Originally Posted by
Waterways
Garston was vibrant up until about 1975.
He was in
his 60s and had never once been to Liverpool city centre. Many of the people had this backwards small village mentality. There was fields between Garston
and Liverpool up until the semis were built along Aigburth Rd in the 1920-30s, when Garston was incorporated into Liverpool. The villagers didn't like it -
they never do.
Im not mad, just defending my families turf.
One: Liverpool city centre is not the holy grail.
Garston was more than fulfilling for a whole life. Family and friends, fighting and laughing, work and pubs, gossip and drama, safety and kinship. Exactly
what does it prove to go to the centre of liverpool if everything that fulfils you is somewhere else?
Thats as bad as a londoner critting a scouser
for never having bothered going there. Whats the point? Youre still english even if you dont bother seeing the palace and your still scouse even if you
dont worship lime street station, the liverbirds and the bleedin beatles. Scotty road people are no more scouse than Garstonians, but they arent
Garstonian...!
Two: Defining Garston (well, under the bridge) as 'Vibrant' at any point in history is wrong in my opinion. It wasnt the common
hustle and bustle associated with a vibrant place, to my mind. It was a tight community forged on common struggle and hardship, wins and losses, who
understood the value of their community and loved what little they had and didn't like to see it stolen from them. When the sprawl moved in, their backs
were up against the wall. At one end the bridge at the other the docks. Thank god for the docks as thats what kept those under the bridge a community for
so long.
The developments that encroached upon them isolated them.
If they were Garstonian FIRST, not liverpudlian and didn't fancy being swallowed
up by urban sprawl...well, I cant understand why. whats the worst that could happen? They get moved out and the dozers come through and flatten the place
so other people can move in? Spose thats not so bad.
THREE: There was no backwards villiage mentality - I cant even guess at the
era you're referring to and Ive got family history in the place from pre 1900 when my Granny was born there. I have lived and breathed the history of the
place from families both sides of the bridge and there isnt a backwards bone in their bodies. They were tough, hard, strong, proud. They had hearts of gold
and ties that bind for generations - beyond bloodlines. They were a community in every sense of the word -something I believe I hear people complaining is
lacking these days, within the non-backward thinking liverpool.
They were born in those houses (not there now), played in the streets, met their
partners there, dodged the bombs that fell, had lots of family and lifelong friends all around them. Their lives were full - they knew hundreds of people by
first and last name within walking distance and interacted with them all through life. They died there and were laid out in those homes by volunteers. The
death of an old person was mourned by a whole community not a lonely event that nobody else in the street knew even happened - as is common in forward
thinking 'communities'.
They were isolated from the outside community its true. But that says more about the places that swallowed them up than
it does about them.
Now its gone totally - don't speak ill of the dead and if you're going to, make sure you tell it like it really was. My
family feel like they have been erased. Slummy or vibrant? Something in-between is more like it with richness and depth you wont see again. It exists
only in the memory of those old backwards villiage people.
Alls I can say is THANKYOU for speaking of Garston so wrongly. If ever needed the
motivation to get my families history written up, I have it now.
edited to add: This wasnt said in a mean way, just
passionate. but on looking at it, it could be taken offensively, sorry if it is. Think I may have read more into your comments more than I should have.
Then again, you did just call my entire bloodline backwards villiage people.
My dad seen the photos above for the first time today. he is
div>
almost seventy. He has called me twice because he cant get it out of his mind. His anguish about all that is lost and all the memories flooding back of the
real garston - long gone - are driving him mad. Its been a rough day.
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