Entries , alleys , jiggers

[Red Lead Ted]

It was thought of as a rough area but we could disappear from morning until dark or until we got hungry and our parents would not worry. Today there would be police and search teams out looking for the kids. Friday was payday for most men , Friday night was when my mum would be answering the knocks on the door. Rent man , tally man , insurance man , pay one miss one. About once a month a boy who helped the priest would be knocking saying the priest is coming. Rush around shoving newspapers and magazines under the cushions , my dad going into the parlour and closing the door , I don't know why he was scared of the priest but he wouldn't come out until he was gone.

Lou, My old man wouldn't engage with the priest either when he came calling, He was an Orangeman and never agreed with my old mam handing over a shilling for the church roof. My old man had a pushbike all his life if the priest wasn't on foot he would be in his old banger and always had the smell of whiskey about him. And never refused a drop if my mam offered him one.

[Louis the fly]

A young boy goes to confession .
Father I have been telling lies and stealing sweets from Maggie's shop.
Say two Hail Mary's and the next time you are in Maggie's shop see if you can get me 10 Woodbines.

[John Bannon]

Jim Brady's mention of bookies runners in Bootle's alleys brought back memories. Back entries , or jiggers as we called them. In the daytime they were our playground , young kids playing hide and seek , football and cricket. Later they were used for settling arguments. Housewives in aprons and head scarfs gossiping. A woman used to pull a cart selling Aunt Sally , a type of bleach. We knew all the jiggers well , the shortcuts and where you could jump over a fence into the main road if getting chased. Of a night the jiggers became where boy meets girl and couples stopping off after a night in the pub.
When we were young teenagers we went to a shed in a jigger for a haircut , the man was not a barber he was just making a few bob. His comb was full of hair and grease , your hair was covered in ash from the fag he always had in his mouth. We all wanted a Tony Curtis and DA , to get the hair to stay up you needed a large blob of Brylcream , some used margarine. My mates dad had a bottle of liquid paraffin his head looked like it had a coat of gloss black.
This shed was also the hangout of the local teddy boys , every night they got dressed up in their gear but did not have the money to go anywhere. I wanted to be a teddy boy but by the time I was old enough the fashion and music had changed.
Strange the things you think about sometimes.

Waiting inline at the Bootle Gasworks to get a bag of Coke (the burning kind) and and pushing the wheelbarrow over the Litherland road Canal Bridge,the barrow hired from Flanagans. This in the middle of winter. Seem to spend most of my time in jiggers or parks. J.Bannon

[Jim Brady]

Happy memories John earned many a tanner doing the coke run for one of the neighbours.There was a pram that belonged to the street everybody used it to go for coke,who's got the pram so-and so had it last you would ask around until you found it is the last person who borrowed back yard.The inners of the pram had been ripped out so you got 1cwt in that and a cwt in a sack on the top.One day Alice Chaddy (Chadwick) and Mrs Harvey decided to go for them selves (maybe they didn't want to pay the tanner).Anyway somebody out of our street was passing the gas works and here is Alice Chaddy and mrs Harvey being loaded into the back of a Black Maria along with the pram.Enquiries were made and it turned out a guy that owned a second hand shop noticed it was his stolen pram.It turned out that my younger brother (about 8) and his mate introduced the pram to the street.The street was up everybody out Mrs Harvey had a weak heart and if she had a heart attack and died it was down to my brother and his mate.The police got involved but nothing came of it the kids found the pram on a bombed site.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[happy daze john in oz]

If I remember Creosote came from the production of Coke.
Used on wooden fences and what a stink it made.