h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Shiregreen.

I now know that "Shiregreen" sounds like something beautiful and communal from 'the hobbit' or some thomas hardy novel, where you should be able to feed the swans and relax under a shady willow tree with a glass of from the nearby village pub.

my grandparents lived on wincobank avenue, 500andsomething, and i didn't much care for the visits we made every saturday 'cos most of them involved me having an awful haircut at Mr.Milnes the Barber,(next to Grattans? cornerstore (@winc.ave.& shiregreen lane)

But my granny and grandad were great people. Granny was completely blind, Grandad only in one eye. A turner for British Steel, he kept racing-pigeons and would wait nervously in the garden on saturdays with a handful of corn.
Granny would still cook Saturday Dinner for the whole family.

There was a bombsite across the road from their house which was my favourite playground, with dumped Ford Populars to play in and once a year there was a fairground.

Anyway, enough of the formative years... i lived in Deutschland too,
from er 78 to 83 in FfM working for a certain record producer,
then on to Espana where i met Mrs Trician who is from Hamburg.

Now we're in Florida for our sins, with two anklebiters too.
(although #1 is 6'3" already)

Anyway...just thought i'd say hello...

hello

alec.

oh, i'm from '53, which makes me only 39 by your reckoning tho i stopped counting at 42.

wow! I'm now assuming you read my awful autobiography.. which is coming back to haunt me in spades (just got contacted by someone from the forces school that I went to)

I was born and grew up for a few years on the Flower Estate (sounds good too, eh?) in Shiregreen. I went back in two years ago, and all the houses above ours on Daffodill road were gone, and now they have all gone, the whole place looks like a bomb site.

Wincobank is awful now too, but I remember the days when they had just built those yukky orange/red flats and they were all shiny, new and modern. (even if the bathrooms did have the loo in them). It was much easier to get to Concord park from there too. It also had the advantage (to me anyway) of using the same bus, so I could still stand at the stop in Fitzallen square, and envy the girls going into the Marples of a Saturday evening wishing I was grown up enough to join them. Of course when I was I found out what a dive it was!

Thanks for stopping by, how's Florida? Doesn't compare to Hamburg, I'll bet!

gosh has it been a year already??

i meant to reply somewhat earlier but erm...

Florida is fine, apart from the occasional hourican, (see the 'weather' thread)
#1son is on the swim team at high school, #2daughter is doing well in elementary school...what more can one ask?

my mum told me stories about feeding calves and collecting eggs on the farm that became the 'flower' estate, and me grandad used to take me to Concord Park fer a walk...ah well

alec.

I really don't know where the year has gone. Awful, eh?

Concord park is still there, getting smaller by the year though. I was in Sheffield in February, but didn't go to Wincobank/Shiregreen because my grandad died last year and there is no reason now.

"Swim team" - you've acquired a Florida accent there!!

I'm currently looking round for a tattoo parlour where I can get a Sheffield Wednesday owl done on my shoulder...