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Birthday party when the pace of life was so much slower
NEXT Monday, June 1st, sees your cheery columnist reach the age of 66 and as way of celebration, this week's picture from the past is of my sixth birthday party on Wednesday, June 1st, 1949; the venue is the Colne Municipal Hall and here, we can see on a beautiful sunny afternoon lined up outside the "Muni", the smiling faces of my dear family and friends from sixty years ago.
Back during those post-war years when my Dad's cage-birds were selling well, my parents would every year, hire the "Muni" and throw a marvellous birthday party for myself and all my pals, friends and neighbours from Hall Street, where we lived from 1940 to 1956. When I gaze at this now six decades ago picture, I think back to those happy days when the pace of life was light years away from today's "time obsessed" society and each and everyone made limitless time for each other.
Here, on our 1949 photo, are my dear Mum and Dad, then in their 30s, Dad is on the back row, third left, while Mum is back row, fifth left. The birthday boy himself, "Yours truly", is on the second row, seventh left, complete with a wide tie and short back and sides.
My Uncle Ralph and Auntie Peg are both here, back row, seventh left and second row, tenth left respectively, and also to be seen are my Mum and Dad's friends, actors from the visiting London Repertory Players, John Evans and Roy Luscombe, back row, ninth left and tenth left. Each year on the company's visit to stage productions at the Municipal Hall, John and Roy would come and stay as guests at our home at No.8 Hall Street.
Next to actor Roy, eleventh left on the back row is dear Irene Lonsdale who ran the corner shop down our street where you could buy everything from Dolly blues to soda siphons, and not forgetting the marvellous array of sweets: penny arrow bars, spearmint chews; sherbert dips; liquorice sticks, "Black Sambo" bubble gum, sweet tobacco and fruit chews - four a penny!
Also, here is my Dad's great pal, fellow champion cage bird breeder, Harrison Hartley of Trawden, back row, sixth left, and also back row, second left and twelfth left, Percy and Cath Roberts, both bombed out in the 1940 Coventry blitz, just as were my Mum and Dad.
My great friends while growing up during the 1940s and '50s are all here, front row, fourth left is John Hall, who is, today, 60 years on, a well-known Colne Councillor and our town's last barber. Next to John, fifth left, is Malcolm Graham and his sister, Marita is on the third row, fourth left. On the second row, fourth left is Allan Lister with his cousin, Stephen Walker, same row, sixth left and his Dad, Arthur Walker, on the back row, eighth left.
Girls who played "stroke-a-back" and "Kiss- Chase" down Hall Street are: Gail Wrigglesworth, front row, second left, and Pauline Spiers, second row, ninth left, while also to be seen are: Maureen, Gordon and Roger Cookson, Pamela and Clifford Allen with their Mum, Sylvia and Olive Hamlett, David and Andrew Bolton and Heather Roberts, Joan Knowles, Billy Cross and David Green. Sadly today, over half of these happy smiling 33 faces, have passed on, but for me, happily still alive and well, it is a day I'll remember forever.
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Weather for Pendle
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
