Boy! I used to walk a lot!

 Hubby has been outside, mowing, and brought in some blackberries off of one of the bushes, down by the field. They were delicious. That was all it took, and I was back to being a kid again, and going blackberry picking. 

We lived in Leytonstone, 58 Queens Rd, and would walk down to Wanstead Flats, past Whipps Cross Hospital and down to the road that led to Epping. Our destination was a wooded area in Loughton. I remember, we would pass a slimy green pond on the left, and that meant we didn't have much farther to go. My mum would have my baby brother, Graham, in the pram, and my other sister, Theresa, in a seat near the handle, and my dad would have my sister Stephanie on his shoulders. And we would walk there, pick blackberries and walk back.

We walked everywhere, it seems, back in those days.

We'd walk from ours to Aunt Irene's in Manor Park, by the graveyard where my Uncle Terry worked.

My nan and I would walk from Hoxton to Liverpool Street to visit Aunt Maud. Then, when my grandparents moved to Hackney, she and I would often walk from 9a Marlborough Avenue (now torn down and a new estate in its place) to visit her, as well as to Dalston, to Riddley Road Market, or down Kingsland Avenue to visit my granpop at work at King & Scarborough, the timber yard under the bridge by the side if the canal. Every night, he would bring his lorry home and park it out front of 9A Marlborough Avenue. The park that was there back then is now long gone, flats were built in the late 60s.

I walked to school. First to George Tomlinson which was 4/5 mile, and then to Leyton County High School for Girls, 3/5 mile away. When I was at Leyton County High, though, I was a paper girl, so had my paper delivery route to do before school - and if someone else failed to show up - I did an extra route, so I did a LOT of walking on school days.

I did a lot of walking, too, when I lived in Snettisham, and would push my kids in the pushchair, and walk to Hunstanton, and when I lived in Gaywood, walking up town to do my shopping.  

The same again, when I lived in Mildenhall, 3 or 4 days a week, walking up town to do my shopping, or, going out to dance, down at the base at RAF Mildenhall, I'd walk the 4-5 miles or so down there, dance most of the night and then walk home again afterwards.

No wonder we didn't have many people with weight issues in those days, everyone was pretty fit without even realising it. All that free exercise that was just a means of getting from point A to point B. 

I did love to walk though. Walking and dancing are the 2 things I miss most since losing the mobility and stability I once had.

#life  #memories  #childhood  #reminiscences