Schooldays

A Memory of Penrith.

When I was at the Grammar School, I used to do my mothers shopping on this street; I bought my first pair of earrings from Woolworths, on the mid-left, for a shilling - 5p!! and my mum bought shoes from the shop near left. My French form teacher, Mr Paul Johnson and his wife and twin daughters lived in a flat on the left; he was a navigator on Wellingtom bombers during the war. Also on the left, just out of the photo, was Alexander Fisheries. The cinema, the Alhambra, was on the right hand side, and it cost one and ninepence for a good seat (8p!) to see Doris Day in Calamity Jane. Halfway up, a righthand turn down a little street led to the Dunrobin Coffee Bar, the first one in Penrith, and regarded as rather racy, but I have no idea why. Another cinema, the Regent, was on the way into town on the right, and showed mostly westerns and horror films, like Gozdzilla . There were two market places, one where the Ribble buses ran from, the other where Davidsons photographers was, and Vartys groceries, and a market was held on Tuesdays. I got my first high heels there for 12/6 (black patent peeptoes with a leather sole and 3" heel) all of 65p!!!!!! In retrospect, my dad had the pub at Gamblesby, and was a bricklayer, earning £8.00 for a five and a half day week!!!!! My mother had a white Austin A55 in 1954, and I was 13. I am 72 now, and wish I was still 13. My friend Angela Vernon lived at Hope Yard. I was then Katherine Storey.