A LITTLE LONDONER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

A LITTLE LONDONER

BOYHOOD EXPERIENCES

By THOS. HEATH, "Wcstmero j Dear Girls and Boys.—l hopo that you will be interested in these few memoirs of my boyhood days. I was born 80 years ago on tho 22nd of last January, in what was then a village, but now one of the largest suburbs of London, England, lhe name of the village was Blackheath, and the time was midwinter. My father has told mo that there was a loot of snow on tho ground at the time, so it must have been cold, eh! .My father was a builder's foreman, and his principal work was building and restoring churches. One of my earliest recollections was boing at a place called Maldon, in Essex. Father was building a church there; I think I was between six and seven years of age. It was there that I have my first recollection of going to a dame s school. There wcro no schools at that time like you girls and boys enjoy at the present. , One of tho things I had to do each morning was to fetch the milk and butter, and sometimes eggs, from a farmhouse about a quarter of a mile away, and thereby hangs a tale. One morning I was coming back through the farmyard, when a hen jumped out of the hedge and made a great noise. I had a look" wlier© she came from, and there I saw a lot of eggs. I thought 1 had found something good, and what a treat thoy would bo for my mother,-so I stowed all of them in my basket, and home I Went like a hero. My mother, instead of being pleased, was very cross, and said: "Tommy, you •have been a very naughty boy. That hen was sitting on those eggs to hatch them, so you must take them all back and put them where you found them." You see, I was a London boy and I knew nothing of hens sitting on eggs, so I took them back, and in putting them in tho nest the .farmer came on the scene and he was very cross and saw my fathew about it, and what I got that night for my trouble I- need not sav, but it was something that made lhe resolve that I would never again interfere with a hen's nest! S So time went on and wo were back again in London, at a place called Hotoway, tibe headquarters of father's firm. I was then 10 years of age, and was told I must look for sonio work. I have forgotten to tell you that I was one of a family of 13, all bdys. At this lime there were eight of us. You will be paying I ought to havo been at school. Yes, . but all the schools there were in those days were termed the. British Schools, under the regime of the Church of England, and the fees tvere the first in a family'6d a week aiid all others following 3d, so I being the seventh in the line had a poor chance. Well, after a bit I got a job as a newspaper boy. At that time there was no London parcel delivery company as there is now, so the omnibuses used to. carry 'the parcels, and the man I went to work for was the receiving agent,,so part of my work was taking the parcels to their destinations. I had to get up at throe in the morning and walk four miles to the printing office for my papers, and if I was lucky I would get a lift in a butcher s or greengrocer's cart returning from market. Then while the master and missus folded the papers I had a jug of coffee and bread and butter and then off on my rounds, which took me until eight, o'clock, home to breakfast, and then had to wait upon the omnibuses and supply the gents with papers as they were on their way to the city. I can tell you it was great fun jumping off one bus and getting on tho following one! Hail, rain, blow or snow the papers had to go out, and then during the day there were the parcels to fake out. I sometimes had to travel miles, but I was generally rewarded by way of tips for myself, some large and some small. (To be continued)