Title
'We’d never been in a sports centre before.': Sandra Hibbert recalls her first impressions of Folkestone Sports Centre.
Subject
Sandra Hibbert
Description
An excerpt of an oral history recording with Sandra Hibbert, Sandra describes her first impressions of Folkestone Sports Centre, and recalls its thriving social scene in the 1970s. (Transcript attached.)
Creator
Sandra Hibbert; Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 13 August, 2019
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Sandra Hibbert Oral History Recording
Format
MP3/Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Audio Recording and Written Transcript
Identifier
Sandra Hibbert
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt)
Interviewee: Sandra Hibbert
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 13 August, 2019
Location: Sandra Hibbert’s home in Hawkinge, Kent.
Recording Time: 1:07:50 – 1:11:54
Sandra Hibbert: We’d never been in a sports centre before. And it was quite good. The floors were lovely, because at one time you were never allowed to walk with your shoes, outdoor shoes, or anything, and then later on they started roller skating on the floors. But nobody plays in normal shoes, you always have trainers to play in. It was very, very good. Because it was the only one around. Nowhere else had a sports centre, yeah, no other place had sports centres so we were very fortunate. And we became life members, and Glyn, you know, a thousand pounds each. In those days, the 1970s, that was quite a lot of money, and Glyn’s on the board now. The sports centre’s changed a lot as far as, because that used to be a bar downstairs, and Friday night was quite a busy night – we used to have great laughs, great fun, and we were all younger then. We used to have these parties where somebody did a starter, you drive to that house, have a starter, then you drive to another house to have the main course and then you yourself might be doing the desert. And you all see different people, and you end up in one house at the end and you don’t leave there until about four o’clock in the morning! But it was lovely, you know.
MR: And you’d socialize with people from the sports centre?
SH: Oh yes, we’d socialize a lot, but not anymore cause it’s a different board game now, you know. We’ve got friends – my friends who I play with, and we have a dinner, we go out for dinner at Christmas time or whatever, birthdays, we remember each other’s birthdays, but erm, Christine we socialize with is quite a good friend but the others, we’re not in each other’s pockets, we might not see them all week, and don’t phone them up or anything – only to find out ‘are you still going on, you know, Thursday?’, whatever. It was different in the sixties, sentries. I would say seventies, you know. Entirely different.
MR: I saw a picture of the old cafeteria – did you ever eat there?
SH: Now that was upstairs. That was where the gym is. That was a fantastic place, massive. And we used to have our American suppers there, and it used to be so tight on the seats that the men used to lean forward to eat, then the women went forward. It was a good laugh. We used to have some fantastic nights there, you know, all the men were drunk, you know, and not only that – you used to drive your car home, cause you didn’t get into trouble in those days as such, you know, everybody used to be paralytic, you know, it was a strange world then. And it was like, Friday nights – luckily our boys had got a bit older, but you used to have all the kids standing on the steps waiting for their parents to finish their drinks so they could go home. And they’d all been swimming, the children. Our boys did swimming there, Danny did weightlifting.
--Ends--
Interviewee: Sandra Hibbert
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 13 August, 2019
Location: Sandra Hibbert’s home in Hawkinge, Kent.
Recording Time: 1:07:50 – 1:11:54
Sandra Hibbert: We’d never been in a sports centre before. And it was quite good. The floors were lovely, because at one time you were never allowed to walk with your shoes, outdoor shoes, or anything, and then later on they started roller skating on the floors. But nobody plays in normal shoes, you always have trainers to play in. It was very, very good. Because it was the only one around. Nowhere else had a sports centre, yeah, no other place had sports centres so we were very fortunate. And we became life members, and Glyn, you know, a thousand pounds each. In those days, the 1970s, that was quite a lot of money, and Glyn’s on the board now. The sports centre’s changed a lot as far as, because that used to be a bar downstairs, and Friday night was quite a busy night – we used to have great laughs, great fun, and we were all younger then. We used to have these parties where somebody did a starter, you drive to that house, have a starter, then you drive to another house to have the main course and then you yourself might be doing the desert. And you all see different people, and you end up in one house at the end and you don’t leave there until about four o’clock in the morning! But it was lovely, you know.
MR: And you’d socialize with people from the sports centre?
SH: Oh yes, we’d socialize a lot, but not anymore cause it’s a different board game now, you know. We’ve got friends – my friends who I play with, and we have a dinner, we go out for dinner at Christmas time or whatever, birthdays, we remember each other’s birthdays, but erm, Christine we socialize with is quite a good friend but the others, we’re not in each other’s pockets, we might not see them all week, and don’t phone them up or anything – only to find out ‘are you still going on, you know, Thursday?’, whatever. It was different in the sixties, sentries. I would say seventies, you know. Entirely different.
MR: I saw a picture of the old cafeteria – did you ever eat there?
SH: Now that was upstairs. That was where the gym is. That was a fantastic place, massive. And we used to have our American suppers there, and it used to be so tight on the seats that the men used to lean forward to eat, then the women went forward. It was a good laugh. We used to have some fantastic nights there, you know, all the men were drunk, you know, and not only that – you used to drive your car home, cause you didn’t get into trouble in those days as such, you know, everybody used to be paralytic, you know, it was a strange world then. And it was like, Friday nights – luckily our boys had got a bit older, but you used to have all the kids standing on the steps waiting for their parents to finish their drinks so they could go home. And they’d all been swimming, the children. Our boys did swimming there, Danny did weightlifting.
--Ends--