Chris, pleased it all went well. Very emotional I'm sure, but you can be content now in the knowledge that your Mum's wishes have been met....and I'm sure she's very proud of her son.
Chris, pleased it all went well. Very emotional I'm sure, but you can be content now in the knowledge that your Mum's wishes have been met....and I'm sure she's very proud of her son.
Thanks, Alan, and everyone.
Alan, yes I knew your mother's name was Edith and not Enid. I have corrected that. I am a bit dyslexic and have trouble distinguishing similar names that have the same starting letters... for some years I couldn't understand how Anthony Quinn and Anthony Quayle had the same name.
In terms of Matchett family history, as I mentioned, I recently bought from a bookseller in the Midlands, the below theatre program for the Pavilion Theatre, Lodge Lane, from 21 February 1944 that has my great uncle, Billy Matchett ~The Mirthquake~ on the program. The program has a notice inside saying that in case of an air raid the audience were free to leave but the show would go on. In addition to Uncle Bill, the featured acts were Earle & Babette ("Dancing stars"), Dudley Dale ("Steps-Songs-Stories"), Marie Louise and Partner ("The thrilling trapeze act"), Rhodes & Lane ("Anything for a laugh"), Hal Swain and His Three Swing Sisters, Monte Rey ("at piano: Al Kendall"), and Alan Kay and Partner ("juggling equilibrists").
Cheers
Chris
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
.
Chris, It was job well done and completing the circle will bring you great comfort. No mean achievement either to get to the destination from so far away.I noticed you went to Quarry Bank. for many years we lived in Greenhill Avenue and three of my children went to Quarry Bank.I attended lots of parents evenings there a very welcoming school. Calderstones Park as you know was at the end of our road and my favourite walk was through by the greenhouses and stables and across to Yew Tree Lane and back down past All Hallows Church. All part of your route to school I would guess.Allerton Road has changed but still has the feel of a village. Gerry Marsden was performing here in New Zealand a while back and we were sitting outside our local bar when my husband spotted him and his wife walking down the street. He was very friendly and shook hands and told us that he loves touring and will do it forever so watch out for him at a theatre near you some time in the future.
regards
Doris
Mum in the Mersey
As you wished
I followed your request
-- not so swish --
our hairdresser, Mr. Bill,
expressed the wish
to be "The Fairy 'Cross
the Mersey" in absentia.
So we gathered, we few,
to remember you,
a new adventure
on a blustery day,
Liverpool child set
sail for horizons wild.
Mum: the urn unwrapped,
I poured your ashes
down a varnished ramp
onto the Mersey breeze:
gone, gone -- vanished
into the waters below.
Christopher T. George
Photograph by Kev Keegan
---------- Post added at 05:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:26 AM ----------
Thanks, Doris. Yes all those names that you mention bring back memories for me. I bought a couple of Merseybeat CD's yesterday at the ferry terminal. They include tracks by Gerry and the Pacemakers and other Liverpool artists. I appreciate the tip to catch Gerry if he comes to the Baltimore area. Truth be told in the very beginning, I liked Gerry and the Pacemakers more than the Beatles... the sound he and his mates made, though in terms of writing their own songs the Beatles "outpaced" the Pacemakers.
You mentioned Greenhill Avenue... we almost went to the Greenhills Pub for the carvery yesterday... an old haunt of my grandad and Uncle Bill (who lived at "Vaudevilla" 165 Booker Avenue, so it was his local) but the Liverpool marathon was finishing off so I thought we might have some difficulties driving there... we elected to have a meal at the Pump House at Albert Dock instead.
All the best
Chris
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
Hi Chris,
An aquaintance of mine has just passed on,and also wished for their ashes to be scattered on the Mersey,though some relatives were a little dubious,until I told them of your recent visit! They now look to be going ahead with his wish. R.I.P. Ian
div>
Chris,
I often listen to Merseybeats stuff loud in the car its amazing how theraputic it is and how it can bring back memories. Mine are of Saturday night in clubs like the Iron door and Blue Angel listening and dancing to bands finishing up at the Pier Head for last bus home but also having the "emergency" taxi fare just in case.The innocence of youth and strict parents.
I know Booker Avenue well and often walked through from the park at one time we looked at a place called Vedala Towers but chose Greenhill Ave as it was closer to Quarry Bank Synagogue is still going strong and it is a lovely part of Liverpool.When I do visit I always have a drive around Calderstones and through Woolton village and back through Allerton to Penny Lane. Hope your trip home was restorative and its effect will come through your new writing.
regards
Doris
Good to know the relatives will follow through with your acquaintance's wish to scatter his ashes on the Mersey. The scattering of my Mum's ashes was very tastefully handled by Mersey Ferries and I would encourage them to go ahead and contact Mersey Ferries to arrange a similar ceremony.
Hi Doris
We drove out of Liverpool through the southern suburbs where I grew up, passed down Park Road and past the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, drove through Aigburth Vale where I worked for Martin's Bank in 1968, past St. Anne's Church where my parents married February 22, 1944, and the house at 76 Aigburth Hall Avenue where I lived for a number of years on and off (it was my grandparents' house). One reason we went that way is that Donna had a plan to mail some of our dirty clothes back to ourselves and I remembered the Post Office on Booker Avenue. It was still there and the clerk was very helpful in helping us to send off the packages. As you can see, the drive evoked many memories... drove from thence up Booker past Robin Hood's Stone and Billy Matchett's former house at 165 Booker Avenue, then along Mather toward Speke and the south. I went to Verdala Towers once I think in my youth as my grandparents had a friend whose mother lived there.
All the best
Chris
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
A thousand pictures:
what you meant to me --
a sunset, a rainbow,
a single red rose drifting on the river.
Everything
reminds of you: sweet, bitter.
In the Mersey waters,
we scattered your ashes;
you remain with us forever.
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
Hi Chris
Sorry I could not get up there.
Im glad it all went to plan. It must have been emotional but you will get a good feeling that you put your mum where she wanted to be.
Take care mate.
Tony
BE NICE......................OR ELSE
Thanks, Tony. Yes a very satisfying occasion. Also I think it made it easier that my Mum died a year ago, August 24, 2010, a month short of her 90th birthday. The passage of time made the scattering of the ashes easier to handle than if it had been done soon after her passing. Once again, Tony, many thanks for your help in making this happen and for your interest and support generally.
All the best
Chris
Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist
Editor, Loch Raven Review
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
Chris on Flickr and on MySpace
Bookmarks