then I realized that turning back was the same distance as going on. I made the other side exhausted, but happy for a short while, until it dawned on me that I know had to swim back. But with re-newed confidence this was achieved more nonchantly!
Another more formal side of village life was the clubs and associations. We had a choice of Boy Scouts, or a newly formed Boys Brigade. The BB uniform and band seemed more appealing so a group of us joined. The uniform was quite simple, a hat that sat on the side of the head, a leather belt with a white blancoed bag attached that never carried anything and that was it. We were advised to wear a dark jacket and trousers, and as most teenagers had a dark jacket for school in those days, that was no problem. There was a whole range of activities available each week including drill marching and playing in the BB band. The only downside to the whole thing was the insistence on going to the Methodist church each Sunday, which some of us wagged of course. We hadn’t fully realized that the BB was an offshoot of the church and designed to teach boys discipline and good Christian ethics! Still we put up with the religious side for the sake of the social side. The head officer was a Mr Roper, who was a kindly man, but always seemed very serious and not prone to too much laughter. He had in fact started the association from scratch.
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