My Canvey memories 1948 to 1970

The fifties was the era of the Teddy Boys in which the dress was single-breasted fingertip length suit, velvet collar , drainpipe trousers, fancy shirt, bootlace tie, brightly coloured socks, and very thick soled brothel creeper shoes .Now we didn’t wear these clothes so we could gang up and kick somebody’s head in but just to stand out from the crowd and look flamboyant, looking back in retrospect we must have looked right prats ,but then again the style here now is to wear big baggy ¾ length shorts or trousers which I call "Victor Sylvester" trousers ,(plenty of ball-room) with the crutch four inches below where it should be , that look as if they have been purchased from the Salvation Army jumble sale and couldn’t find the right size , or full length jeans the bottoms of the trousers dragging along the ground where they become frayed and in wet weather they get soaking wet and wearing a baseball cap turned back to front so they all look like Jerry Lewis clones.We might have looked prats but at least we were smart looking ones. One thing I will say and that is us Canvey boys were always smartly dressed, The group I went with all bought our suits from Maxie Cohen “Bespoke tailor” who’s shop was beside the trolleybus terminus at Algate (by the underground station) this involved two or three fittings before you picked up the suit so we always made a day out, staying to have a few beers in that area. When we first went to Maxie and told him what we wanted i.e. single breasted, one button, velvet collar, fingertip length and drainpipe trousers he must have thought we were barmy but our money was good and we got on well with him also buying our Crombie overcoats from him too. I also think we must have been egotists because whenever we took out overcoats or jackets off we always folded them so the large Maxie Cohen label was on the outside.

MORE MEMORIES OF CANVEY IN THE FIFTIES
One thing I must stress is that during the Fifties even with all of the different groups of youths on the Island, and groups of Londoners coming down on holidays there was never any violence such as knives, kicking's or assaults, no graffiti or car stealing everybody enjoyed themselves and made their own recreation, maybe upsetting and annoying the then older residents but never resorting to viciousness, something which seems to be the in thing with the present day youngsters who after giving someone a kicking blame the government because they have nothing to do or nowhere to go!
There was always something to do on Canvey then, we used to go cockling, lay out a deadline which involved digging up the rag worms usually around the old wooden pier supports at the end of May Avenue, laying out the line as the tide came in then going back as the tide went out to collect your fish, we also made a quid out of it as we sold some of the catch to a builder Mr. Green and his wife who lived just off May Avenue. One of the lads who used to do a lot of fishing was called Lennie Carver
Also eeling in the small creek that ran through what is now Kismet Park I don't think I was ever bored nor had nothing to do in those days.
I do not know how much green open space there is now on the Island but back in those days my father, brother and myself used to go collecting mushrooms in the fields down Northwick Road, also my father bought himself some ferrets and we would spend many a happy hour chasing the rabbits that had escaped the nets.
Often in the summer our mum would take us kids to Benfleet by bus , we would then walk over the railway crossing opposite the Ferry Tea Rooms turn right and walk to Hadleigh Castle collecting blackberries on the way and then when we got home a lovely blackberry and apple pie was cooked
We used to do some silly thing such as - outside of Grooms second-hand shop which was situated opposite Holmes hardware shop stood a large tractor tyre, so one Saturday evening my mate Harry and I wheeled this huge tyre down the High Street and left it outside Venables the chemist, blocking the front door
More to follow Eddie