What is the only thing that took place

[alf corbyn]

i don't know why the bloody parrot couldn't have flown to speke

[Captain Kong]

Maybe he had spent too much time in the Wine Lodge.
Brian.
.
.
. What a strange thread,
We start with Terry`s quiz on a Race Course and have 20 deletes from Keith and end up with a drunken Parrot who is on the wrong bus and cannot fly.
How do we do that?
Brian

[Don Rafferty]

I think a riddle has been wrapped in a mystery and then turned into an enigma.*

* With apologies to WC

[Gulliver]

When I was pre-sea at Riversdale College in Liverpool in 69 it was the 82C Pier Head to Speke service.. The C suffix denoted the route via Church Street in the city,whereas any D suffix indicated via Dale Street ,although they were nearly all C’s via Church Street,with just a few in rush hours via Dale Street to ease congestion in Church Street as I recall. The route then went direct to Speke via Dingle,Aigburth and Garston.
There was also the 81(I think) but this went to Speke via Smithdown Rd,Allerton and Garston. If one inadvertently (through alcohol perhaps?) got this bus home to Riversdale on a dark rainy night,it would be a long walk home to your college digs from Allerton or Garston !

There was also the 500 Limited Stop service which used to connect Kirkby -via the -City Centre -to Speke ,allegedly two of the roughest estates on opposite sides of Liverpool.These buses were always the newest traditional style Leyland Atlanteans(distinguishable by their Liverpool design top-deck front and rear 'peaks’) which was strange because you would think on such a service Liverpool Corporation(as it was then) would have put it’s oldest buses on where vandalism wouldn’t have perhaps mattered as much.!
The 500 was very fast and used to whoosh past our 82 C's on Aigburth Road,usually accompanied by a flurry of V-signs from the Speke scallies shrouded in clouds of fag smoke on the top deck.
There was also the Crosville company’s H1 service to Warrington. This historically had to take a convoluted route out of Liverpool via Upper Duke Street and Princes Park to Aigburth .Historically because until the mid 70’s Liverpool Corporation objected to a non-Corporation service being able to ‘poach’ some of it’s own customers.The Traffic Commissioners then had to stipulate the route taken,impose limited stopping facilities and much higher fares (typically double)should a poor unwitting local passenger find himself aboard the non-Corporation bus. It didn't help that these buses also used the green and cream livery !
It was like this in many towns and cities throughout GB until the mid 70’s agreements in cities in about 1972/3 ,and which finally ended at deregulation in 86-when the real shambolic free-for-all piratical bus-wars started. Thankfully ,deregulation too has all settled down now,(after 25 years)but a huge bus ridership loss resulted from all that,which with regrettably increasing car ownership will never be regained,although public transport use in some cities is now on the upturn.
It’s a bit sad that I know all this,but I think some of you ,particularly Liverpudlians and ex-busmen will find it nostalgic…
Pictures of the 51 year old preserved Liverpool Atlantean L501 as used on the Speke services which I remember. The captions show it as being taken at the Albert Dock.

Preserved Liverpool Corporation 501 KD of 1962-pictured at Albert Dock,Liverpool.jpg+501-KD.jpg

[Captain Kong]

Thanks Davy, I can just see my Parrot lying down on the dash board, he looks knackared after all that bus changing.
Cheers
Brian.

[robpage]

maybe the parrot was winging it

[Jim Brady]

Thanks Davy, I can just see my Parrot lying down on the dash board, he looks knackared after all that bus changing.
Cheers
Brian.

I think that must've really ruffled his feathers Brian.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Red Lead Ted]

I only asked a question it turned into a bigger charade than the Costa Concordia, Let,s see if anyone can answer this............Who is the only singer ever to have a song dedicated to him which reached number one in the pop charts and we are talking within the last 35yrs we all know the song and we have all sung along to it GOOD EH Terry.

[Captain Kong]

Is it Sinatra???

[John Pruden]

grandad??