Things I Remember

A Memory of Greenford.

Greenford market, that's where the buses terminated. If you were quick you could jump off the back of a bus at the corner when it turned into Windmill Lane, that way if the bus was going further than the market it saved you walking back - always good if you lived at Stanhope Road. There was a fruit stall opposite the market as well as the big one on the Greenford Road. Does anyone remember the little fruit stall next to the sweet shop by Stanhope School? I had many a jubbly from that sweet shop. You could get milk in pyramid-shaped cartons from there too. They had a machine outside on the wall that sold bread, I only remember that because many a time going past it I found change that people had left in it (right next to a sweet shop, go figure!). We got Mickie Milkshakes from a machine on the Greenford Road. How about Boxalls, I think it was called that, thats' where we went for our school clothes. We used the NCR for roller skating, Cardinal Wisemens School for tennis, swimming in the Brent (cheaper than Northolt). We used to buy red bus rovers and pop up to London for the day. Does anyone remember going to the Saturday morning pictures at Ealing ABC and collecting badges? Although I liked Norfields Odeon more because its screen was bigger. We got our records from King Disks, I remember the Nolan Sisters going there (HOW SAD). I went through Greenford not so long ago and Mays the sweet shop was still there, I couldnt believe it, it looked the same as I remember it all them years ago. Anyway the other shops I remember are Lavels the bike shop and Steve's the barbers, the music shop down Oldfield Lane, near that was a shop that sold paraffin, there was a shop on the Broardway that you could shelter from the rain in when it was closed, it had a sort of lobby entrance but I can't remember the name of it. There was a bingo hall up some stairs on the Broadway. A shop that sold pipes on the corner opposite the market. A shop that sold guns and fishing equipment near the NCR and the motor bike shop opposite that. There was a youth club next to the Greenford Hall which backed onto Ravener Park. My favourite shop was Woolworths, you could get most things from there. A day out to the seaside for us then was called Ruislip Lido, a GREAT PLACE back in the day. We used to make camps on the abandoned field next to the cemetery on Windmill Lane and we got our conkers from there too. There's many more memories of Greenford, maybe I will bore you with them another time.

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