Mr Perry, of 30 Kenilworth Drive, Croxley Green, recalls moving to Croxley Green

MY wife, Kathleen, worked at De Havillands, Leavesden at this time. I remember that we still had horrible fogs known as smog. One particular day we had a real stinker and when she had not come home for a long time after her usual arrival time I went out to the end of Chester Road and found her in a nasty patch of fog completely lost!

We all contributed to this sorry state of affairs by burning coal or in our case coke. This we obtained from the gas company, and after countless struggles trying to light a fire with wood then the coke, we purchased a gas poker.

There may be an amusement factor in crouching over a fire trying with a sheet of newspaper to get a fire started, but after it has caught fire and gone up the chimney a few times, we resorted to a poker.

I remember the poor chaps delivering the coke and carrying it right around the perimeter of the house, via an alleyway four doors down.

Then they took it up our garden to the coalbunker. This held a half ton in old money when a ton was 2240 lbs, and I could understand weights and measures.

Then came wallpapering. What a sorry business compared to today. The papers seemed to be not much better than tissue and of course there were still distempers. No, not the dogs disease but powders that were mixed with water to produce washes for the walls.

This being very wet, it would run everywhere, especially down the arms when trying to whiten a ceiling. Paints were still lead-based. Can you imagine the furore now if a store tried to sell lead paints?

The worst part in my opinion were the sash windows. Periodically, a sash cord would break then the window would not stay open and to rectify this the sash boxes would have to be opened to fit a new cord.

This seemed to me even then to be a major operation taking quite a time to put right, mainly because there would be the chore of removing layers and layers of paint that had accrued over the years.

I wonder what became of all those cast iron sash weights that existed in this country? The floors slowly got covered with more lino squares, the edges around the room being stained, carpets then were bought as squares with a pattern all around.

Our front garden (actually only three-feet wide!) had a privet hedge this had to be periodically trimmed, although this was a chore that I quite enjoyed.

There was no such thing as a supermarket, but we were well served by the local shopkeepers, for all or nearly all of our requirements were available locally.

We had Morrells the butcher; Parkers Grocers, run by Fred and Betty Parkers, Fred, being blind with a guide dog; Copeland for shoes and Whites bakery all in Chester Road.

Willsons, the shoe repairers in Durban Road; Express Dairies had a shop in Whippendell Road, where there was Greens paper shop, Hayes the greengrocer, Hartleys the chemist and Howell Jones hardware shop and post office combined. And of course there was Miss Lunneys, another grocer, not forgetting Miss Baines' haberdashers shop. She was, I believe, a leader of the local Guides.

All of these were within 50 yards distance. I still like visiting any old style shops, now sadly all but gone. No one ever asks in the supermarket if my sore toe is better!

I had better not forget Clowsleys fish and chip shop on the corner of Pretoria and Chester Road.

There may be things called Baltis and MacDonalds but fish and chips out of newspaper are the pinnacle as far as I am concerned, especially when we would return from swimming. Mind you the lovely smell was in evidence even when we were broke!

Within 100 yards there was Yorkshire bakers, Tenents grocers, a pet shop, another newsagents, a Millars laundry shop a cafe, a chemists, Moore's radio shop, Gibsons butchers, Arthur East's corn merchants and Fox the butchers all in Whippendell Road between Durban Road and Harwoods Road.

My first brand new bicycle came from Grays Cycles in Queens Road. It was a Raleigh in green with lining all down the frame and Sturmey Archer gears, a chain guard and dynamo with a battery tube on the frame so that a light shined even when I was not pedalling, but perhaps waiting at a road junction.

Payment was of course by the good, old-fashioned method of so much down and call in every payday with a payment until the debt was cleared, I felt really guilty until the debt was paid in full.

My bicycle eventually was replaced by a Kriedler moped, this was a two speed machine and was, for only 49cc, quite fast.

October 19, 2001 12:09