Cast your minds back to when you were a member of the Tinkerbell or Smiler Clubs in South Tyneside
Were you a Tinker or perhaps a Smiler?
Smile - because we have memories of the children’s clubs which kept the kids of South Tyneside happy in years gone by.
Our thanks go to a Shields Gazette reader who found this badge during a house renovation project in South Shields.
It shows the words ‘Life’s Worthwhile Because You Smile’ and refers to the Gazette’s Smilers Club.
The club was actually a popular children's club run by the newspaper starting in the early 1930s, and its aim was to encourage kindness and happiness.
Children could have their birthdays recognised and the club was so popular that locals still recalled it as much as 80 years after it first started.
The club held activities for its members including a talent competition. It also hosted various community events, including a "concert party" group which performed at local venues.
And Smilers members had a real treat 91 years ago when they took part in the 1935 Smilers Club Pageant.
Gazette readers might be surprised to know that it wasn’t the newspaper’s first membership club for children.
The Tinkerbell Club was a forerunner of the Smilers’ Club, which had a huge membership locally, especially in the 1930s.
It started in the Gazette in November 1929, when the number of pages rose from six to eight. It meant that a whole page, on a Saturday, could be devoted to a women’s column, Women In The Home, which also included household hints and recipes etc, and a children’s feature.
The Tinkerbell Club featured poems, a crossword puzzle, a serialised story and a cartoon strip.
Its young members were encouraged to do one kind action every day.
Tell us if you were a member of a children’s club back in your childhood. Perhaps you remember your membership number, still have the badge or recall the activities that you used to do as one of the members.
Get in touch and tell us more by emailing [email protected]