""Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves."~Billy Shankley."

This is a Sepia Saturday post

Here are a couple of photos from my Halifax 1950's Collection.
Someone receives a booking from the referee .And A boy helps carry a goalpost prior to a game.

have a better under-standing.

This is a sepia saturday post.

Before The War,My Dad worked repairing shoes in Poland....................During The War..............(while my Dad was in the Polish Free Airforce) others .........
".............. worked not only in the SS's own workshops and small companies situated in the industry yard next to the camp, but also in various punishment units such as the 'shoe walking unit'.
Here the prisoners were forced to spend their entire day, walking along the shoe-testing tracks, testing shoes for local shoe manufactures. The tracks were built by a research institute with nine types of surfaces.
Each day guards forced prisoners to wear new shoes and march about 40 kilometres over a track of cement, cinders, broken stones, gravel and sand. In 1944 the SS devised a special torture – they made prisoners walk in shoes one or two sizes too small while carrying sacks filled with 20 kilograms of sand"
From:

And After The War?Read About Tesco's Exciting New Footwear Range Here

the snakes gaze wistfully...........

This week's  Sepia Saturday theme is impossible! I just dont have any photos of books! The nearest is this.An engraving from an old book that was discussed at .The Fortean Uncon in London I attended in 2010.More photos from that whacky weekend here
To Be honest ,I cant remember much about the talk itself!
Also,this week I re-found this old school photo of myself.I think I will use it as a bookmark.Is it true that you  cant judge a book by it's cover?

READ:"And Next To The Bearded Lady,Premature Babies"

Yes, I'm sick of these scented flower petals.

Dave Shorrocks .

My Sepia Saturday post this week is off-theme I guess.It's about dogs......which mine aint.Now,  it  had been about "pets" I would be a least halfway there.Let me explain...........At the end of November I wrote this post [How To Hate The Working Classes] In it I wrote about a few of Halifax's eccentrics. I briefly mentioned a guy who dressed up as a Roundhead Soldier..& used to ride around The Pennine Moors on his horse.I know not why.I remember once,driving along Blackstone Edge in thick fog..and suddenly he appeared silently (from shrubs & grassland) like an extra from The Twilight Zone.
Well! Last weekend I found a photo of him on facebook.I got into a long facebook conversation with Karl Williams who knew my "Roundhead Soldier" ;was a close friend of his for over 10 years.He suggested we meet up for a pint or three.He would give me the lowdown on his friend Dave Shorrocks [AKA Captain Helliwell.AKA Reverend Padgett.] plus bring along a couple of photos.We meet Up in A Halifax Pub next Wednesday at 7pm.Hopefully I will have more information after that.

Karl Williams

Here is a flavour of what Karl has already said.:
He "rode a Shire horse whilst wearing full armour..... committed suicide 10 years ago - decapitation by train wheels..... a very sad loss of one of the areas eccentrics........
"Met him one day on Heights Road, he warned me of the raping and pillaging happening in Heptonstall(it was the umpteenth anniversary) we had a lovely chat and he rode of towards Midgley.I saw him a couple more times when I was riding around the moors we would stop and admire the others horse, he was a real eccentric... very sad loss!"
Another friend (Tony Sharpe) wrote me "His horse was called Oliver. In his guise as Reverend Padgett at Shibden once, he was ranting about all the Popery. I said "Dave, all this potpourri?" He said "Yes, I'm sick of these scented flower petals."

[Joy Division - Atmosphere] .
Hopefully I May Have Some Photos & Tales of Captain Helliwell next week.In other news,Jah Wobble plays Hebden Bridge Trades Club again at the end of March.A Must-see for me.I will also be going back to Italy that month.A busy Spring!
You May Wish To See My Previous Photographs of Signore Wobble Here

Claus Friehe

Another connection between Sepia Saturday & facebook this week was regarding the groom in the photo in This post from November It was of wedding I attended at The GuildHall in The City of London.The groom (who i named in the post )was Claus Friehe.he must have goggled his name and found my post.He contacted me this week on facebook & we are back in touch after 40 years.

Rumi

Didn’t I tell you
that they will kidnap you from the path?
They will steal your warmth,
and take your devotion away.
I am your fire, I am your heartbeat,
I am the life in your breath.
[fuck yea rumi]

Lady In Red

Before my sepia-mojo kicks in........Please go visit  Rock Mother.She is back blogging:She is Awesome!

This week's Sepia Saturday is around the theme of "doll".Now I have already shown this photo of my Mum....But,what the heck, it's a bonny picture.My Grandma died in childbirth, so my Mum is holding on tight here!

I Guess We never really lose our dolls (or Action-men!) as we grow older.We merely internalise. They may seem like ghosts, but no,not really....they are just old toys we become embarrassed about ......Anyway. Here are a couple of Swedish Dolls I listened to this week

Look .This all feels very tenuous ,but bare with me.One facebook site I visit every day is Old Photos of Halifax.
I am often surprised and delighted by what i find.For example, I once found This Photo of my late-Mum.I had never seen it before:never knew its existance.All rather existential (albeit in a Yorkshire kind of way)
This Week I saw a mighty  photo on this site that shows the distruction caused by a German Facist Bomb dropped on the Hanson Lane Area of Halifax , West Yorkshire during WW2.(11 people were killed)
Now Hanson Lane is near where I grew up as a child with my Mum & Dad.I delivered newspapers there as a teenager. I worked for several years for Social Services just around the corner....anyway........I knew little of the previous drama...........
If you want to read
this thread you will learn many things about the aftermath.
(1) One person on facebook said her Mum met her Dad only because he was a bomb -disposal chappie drafted from Sheffield.If the bomb hadnt dropped she would never have been born! (come to think of it, if it hadnt have been for Hitler ,My Dad would never have met my Mum!)
(2)Someone else on the thread reported that they had shown this photo " to my dad and he was at school (Battinson Road) with Eric Pearson - My dad was in the Cosy Corner Picture House, Queens Road at the time it dropped !!............
............ And he has just added the film he was watching was called The Hurricane and they didn't know about the bomb till they were leaving and the box office lady told them :)"
(3) Three of the people killed were drinking in   the West Hill pub. One of the other drinkers who survived was a lass called Ivy.She " had a mustard coloured coat on and it got covered in blood. Because she could not afford a new coat she had to dye it red!"
We Dress Our Dreams (& Dolls) In the pragmatic cloth available.Non?

The Road to Sheranozy

1994.Me & Chris on The Road to my Dad's Village in Poland.I love this photo.I always imagined Chris was shyly holding the whole Globe under his arm...........

Uncle Lenny has this new album   out at the end of the month.(And probably a new hat too!)My Dear ßenchers I really am not very well this week... I even cancelled a night out in Halifax last night with Phil The Ex-Fireman & Ken! Totally out of sorts.Cold:Chest:Not Sleeping.......I feel older than Len...........his music fits the bill perfectly!

here are my 2008 photos of Unky playing The Opera House in Manchester.I stood in front of Jarvis Cocker as we went into the auditorium!How Cool was I !

This is a Sepia Saturday post.The Theme this week  is "Hats"As a bonus ,here is me & Chris outside a Mall near Northampton,Massachusetts in 2005.
.You Know,I just spent half an hour looking at THIS SLIDESHOW & it really cheered me up! It's several years since I looked at these photos.Happy Memories of MA! And,by pure coincidence,100's of American Hats!Me & Chris were guests of our Turkish Friend Ayse.We stayed on campus in Mount Holyoke College.

Chris wears a Boston Hat.

la vita holiday workshops

Celestial Swimmers

"Celestial Swimmers"  © Allan Renshaw.

I have been talking by email this week with Allan Rustad-Renshaw –.
.Allan is one of the strongest men I have ever met.

Several of my regular silent readers will remember him  when he used to go to Rochdale Hamam  I havnt seen him in maybe,what, 14 years?
He now lives in North Wales.He is an artist.  You can see some of his work & writing   on his website here.

I shared with him some photos of him from the Olden Days at The Turkish Baths.I also share them with you too..............dont I look young & rather handsome ?(Rather than the mature George Clooney-figure   of today) 

(by the way,my Sepia Saturday post is on my Hebden Bridge blog this week.)

do not cease swimming in the seas of love,

rising with the wave, then descending;

now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it;

love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

RUMI

My Best Wishes To You All In 2012.

‘In 1915 (photographer) Leon Gimpel befriended a group of children from the Grenata Street neighbourhood in Paris who had established their own “army”. He began to visit them regularly on Sundays, helping them to build their arsenal from whatever was to hand, providing direction in “casting”, and recording with his camera the army’s triumphs over the evil enemy, the Boche.
Gimpel was charmed by these children and came to know each of them well: the “chief”, the eldest in the garrison; his friend, who was conscripted to play the unenviable role of the Boche; and Pépète, who was “small, slightly misshaped, rather scrofulous, looking somewhat like a gnome” but who nonetheless played the part of an ace aviator. At the end of each session, Gimpel would reward the troops with barley sugar, causing all to shout with one voice, “Long live the photograph!”‘
see more of these photographs
Hey Kids, if your wanting something new to read, why not move over to caravan of dreams A rather good Sufi blog.