Individual results

Name:Raj Gosai
PA Number: PA2671/4/59
Date of Interview: Notes provided in a letter dated 3 Apr 2006.
Gender: Male
Language of Interview: Written notes provided by participant no recorded interview.

Ref. NS/RG/JW

3rd April 2006


With reference to our brief conversation on the telephone relating to my father Mr. D.M.Gosai life in England during the 50's and 60's, enclosed further snapshots of my childhood. Hope the following will be of use for you.

HOLIDAYS:
My father whilst having a shop as a business premises always promised us that we would go away to the seaside. We have an old Ford Bedford blue van which had sliding front doors and a main door area for easy access to get in and out of the van. My father always used this van for local area delivers of groceries. He would encourage people visiting the shop to leave a list of items to be purchased and at the end of the week, usually Fridays, he would deliver groceries. This would usually be ordered on Wednesday and paid upfront and then delivered at houses which didn't have any transport or that the customers were elderly or housebound.

When it transpired that we were nearing our holiday period, he would remove the seats and place in additional seating at the rear of the van and on top of the van would be a roof rack where upon all the luggage would be kept. We had brilliant holidays and next to several caravan parks, usually for two weeks. The caravan park would be used as a base and then we would discover the coastal area surrounding it. Each year father would plan that we would continue to go to other areas from the previous year. So one year would be at Sidmouth, the following Bournemouth, etc. The summers were hot and sunny. One particular year my father and his friends were big wrestling fans and I remember at Great Yarmouth there was a celebrity wrestling tournament and my father was a big fan of Jackie Pallo. He was a wrestling hero and usually fought against his rival Mick McManus. After the wrestling fight between both of these rivals, my father pushed me towards the outer area and I managed to get his autograph on a wrestling handbill. I wasn't really a big fan, but I think it was the only time my father was impressed with a TV celebrity. My father managed to persuade me to part with my autograph of which I was probably rewarded with ice cream! I never did see that autograph again!

Whilst at the holiday camp, residents had club passes to enjoy the nightclub activates. This was where all the family could enjoy themselves either watching the cabaret entertainment, such as magicians or singers entertaining people, or just dancing to the latest records of the day. I remember the ballroom ball spinning around the ball and the reflection of the lights twinkling all over the room, and the compare would say that there would be pennies falling fro heaven. Then all of a sudden all the copper coins would fly in the air and all the children on the dance floor would rush to pick them up. Because we were concentrating on the coins, we actually believed them to fall from the air, as the reflection of the ballroom ball globe gave the impression that it was magic. A few years later, whilst at another club and slightly older, I had worked out that this illusion, was created when I noticed the parents seated by their own tables, were actually throwing the coins into the air and therefore landing in the area where all the children were on the dance floor!

SCHOOL DAYS:

We knew exactly what time of year it was, as all the seasons fell on the same weather pattern year in, year out. During winter we had heavy snowfalls, where we had snowdrifts at least 2' - 3' feet deep in places. I use to go out exploring in the garden and entryways and pretend I was an explorer! Most people with cars had problem as they would be stuck be stuck and had to use shovels to clear themselves out, as road gritters didn't exist then! School life was brilliant; I managed to mix with everyone and cannot recall any real hardship. We had school dinners, as at this time my parents had a shop and couldn't provide lunch at home as school wasn't too far from home. I recall that school dinners were five shilling a week, which meant it was a shilling a day! (5 pence in today's money and 25 pence for the week!) Food was freshly cooked at school and consisted of basic nutritional food to keep us going for the day. I think I was the only child at out school that enjoyed liver and onions! My favourite puddings were semolina or apple crumble and custard. One particular year, the cooks experiment with different colourings for the custard, we had pink coloured custard and bright orange coloured custard, obviously to encourage us to eat it!

We use to have a school warden to make sure we crossed the road safety to school, and one particular year one person decided to cross the road elsewhere, without going towards the school warden. As I and another friend went towards the school warden, a young lad was stuck by a car and the image I recall was seeing him fly into the air. He was lucky and dislocated a broken arm, but was used as an example at the following day's assembly of how not to cross the road. Speaking to speaking of safety, towards Bonfire night, I was pestering my father all week, to go in the garden to set off fireworks. He told me it would be at the end of the week. The night of bonfire night, at school we were told to wear gloves and to wrap up warm and not to touch fireworks. We were told to make sure that rockets would be placed in a milk bottle and to light up far away from everyone. I was helping my dad choose the fireworks and bonfire night as we were going to light in our back garden. I was probably around six years old. All was going well and then I kept pestering my dad for the rocket. He then told me to get it from the STANDARD fireworks that he had purchased. I tried to pass it to him, but due to a misunderstanding, my dad thought it was a giant sparkler and told me to hold the stick. I kept telling him it wasn't a sparkler and that it needed to be placed in an empty milk bottle next to sand. He then told me off and forced it in my hand and promptly lit it! Well, you can guess what happened next! The flames shot out, I held it and then promptly let go, in pain! My dad then administered first aid; by placing the nearest cold liquid he could find and it was a bottle of green ink!! (Quink was the manufactures make!) He then rushed me to the kitchen and doused the hand with cold water. Thankfully my hand didn't blister, but the following day at school, guess who had to hold his hand up and stand in front of the class to how all the error of not listening to the teacher on firework safety!! Obviously I have never touched fireworks ever since!

During morning breaks, all the classes use to have milk and each teacher would nominate a milk monitor. What this meant was, that once appointment. That child would carry the milk crate from the school yard into the classroom. During winter months, the silver foils would "pop" up and there would be ice as it was cold. I was a milk monitor and recall seeing the tops of the milk exposed due to extreme cold weather. Some years later, the milk bottles were replaced with small cartons to ensure this would not happen.

My first ever stage play was a production of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". I think I was five years old and I got the part by default. The boy that was chosen as the lender of the rats, had stage freight the day before the first performance. So the teacher asked for a volunteer and she chose me. I had to be the first person to run across the stage in my rat outfit and follow the Pied Piper which was played by a teacher in full costume. I wore brown clothing with a mask painted by the classroom a tail made of old stockings! My parents were in the audience and prior to running across I saw them and scurried as requested across the stage and all the other rats followed. In later years I was chosen for the Christmas Nativity plays, one particular year I was the Shepard and I had to quote the line, "I THINK IT WAS AN ANGEL" when Gabriel came down to announce the news to the Shepard's of Jesus is birth. My teacher commented that I was a convincing shepherd, as in my arms I was stroking a toy lamb whilst delivering my line!

My best friend at the school was a lad called Timothy Drew, who lived a few miles away from the school. We got on well and pretended to be our TV heroes from the spy series "THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E". There were a lot of spies on the school playground during the 60's!! I use to play marbles in the schoolyard, and we use to have goes at knocking marbles into a hole and the last one to knock them in won the lot. We use to play with trading cards from our favourite TV. Shows such as "DANGERMAN" or "BATMAN". The boys in particular would collect these cards from sweet shops, you would usually get (I think) ten cards in a packet which would cost 3d (1 ½ pence!) with a stick of gum (which tasted like cardboard). You would either swap them with school friends or play games to win more. There was a variation on a theme. You could play "LONG-SEES"; this would mean that you would flick a card as far as you could against a wall and the furthest one won. "KNOCK-SEES" you would stand four cards against the wall and from a certain distance, flick the cards to knock them down and the last person to knock the last card, would win the lot. "TOP - SEES", this would mean that you would flick the cards and the ones that land on top wins the lot.

Timothy Draw invited me to his house on several occasions for tea, usually over the weekend. At that time, I didn't like cheese, so when we had done cheese sandwiches, I usually fed the dog. His parents had a Great Dane, which was black and enormous. Initially I was afraid of dogs, but I managed to befriend this one! I use to feed him my cheese sandwiches underneath the table and his parents commented that the dog liked me as he was always pleased to see me!!

I could go on forever but I will stop there. Hope you can read my writing and that you can get some useful information from all this.





Yours sincerely