The boys walking across the waste ground are walking across Beaufort St, Liverpool 8. The backs of the house are in New Henderson St. The houses in Beaufort St had been demolished a few years before. We would all play on the waste land until the headmaster blew the whistle to get us into the school. I was born in the basement of one of the demolished houses.
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The school is in Robertson St. Robertson St is shown in pan shot. The newish flats seen behind the school are in Upper Mann St. I went to that school in 1959 a year after the film was made. Our teacher was Peter Moloney.
I saw around this time, a football game on that open land between the local lads and the Coolie crew of a ship berthed at Brunswick Dock. The cobbled street was still there, littered with glass fragments, with dirt were the houses were as the film shows. The Coolies played in their bare feet. There must have been a 1000 people around the watching the football game cheering our boys on.
The main sport of the school was boxing, not football. The first sport I ever played with a referee and correct kit was a boxing match at the age of 7 in the basement of the school. The school had no heating system.
Thanks for making me cry.
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