When we were Brentford & Chiswick our town was a place of great pride, I can remember as a child going shopping with my mum down the high street and the pavements being so crowded that we walked in the road, no fear of being knocked down by a horse & cart or bicycle or cars and lorries there were so few.None of the families had lots but the most important factor was that we were a community. In an area of 700 yards we had a Cinema,Swimming Baths and Brentford Library also a Cottage Hospital on the site of Albany Practice. What do we have in Brentford now except a Library that is a real necessity. Where is the spirit of people nowadays we have lost the art of communicating with one and other. The old days were poverty stricken without a doubt, I can remember my Uncle Fred who was a stevedore on the Docks at Brentford, he and others would wait outside the gates if they got a button then they would work that day. My parents grew our vegetables and fruit,kept chickens and rabbits to feed us, bread & dripping for breakfast if you didn't eat what was put in front of you then you just went hungry, one of your siblings woofed it up. However through the tears and there were many, laughter always shone through, the thing is that we did it side by side like one big family. If we want to keep our Library then we must get back that community spirit, working together for the betterment of Brentford there is nothing that we cannot achieve.
Dawn Hardy ● 5306d