|
Thanks
Nov 14, 2019 18:02:50 GMT
Post by Gerry C. on Nov 14, 2019 18:02:50 GMT
A very busy home page this week but all good stuff. Thanks for all the feedback and especially to Wandering Star Charlotte and Mike from the Alex - always nice to get a view from trans Mersey territory as well as from our own cis Mersey neck of the woods.
And thanks to our own Mike for an even better job of illustrating the Home page than usual. His aptly chosen and amusingly captioned pictures to back up the weekly questions have been going for a few years now. They really do add a lot of enjoyment to the website and his efforts should never be taken for granted. Dickens had his Boz and his Phizz; Carroll had his Tenniel; and we have Mike.
His fringe gallery this week to add substance to last night's local round was a nice touch. I think the lugubrious snap of the Scala with a policeman in attendance may have been taken when the cinema suffered some bomb damage during the war. But then again it might have been taken on any one of the many Saturday mornings when the usherette had to call in the long arm of the law to help curb the short-trousered antisocial behaviour of the irrepressibly puerile Kieran in the matinee stalls.
In case no one noticed the two spares in round one last night were meant as a fleeting nod of approval to the efforts of both Mikes who keep our two leagues on the road week after week, year after year.
Gerry C.
|
|
Irrepressibly puerile
Guest
|
Thanks
Nov 14, 2019 23:51:17 GMT
Post by Irrepressibly puerile on Nov 14, 2019 23:51:17 GMT
Don't know about my being the cause Gerry, think it was taken about twenty years before even my time. But if you Google the Scala and save that picture and then enlarge it, well the little fella in the the suit and Homburg hat, third from the left in the group of men on the right in front of the Ginger Rogers billboard, is the spit of my grandad. Wondering if your expert eye can spot a bit of Irish blood in there and something in the eye that suggests a penchant for ducking and diving?
|
|
|
Thanks
Nov 15, 2019 0:51:14 GMT
Post by Gerry C. on Nov 15, 2019 0:51:14 GMT
Don't know about my being the cause Gerry, think it was taken about twenty years before even my time. But if you Google the Scala and save that picture and then enlarge it, well the little fella in the the suit and Homburg hat, third from the left in the group of men on the right in front of the Ginger Rogers billboard, is the spit of my grandad. Wondering if your expert eye can spot a bit of Irish blood in there and something in the eye that suggests a penchant for ducking and diving? I've done what you asked Kieran and yes, he may have Irish blood. Looks a bit like my uncle Peter who tried to become the family black sheep by leading a dissolute life as a barman in sin-ridden Dublin but who later had to bite the bullet and settle down as a good catholic in Co. Cavan. But I really hope he is your grandpa. With a youthful Dusty in the extreme background that would bring a perfect symmetry to this website - something we yearn for in life but rarely achieve. When you blow it up (apologies to the Luftwaffe for the awful pun) this is a really evocative photograph. Ordinary Mancs going about their business and being mildly inconvenienced by carnage on a worldwide scale. Not so much different from ordinary Withington life in 2019. Maybe a bit more ducking and diving then and less quizzing but pretty much the same. Not sure if their resilience survived the war though.
|
|
Irrepressibly puerile
Guest
|
Thanks
Nov 15, 2019 13:14:18 GMT
Post by Irrepressibly puerile on Nov 15, 2019 13:14:18 GMT
Sadly I don't think it is my grandad. "Gumpy" as the family knew him would have been 46 at the time that picture was taken and I think that wee fella looks a mite longer in the tooth than that. But he's the one in that picture that your eye is drawn to isn't he? The kind of man who would always know where he could put his hands on a case of whiskey or some genuine furs at a knockdown price. Or who would sell you a Limerick Soviet ten bob note for five shillings and convince you that you had got a good deal.
Incidentally have you noticed that in that picture Captain Mainwaring is three to the right of him? Hiding behind the left shoulder of the chap with the Hitler moustache? Withington in our forefathers day was truly an interesting place.
And this from a local history guided tour about an even earlier time:
"At a later period, in 1915, Withington was described as: "Wealthy, a kind of upper-class Olympia, with a rather pronounced air of 'culture' and the higher life." and Moss-side as "middle class" and "clerky" with "ambitions inclining to the semi-detached"!"
|
|
|
Thanks
Nov 15, 2019 15:07:40 GMT
Post by Charabancs on Nov 15, 2019 15:07:40 GMT
Yes, it was the promise of this pronounced air of culture and the higher life that persuaded us to take up residence in Withington's Albert last year. Not sure about the culture but the higher life still seems to be there. Though sadly it never seems to get into full swing until we are ready to leave for home shortly after closing time.
BTW Fr Megson will happily give you 25p for your Limerick Soviet ten bob note.
|
|