The Ice Cream Cart
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’Oh, I was only a young ‘un. I was only about 12 or 13 when we used to run around with that.’
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With the Balderseras?
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’Aye. Peter first. Peter was the eldest and then Danny started with the van. But then Danny got his own shop over at Shotton and he moved. He had another one there, just going into Shotton, like a big grocer’s shop, he used to live there.’
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The ice cream was homemade?
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’Oh aye. Old Balder used to make it down Hartlepool Street. Why, aye, he used to make his own. He had copper boilers and that. Boil it up and then there was a freezer house, it was just as you come out the gate, it was on the left. Saab--him that had the shop up the top--Saab used to do all the freezing. Used to get these big blocks of ice, used to chop them into lumps. Used to go to the ice factory at Durham. Used to get it in the van. Used to have this, like iron, and pull them up and get them off and get them off the same way and take them in.’
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Were there any fridges?
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’No, there wasn’t, just the freezer. There was an electric motor and it used to go round, like a belt and it used to go round the freezer and they used to chop the ice up into lumps and put it round the freezer, like a metal tube and there was a gap about that much and you used to fill that up with ice and then salt, ice and then salt, then ice, then salt. And you had the lid on in case you got any in among the ice cream and you used to put this wooden thing on the top and that used to keep it cold. They used to go round the village, they had four or five horses and carts.’
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You were good friends with Tommy Baldersera
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’He worked at the Colliery and then he started on his own, he used to make things down that shop at Hartlepool Street and then he went to the Council. Aye, Tommy! I used to take him to the pictures when I was a young ‘un. His mother used to give us a tanner--that was to get us in--and a big bag of bullets. Or maybe she’d give us 9d or 10d or a shilling, maybe. She might give us a shilling a big bag of bullets and say “You take Tommer to the pictures, Tunney!” “Aye!” I used to go straight into Lamby’s and get five Woodbines! Lamb’s shop, down the bottom, next to the Station Inn. I used to get five Woodbines and I used to get Tommy into the pictures.’
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You wouldn’t check what was on?
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’No, we just used to go. Maybe he start twisting, he’d want to go to the pictures. “Tunney! Take Tommer to the pictures!” Just to get shot of him.’
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Old Mr Baldersera
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’He was married twice, old Balder. He lost his first wife here and then he went back to Italy for a while and then he came back with his second wife. Oh aye, big family them. Peter, Danny... There’s only two of them left, there’s Mary, and Albert at Wheatley Hill.’
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Vincent’s Corner?
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’No it wasn’t Balderseras. The big one on the corner? it was like hardware and that. Bloody Costello used to send me up there for his sticks he used to use at school. Yer bugger! We used to hide the buggers. We used to hide them and throw them away.’
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You’d get the cane for talking in class?
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’Owt! We used to get the bugger “Whoooah!” Aye, Cossie!’
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NEXT: Betting and the pub.
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