Where has everybody gone

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Have I missed something but where has everybody gone.

regards all Tony Cross

[Brenda]

I suspect, like me, people call in fairly regularly to see if anyone has posted and then, finding nothing of interest to say themselves then leave without posting at all!  It takes one of us to do what you've done i.e. say 'Where has everybody gone?" to start something off again.  So, well done for giving us a prod; it would be a shame for the site to fold for lack of participation.

I found a short video on YouTube the other day: it was the bus ride from Bromley to Grove Park and a trip I made often in the past.  What a thrill of anticipation I  experienced but on viewing it, I found almost nothing recognisable except - possibly - Bromley Square and a little bit of Burnt Ash Lane.  Otherwise - nothing at all!  A
very great disappointment indeed.    Silly, of course, to expect things to be the same as they were 40+ years ago but my goodness, all so very different now.  And did I really see a high rise building somewhere along Burnt Ash Road?!

Bren

[adcross]

Good to hear from you Brenda.I think that this has been said several times before. Strange things happen well here is another one which I have not shared before. About 10 years ago we shifted into a Queensland Government unit in Buderim Queensland and before long we got to know the neighbours and it transpires that one lady lived in West Wickham around the time that I lived at 29 Links Road before we got bombed out and my brother and I were evacuated to Huddersfield for a couple of years. Getting back to the lady it transpires that not only did we live in the same area but we also honeymooned in the same place ,Dymchurch , but at different times and we married at the same church again at different times.
Changing the subject but when I read stories of the amount of depression and suicides that happen in 2017 I wonder how we all managed to get through things much much worse  than the present day probems. I was born in 1938 and my father joined up for the second world war and I did not see him until 1945. We were seperated from my mother for 2 years so I do not know how she coped. I am happy to say like so many others we got through things o.k.

All the best  and good luck.

Tony Cross

[Brenda]

Good to hear from you, Tony.  What extraordinary coincidences you share with your neighbour!  You wouldn't believe it unless you experienced it, would you?  I did meet a couple in a shop in Ararat (Victoria) and said, on hearing their accent, "I bet I know where you come from," meaning London, of course.  It turned out they were from Shortlands and knew Downham well, especially the Downham Baths.  However, they didn't seem at all interested in having more than a desultory conversation.  I also met a man who was from Grove Park but he, too, wasn't interesting in reminiscing with me.

I was born in 1943.  My father, being 30ish, was called up in the second wave (he'd been a regular soldier from many years previously) and I should know what year it was but don't.  I don't know how often he might have come home on leave but according to my mother, he came home from France on leave and just avoided the Dunkirk debacle.  My uncle was captured there and spent the rest of the war as a POW.  So many tales to tell but nobody really spoke much about it and I was too young to have all the questions I now do. 

Did you and your father manage to develop a good relationship eventually despite being virtual strangers to each other?  I had a friend who came home to a new daughter but could never really 'take' to her somehow.  Rather sad and I think it was not an isolated case.

You are correct, in my opinion, about all the suicides and depression that go on now.  But I think the challenges in modern day life are different to those of our generation and certainly of the generation that got through the war and simply had to get going.  I think, also, that many marriages that might have otherwise succeeded, failed because of the war and separations.  If my own parents were happy when they first married, they certainly weren't after the war.

Bren 

[joanie]

Hello from America:
This Downhamite has a lot of good childhood memories of life in the Downham Estates particularly in the area of Glenbow Road, Rangefield School and the nearby playing fields. Spent many an evening climbing and swinging  from the lamppost in front of our home. Does anyone remember "Gus" the policeman who patrolled our area? My Dad, Charles Ruby, worked in Bromley as a fishmonger at Kennedys Fish Shop. I was born in Wales in late 1944 as a result of my Mother and her 3 children having been evacuated during the V-1 & V-2 bombings. We returned to the only home I ever knew at 132 Glenbow in mid 1945. I grew up there until I was 19 and got married and moved away. Am old enough to remember before electricity was installed, with  gas lamps in the house, a coal bin under the stairway and a kitchen with a larder, which consisted of a marble slab to keep food reasonably fresh. Remember pumping water by hand for the upstairs bathroom. Played in the back yard of our home in the old bomb shelter and helped my parents tend a garden for vegetables and raised chickens and collected the eggs. Life was simple back then and I for one, will never forget those times.

[Brenda]

Hallo Joanie,

Lovely to read your post and share your memories.  Yes, I too, remember the gas-lighting, the copper to pump water up to the bath - hard work, wasn't it - and the coal cupboard which later become where Mum kept the brooms, brushes and carpet sweeper  which was later replaced by a vacuum cleaner.  Other memories are of the excitement when a chimney caught fire and we all watched in awe when a chimney sweep's brushes appeared at the top of the chimney.  I don't remember Gus the policeman but do remember Ginger the milk-man.  And I will always remember the smell of putty when council workers came in to mend a window.  Gosh, lots more memories e.g. roly-polying down The Hill etc.  Simple fun and games we had, and all precious memories.  It seems to me that all of us who spent our early years on Downham have never lost our affection for the place.  Hope to read more from you.

Bren

[joanie]

Hi Bren:
Yes, the memories continue. When I was young I spent a lot of evenings sitting on the back steps at our place to see the mother hedgehog and her babies come up the path to feed on the saucer of milk I put out for them. Such lovely little critters. When not in school I spent a lot of days roaming around Beckingham Place Park sometimes climbing the large trees while the park keepers weren't looking. When my folks had the money we went to the pictures at the old Splendid. Remember horse carts delivering coal for the fireplace too. No one in my neighborhood had an automobile. Dad rode a bike back and forth to work. No telephones back in that day. We did get a radio (battery operated) for entertainment. Those were simpler and good times!

[adcross]

Hello again Brenda and others. Brenda you asked if I struck up a bonding with my father on his return to civvy life. well not really Dad joined the GPO as a Postman and he used to work all the hours he could it would be nothing for him to do his morning shift then come home sometime in the afternoon have dinner then go for a lay down and then back to work for the nightshift commencing at Midnight then carry onto the morning shift as well. Hence I still did not see much of him. I started my National Service in 1957 with the RAOC to start with but when they told me that I was going to be a clerk for two years I said no thanks, they then told me I was the right build and height for the RMP I couldn't get there quickly enough. After 16 weeks training I was posted to London District in Church Lane Kensington ( great ) then after that I was posted to Fontainbleau France again a perk posting, did about 10 months there and was posted back to London District until demob. in 1959. Because I had some experience with telephone exchanges I scored the job as an exchange operator in London District, another perk. We got married in 1960 and migrated to N.Z. in 1961. We went back for a trip in 1963 but that was spoilt by the news that Dad had terminal lung cancer in early 1964 Dad died and I went back for the funeral.  Well Brenda the biggest regret of my life was not getting to really know my Father better but what I did know about him was that he was a truly great man in my opinion. In 1999 we moved to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland what a great place to settle down.
Keep in touch, all the best Tony Cross.

[Brenda]

You've had an interesting life, Tony.   Interestingly, my father was a postman for many years and then sat exams to join the Civil Service.  He got a clerical job in the War Office after that.  He died in 1963 after a massive stroke suffered as he got ready for work, he was 53yrs old.  Yes, many regrets about not getting to know more about him but he was a kind man and had a good brain but, being brought up in the Bermondsey slums at the beginning of the 20th century, he never had the chance to reach his potential.    He joined the Army aged 17 and stayed in for 11 years before going back to Civvy Street.

[Brenda]

It was certainly a quieter and simpler world for us, wasn't it? As say, no cars and we all played safely in the street: marbles, rounds, hop-scotch, hide and seek etc. What fun we had!

What schools did you go to Joanie?  I went to Pendragon Infants and Junior Schools and then to Churchdown.

And whereabouts in America do you live.  There are a couple of my old classmates from Churchdown who live in the USA.

Bren

Hi Bren:
Yes, the memories continue. When I was young I spent a lot of evenings sitting on the back steps at our place to see the mother hedgehog and her babies come up the path to feed on the saucer of milk I put out for them. Such lovely little critters. When not in school I spent a lot of days roaming around Beckingham Place Park sometimes climbing the large trees while the park keepers weren't looking. When my folks had the money we went to the pictures at the old Splendid. Remember horse carts delivering coal for the fireplace too. No one in my neighborhood had an automobile. Dad rode a bike back and forth to work. No telephones back in that day. We did get a radio (battery operated) for entertainment. Those were simpler and good times!

[joanie]

Hello Bren:

Went to Rangefield Primary School, then on to Athelny Secondary School and eventually to Sedgehill School where I was put out at fourteen years of age. My Dad got me my early jobs, first  in a dress shop and a clothes cleaners, both in Bromley. Eventually I was later able to secure employment at Robertsons Jam Factory where I stayed until after I married in 1965. Moved to Gravesend, then on to Rochester where I worked at the Scotts Paper Plant and for Burroughs Welcome. Immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 and have settled in Florida for the duration and retirement with my husband.

Visited the old place on Glenbow Road a couple of times and we caught the attention of the owner on my last visit. She was gracious enough to invite me in to the house and allow me to film the visit with a vcr camera. Brought back an awful lot of heartfelt memories and I still look at it quite often. Also, My current husband (who is a yank) and I were filming the kids at Rangefield over the fence when a teacher saw us and inquired about what we were doing. When she found out that I attended there as a child she invited us in and introduced us to the headmaster. We were given the royal treatment with a complete guided tour inside and out. I still have that tape also. Also on our last visit, I visited Sedgehill. Went to the office and introduced myself. One of the administrators looked up my old school file from 1958 and gave it to me together with a blazer patch and tie, both of which I still have and treasure today.

My son from my first marriage was born in Dartford, emigrated with me and became a U.S. citizen as a minor when I applied for and was sworn in as a Naturalized Citizen over here in 1983. Upon graduation from high School he joined the U.S. Airforce. As luck would have it, his first out of country duty station was Lakenheath in the U.K. Very proud of him as he served 20 years all over the world including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Joanie

[Brenda]

Very interesting indeed, Joanie.   My mother worked in Robertson's Jam Factory for a while.  I think - but may be wrong - it was in the early to mid-60s.  How absolutely wonderful that so many people were generous enough to let you into the old places.  I imagine that revisiting your past places were very emotional occasions.   My husband, two kids and I came out to Australia in 1974 and have never returned.  I think it is too late now as so much has changed.   The house in Durham Hill (opposite the school where my mother was a cleaner for many years when I was a child) where I was brought up was demolished several years ago due to its condition.  When I found that out, I was very, very sad and it was and always will 'home'.  Having said that, I love my life here in rural Victoria where we have a smallholding of 36acres, a few sheep and cows and far too many venomous snakes!  I find it interesting that all the old Downhamites, most of whose families struggled to make ends meet, nevertheless retain such a very real affection for the estate.
So glad your son came through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I don't doubt that would have been an ordeal for you too! 

Bren

[adcross]

Come on you lot out there, use it before you lose it.

There must be something interesting that you have to say to save this group.

Regards to all,
Tony Cross

[Brenda]

Well, I'm still here - but very surprised to see my last post was in August.  And I agree, we must have something to contribute to keep Downhamonline and old Downhamites going.l  So, greetings from our little place in rural Australia which, at present, is far too warm for my liking and I get emails from a friend in Crofton Park describing the cold of November there - and it sounds lovely to me!

I suppose most of you are preparing for Xmas - not me, I ignore it as much as possible!  But can you believe it's that time of year again?  Never did a year go so fast!

Brenda

[Frank (hutchsky)]

I found things very quite on the site, so I been on a Catford Lewisham Site, for a while. What with our internet system changing, and Windows 10 its been a challenge, good to see some of the long time members, I will use again