My Canvey memories 1948 to 1970

Having babies on Canvey in the fifties and sixties You might ask "What would a mere male know about having babies?." well I will tell you. Nearly everyone had their babies at home during this era and it was the expectant dads job, when the wife said she was due, to jump on his bike and cycle around to the mid-wife's house and let her know the situation ,and you were always asked the same questions " has the water burst? how long between each contraction? Etc". Now if the mid-wife was out on another call she left the name and address of her backup nurse so off you cycled (no matter what time of the day or night it was or the weather conditions were) to find the other one and hoped and prayed that she was in.
The midwives I can recall that worked on Canvey were a Nurse Robson and a Nurse Consella ,one rode a bike and the other drove a Morris minor car When our first one was due Nurse Robson came and that's when she took over ,she came in the door and the first words she said in a very draconian voice to the poor nervous father to be was "Make yourself useful and get me some clean towels and plenty of boiling water "when you had done all of that and sat down she found you another task, but the midwives were very efficient and very good .I wonder just how many Canvyites can say "I had my bare bottom smacked by Nurse Consella or Nurse Robson", thousands I would guess.
Now the in thing is all hospital deliveries to eliminate any complications but I would back the success rate of those old midwives against any hospital of today. being less clinical and more comforting.
My memories are inside me - they're not things or a place - I can take them anywhere.

The reason why we went off the Island for our clobber was because there was no decent men’s outfitters on the Island the only one being Rogers (who I think was located near Cockle Jacks) who stocked things like flannel jackets and formal shirts and catered for the conservative type of clientele so we bought our accessories in Southend and our “Whistles” from Maxie. Then a good thing happened on the Island, about the mid fifties a new men’s outfitters moved on the Island namely Alf Harley and Sons (I think they also had a shop in London) they had some good and in fashion clothes so we bought most of our gear at Alf’s, whose shop was located in Furtherwick Road between Lionel Road and Vaagen Road, (I think) but still bought our suits from Maxie. The suits used to cost 25 guineas and the Crombie overcoats 21 Guineas and considering we were earning about 7 quid a week they were very expensive. When I tell my sons and grandsons that I spent 3 and a half weeks full wages buying a suit they did not believe me and thought I was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
One big difference I notice now is the style of walking, we walked with a spring in our step, backs upright,( this could have been due to our National Service training) even the odd skip and jump but the present day youth seem to drag their feet along and look towards the ground,(maybe that,s because of all the piercings they have in their heads and it's weighing them down LOL)