We lived in a Prefab

Paul Kennedy, Pilgrims Way, Wembley
Paul Lewis Kennedy

We lived in a Prefab
Paul Lewis Kennedy © 2018

We lived in a Prefab in Pilgrims Way for years when I was just a kid,
you might think they were just an aluminium box with a corrugated lid

Well you’d be wrong, they were so much more than that in many many a way,
with the current housing shortage they could make a welcome return even today

For their era they were very modern indeed and miles ahead in design,
in the fifties we even had a fridge, something of which was a luxury at that time

Large and spacious they certainly were not, compact would be a better word to use,
as living in a prefab what you gained on the swings on the roundabouts you lose

Two bedrooms could be draw back, but that all depended on your actual family size,
in those days having to share a bedroom with your siblings was really no surprise

Built in cupboards and storage drawers in every room, a bonus they were for sure,
almost every thing was aluminium, except for the interior and the front and back door

The type of prefab we lived in had one big draw back, of this I must you tell
it was freezing cold in the winter, and in the summer it was as hot as hell

In winter we’d all crowd around the fire place getting as near as we dare,
we’d be nice and warm at our fronts but at our backs being warm was so rare

The electric meter took only shilling coins, that is equivalent to five pence today,
the electric would almost always run out when it was dark, very rarely during the day

Firstly finding a shilling piece, then fumbling your way in darkness to the cupboard in the hall,
then struggling in the dark to find the slot to put the coin into, it wasn’t much fun at all

The bathroom was basically standard just as most of us know them to be today,
though many houses at that time lacked an inside toilet and a tin bath was their order of the day

The coal shed in the back garden was made up from surplus stock left over from the war,
it was a corrugated iron Anderson shelter, bricked up at the back and front, and fitted with a door

Most of the gardens on the estate were a fair size, although smaller at the front than at the back,
we had a lawn on one side to play on and on the other a vegetable plot, our five a day we didn’t lack

Neighbours then were all working class, no one hardly ever tried to put on airs and graces,
they came together due to the housing crisis, as a result of the war from many different places

The Prefab estate roads were almost always car free as there was only had one entrance in and out,
all us kids played in the street, if a car was coming round the block someone would always give us shout

There couldn’t have been a better or safer place to grow up in being a a child,
with lots of open spaces and woods over Barn Hill it allowed us all to go wild

Many lifelong friendships were made throughout the time we lived on Pilgrims Way,
I know that for a fact, as I’m still happily married to one to this very day.

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