Nottingham Libran Lady

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Posts posted by Nottingham Libran Lady

  1. I cant remember the bus that was used as a cafe, but I do remember the adventure playground, I was always there!

    Yeah they had the zipwire thing, and also a net strung up so you could bounce on it. I remember, also, that we dug tunnels underground. They were good!

    I remember once I went in the short one (tunnel) with two lads (no, before you think anything, it wasn't like that! but let me explain!). We just sat talking, then Paul decided to climb out of the hole in the end, which was a bit tight, and he got stuck! His legs were below ground and his top half above. Lee, who I was in the tunnel with, said, " what shall we do with him? I know, take his trousers down!" haha but I thought "I'd much rather you kiss me! " ha ha, as I fancied him, but it didn't happen.. :-)

    My mum was the secretary of the committee, which ran things like the Adventure Playground, the community centre, and also a Saturday morning picture show which they put on. They sold sweets & things to munch through as you watched. It was dead good. They also organised jumble sales at the centre, and we also went on camping trips run from the playground. I will have to look at your post again, cos I cant remember what else you put, millsands! haha

  2. :blush: no, that wasn't too political! haha sorry.... I seem to think Mr Lomas was there a couple of years or so after I started. It was him, I think, that gave me my fear of water. We used to go swimming at Beechdale, and if I am small now (4ft 11!) I certainly was then. He made us go into the big pool but at the shallow end, all lined up along the shorter side, and ordered us to put our feet on the bottom. Of course, that meant we had to duck our heads under, which terrified me, but he was so horrible I was scared to disobey him. I hated it! He obviously thought that the teachers and swimming instructors weren't doing a good enough job, so thought he would tell us, and have no nonsense. But his no nonsense has given me a fear. I can swim, but I can't jump in, and don't like going under water. I don't have much confidence in water at all. I can't go on those water slide things either. I have been brave & tried them but I hate them. And I feel such a coward because of it, but I think it all goes back to Mr Lomas. Yeah, I know what you mean about teacher not being able to do wrong. I was bullied mercilessly by a bitch called karen (I SO hope she's reading this!). She had dark brown curly hair, big brown eyes and the longest black lashes. She lived in a nice house just down the road from school, and she sucked up to the teachers something rotten. But I saw the other side of her. She and her cronies would 'get' me in the cloakroom. They would tell my mates to clear off so that I was on my own. I would have my head slammed into the metal coat pegs. They used to say awful things to me, and scare me to death. I tried to tell the teachers, but no-one would listen to me, they all thought the sun shone out of her a**e! This went on a while, until Karen's sister started school. The only thing I could think was that if I made her sister feel as miserable as Karen was making me feel. she would go back & tell her parents, then I would get told off, and I would explain why I was being horrible to Karen's sister. Surprise surprise! haha It worked! I was horrid to the younger girl, but not half as horrid as Karen had been to me, but it was noticed. By that time, Gerry was the headmaster, and he took me into the foyer and sat down and talked with me about it. I cried my heart out, as I was so ashamed of myself, but it came out about Karen and then it stopped, finally. But no-one would listen to me, because she charmed them, she came from a 'nice' family, had a nice home, a dad with a good job, etc. But I came from a one-parent family with no money. We didn't have a car or a nice home, and we never went on holidays. I wasn't the prettiest of girls and didn't wear the best clothes, so no-one took any notice of me. I like to think, now, that Karen will be married to a monster, have six kids hanging off her elongated ugly boobs, and be stressed, with a dead end job and a fag hanging out of her mouth! Haha But the truth is, she's probably really glamourous, slim and earning a lot of money and living in a nice house somewhere nice.
  3. smile2 Omg! Yeah, I remember the launderette well! haha we used to spend what seemed like HOURS there! I think it's now a hairdressers or something. Yeah, the buses were all Trent if I remember correctly, and sometimes you got the ones similar to the London buses, where you got on at the back and could sit looking through the big window behind the driver. As kids we used to pretend we were driving the bus, as we could see the road in front! haha And I remember going to the bus station which is now a casino! I used to look at the Playhouse sign from there whilst we were waiting for the bus to come to take us home, and thinking that the Playhouse must be some giant fun place for kids to play, and I wished I could go there! I also got stuck up a tree, in the play area directly in front of Moorstead block, next to the railway line. A gardener eventually got me down. My bruv & sister teased me, making out that if I didn't climb down I would have to stay there all night, and they would have to fetch pillows and blankets for me! I also remember having to write with real ink pens, and being really worried about it! Do you remember a Mr Lomas who was the headteacher at Firbeck? He was an awful old man, all wrinkled like an old toad! Then we had a better one, and I cant remember his last name but I think his first name was Gerry. He was lovely. Mr Walker was in the top class, then the next one down was Mrs Dickinson. I also remember Mrs Clarke when I was in the infants. Also, we had a lovely teacher called Mrs DellaGana, who took me & my friend Tereasa to Southampton to visit her mother! haha I know that sounds a bit bizzare!
  4. I must say, I have bitter-sweet memories of living at BALLOOON WOOD FLATS (as this is what this particular topic is about, not so much politics!) - but my memories are to do with the friendships that developed (or otherwise, hence the bitter bit!) and the social scene of living there. I lived there up until 1979. I remember long hot summers, and the winter of discontent, when we had power cuts, but as kids we didn't mind as it was exciting and spooky to have to light up candles. I always remember the tv detector vans in the roads below the flats, and most ppl would switch off their televisions very quickly! They called at our flat, and we had to be very quiet and hide in the bedrooms (which, incidentally, were downstairs). I remember peeking around a wall and seeing the dark shape of a big man through the frosted and wired glass of our front door. It was very frightening, and, afterwards, our mum made sure we never went through that again, by making sure she always bought a licence! I remember watching the bin men down below, and being fascinated by them. I also my mum trying to clean the windows, and sitting on the ledge, holding on and cleaning the outside. I hadted that, I always thought she might fall

  5. Wow! Fantastic childhood! :-) Yeah, I do remember going down to Nottingham Canal, and catching sticklebacks, news and frogspawn. And building dens. And climbing trees. We had proper childhoods then!

    He he, I remember being stuck in an old oak tree which I had climbed but couldn't get back down from. My bruv n sis teased me, saying things like, " we need to get pillows we'll be back soon" When I asked them why, they said it was because I would be sleeping up there all night if I didn't climb down! hahah the rotters! Eventually a man mowing the grass came and just picked me out of the tree and put me back down on the ground.

    When you say the back field, do you mean the one down Moor Lane?

    Caz, Nottingham Libran Lady

  6. Haha I used to mess around in the lifts too! That's teenagers for you! Me and my mates were messing around in em once, and I suddenly became ill. I felt small and weak, and I felt like a great weight was pressing down on my shoulders, settling down like dust. I told my mates I didn't want to do that anymore, but that I didn't want to spoil their fun, so they should carry on and I would wait for them. The next thing I knew, they had got stuck! When they got out my mate Debra said I knew that would happen but I didn't. But now Im older I think maybe I did know. I think you used to live in the same block as me, or the one next door! It was Moorstead at the time, but I think they changed the names in later years. If you wanna email me I am on cboultby@hotmail.com

  7. Hi Mark

    I remember Beeley Walk, it was the third floor. I lived on Hartington Walk, 548, in Moorstead block. I lived there until 1979, if my memory serves me correctly. I think we lived there about nine years. It was before the new bridge was built over the railway line when we moved in, and we used to play under the new bridge before it was opened. I distinctly remember the caravan shop, it was two caravans put together side by side. I also remember going through the tunnel to Firbeck School. We used to slip down the slope when it was icy!. Do you remember a Mr Walker at Firbeck? He was dead strict, but a really good teacher. He gave me my lifelong love of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I have managed to get some pictures of Balloon Woods from the internet but they must have been taken after I left, because the blocks are all called different names, mainly Cornish & Welsh names. I checked with my sister, and we definately lived in Moorstead block, facing the railway. There used to be a tarmac square below us, where we used to play such things as dobby chain! haha I also remember my mum taking us to the pictures to see The Railway Children, and afterwards we used to pretend that was us, as there were three of us! :-) Although it was slightly wrong as I was the middle one and my bruv was the youngest. Yeah, loadsa memories. Do you remember the Adventure Playground? I was always hanging around there....

  8. I remember about 1971 when my mate Phil and I used to meet two girls from Balloon Wood flats in the fields between there and Wollaton. I can't remember Phil's girl's name but mine was Paula. They were probably about 15 at the time.......

    haha , yeah they WOULD be! hellothere

    I remember when I was 12-13, we knew a girl called Tracey, and she seemed so grown up. She had curly dark blonde hair and big glasses. I think she was about 14. She was always 'away with the lads' if you see what I mean! She seemed SO grown up and wise. Then she got pregnant & apparently her dad threw her out! I never heard of her after that....

  9. In that case it was on the Firbeck Estate, the row of shops are still there, not that you can call them shops these days, the BBC own one of the shops, Woof the childrens series was filmed there as was 'A thing called love' starring Paul Nicholls.

    wow! Think I might have to go & have a look round, to re-aquaint myself with the area. I believe the Adventure Playground is still going strong.

    Did you know the Lowe brothers? I think there were a few of them! Or the Mullins? they lived at the bottom of the street down from the school

  10. There used to be a beer off facing the co-op on Cockington that had one of the best deli counters in Nottingham, they sliced huge hams and other fresh meats, maybe it was that, I dont know if such a shop existed over on Firbeck but you could ask bip about that.

    Thanks for replying. The row of shops was parallel to the way the school was facing. If you were standing with your back to Firbeck school and walked straight down the road, there was a road going across & the shops were on that road. I can't for the life of me think whether they were left or right at the junction, but I seem to think more left. There was the grocery shop and a newagents, and I think there were maybe one or two more shops there.

    Going from the other way, if you stand looking at what was the post office, on the corner, with your back to the Wollaton Arms side of the road, the shops were up that road facing, on the right. We used to go there on the way to school, when I attended William Sharp

  11. Yeah Den I know all those places. My eldest son used to attend Firbeck School. I used to regularly walk to Bilborough, Glaisdale Rd I think ? to do my shopping in the days when I didn't have a car. The flat was great but the surrounds !tony!

    I once had someone flash me on Hartington Walk & I didn't even have to pay him LOL!

    I remember the pub very well,I never went in there though. I also remember there used to be a caravan shop which used to come to Balloon Woods on certain days or times & we used to be able to buy our groceries from them,not much choice I remember but it was the best of a bad job.

    We had all walks of life in those flats,young ,old,black,white & everything in between & I don't recall any trouble though I imagine there would have been. The lifts were used as a urinal & the smell was shocking to say the least. Just the thing when you've been to fetch your fish & chips :blink:

    One memory stands out from those days, I remember the death of Elvis Presley being announced on Radio Trent I suppose? we had friends round for drinks & I can still recall it like it was yesterday.

    Wow! I also remember being at Balloon Woods when Elvis Presley died! It was a fantastic hot summer, and it didn't seem real. I lived on Hartington Walk, number 548 with my mum, sister and brother. We lived there when the power strikes were on, and I remember having to use candles, and to me it was a great adventure, having to do that

    I remember the caravan shop as well. Yeah, it didn't really have much choice but it was the nearest shop to us. My mum used to get her 'big' shop from the Co-Op on Cockington Road. I went with her in the holidays and it seemed a very long walk back home, in the sun, loaded down with heavy groceries.

    I also remember the old post office, and the launderette. I remember spending what seemed like ages there! Also, there was a row of shops where mum sometimes bought her bread, and I remember her getting ham & the lady having to slice it on one of those big slicing machines

  12. You will know Firbeck rd and Plantation rd then Caz? and The Balloon Pub which goes by the name of The Wollaton Arms now...rumours are that the Wollaton arms is being demolished soon.

    The Balloon pub is a Indian Restaurant called the Spice ???????

    last time i passed the old Balloon pub was the Wollaton Arms

    and the old Gondola was an Indian restaurant called spice .

    I am another, different Caz! I used to live at Balloon Woods. We used to play outside the Gondola. I used to go to Firbeck Primary, and we used to have to walk through the tunnel under the road near the Gondola to get there. I think we lived there 9-10 years in all.

    I used to go to the Balloon Woods Adventure Playground quite a bit. I loved it! We used to do all sorts, go camping, swimming, walking, etc It was great!