annmariehod@

I have calls all the time and one of them just says 'Goodbye'. Others are a nuisance and I just say not interested. I always check the numbers if anyone phones me but I don't often ring back unless I know who they are.

I remember my Mum telling someone to stop manking about.

I went to Fairthorn in 1958- it was a white building and I was in the blue room. Girls went one month and boys the following month but never together. There were funny square baths which we were made to go in at the beginning of our stay and we were weighed too and a nurse checked our hair for head lice. I remember a large room with chairs all round it and having my Mum and her friend Mary and lots of other relatives come to see us at the weekends. There was a playground outside my window with roundabout, swings and see saw etc. and one morning we woke up to sheep all over the playground. I remember the tuck shop where you could buy coke or 7up and sweets and biscuits. I was made the outdoor girl so I had to clean up the plates etc and put remains in the bins. I always wore an apron and not wanting to eat in those days I would fill the apron and empty that too! I weighed 3 stone 6 lbs when I went there - very underweight - and I weighed the same when I came out though I have made up for that since!! The people who ran Fairthorn at the time were the Chumbleys which I think had a spelling of Chalmondley or similar and there was a boy about my age called Peter who showed me how to fish using worms we dug up and we were taught how to play cricket. We were taken on long walks and I remember my wellies hurt my heels so I couldn't go on many walks. I made a friend called Jane or Jean who thought she'd been put there because she was dying and I remember feeling very sad for her but she was just underweight like me. Marjorie Dunn has also made a book about Fairthorn. My Mum went there too when she was young and she said they had "posh people" taking them out and giving them gifts and clothes. She was also in the blue room and remembered it being a white building.

We went to see the Scaffold too - it wasn't a play - just the group The Scaffolds - Paul Mc Cartney's brother Mike Mc Gear was in it too and another Michael and Roger mc Gough with his poetry. At the interval I remember them trying to get people on the stage - one was my husband who clung so tight to his seat he made nail marks but he wouldn't get up!! They were really good and I loved the Playhouse. We saw the very last play they put on The Shaugraun. I loved the resident cast - Neil Boorman was later in Coronation Street and David Bradley was on the Guiness adverts to name a couple of them. The Stirrings was one of my favourites too. I remember the play "Waiting for Godot" and the L shaped room too.

I knew a Paul Webster who went to Heeley Bank School - lived on the corner at the bottom of Walden Road - would be about 58 too now - he was mad on football and always wore football clothes when young.

You have found us but who are you?