older residents, a new sound

We are leaving Middlesbrough with a new depth to our discoveries as we spent the morning talking to older residents at the Grove Hill Community Hub. It’s simple and obvious. Listening to someone tell you about their daily life back in the 40’s, apart from the loo in the back yard, a tin bath once a week, incessant smell of coal, although ‘I loved the smell, it made me feel cozy as I knew it meant the fire was well lit and we’d be warm inside,’ and aged 16 going to work in the steelworks, the noise, the stink, the hard hard physical labour riveting, learning to weld, no proper protective clothing, everyone flooding to the pub every lunchtime where the bar maids would have the bars covered in full pints of ale as there was no time to pull them for everyone coming in, downing one then 2 , then back to the hammers and machines and everyday come freeze or summer heat, it gives the dried grass blowing Boho area a new sound.