Author Melvyn Wilkins is appealing for information to help with the publication of his fifth book, You just wait until your father gets home!.
“Were you a Rodborough child of the 1950s/ 60/s/70s – I am appealing for information. We know how lucky children and teenagers are today but, in a village setting with no internet, no computers, no TV, no mobile phone, no expensive toys, no fast food – and no central heating, what was it like in 50s, 60s and 70s?” asks Melvyn.
“This book charts my time growing up in Kingscourt and Rodborough between 1953 and 1972. How we made our own fun, disappeared all day without a care in the world, got into scrapes and sometimes when I misbehaved – mum would say those immortal words, ‘You just wait until your father gets home!’.
“I know that many of those who grew up in the area at the same time have moved, married or sadly passed away. However, I am asking if anyone has an interesting story or photo that they can recollect highlighting something that they did which wouldn’t happen now, and anyone from within the Five Valleys can respond. Any I use will get acknowledged to the individual, likewise if you have an interesting photo or two from that era that I can include.
“Here is a taster of what the book will contain: ‘Peter Cornish and I found an old pram dumped up at Little London so we took it back to his house, the old Post Office in Bowl Hill. The following day we took it in turns pushing each other around Kingscourt and eventually further afield. Mrs Taylor, who lived at the top of Rooksmoor Hill, received a phone call from a person in Woodchester who had spotted us happily wheeling each other along the A46 towards Nailsworth. She was one of only a handful of local villagers who had a phone as her husband ran Taylor’s building, and she rushed first to my mother and then to Peter’s mother to raise the alarm. When we eventually got ‘caught’ my mother uttered those immortal words that I was to hear many more times – we were about four years old!’”
Anyone who can help can contact Melvyn at : melvynwilkins@gmail.com or on Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008162195735
