I, William (Bill) John Murray, was born March 29, 1918 at 3 Woodfield Terrace, in Woodfieldside. I remember being in kindergarten when all of a sudden we were moving to Oakdale. Our address was 88 New Houses. Not long after we moved in they changed our address to 28 Llwynon Crescent. We moved in before they started building houses across the street from us.

I do not remember my first day at Rhiw Syr Dafydd. I went through classes A & B until the last class where Mr. Adams was the teacher. That was on my fourteenth birthday. The next Monday morning I started to work in the pit in what was called house coal. I worked in the New East for 3 years and on the 25th of April 1935 we sailed for the U.S.A.

As for my family:
Father: Joseph (Joe) Harold Murray
Mother: Ethel May Murray
Brother: Joseph Harold Murray
Me: William Bill John Murray
Sister: Ethel May Murray
Brother: Gordon Murray
Sister: Elizabeth Betty Murray

Barbara Jones moved in across the street from us. I saw her 2 years 9 months ago when I visited Wales with my Son Kenneth Harold Murray. I did not know Barbara very well as she was a year older but my brother Harold was friends with her brother Fred. He was also friends with George Reed who lived four doors from us. Others were Bernard and Clifford Baugth, Mary Phelps, and the families: Clayfield, Reed, Pontin, Reese and others.

As for activities, we played in what was called Stevens Field. Mr. Stevens was a farmer; he had a slaughter house on the farm and a butcher shop in the village. That is where most of the activity was. There we would play football and cricket. It had a spring where we could get water to drink in the summertime. There was a hill so in the wintertime we went sledding and the summertime we used cardboard to side down the hill. This was before the Welfare Grounds were built.

We would keep ourselves busy by trading picture cards to get a set of 50. They had pictures of famous men, men in sports, horses, dogs, wild animals, ships and many more pictures of things. We would play games with them. My family would play cards, dominos, checkers, chess, darts and many other family games.

Back in the 1920’s, we had to walk everywhere we went. We would walk to Penyfan pond to swim. I remember in August we would walk up the mountain and just sit in the middle of what we call windberrys. We would pick them and eat them wild as we watched the sky larks way up in the sky. Those sky larks would all of a sudden come straight down like a bomber, level off and fly to their nest. We would follow where they went and see the nest but of course not go close to it because we knew better than to touch it.

As for the movie picture show, we walked to Blackwood to see the silent movies. I remember when the cinema was built in Oakdale. It cost me one penny to go in and see the movie. When we were not playing, we would walk through the fields and lanes.

As for the “Rec” as you called it, we knew it as the Welfare Grounds. I think my Dad was on the Welfare committee as well as the hospital and several other committees. The welfare Grounds had so many things for kids to do. I am not sure when the play ground was opened. I know I was still going to school.

When I finished school I started playing bowls. I played with my dad. We played for the Oakdale Welfare Bowling Club. My father won many medals playing bowls. When I was not bowling I was riding my bicycle.

We boys liked to work out so a shed was built in the Reed’s back yard until the company man came around and told George Reed’s mother to remove it as soon as possible. She told the man it was a chicken house and he asked where were the chickens! Oh well, she tried to keep the place for us. All of our workout equipment was moved to the building next to the Ivy Bush Inn as it was empty and not in use. That gave us a lot more room to set up parallel bars and other equipment. We did cross country running too.

If it was bad weather, I would work with my fretwork tools. One time I made a doll house 77 ½ inches high and 12 inches wide. It was two stories high with four bay windows, two up and two down, with a garage on the side. I also made the furniture for it. It took me over a year to finish. As a family we would play many games together such as dominos, checkers, chess, darts and card games.

You may have known Horace Smith. He lived on Syr-dafydd Avenue up close to the post office. He was our Scout Master. I remember he helped the young people in our town. As I recall, he put a white door knob on his front door and told us boys that if we ever needed him to look for the white door knob. One summer I went camping with him and a group of boys. We road our bicycles to the camping place that was on the other side of Pontypool. We would get together and play Llwynon Road in football. In the springtime we would go to Wayne Field and fly kites. At Christmastime we would go door to door and sing Christmas carols.

I remember the Brass Band. On the first Saturday of May we would gather by the school on Rhiw Syr Dafydd Hill. With the Brass Band in front, the churches would group together behind them. As they marched and played hymns, we would sing all the way to the Welfare Grounds. We would play all kinds of games. We had road racing, three legged race, hundred yard dash, climbing the greasy pole, slow motion bicycle and many other games. On Sunday evening the Brass Band would play where the bowling green and Miniature Golf was.

I never traveled much except with the church of Wales. We would go to Barry Island and Penarth. When I became 14 and got my bicycle, my friends Bernard and Clifford Baugth and I would travel all around Oakdale, Blackwood and Pontllanfraith. One August we took off for their uncle’s place on the other side of Pontypool.

I had a terrible stammering problem. Every time I went into a new class I was marked absent until they saw I was there. I had some interesting things happen to me because of my stammering. I remember when I was in 4A, we had a teacher come in and give a reading lesson. When it came to my turn to read, I couldn’t because of my stammering. The teacher called me up front and gave me the cane on each hand because he thought I lost my place. He sent me back to my desk and told the boy next to me to show me the place so I could read. The boy told the teacher I had the place but that I stammered.

I remember the miner’s institute. It was used for a lot of activities. Some Saturday nights my Mom and Dad would go and play whist. It was the only activity my Mom had before she died. She died when I was 14 years old and I will not forget it.

On November 5th, Guy Forks night, we would build a bon fire for the neighborhood to come and enjoy. One year we had firecrackers.