Mary English
Mary belongs to: The Fishermen's Mission
Mary grew up around North Shields Fish Quay. Her father was a fisherman and she has many memories of both the Fishermen's Mission and North Shields Fish Quay. Mary still helps out at the Mission.
Mary was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 20 January 2006. The interview took place at North Shields Fishermen's Mission and lasted 1 hour, 6 minutes and 46 seconds.
Pops
"My mum was a housewife and my Pops was a fisherman"
My mum was a housewife and my Pops was a fisherman. I call him Pops, my dad was called Father or Da, or the Auld Man. I didn’t like 'The Old Man' because when I arrived Pops was already 41, he was quite an elderly dad. And in the 60s there was a kids’ TV programme, I think it was Just Dennis or something, and they used to say Pops, and I thought, “that’s it,” so I called him Pops.
He was also nicknamed the Gorilla because at various points in time when he had been to sea he had come back with black eyes if he had had an accident and at one point he had a very bad accident and my sister’s kids said, “ooh, look at that gorilla!” No it wasn’t, it was Pops sitting in the chair and he had the blackest, shiniest face going, so Pops was the Gorilla. And then they brought these gorillas out a few years later that had the little boxing gloves on- I had a huge collection of these gorillas. That was Pops because as a young man, he had been a boxer.
But he went to sea and I didn’t like it, and I think the earliest recollections I’ve got is standing, well, no, sitting in a pram on the Quayside waving the boat off.
Visitor Comments
The Mission
I used to go to the mission in the fifties with my granma Elizabeth Hill and we started in the old mission, just down the Quay from the old one above one of the fish factories, then we moved to the new one and we had pastor McMillan and a I think troubrige in charge. So what will happen to the old mission now as I think it had a house on top of it?
By Nick Kostalas On 8 September 2006
Mary has 12 memories in the memorynet:
Mary's memories with a Relationships theme:
Pops
- Pops and Kit
Pops- Uncle Tom
Mary's other memories:
This memory has these themes:
Childhood | Relationships
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