Memories of Speke
by

Our first house was 24 Stocktonwood Road, which was located across from the main doors of the Stocktonwood School. Needless to say, I was always late for school and as a consequence I always appeared on the school stage (always knew I was to be on stage) every Monday morning in front of the whole school to receive my punishment. Those of you who attended at Stocktonwood School will remember the Headmaster Mr Kneale and his use of the cane. It was usual to see both my brother Jimmy and I, on that infamous school stage. I remember, that Stan Rhodes, ?Crawford, Eddie Harding, and Jimmy Barker always accompanied us on the stage and it became the norm that every Monday morning the six of us would be standing there in front of the whole school, not the best place to be. I have no complaint with the way in which I was treated and I feel sure that the punishment hardened me for later life, which was an asset. For those of you who have never been fortunate enough to receive six of the best, it's an experience.... phew. But then I was not the best of students and I would go so far and say that I was a problem student right from the very start.

      The early days of Speke were beautiful days and growing up in that environment was like living within a huge family. I remember , back then you could go out to town (Liverpool) and leave your doors unlocked, with no fear of being burgled. The kids played happily on the streets, or on the school grounds, without fear of being molested. The shops at the Crescent were always busy and on a Friday night when most families got paid, there was always a line of people waiting outside the shops to be served. My mother shopped at Berties grocery shop on Western Avenue and I was always stuck with carrying the groceries back home. Sometimes if my mother went shopping to town (Liverpool) then I would usually have my dinner and tea with the neighbours next door.......that's how close the community was then .....just a big family and a nice one. There was no such things as A.S.B.O.'s because if there was a problem kid in the street, then the parents were told in no uncertain terms and the kid was at the blunt end of some butt kicking correctional measures.....to say the least. As a kid, the last thing that you wanted to do was to remain seated on a bus while there were adults standing. You were certain to be scolded and made to feel about 2 inches tall by every woman on the bus. The sitting was not worth the embarrassment, or the clout around the earhole you would get when you got home, for embarrassing your mum and showing a lack of good manners in front of all those neighbours........that's the way it was then.

      My favourite place was the Damwood at the end of Western Avenue. I spent many hours in the woods playing with my friends. When I think of the things that we used to do it's scary. For example, we used to find the tallest Horse Chestnut tree in the woods and play follow the leader. Now there's nothing scary about that until you realize that, the leader would climb the tree to the top by going up next to the trunk of the tree. Then he would come down, by scrambling to the outside branches of the tree and falling down onto the next branch below. Often branches snapped and it was a mad scramble to grab the next branch below. Only once did anyone get hurt. His name was Dave Furlong and he broke his leg and had a steel plate inserted to assist him walking. The problem, at the time he broke his leg, we were all in a private woods surrounded by a six foot high chain link fence. We gracefully dropped him over the fence before we called the ambulance. I don't think he felt much pain because he was unconscious.

      I remember the Oglet cliffs in the summer of 1951. We had previously "borrowed" a "cocky watchman's hut" and after carrying it along the full length of Oglet cliffs we intended to launch it in the Mersey and sail down to the Pier Head. The problem arose when we had to lower it down the cliff and Les got below it to steady it, so he said, and the rope snapped. We carried Les home to his mother, who immediately fainted on the spot when we told her "what" had happened. It was some weeks later and we were all playing in the woods throwing spears into trees. "Robbo" alias Alan Roberts threw a spear which went through Les' leg and off we went again carrying Les home to his mother who repeated her earlier performance with a dead faint. Now at the time, to a 11 year old, that was all good fun and the bonding process with your mates was well on its way.

      Anyone who knew Oglet in those days recognized that it was a kid's paradise. There were steep clay cliffs and sandy beaches. Although the quality of the water has never changed much over the years, we used to go out onto the sandbanks, at low tide, and swim in the tide pools. The tide used to come in very fast and part of the fun was racing the tide to get back to the shore. Funny then but scary now. Often after swimming all day we would be dirtier on leaving the water than when we entered. The scariest part was, going home to Mum and Dad in such a state and being dumped into the bathtub and scrubbed top to bottom in cold water.

      Saturday morning was the time that Mum and Dad cleaned the house from top to bottom and us kids used to sit on the couch and listen to the omnibus edition of "Dick Barton Special Agent", which was another world, no "Tele" then. Saturday afternoon was reserved for the visit to the pictures in Garston or Woolton, either the "Lygogs" or the "Empire", if we were lucky enough to con sixpence out of Mum. When we left the pictures, it was as "Batman", "Flash Gordon" or the "Lone Ranger" until we reached the reality of Mum and Dad again.

      Our first TV was obtained for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll.   The first person I saw on TV was "Liberace" playing his little heart out.