A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 4: Approx 8 years old

Thinking about the pubs, in a distance of no more than 300 yards there existed The Sydenham, The Elastic Inn, The Canterbury Arms, The Foresters Arms, The Raglan Tavern, The Mount Pleasant, The Spittlemore, The Jubilee, The Catholic Club and another one in Hood Street that the child cannot remember the name of. The area certainly had its fair share of pubs. No wonder there was a Green Man on the junction of Raglan Street, Alma Street and Lower Ford Street. The Green Man was the English kind of "urinal" that the French called a Vespasienne, with a police box next to it. (I wonder why?)

The child's uncle came to stay, now his name was Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill was to be good sport for the child!! Every day his uncle went to work, the child would place a mouse trap in his bed, it got him a couple of times but his uncle started to check his bed before he got into it. His uncle took him out on his new motorbike, it was only a little one, but his uncle wanted to try it out for speed. Off they sped up the A45 to Birmingham, turned around and opened the throttle wide, heads down they slowly gathered speed, his uncle shouting the speed out to the child "40", "45", "50". This was good fun. "52", "53", "54". The last two shouts over three miles going down hill (it was a very little bike). Speed trials over, the uncle would take him down country lanes on a Sunday. Every time they found horse droppings they would skid to a halt, the child leaping off, grab a dustpan and brush from a pannier, scrape up the droppings and empty them into the other pannier, leap back on the bike and race off to find some more droppings until the panniers were full. This was for his uncle's roses (they must have grown huge).

Also on Sundays his uncle would take him and something to the club. Now this was novel for the child. "What would you like to drink?" said the uncle. "Lemon and lime" said the something. "Half of mild" said the child. The uncle went to get the drinks. The something said to the child "That's bad for you". "You drink yours, but I'm still having a half of mild" said the child, and a half of mild he enjoyed. They came out of the club, walked up the road to the Shakespeare Arms. "What would you like to drink?" said the uncle. "Lemon and lime" said the something. "Wappet orf wrisps" said the child (for he could no longer think), the half of mild had taken its toll. Afterwards they would walk to Woolies (not to be confused with Woollies), who lived up by the Naul's Mill park. Now this man was his uncle's friend. You could have a drink of squash and crisps so long as you washed up afterwards. He lived on his own and did not like washing up. If we were quiet while uncle and Woolie talked, then we would be given two shillings each as a reward, we were very, very quiet. This amount was more than his allowance of tuppence a day and a shilling on Saturday.
All the money the child earned or was given usually ended up in the tills of different shops. The Midland Red cafe in the middle of the Pool Meadow bus station being one of the places to buy a milk shake. They made the nicest milk shake because of the ice-cream it was made with. A bit costly but worth it if you had the money. Even the child only went on the odd occasion.