Wednesday, March 07, 2018

" I used to dream as a child whenever I passed that shop of trying that spaceman looking helmet on and going to the moon lol "

above.....a quote by someone on facebook this week about Scott & Varley
Continuing on from my sepia saturday post last week here is a photo i found today (not even scanned:see my thumb!)
I'm kind of "there"in the photo.But you cant really see me.Maybe an ankle/leg?This is perhaps a reason I have never bothered before with this photo.
I'm in blue.With my back to camera .In the middle of the "scrum".[you will just have to take my word for this!]
Still .It meets a critera for this week's theme of "Sports Fields".

See this week's  other sepian posts  here:

My photo must have been taken in 1966. I played for Clare Hall School, Halifax. We were unbeaten that season.I played in every game as "hooker".[The bloke in the middle of the scrum who has to win/gain the ball for his team]
. The game you see in this photo is being played on Savile Park (aka "The Moor"}.I think it is  Haugh Shaw School we were playing that day.
I seem to remember I got my nose bloodied that day.Sadly I have no photographic record of the exact moment  i lost my good  looks.......... Less than a couple of miles from where this photo was taken in 1966 was Scott & Varey 's Antique Shop on Prescott Street in Halifax.
Antique Shops were an usual thing in 60's Halifax.(everybody then wanted "new").
The shop had opened in the early 1960's .For  a hundred years before ( built in 1862.)It had been the town's  Co-Op/Industrial Society shop.
Scott & Varley's stopped trading  in the early 1970s.
It had been owned by 2 brothers.
One died.The other remained,living above the shop but keeping  the shop below shut.
The strange thing is ,the window display & items for sale have remained unchanged for over 40 years.
The doors are always locked.Nobody asnswers if you knock.
Sometimes,at night, you can see a light on in the back of the shop. Shades of the Twilight Zone!
Its one of those things that if something remains the same for long enough ,you forget about it!
It was only from me reading a facebook discussion this week, that i remembered about its existence .
I  took these photos yesterday
. Incidently.I attended Clare Hall School  between1963&1967 and is only half a mile from Scott& Varleys.
Which means they are displaying the exact same items today, as they did when i was a pupil
it's nice to know some things dont change!
https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Scott-Varley-Halifax/
A team photo taken straight after the  game on The Moor.(that's me ,extreme right of the bottom row)
I had some nice news today .
The date has been fixed for the 50 th Aniversary of the opening of Carter Lane Youth Hostel in London.
Carter Lane is the old Choirboys School opposite St Pauls in The City of London.
https://www.yha.org.uk/media/blog/hostel-week-archive-london-st-pauls 
 I left school in 1968. I then worked as a nurse in a mental hospital in Todmorden (Stansfield View) In early 1971 I jacked that job in and moved to work at Carter Lane.
I had a ball! Sex Drugs & Rock N Roll!
 I have posted here previously: about some of my adventures!
So.The weekend of 25 th July I plan to attend that weekend reunion!
 We get to look around the building ,then tour the local old pubs inThe City.(a couple are mentioned in Dickens).Meet up with some people I used to work with then( & have kept in touch with since)
(Nine years later I returned to London as a teacher in the East End )
 a feast of nostalgia awaits!

7 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Well, that sure is wild and crazy...a time warp perhaps.

Molly of Molly's Canopy said...

Interesting pair of photos. I have been in antique shops like this one, with the never-changing window, and often wonder how the proprietors made their money. Perhaps they just had a hobby gone awry and decided to try cashing in on it :-) Suitably sepia football photo...reminds me of the many games I cheered at through high school.

Mike Brubaker said...

Wow, an antique antique shop stuck in a time warp! One day you might find it open, go in, and while looking out the same window see your younger self passing by.

Years ago we had here two similar shops that existed in a different decade. One was a clock/watch repairman who never seemed to work. And his clocks, like the clocks in your shop window, showed the correct time only twice a day.

The other shop was a dry goods store that had the same items on display that had been available in 1950-60. Socks, spools of thread, kitchen gadgets, and dusty old notions. It was occasionally open, run by a very old woman. She was dropped off at the store by her daughter who once explained to me that it was a kind of "daycare" for her mother. Sometimes I could see the elderly woman's face through the window, sitting patiently by the register, waiting for customers who never came. Both shops have since disappeared. Dust to dust, as they say.

La Nightingail said...

Your "Twilight Zone" comment is very apropos for the never-changing, ever-the-same thrift shop window. It is rather Eerie.

Wendy said...

Looks like some good stuff in that shop. This story reminds me of Mrs. Haversham.

Unknown said...

I still walk past the spacemans helmet
When I go to the 3 pigeons
I was at Clare hall 69 74

tony said...

so , Stranger, did you have a name then before you became 'anonymous'? I find it strange you don't introduce yourself? Don't Be Shy!

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