OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Sunday, March 29, 2020

1963 Failsworth Manchester

It was just a dirty river

Effluent and rats

"You won't last two minutes in there" the biddies hollered.

We did:

On the odd occasion we ventured in to retrieve a misplaced football or just to cool our little feet on a frozen jubbly afternoon. We lasted.

A band came on the radio with long hair and pimples.

Suddenly our dirty ol' river became a link to Merseybeat.

And the World shrank.

Thursday, February 01, 2018

Poems

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Me Mam's going gently into that good night

She's not raging against the dying of the light

She's lost the power of speech

She's lost the will to fight

Me Mam's going gently into that good night

Me Mam's going gently into the undiscovered country

From whose bourn no traveller returns

Or acquires wings or burns in Hell

Who's to tell if this puzzles her will

Or lies unremarked in a battered corner

Of her Alzheimered mind

Where it's nigh on closing time

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Me Mam's climbing gently into Charon's ferry

She will be burnt

She won't be buried

Ashes to ashes in Hollinwood Crem

Harold P Heywood keeping the helm

With a rain-soaked phalanx

Of women and men

Who couldn't put me Mam back together again

Me Mam's quietly joining the choir eternal

Focussed on closing the Boethian circle

Drawing the curtains

Damping the fire

Pulling the plug

Soon to expire

Me Mam's going gently we know not where

Where paupers and millionaires go: nowhere

Dust and dust and yet more dust

An afterlife? We surely must look at our offspring and trust

Our loins did well

Here's to lust.

Marion Garry 29 May 1933 - 12 Apr 2017

In A Considered Attempt

In a considered attempt

Not to fall, teetering and swaying

And bang his head as he pulled on his pants

He decided to sit on the edge of the bed

But missed

And fell

And banged his head

In Loving Memory

I'm a bench on a pier now or

Somewhere 'nice' with 'views'

That's what I've become

There's nothing left of me

Apart from two Sons and theirs

And memories in the heads of friends who

Will soon be benches too

Tempus Fugit

Sunday, March 29, 2015

30 JULY 1954

Introduction.

That was my birthday. That date. In the title.

It was a Friday if I'm not mistaken and I have a feeling that the young (and, at the time, shapely) Queen Elizabeth II visited my vicinity on, or just after, my happy and glorious birth. Not that I would have cared about the shape of Queens at the time, although at least one, unshapely queen would try his luck in later years - when I was still snake-hipped and magnificent; but I digress.

I think it rained. Not on my parade, but hers. Obviously I can't actually remember - being a babe in arms and everything. I can't recollect anything before actual occurrencies that are embedded deep within my memory module/cells/cerebellum.

One I can date: 20 Oct 1957. The other I can't. Which is correct?

The first was the birth of my brother.

The second was being in the back garden of 1 Alan Avenue, Failsworth on a blisteringly hot summer's afternoon when Mrs Horton had a slide and a tin bath full of water that she excitedly told us would be 'just like Blackpool'. She went on to explain how we would climb up the slide and shoot down into the welcoming waters of the tin bath bath at the end of our descent. She over-promoted it.

The slide was a 1950s edition: hardboard nailed to a Dexion frame. The Dexion was fine. It was the hardboard that hindered progress. Consequently, once you had soaked your 'cossie' in the bathtub, you stuck like a forlorn limpet to the 'slide'. Even then, precocious brat that I probably was, I knew she hadn't thought it through. There were other children there, including Mrs Horton's own I would imagine. They made no impression on me whatsoever even though she lived there throughout my childhood. This really worries me. Were they that nondescript? Hard to believe. All I remember from my early years is feisty folk who would give as good as they got. Whoever stuck to that slide in the blistering heat of an early 50s Mancunian heatwave must have been completely devoid of personality. Ah well.

On the 19th or 20th of October 1957 I can remember being wheeled in a wooden cart by my father (Joe Garry) and uncle (Mo Geddes) to my Nana's (Florrie Ford nee Richardson) and Pop's (John Ford) in (26) Ashworth Street, Failsworth. My memory recalls being transported down Parkside Avenue and a turn left onto Newton Road. It was a great adventure. It was dark. It was Autumn. I'd never been outside that late before: it was intoxicating. Later - after we had arrived at my grandparents, I was presented with unwarranted toys and generally had the time of my life as everyone seemed just so, well, pleased about things beyond my comprehension. I lapped it up. Forty-odd years later the 'baby brother' lustre faded. But more of that later. I would have been three.

I'm hoping that this memory map will also consist of a sort of social history of the times I lived through - whether actually remembered or not - along with what I can recollect of those times through my rose-tinted, 20-20 Specsaver Specials.

For example: in the year of my birth the first Wimpy bar opened in Great Britain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimpy_(restaurant). The English Electric Lightning made it's maiden flight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Lightning. Donald McGill, the artist of saucy seaside postcards, was found guilty of breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857 and Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bannister. Other things happened as well. Elsewhere in the World.

The Vietnam War began just before I did http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War. Bill Haley recorded 'Rock Around the Clock' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haley_%26_His_Comets and Hugo Chavez was born two days before me .RIP Hugo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez

Obviously the first few years of this remembrance will be sparser than the latest few years, so I think I'll initially limit it to the first twenty years. Now, if you think that's copping out then you have no idea. It was the years after that inertia set in. Hopefully each year will be a blog. Here goes.............

Playlist:-

Little Things Mean a Lot - Kitty Kallen

Wanted - Perry Como

Hey There - Rosemary Clooney

Young at Heart - Frank Sinatra

Rock Around the Clock - Bill Hayley & The Comets.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A New Morning

Although I realise that this Blog is now private, I think I'll resurrect it and yet carry on as though that audience is still there.

I expect there'll be a few typos, spelling or grammar errors as I'm hoping to type most of it on a Kindle Fire HD. It won't be easy that's for sure, given the problems typing and seeing what you have typed as you type. Well, one thing's for certain, it's impossible to type it up in landscape. There's just not enough display space for the keyboard and the actual blog type. I must admit though that it reminds me of typing up the early years of this blog on a Psion Revo. Nostalgia fest.

So, what's changed in the past two years? Well, I suppose the biggest change has been my Man going into a nursing home: Ashgrove House on Hollinwood Avenue. It's most definitely the best solution. She was wandering at night and in danger of heading outside her sheltered accommodation and not being able to get back in. Her grasp of the reality around her was becoming tenuous. Eventually, in May 2013, the bullet was bitten and we engaged Social Services. I have to say, Social Services were wonderful and they made what could have been a very traumatic experience so much easier. The home itself is wonderful. They provide in house entertainment from singers and musicians, bingo and trips out to sing songs in the spacious lounge and mundane, yet profound (from the inhabitants point of view) and quotidian tasks as folding the washing. She has regular visits from doctors, opticians and the rest; I should have organised it a year earlier I think. Still, hindsight eh? A wonderful thing.

The second big change must be the election of Dearest - she is now a Labour Councillor on Bentham Metropolitan Council. After many years a semi-active Party member but a member of the National Executive Committee of her Banking Staff Association, she finally took the plunge and stood in a bye-election caused by the death of a long standing Councillor friend of ours.

I must say, she is the best, hands on, constituency Councillor you could ever wish for. Engaged, positive, innovative, proactive: a really great servant of the local community. Mind you, she is my wife and I do love her dearly. What she can't stand is the manoeuvring, the infighting, the politicking that goes on from dawn till dusk of the majority of the rest of the Chamber. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

The third big difference is the change that Littlest has brought to our lives. What a gorgeous, entertaining, happy (mostly), bright and friendly little boy he has turned into. He stays at ours overnight most Saturdays and it's a privilege and an absolute pleasure. He's talkative, has a great sense of humour and has introduced us to so many great Pixar and the rest movies such as Rio, The Ice Age Series, The Shrek Series, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and many more.

He's soon going to have a cousin too as Eldest and Eldest's Darlin' are expecting another little boy due at the beginning of May. Heady times. Littlest will be (and is) a United fan whereas Smallest will be enrolled in City's fan club the day he's born I would imagine. Proper Mancunians. Love 'em.

And I suppose the fourth big difference over the past couple of years is the succes of the football club I have supported since the 4th February 1967. Fa Cup, Premiership and hopefully - on Sunday - the Carling Cup. The Champions League and the Premiership again don't look like they're on the cards, but I'm just thankful for the - mostly - exhilarating football we City fans have been presented with under Mancini and Pellegrini. Thanks.

I'll have to re-acquaint myself with posting photographs again.

Anyway, till next time......adios.