Those were the Days

[Doc Vernon]

Just a bit of old Nostalgia!

"THOSE were the days, my friend! We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
"We'd live the life we'd choose. We'd fight and never lose. For we were young and sure to have our way!"
IT was nearly 40 years ago that Mary Hopkin sang those words and many, back in the Southampton of the 1960s, thought that those days would never end.
However the 70s rolled around, but Dave and Kay Morgan, like so many other Southampton couples of the same age, look back on that earlier swinging decade with special memories.
It was on Thursday, March 6, 1969 that Dave Morgan, together with his friend Colin Lapworth, decided to have a night out at the Top Rank Suite, then one of the most popular places in Southampton.
In those days 19-year-old Dave was a sharp dresser with his Mod clothes and he rode a Lambretta LI 150 scooter.
As the resident band played on the suite's revolving stage, Dave, after finishing a dance, asked a girl if she would like to go out with him the next day.
She said yes and from that moment both their lives changed forever.
Now both in their mid-50s Dave and Kay are grandparents with many nostalgic recollections of their teenage years in Southampton.
Kay always went to the Top Rank, in Bannister Park, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that particular night was with her best friend, Kate Tillyer.
"The next night I met Dave at the Junction, a favourite place to meet in those days," said Kay.
"Back in the 60s my week was always pretty much the same. Monday I went to the Mecca Ballroom on the Royal Pier, Saturday morning was tenpin bowling and then in the evening I went to the ice rink."
One of Dave and Kay's favourite spots during the time they were going out together was the Hill Top public house on the corner of Sidford Road and Commercial Road, near Four Posts Hill.
"I always remember the buffet was a splendid sight, all laid out on a long table in the bar," said Dave, who works in the building trade.
"We would also go to the old Haymarket pub, Gattis as well as Scullards, and to round the evening off we would have a burger at Mike's burger van that was always parked on land where the Skandia office block is today.
"Sometimes we would go to the Checkpoint coffee bar that was in a basement that had an entrance in an alleyway close to Curry's when it was near the Bargate.
"The whole evening plus all your bus fares would cost well under £1 and there must be thousands of Sotonians in their mid-50s who remember doing exactly the same for an evening out. Looking back to those days you always felt safe and there was rarely any aggravation, not like now."
To make sure that Dave kept up with the latest fashions he would buy clothes from Shirt King, the shop in St Mary Street near the railway bridge.
"There were so many cinemas to chose from, including the Gaumont, Odeon, ABC and the Classic," said Dave.
"At The Dell Mick Channon, Terry Paine, John McGrath and Jimmy Melia played for the Saints and Ted Bates, the manager, seemed to have been there forever."

[happy daze john in oz]

Skullards back bar one of the favorites me and a couple of mates always went to.
The Checkpoint brings back memories as well.

But back there in 2019, no pubs in the high street, nothing left we remember apart from the Bar gate, the building not the pub.
So many memories of that town, so many great nights and some very well constructed hang overs.

[Doc Vernon]

Yes John so sad only two Pubs that i recall are still there but not in the High Street famous one f course the good old Juniper Berry! Oh what happened there was no ones business! LOL
cHEERS

[Keith at Tregenna]

1 ELLECTRIC.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEhWTnWvE

.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Electric trams are back.

K.