JOAN YOUNG takes us back to the days when squares of newspaper were torn up and threaded with a bodkin for toilet use, when “Walter Willson’s windows want washing with warm water” was a tongue twister, when the Methodist minister took moral exception to gazunder in the shape of a frog being on display to all and sundry in the window of her grandfather’s bric-a-brac shop.

In her 87 years, Joan has lived in practically every corner of her home town of Darlington, and now she has recorded her reminiscences in a book, Ramblings of an Old Bird, which she is signing on Friday in Darlington library.

Although they are ramblings, they take us back to very different days.

She was born in a pork shop in Parkgate. “My mother was stirring brawn the night I was born,” she says.

The Northern Echo: Joan's grandfather, Walter Laybourn, at the wheel of his Ford removal truck that he had bought from John Neasham's garage

Joan's grandfather, Walter Laybourn, at the wheel of his Ford removal truck that he had bought from John Neasham's garage

Her grandfather had a variety of shops, including the bric-a-brac one where the chamber pot offended the passing minister, in North Road.

“A memorable sight was the exodus of North Road shops,” she writes. “The siren sounded, the doors opened and out of them erupted bicycles like a swarm of bees. The traffic was halted and it took some time for the cycles to disperse.”

The Northern Echo: As there were so many young girls in the Laybourn family, Joan's grandfather, Walter Laybourn decided to put them to commercial use by opening the Misses Laybourn's Sweet Shop in Skinnergate

As there were so many young girls in the Laybourn family, Joan's grandfather, Walter Laybourn decided to put them to commercial use by opening the Misses Laybourn's Sweet Shop in Skinnergate

Her grandfather moved his businesses into Skinnergate and then acquired land for a house at Merrybent, which meant Joan went to High Coniscliffe school.

The Northern Echo: Joan as a young girl

Joan as a young girl

“The highlight of the day was the delivery of the milk churn from the local farm,” she writes. “Ooo – the creamy texture and sweet taste was a delight. The cows were grazed in the meadow with daisies, buttercups and crocus. Have you ever tasted the nectar from meadow crocus?”

Her first job after leaving school was typing up bus timetables for United, but then in 1954 she chose to become a nurse, training at the Memorial Hospital.

“My name was ‘the enema queen’ on the male surgical ward,” she says. “The men would disappear under the bedding thinking ‘who is the victim today’. The mantra for enemas was ‘high, hot and a helluvalot.’ My expertise was legendary.”

It was the start of a 40-year career in hospitals in Stockton, Barnard Castle and Darlington.

The Northern Echo: Joan Young spent 40 years as a nurse in Darlington, Stockton and Barnard Castle

“In the 1950s and 1960s, shopping baskets were carried,” she says. “One lady walking along High Row was going to the hospital for a consultation but had her specimen bottle stolen from the shopping basket she was carrying.

“With a smile, she said to the nurse: ‘I don’t think they will like it – it was in a small bottle of whisky.”

We could go on, but we’d be rambling, like Joan. Suffice to say, she’s selling and signing at a drop-in session in the library from 11am to midday. The book costs £8 and any proceeds go to the Great North Air Ambulance.

The Northern Echo: The Ramblings of an Old Bird by Joan Young