Kirkdale The 50s And 60s.

A Memory of Liverpool.

I grew up in Tillard St. Kirkdale. I remember we always had to use the back door when we left the house as kids, so the neighbours would not see we had no lino in the hall. (probably no body else had any anyway) I was a paper boy for Joe Ballard who owned a shop in Tillard St., he paid us ten bob a week. I went to Lambeth Road school which was just at the end of the street, and have fond memories of my time there. My dad used to cut our hair with hand clippers, which really hurt if they where not used properly. He also mended our shoes and boots, they looked like new when he had finished, I loved watching him work. We went to Westminster Road baths once a week (or was it once a fortnight) to have a bath. There where no bath taps a lady filled your bath with a key she kept, if you got undressed ready to get in and it was to hot, you had to put a towel around yourself and call the lady to put more cold in. I also went to St Mary's youth club on a Friday, had some great times there, also fancied some of the girls there. This was next door to the baths. When I was older I knocked around with three other guys, we often went to the Ice Rink in Kensington which usually had a group on at the weekend. If we didn't go there we went to the Mardi Gras club in the city centre, the resident group where the Swinging Blue Jeans, I was made up when there song The Hippy Shake got into the charts. Great, great memories...

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