I GAVE an interview the other day to a journalist working for a new magazine aimed at housing professionals who work at councils and housing associations.
They wanted inspirational stories from people who grew up on social estates and landed on me. I was only too happy to help.
I grew up on the Wyther estate in Bramley, Leeds, and I was surprised, when I started talking about it, how many good things I had to say about those days.
My family lived in Raynville Crescent and I knew absolutely everyone on the street, I can still reel off their names and their house numbers.
The reporter wanted to know, whether there was a lot of crime? Well, no, there wasn’t because no-one had anything to pinch.
We didn’t all have houses full of huge plasma screen TVs and expensive computer equipment back in those days.
Our house was the scruffiest in the street, I was always embarrassed to bring my friends round and no-one believes me when I say we were so poor we went without electricity for two years.
Though I don’t want to sound ‘oh, it was terrible for me’, I remember we used to pay our next door neighbour £5 to run a power cable from their house to ours. It shows how different times were.
The whole area has been done up now but our old house is still standing and it doesn’t look much different.
I’ve never lived anywhere else where I got to know everyone like that – I can’t even remember who lived around us at half the addresses we’ve been at. It’s only in the last seven years or so that Michael and I have had money so we really appreciate what that brings – though I honestly don’t think I’d have too much of a problem moving back to an estate tomorrow!
