Hello LPG readers, 

We have opted to do something we have not done since the Gazette went paperless.  The editorial team sent me off to meet some of the members of one of the many day centres in our local borough to ask a silly question, and the one I chose was this: ‘Can you tell us about a time when you were a bit naughty as a child?’ 

I posed this question when visiting the Diamond Club Group for older adults, part of Holy Cross Church in Catford, London SE6. Although all the members I spoke to tried to let me believe that every child in 1940s and 1950s Lewisham was a perfect little cherub, the truth soon began to spill out…

MG started by letting us know she was not allowed to be naughty when she was young, but I could tell that everyone around her table did not believe that for a second.   MD told a similar story and mentioned her four older brothers who kept her in check.  For a short while I thought I had found a group who were once the best-behaved children in Lewisham at that time, but AH mentioned two shillings that she borrowed from her dad’s cash box so that she could buy an Easter Egg one Spring, although she did not go into detail about what happened when he found out.   AW told me that as a child back in the West Indies, when her mum cooked dinner, she took the plates of food from the kitchen to the dining table.  She always thought that her stepdad got way too much meat, and on the way, there were many times that quite a substantial chunk of his portion would go missing.  She said that she always took too much and often paid the price for her lack of subtlety, while EG told us that when she was allowed out to the cinema with her friend, getting back on time was her problem.  Time always ran away with her, and there were sometimes painful consequences when she finally got home.  

VE was a bit of a tomboy and, being the only girl in her family, her parents tried their best to teach her the ways of a young lady.  They told her there were some things boys could do, and young ladies shouldn’t.  All too often, she would be found with her brothers halfway up a Mango tree, and she paid the price for that.  When caught halfway up a tree, there is nowhere to hide, and a good hiding often followed.   CO told us that she and her siblings were frequently bad and when they got caught they would all run away, but she can still hear her mother saying, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back!’… and her mum usually was. EC told me that her dad was a prisoner of war for a long time, and when he finally returned, she found it difficult to accept this strange man who had arrived.  She did not like him and spent a lot of time being rebellious to her dad until she worked out who he really was.   MH admitted that her mum used to make fritters to sell at market and, when she looked at her baking tray, there was often a big space because a certain little girl would have borrowed more than a few to give to her friends, while another lady mentioned that when she was a youngster in Jamaica she improved her sense of aim by throwing stones at the mango trees.  But she was smart, and she waited until all the adults were at work and the trees were so full of mangos that no one saw the flying stones or missed the fruit. 

AM told me that she and a friend found some nuts, and even though they were told never to eat anything they did not recognise, they did, and the punishment was a trip for both of them to the hospital because they were both quite ill as a result.  I then met BH, who could not afford to be naughty because she had a very strict grandma.  She left her explanation about how good she was there, before remembering that she wrote a note on April Fool’s Day and asked a school friend to give it to one of the others.  The note read, ‘Send the fool a little further!’. At that point, I got a little worried about whether there was a note on my back because I happened to visit on this year’s April Fool’s Day!   

PG told me that being a boy made it worse because when he was young he got a lot of slaps round the legs and I found a couple of ‘knock down ginger’ culprits in SS and friend while, when ED was sent to the shops by her mum, she never came back with all the change.  FT was an ‘apple scrumper,’ which sometimes got him in trouble back in the day.  When GS was a bit older and her parents told her she could not go out in the evenings, she was known to pretend to go to bed, put a couple of pillows in her place, and get out through the window.  She mentioned that there was more than one occasion when the pillows didn’t work, and she came back to find her bedroom window locked, with the result that she had to spend all night on the doorstep before the final reprimand.

Another April Fool’s Day prompted MJ to tell a neighbour that the priest wanted to see her, and it was quite a journey to the church. The neighbour, who was not so young, walked all the way to the church before working out that she had been sent on a wild goose chase. When the young joker’s parents found out, a good hiding resulted. She added that now that she has older legs, she understands it was not the best prank to pull.  

So many misdemeanours were mentioned that I left thinking I had met a set of pensioners who had been the naughtiest children in the day, but their organisation is special.  The club has close ties with Holy Cross Catholic Primary School in Catford, and the children and club members benefit greatly.  They host their club aimed at reducing isolation and loneliness and promoting health and wellbeing every Tuesday for about 50 older adults with lots to eat, the celebration of member’s birthdays, singing, massage, yoga, talks and outings as well as a game of Bingo to round things off and a very special atmosphere.   

The group currently has a waiting list, so it expanded into an additional organisation, Bring Me Sunshine, as part of Lewisham Churches Cares. This organisation hosts 12 events yearly for 100 older people, providing fish and chips and great entertainment in various church halls and community centres.

Maureen B
For LPG