Garston in 1966 was a bustling place. The Gas works dominated the skyline. Those huge storage tanks could be seen for miles. The baths with the old fashioned gantries and tiny changing cubicles was a place we all headed too for swimming and getting our eyes full of chloride. Sometimes coming home it was a strain to see the number of the bus. I did a stint at Blessed John Almonds in the first year and then left to go to St Georges on Mill Street, returning for my final turbulent year and show down with the dreaded Gertrude. In those days the huts on Horrocks Avenue were used for art and metal work. Kids from the Dingle came to use the metal work facility. We sold them our Dinner tickets and then went up to the Crescent for chips and loosies. Blessed Johns in my final year 1969 was not a very good school. I was treated like a retard yet in other Schools I had come second and third in class. I once came first and second in every subject except maths and finished second in class. Somehow my academic skills disappeared in Blessed Johns and the spectre of religion dominated in a last year that would see a lot of us just leave with nothing. I remonstrated with Gertrude that religious instruction was not really a social skill. She really disliked me and as a pupil detested my prior religious knowedge. The paradox being that they had drummed it into me in the first place in Crosby. 1969 my mate?s parents wanted to take me in and give me a home Graham had a nice house in Mossley Hill but again the hidden hand prevented them. Anyway Blessed John ended abruptly as a schoolboy prank went wrong. The fire brigade was phoned up and a hoax bomb warning was shouted down the phone in a bored dinner time stunt. I took the rap and got expelled. The huts on Horrocks became Nobby House (Noblet House Youth Club) I loved those days playing table tennis and dancing with the girls I knocked about with Lana a lot then she married Jimmy Case I went with her mate Carol who although had just left school had the figure of a super model. Nobby House was two and half hours from 7-30 till 10 it could have gone on forever I just loved being there with my friends. It was far better than hanging out on corners. Getting the subs was always important and the shilling to get in was sometimes hard to come by. Then we all started working and after a while the youth club sanctuary made way for the pub. I remember Window Lane in those days. I did a stint at Kings (Waterhouse) putting bottled beer into crates. I also did a stint in the Tan yards but the smell was diabolical and would linger even after you had a bath or so it seemed to a brut smeared teenager. Sometimes they had dances at the CO-op on St Mary?s road there was no ale but it was fun and all the girls looked nice. I was a very good dancer don?t ask me why there is no reason just a knack. I think hearing a lot of black music at home helped my older brothers were really into Tamala and soul. They opened a club called the New Look on St Mary?s road but it was a dive, are you a member? Give us a break! In my late teens like so many other Garston lads I would often end up drunk as a skunk in Jons Nite Spot behind Lennon?s carpets. Everyone would end up there after 11-30. Well I never saw that much trouble there regardless of its reputation. The Allerton was the place we all hung out. I liked the Allerton but to be truthful I secretly despised drug culture. All my teenage was spent bluffing. You just went along with it. Looking back I see the damage and the hurt and pain that drugs brought with them. Still a joint on a Friday before town was the in thing and you just went along with it. Those days? papers weren?t skins and making a joint was often a task bestowed on my good self. Roll a joint was the expression then and not skin up. The thought of dropping a tab was harrowing it was bad enough smoking a joint with some numpties never mind tripping with them. People referred to us as the click but the label was obscure as nobody ever really owned up to being one. The click had to be the most secretive gang ever. I still don?t know who is who other than the leadership has changed hands over the years not through power struggles. Just a stubborn reluctance by the members not to be responsible for the actions of others.
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I met Eileen and we fell in love we both loved each other intensely and our relationship for that reason went off the rails. We fought like cat and dog and then would make up. The thing I most remember her for was the times she would stay out all night with me if I had been kicked out, a regular occurrence in my teens. I was often homeless and Eileen would stay with me on park benches or down the Pier Head. Eileen was a very good looking girl and quick witted. I would tell down at the swings that I would make something out of life. She just loved me then and I loved her. However due to my wild life style we parted. Eileen lived by the main gates of Blessed Johns but we spent a lot of time down the Dingle. Still I hope she is okay now. And then we all started to go our own ways. 1973 and I left came back in 74 and left for good in 75 landing in Dunstable in 76. Sometimes I think what it would have been like if I had got in Fords and married. Well I might have had kids something I would have liked. And I would most likely still hang out with my mates from Allerton Garston and Aigburth. Thing is work has always dictated the state of play. I applied for Ford and never got in so I had to go. If I had had a trade that?s a good start for anyone in life! Things might have been a whole lot different. Anyway I have my degree now (come on Eileen!!) I have worked with lots of tradesmen and that is a regret not having one myself. Yet looking back you can see that even as a rebellious teenager in my last year at John Almond with the repressed nun banging on about religion I had a point. Skills for the world of work are the best asset leaving school not blind allegiance to a faith that rejected working class consciousness. Perhaps that is why I never got into Fords. Left wing politics. I always admired the shop stewards movement. People now bang on about how the unions ruined everything. Yet shop floor awareness made for a healthy working class experience and let?s face it they couldn?t be labelled careerist. I would often buy left wing papers on a Friday night when everyone was out posing. I would look at terms like Dialectical Materialism and wonder what it was all about. South Liverpool and particularly Speke was quite a wide awake community. However I never got in El Dorado (Fords) and read Marx elsewhere.
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