I lived in 2b Gordon Square, Whitley Bay. It was a strange sort of house. It didn't match anything else in the street. It was as though, it was just stuck on the end of the row. Our house consisted of a large kitchen / dining room. At one side was the kitchen area and a door leading to an outhouse where my Dad would keep all sorts of weird and wonderful things, like old tools, jam jars with screws in, lengths of wood, and things that he kept ' just in case he needed them'. I do that now. I guess I inherited that trait from him.
In the center of the kitchen / dining room was a large oak table that had drop down leaves. I remember it as a huge table, where we had numerous family members and friends come for dinner. A couple of memories that sticks out in my mind about sitting at that table, are when my Brother, James, got a table spoon and stuck in the English mustard. He pulled it out with a large dollop of mustard on the end, then told me to try it. ' go on' he said, ' it's lovely'. I, for some mad reason decided to trust my brother on this and promptly shoved the whole tablespoon of mustard in my mouth. James nearly wet his pants laughing, as I quickly pulled the spoon out and started screaming at the foul, very hot taste. How I wasn't sick, I do not know, but to this day, I have never really liked mustard.
The other memory is sitting at the table with James. We had our weekly comics. I got the Dandy and James got Warlord. This one time, I had got a cardboard Korkie the Cat mask, which I thought was brilliant. James got a plastic dagger that hung round your neck on a cord. Sometimes, he got a spud gun in with his comic. I remember thinking that one day, when I'm James' age, maybes I will get grown up things like a dagger or a spud gun. It's funny how kid's minds work.
Out of the kitchen was a passage way thatook you to the stairs and front door, but to the left was the living room. James, myself and my Mam used to sit in there on Friday nights. James and I would get ready for bed, come downstairs and snuggle up on the settee with our Mam, and watch The wonderful world of Disney. Mam would make us shandy from lemonade and McEwans Pale Ale. We would drink this while tucking into a nag each of Salt and Shake, the crisps with the little blue bag of salt where u added it yourself. We used to love rummaging to the bottom of the crisp bag looking for this little blue bag. It was like digging for treasure.
We used to look forward to these nights in with our Mam. It felt safe and warm, snuggled up in front of a roaring coal fire and tv. Bliss!
In the passageway was a small, oak cupboard that had an old clock sitting on the top. My mam used to always tell us off for overwinding it when wound it up with the key, you put in the slot in its face.
Up the 'L' shaped staircase you got to the 2 bedrooms and bathroom. My parents room was forst on the left then mine and James' room. Our room was massive. Loads of room to run about and play.
There was a big oak wardrobe against one wall that I sometimes hid in and beside that was a chest of drawers which were about the height of the window sill. As a young child this window seemed very high and climbing on the drawers was the only way to see out of the window, like at Christmas, looking for Santa and his sleigh.
The other end of the room, were mine and James' beds against each wall. I used to have a poster of a head and shoulders shot of Steve Austin, The Bionic man. It was one of those posters where the eyes would follow you round the room. It freaked me out so much that after a while i tore it down and never put it back up.
One strange design of this house was a window between our bedroom and the bathroom. I never understood why it was there. It was high up near the ceiling and half the length of the wall. I remember when one of the girls from next door was baby sitting us, I peeked through this window, after climbing on a cupboard, and spied on her while she peed. She was only a couple of years older than me. Shows how times have changed, Kids looking after kids, while the parents go out.
The bathroom / toilet was long and narrow. One night I was in the bath fiddling with bits of me (as any boy does to himself) when my Mam walked in. I got told off, after I told her it was a light house.
To this day, my brother still says he saw a ghost in the house, upstairs. He says it was a man dressed in old soldiers clothing. Pre WW2 type. My brother says that our house was once and officers house, but i have not found any information to verify that. No idea how he found that out, seeing as it was before the internet and my brother would rather play football than go to the library.
This is what my old house looks like now.
