GWR Children's Fete
The Children's Fete and things like that made up for all the different disappointments, like. That reminds me, the Children's Fete - I haven't told you anything about the children's fete.
They used to have it up in the park, it used to belong to the Great Western Railway at that time you see - they used to put on a show every year. Marvelous show it was - thousands of people did go. And there was everything you could think of in that fairground. You'd pay, I think it was tuppence to go in. There was a bag of cake - I think half a pound bag of cake. it might have been a quarter, I think it was half a pound. And a ticket inside, treating you to a ride on the roundabouts, and as far as I remember as much tea as you could drink.
Well, Dad at that time, poor old chap you know to earn a couple of bob - and I suppose that's all he got for all the afternoon. He used to get up there about half past one - Saturday afternoon. Straight from work more or less - come home and wash up there. He used to go up there and he used to get on those roundabouts collecting the tickets see. Well, he always wore white boots, Dad did, so us kids used to get round there you know and as soon as we see a white pair of boots going round "Ello Dad! Dad!" we'd shout out - course he had a handful of tickets, every now and again he's dive down and give us three or four like, we used to sort them out between us - oh we had the time of our lives!
You've never seen anything like it though, you'll never see anything like it again. All of this was going on, stage events, (chocolate?) kings, hooplas and everything. Always finished up at night with a big display of fireworks. Course, by the time it was all finished, it was eleven o clock. And you can imagine what a scamp it was coning underneath those tunnels - there was prams, there was pushchairs and people pushing and shoving all along that pavement - oh we had some fun.
Anyhow, that's the children's fete - I thought I'd better get that little bit in.
But this you'll never believe.
Guess how they did boil the tea up for the children's fete? Well they had an old engine tender over the road, in the works. They used to boil the water up to make the tea for the children's fete.
That is a fact
And the night before, they had a whole army down the Mechanics Institute cutting up the cake.
