The memoirs of Cissie Ewen

I said earlier that we were a happy and a close family; all our friends used to come and go as they pleased. Later, when Eddy and Alex were working, they bought a gramophone and records between them. We used to take up the mats and move the furniture and dance. We were all fond of dancing and as we got older a group of us used to go to the threepence and fourpence hops in North Shields; that's mostly how we learnt dancing.

In the winter evenings, Mam would cut up the old clothes past wearing, and suitable for mat making, and then set up the frame. It was quite long, there was enough room for two of us to work on each side, and we would spend all our spare time making mats. We used to have them first for extra covering on the beds until Christmas time, when they would be put down on the floor to brighten the place up. Mam would put bricks in the oven during the day to heat up and at nighttime use them and the oven shelves wrapped in towels to warm our beds. At that time of year, we also made our paper chains for Christmas decorations. Our Christmas stockings were we hung up on the brass rod at the mantelpiece. We would usually get a different game each, like ludo, snakes and ladders, playing cards, etc., as well as an apple, orange, nuts and lollies. Sometimes we got a new piece of clothing.

Alex was very clever doing tricks with cards, and kept us amused for along time. He was also very lucky. I remember when an amusement fair came to the top of our street, and he went up with threepence and came back with a basket of cups and saucers. Mam gave him his threepence, and five times he went up and brought back things for the home. In the end, the people around him told the chap to send him home, or they wouldn't be trying their luck. Fortunately for him, the last prize was a tin of toffees. I also remember when the Cummings, a big family down the street, got a 'cat's whisker' wireless; the first time we had ever heard or seen one. We loved to go and have a try of their earphones, and thought it wonderful to hear voices coming from it.

I also remember seeing a big Zeppelin airship going overhead; it seemed very low. Someone said it was from Germany; that was after the war. I think it had the number 303. Many years later, I think I read or heard it was destroyed by fire. I remember King George V and Queen Mary visiting the north going through Chirton, maybe the time of their Coronation.