When we were still kids we had a range fire6 and gas lights. Mum would cook all the English traditional dishes. On Friday we would have fish and chips or we would have scrapings and chips and the old man7 got the fish. That was a treat, even though in those days the chippy was cheap enough for a treat. Dad cooked African food now and again and Mum knew how to cook all the Nigerian dishes. What would happen was his friends would come on the ships the Oriel8 and another ship I think it was called the Faraday9 that rotated every 10 days. One would be here in Liverpool and the other one in Lagos. Dad was always going down to the docks to meet his Sea Crew friends who would bring food for him – yams,10 egusi,11 bitter leaf12 and all sorts of food you couldn’t get here. The food was a mixture, it was African but it was also boosted by the people in our street. We had Jamaicans living three doors down, and across the road we had Sikhs. I had to go to Mrs Singh’s on a Friday to get the chapattis she cooked in the back yard. So it was basically multi-cultured. Across the road we had the Flamingo café which was open 24 hours and owned by Odusanya. You said that your Mum and Dad met at a club. Did they have a social life? With 11 kids well 12 actually with her first daughter Ann? Yeah Mum liked to go out and have a drink so somehow she did. He used to take her out at weekends. In those days the Denmark pub13 on Sundays opened the main room with its piano. Everybody would have to dress up to go in there – tie, dickie bow and all that – you couldn’t get in unless you were dressed properly. Every Sunday Dad used to take her out. And there were the clubs, the Lagos Lagoon, the Rainy City, the Palm Beach. 6 Victorian Cast Iron Kitchen Cooking Range Fireplace http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3360334/Kitchen-ranges-All-fired-up-onthe-old-range.html 7 Affectionate term for Father/Dad 8 http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/O-Ships/oriel1897.html 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_Faraday_(1923) 10 The tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) 11 Egusi seeds come from squash, melon, gourd plants. 12 A traditional ingredient in many African soups 13 http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/denmark-lloydstreet-north.html
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