FishyFish

Did anyone watch this on BBC2? It was a programme about how people spent Christmas in the past (from the 30s through to the 70s) using old home movie footage. Amazingly, about half the footage seemed to be from Sheffied, which was great - especially the brief bit that featured Redgates toy shop (with a shot of that enclosed model railway that they had in there as long as I remembered), and some footage of kids at Handsworth Infants School sometime in the early 70s - I went to Athlestan myself but a bunch of my mates went to Handsworth and I remember them talking about Miss Meredith, the headmistress, who is featured here. Wonderful stuff. It's repeated again on the 30th at 7.15pm - well worth catching if you can.

- Buying Smart Rs stretch jeans from Jeanery on Fargate. - Harrington jackets and Stay Prest trousers from Harringtons in Castle Market (going up the almost vertical wooden staircase to reach the changing cubicle). - Punks and New Romantics in Impulse in Barkers Pool, complete with cave-like artexed interior. - Bumping your head at school and having the nurse smear it with some strange yellow chemical. - Catching the 52 bus on High Street and wondering why there were always more number 95s. - Guns'n'Ammunition on The Wicker - Chickens on the rotisserie just inside the Castle House entrance - Subways in the city centre - Queueing up in the alleway beside the ABC cinema when a big film was showing. - Schofields department store - Going up town with my Mum on cold winter evenings to see the Christmas lights be switched on. - Lew Bergins barbers and the Army / Navy / Airforce recruitment office above the Castle Market. - C&A - Just Micro computer games shop on Carver Street. - Romeo & Juliet's / Cairo Jaxs nighclub on Bank Street. and not forgetting that children's wonderland... - Redgates! Loads more...

Lived on Larch Hill up until I was 9. Loads of great 70s childhood memories (playing in the gennels that interconnected all the streets, and on the wasteground next to the railway lines at the top of Willow Drive, going to the Triangle chippie on thursday nights to fetch the tea). I can still remember when the Parkway was being built (and playing on the building site) but can't remember what it was like before it was there though. Mr Footit was our Computer Studies teacher at Brook.

Got to say I'm gutted about this. UCI Crystal Peaks is a 10 minute walk from home and as such is really convenient. Unsurprisingly the staff have looked pretty dejected the last couple of times I've been. Be really sad to see it go - I've seen loads of good films there since it opened. Fishy