We just galloped away, all of us, and I forgot.
Jim
I used to regularly go across to Garden Place because I had a lot of friends over there and I was a member of the Black Arrow gang. So I used to often go over there if we had meetings or anything arranged, you know. Oh, we got up to all sorts of things. There was probably about 20 of us, but we used to go on raids round about bonfire time. And the local gangs around the area like Barklay Street, they would have a bonfire and we would go and raid theirs and steal all this stuff and bring it back to Garden Place.
Pauline
It was all innocuous really.
Jim
But nothing more than that really. Oh yes. Oh, we were notorious.
Obviously, there was a lot of artists appearing at the Empire and we used to see them going in and out. And I can remember I was there with a friend of mine, a lad called Paul Tate. And we were playing tiggy up and down outside the stage door. And Paul fell and scraped his knee. And he was sitting on the ground crying his eyes out and who should walk around the corner but Edmund Hockridge. He was a very popular guy, singer, actor, in the day. And he picked him up and gave him half a crown. Just like that picked him up, half a crown. And I thought, “Why couldn’t it have been me who had fallen and scraped me knee?”
Empire Theatre Interior
We used to go to the Empire theatre quite a lot, yes, mainly when the circus was on. It was always packed and we were always up in the gods. I mean, we were always in the cheap seats, but it was a fantastic theatre, still is. And yeah, we had many happy days there and there was also the Palace Theatre, Palace Cinema. We used to be taken there, me mam and me Aunt Molly, Pauline’s mam, used to take us. And occasionally, we used to stand outside me uncle used to say, ”When we get in, you two get on your hands and knees and creep underneath the counter so she doesn’t see,” and we’ll only pay for two adults. Now, they got away with this , but one day, when me and her was crawling underneath, me mother said, “Two adults please,” and the woman says, “And what about them two?” So we were caught out.
Me Aunt Annie had quite a big family and she had Colin.
Pauline
He had muscular dystrophy.
Jim
And we used to take him round the church with us to play. Originally he could walk, but only very slowly. And I can remember we were playing round the church one day and we were playing Cowboys and Indians, and we all decided to get our horses and gallop back to Carter Street, and we set off, and of course we left him behind. And he started to cry and I turned around and saw him, it nearly broke my heart, I just completely forgot. After that, from about 3 year old or so, he was in a wheelchair and we used to push him all over the place. I remember a time when Pauline was about two and I took her round the church to play with the lads and we did a similar sort of thing. We all galloped back to Carter Street and left her there. And I walked in, me Aunt Molly said, “Where’s Pauline?” And I dashed back round the church and she wasn’t there and I went out to the main road, opposite the Empire. And down at the bottom where the Zebra crossing is, just on the corner of Low Row, there was a crowd of people and I walked down. There was a policewoman and she had Pauline in her arms and I walked up.
Pauline
He was four years older than me.
Interviewer
All right, so you’re only 6 and you’re responsible for her, age 6.
Jim
Or irresponsible, whichever way you look at it. But I could ride a horse. I walked down with me tail between me legs and I said “It’s my cousin.” The police woman looked down at us and she said, “And you’ve left her. You’re supposed to be looking after her.” I says “I know, but we just galloped away, all of us, and I forgot.” She says, “Well, there you are. Take her back home and don’t lose her again and there’ll be a policeman coming to your house tonight.” I remember the night me mother was washing me hair in the dish and every time I heard footsteps coming up the street I thought, “This is it, I’m gonna get it.”
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Heritage Scheme collection.