In My Liverpool Home - Growing Up in the Seventies and Eighties

This book is a collection of memories from a proud scouser, conceived, born and raised in the area of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, in a place called Edge Hill. If you want to know what life was like back in the Seventies and Eighties, then park your bottom on my ’Steerie’ (you’ll find the instructions on how to make one in this book), a Go-Kart in case you’re wondering, with room for two. So let’s take a bumpy and nostalgic trip back in time. You’ll proper ’luv’ this book! We’ll visit places close to my heart, and listen to music on the way. Us Scousers love music, we’re a creative lot and music is in our DNA, but don’t worry about a Playlist, I’ve got that covered. I’ve inserted many ’fab’ songs into the book, I call them ’tracks,’ but a word of caution, I’ve also added a few guilty pleasures and of course, there’s many references to the Beatles. My first haircut was at the famous Penny Lane Barbers. You can take the ropes but do push with your feet when turning a corner, and we can chat about the many imaginative games us Scouse Kids played at home, in the street and beyond. Sometimes miles away from home! We had the freedom to explore the area, the wasteland, the ’bombies’ and for hours at a time and without any adults wondering what we were up to? We didn’t have mobiles, we ’yodelled’, that’s how we communicated across the rooftops to find out where the gang was hanging out. We had meeting up places but we wouldn’t go home until the streetlights came on. Bruised legs after jumping onto discarded trampolines, the occasional black eye, battle scars after a brick fight and the odd broken bone. But it was fun! I hope you enjoy this book my trusted co-pilot but don’t you think todays kids are crap at climbing, they don’t know how to walk along an entry wall, or throw a ball, in fact most can’t juggle a ball with their feet, or knock a conker out a tree, or ride a bike with confidence on its back wheel. Yeah, that last talent was a proper fib, ’balaclava’ wearing kids often hurtle past me in the middle of the road, and in my day the ’Plod’ would have arrested them! Makes me so mad that! But I’m an old git now. Kids today can teach us oldies a thing or two when it comes to gadgets, but kids have lost the ability to play out, and to think of games using their imagination. Today’s kids rely upon social media, influences, whatever that means, and some developer’s ’image’ of the world, a realistic world but a virtual world and that’s so sad and lazy! Would today’s kids know how to make this steerie, they would ask Chatgp for instructions I guess, and expect some AI drone to build it! Can we talk about my family’s struggles, how we survived on jam butties, how we wiped our bottoms with last nights Echo in the outside lav, how we shared the bathwater, how we partied and celebrated things? Too late, its all in the book but you know something, Edge Hill is a ’tough’ area for a kid to embark on their life’s path, but coming from humble beginnings, when Dad was unemployed, a time full of social, political and cultural changes, it made you stronger. My childhood encouraged drive and determination and it was ’proper’ character building. And before we roll down the hill of my life, one last thing. We never had much but I wouldn’t change a single thing. So buckle up, I hope you enjoy the ride, and this book.