The children grew though the 1920s, attending the local school just behind King’s Yard. My Grandfather used to tell stories of their many scrapes. Such as the Sunday morning in Church when he tried to attract the attention of one of his pals by flicking one of the prayer cushions across the pews. Unfortunately he got the trajectory wrong and managed to knock the bible from the preachers hands mid-sermon, resulting in a good clip around the ear when he got home. The local kids formed little gangs with strict territories. Grandad said that if they captured any strangers on Bayham Street they were given the option of a beating or running the Race of the Golden Knobs. If they won, they would not only get off scot free, but also win the golden prize. Basically a straight running race over a set distance which the stranger was always allowed to win! They would then be congratulated and subject to an award ceremony where they closed their eyes and held out their hands to receive the prize. A shovel full of fresh golden horse manure.
Some streets had reputations for being either very rough or very poor. He told of a friend who lived on a poor street whose parents used to keep a horse in the house. Surprisingly not that unusual, except that this family lived in upstairs rooms! His first paid job was helping Henry Favell, who worked at the Baths just down the street, to clean out the large boilers and getting smothered in soot. He was also paid a shilling on Sunday’s for collecting a cooked dinner from his Gran and taking it to Henry to eat in the local pub. Another money earner was helping his mother Hannah to deliver advertising samples, door to door. Similar I guess to today’s junk mail. They were given samples to distribute in Colindale and took the Northern Line tube from Camden Town station. Grandad failed to understand that the samples of Exlax they were delivering was not ordinary chocolate and the temptation to scoff down several had dire consequences. In his words, he was glad he had some bicycle clips in his pocket!
Grandad’s first full time job was again up the Northern line in Colindale where he worked for a firm stamping out car number plates. He later got himself a job at the Standard Telephones & Cables in New Southgate and daily would catch the tube to Euston and change to the Piccadilly Line for Arnos Grove station where he would then catch the 251 bus, or walk the couple of miles to work.