Tom Jones

Busy day of Eco dad activity.

Up early to try and get Eco son a cheap white shirt, Thanks George. He needed to be smart for rugby game, as it turned out he was not registered so could not play. He will be registered this week and his debut has only been delayed.

After the rugby I headed to the allotment to finish tidying up and moving the compost heap.

My continuing project history of eco dad in 100 blips, I walked past it today and my blip just jumped at me.

This is the tenement that I was brought up in, 24 years of my life here as a base.

My little brother was born here and when delivered I was the first to hold him.

We lived on the second floor overlooking the street towards the now gone Ferranti factory.

It was an one bedroom flat with a small boxroom. My brother and I shared the bedroom while my sister had the small boxroom(I can remember sharing the boxroom with brother before my sister was born, we managed to get bunk beds in it). My mother slept in the living room in a bed that folded out of the wall similar to a caravan bed.

My father left when I was 13, the thing I remember the most is my clothes smelt fresh as did the house rather than the overbearing smell of cigarettes after he had gone.

Important things about the house, as a trainspotter we had a railway line outside and could see the trains by hanging out of the window. We had the timetable and knew when they were coming. Every September we would watch the Ferranti new starts with their maroon uniform getting their photo taken, there was loads of them. Our school would empty after year 4 and quite a few took this path, I decided it was not for me.

The tenement in our day was full of children, at least one family on each of the four levels. Dolly Pratt lived at the last flat at the very top, she was tiny and by all accounts a lady involved in the oldest profession. She always tottered about in very high heals and made up, sadly alcohol played a huge part in her life at the end.

Several times my brother or myself would carry the tiny drunk Dolly up the 3 flights, she stayed with her brother who had played for Hearts, he would open the door and we would put her into her bedroom, a faded boudiour.

I used to keep various creatures in the house, a pet toad called Fragile kept in a tank by my bed on top of an old Singer sewing machine. Once 12 newts escaped in the house, I had to find them all before I was allowed to go to school, they were up the curtains and in the dirty washing. My mother will remember the frog that escaped hoping towards her as she sat on the toilet screaming and when she came home from work to have a shower to find a bath full of minnows, kids now adays are just not upto it.

We used to do messages for the old people in the stair and get some pennies for it.

My mother still lives in the flat, it has changed but it is stuck in my mind as it was when I left. Its mostly couples and maybe one famliy in the stair now, it is so quiet.

Old house is still standing