My parents were pretty easy going when it came to playing out when I was a kid. Up until about 10 years old it was stay in the street and if you go around the corner don’t cross the road and go near the river bank. Needless to say, once around the corner I did cross the road and did peer through the fence to check out the river. From 10 it was as if I was allowed to throw my short trousers in the bin and wear long ones now having reach the milestone of double figures.
Going to the two shops around the corner was deemed ok by mum if I was to ‘look left then right and look left and right again’ to make sure the road was clear. We are talking about the late 60s and back then the roads were next to empty but still best to be careful. The last year in primary school Mum lessened the string round me with the local park now open to me. I was quite wild climbing loads of trees and running about everywhere and the riverbank was open to me unofficially, it came with my new found freedom.
My Mum and Dad were fine with me roaming about my area but like most parents, they had no real idea what I was up to. It wasn’t as if I could get up to anything to naughty. With everyone knowing, everyone and any naughtiness would soon find its way into your parent’s ears.
The reason for my latest reflection on life is due to a conversation about when you were allowed to go into town with your friends. If like me you may have made a sneaky trip into town without permission to Woolworth, it was still not an officially sanctioned visit that came a month or so later.
That was just before I went to big school, secondary school, when I received word from on high that town was open to me. Funny enough mum would allow me to travel to my Nans on my own and that was a hefty bus ride, which was much further than the town centre. I would actually have to go through town to get there.
I can’t remember much about the trip but I do remember visiting Gwyns upstairs in Cardiff market, which was the trendiest of clothes shops. I may have not known much about fashion and youth tribes but I knew what I liked and was looking at it in front of me. Mum did my clothes shopping so the chances of her shop here, let’s just say it was never going to happen leaving me in the uncool section.
Every time we as a family would go to the café upstairs in the market, I would stand gawping at the clothes on display hoping for Mum or Dad to get the message, they never did. It was a few years later before I could put on my ‘I bought something in Gwyns badge’ and that was down to my Nan.
Having bought me a mega pair of platform shoes, which were ace wine and black and moved from the middle of the school line to the back with the tall kids. A few days later I talked her into taking me to Gwyns. I walked away with some braces to hold up my new pair of green patch pocket trousers and a nice butterfly collar shirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment