I spent most of my life in
Knypersley and when I was young I went to Knypersley Junior
School. When I was older I went to the boys' school. At first
we lived at Number 11, Coronation Avenue, and we used to play
football in the avenue. When I got to the age of eleven or
twelve we used to play school. We did this in Roger and Molly
Heather's' little shed in their grounds, and the nurse even
visited us and examined us. Roger and me used to play cricket
in the grounds and we used a dustbin as the wickets. If you
hit a shed in the grounds direct it was a six, and if it hit
the shed after travelling along the ground it was a four.
Roger, Molly, me and a lot of our other friends used to dress
up as cowboys and Indians and fire cap guns and bows and
arrows at one another.
When it was my birthday my Mum
used to have all my friends to tea and she had an ice-cream
cake made for us by Gianni's Ice Cream and I remember my Mum
and Dad bought me a Subbuteo football game and we used to play
with it a lot. Me and my Dad and Uncle Sid and all my friends
and relatives used to play with it a lot.
When I left school I used to
play cricket for Knypersley Juniors in the Kidsgrove league,
and I played darts with my Dad for Knypersley sports club and
for Davenshaw B in the Friars dart league.
When I left school as a
teenager I had my first breakdown and had to have treatment in
St Edwards' Hospital. While I was there I played cricket for
the patients' cricket team. I have also had treatment when I
was younger at Lancashire in Blackpool Victoria Hospital and
Ridge Lea under Dr Ferguson. I went to Blackpool Victoria to
see him as an out-patient. I had two serious operations at the
North Staffs, one for hiatus hernia and one for the removal of
a cyst or tumour from the base of my spine.
Then I went back to St Edwards
for a while and stayed in one or two different wards and then
lived in the cottages at St Edwards for a few years. John
McLaren was in charge and Gill Davies was second in charge.
Mr Eyre was also there and I liked him.
I finished up back in ward 17
at St Edwards. At the moment I am living at Fair View Nursing
home in Rudyard which is run by John and Pat Harris who were
nurses at St Edwards Hospital.
