In 1959 I was 5 years old, and I lived with my Mam, Dad and younger sister in a one up and one down, back-to-back mid terrace house on Grunberg Street in Headingley. As with many streets the toilets were a block at the end of the terrace with newspaper cut into squares hung on a nail to be used as toilet paper. How the drainage system coped I can’t imagine.

With only one bedroom, a curtain was hung across the middle of the room with Mam and Dad at one side and my sister and I at the other.

Downstairs was where we ate, lived, and cooked. We had a paraffin heater and coal fire to keep us warm. It was a dangerous place to be, and I accidentally burnt my leg when I pulled a pan of boiling water off the cooking stove and another time, I sat on the hot paraffin heater.

My sister and I had a lot of freedom and could wander the local streets and call at our friends’ houses. Doors were not locked so we could come and go. Even when the nurse called to give me daily antibiotic injections following an ear infection my Mam might be at a neighbour, and I would see the nurse on my own. Most of the time though I would hide behind the sofa when she came.

Two weeks after my third sister was born, we moved to Tinshill into a wonderful semi-detached council house with all mod cons. We had 3 bedrooms, separate kitchen, and lounge with a huge garden. No central heating though only a gas fire. When we woke up on a morning, we would take our clothes downstairs to warm by the fire before getting dressed.

I had started school before we left Headingley and when we moved, I went to Iveson House School in Ireland Wood where, to my surprise, we had to have a ‘sleep’ during the day which entailed us laying down quietly for a period. That hadn’t happened at my old school. It was a practice soon to fade out.

Travelling to school was either on the school bus or walking about 1 mile. When we walked, we would meet up with friends and walk together. If we misbehaved at school, we might be punished by being put in a corner or rapped on legs, hands or bottom with a ruler. We were regularly tested on our 3 Rs – Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Handwriting was very important as was mental arithmetic and we learnt by rote (repeating over and over again). At school we were given a small bottle (1/3 pint) of milk everyday which we had to drink. If it had been out in the sun it was horrible. This time was also pre-decimalisation and so we had to learn how to add up £ s d (pounds, shillings and pence). There were 12d to a shilling and 20s to £. The ‘nit’ nurse called at school from time to time to check our heads for nits which we hated.