Growing up after the War - Dougie Dulson

All the people in our area were working class and our family was no different from the rest. People were just happy trying to make a life again after six years of war, the rationing of food and sweets and coupons for clothing. Also the starting up of all the factories to making things people wanted to buy, and not making bombs, tanks, aircraft and warships. It was an exciting time to be around with all the bombed buildings to explore and things to find. We lived on the Highgate Road at 197 and in our yard we had four families – the Woods, Jenkins, Tomlinsons and of course us, the Dulsons. In the next yard lived our nan and grandad (mum’s mum and dad). In our yard there were two toilets to be shared between the four families living in that yard. The house consisted of two small downstairs rooms – one was the kitchen and the other a front room opening onto the main Highgate Road, with a step down to the pavement. In between the two rooms was a coalhouse cum larder. Upstairs we had two small bedrooms, one for mum and dad and the other for us kids – two boys and two girls. As the girls got to a certain age they went to sleep at our nan and granddads house in the next yard.

Our bathroom was hanging on the wall of the house outside in the yard, a tin bath which was brought into the house every Friday night for the weekly bath. The youngest of the family always had the dirtiest water the bathe in! We had no hot water so we had to boil a kettle on the stove, one kettle full for each person getting into the bath. We didn’t have any central heating so we bathed in front of the fire, which was in a black leaded fireplace. Across the yard from the house was the “brew house” which is where all the women in the yard would do the washing. We had in the “brew house” a metal bowl encased in brick work with a grate underneath. You built a fire to heat the water in the metal bowl so that you could wash your clothes and bed sheets. Also in the brewhouse was a mangle. This was a machine with two wooden rollers and when you turned the handle the rollers would turn. You put your clothes between the rollers and they removed all or most of the water. Most kids at that time got flat fingers at some point! The washing was mostly done on Mondays and hung up on lines across the yard.

It’s funny but you never seemed to feel the cold that much and we had some very cold and frosty winters with deep snow and hard frost that would last for weeks. We used to say Jack Frost is coming tonight, and in the morning you could not see out of the bedroom window because the frost was that thick, not only on the outside of the window but also on the inside. We would also put out coats on top of the bed to keep warm through the night. The thing was all the other families were “in the same boat” as they say, and you just got on with it.

We used to play in the street for hours on end, we had no track of time. Mind you there was not the amount of traffic about as there is today. Mum and Dad knew you were safe and they would call you in for your dinner or tea, and straight after you had eaten it you were out again playing till it was dark. We would play Hide and Seek, Tag, Marbles, Football or just sit on the dustbins talking about this and that. The girls did their own thing. On Saturday morning we would go to the Piccadilly Picture House for the “Minors Club”. I think it was about 6 old pence to get in. That was a real treat. If we didn’t go to the pictures on a Saturday morning we would help Mum with the shopping, first going to the fruit and veg market in the morning and in the afternoon we would go the rag market in the Bull Ring. The hustle and bustle of the market was very exciting when you were young and I always enjoyed going there. My father worked in the Bull Ring for a time just after the War and I can remember the different acts the different acts that used to perform there, and the size of the crowds that used to circle round them and watch in amazement. Dad used to stand by the old Market Hall, which had no roof on it after being bombed in the War. He would sell his wares out of a suitcase on the ground. I also had my first long trouser suit out of the Rag Market when I was about thirteen or fourteen years of age. I can still remember feeling so grown up.

When you had the school holiday in the summer you would get up in the morning with the sun shining and most days it seemed that when you went to bed at night it was still shining as it was still light! We would get a sandwich or two, a bottle of water “from the tap” or cold tea, get on our bikes and go off to Stratford or Warwick for the day. We would also go to the Lido in Solihull or the Lido in Knowle behind the Greswold Pub – it’s the car park now. Shame. We would also go to Cannon Hill Park, Sparkhill Park or Small Heath Park and play in the pool. We played football in Taunton Road Park all day, not forgetting Farm Park to play on the swings, or football there too. It was a great time to be around with so many things to do. When it was time to go back to school after the holidays it was like we had only been away from school for a couple of weeks and we were back again. All the parks were very well maintained with lovely flower beds and the grass cut on a regular day of the week. They also had a park keeper to make sure that everything was as it should be. He would ring a bell at about nine o’clock at night to let you know the park was closing for the night.

In the school holidays mum and dad would take us to Sutton Park for a picnic and as a special treat every year we would go to Warwick Races on the steam train. You couldn’t sleep the night before you were that excited. We would be on the train with our heads sticking out of the windows. You always had something go into your eye but come next year you still did the same thing. How I still dream about those days. Oh to be able to go back in time to the Birmingham I was born and brought up in.