TITS, and what gets on my ...

You know what they say Blogg, you wait ages for one, then two come along together!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Contiuning my theme of my last letter to you , about e-bay sellers provided inaccurate information, well the case above is another typical example. But this time it is the manufacturer at fault not the seller. The seller, quite understandably, accepted the printed word as accurate, which Blog, I assure you I'SN'T!! At the moment the cost of purchase from e-bay thingie is £6 upwards, but no matter what the price, they are all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is Grafton Road and yes, it is in Keighley, or more accurately, the Broomhill Estate, Keighley. The council estate was the first to be built after WW1, with plenty of space and biggish gardens with tenants moving in in 1920. When we moved there from our hovel in Ingrow, about a mile away, the family had electricity for the first time! We didn't have to walk 100 yards and two streets to go to the toilet! We had more than one bedroom! We no longer walked out of the only door onto the street, we had a front AND a back garden! Instead of playing on the stone cobbles of the lane, we had a large area of grass infront of our block of four houses which stood back from the street. Nirvana. 
The 'council schools are a) not in sight  b) the nearest is more than 600 yards behind where the photographer is standing, on a different road on a main route called Queens Road. It is a catholic Infants / junior school. The other is even further away, more than half a mile, just off Queens Road and is called Ingrow Infants / Junior School. It is the school my sister attended when we moved from our slum on Hainworth Lane to a council house. Before that we went to Wesley Place School Infant / junior school on Halifax Road, which I stayed at until my 11+. It involved four daily journeys of about a mile each way!!!
Back to the photo for interest …. at the top, in the distance is a cross roads, on the left is Upper Hird Street, and in the block of four after the first semi detached is where we moved to as kids. At the junction is a post office and grocers called Mr Heaton's where my mother worked on and off if she wasn't working in the mill. Slightly further up on the right is the back entrance to Lund Park, the front entrance of which is where the race is supposed to be passing (last letter to you Blog) but it isn't as I said.
On the left is the council housing estate and the gaps you can see between the blocks are small closes. On the right are posh private houses which back onto a large allotment area, the gap is the entrance. The house on the right is another general store which is where we went for grocers when my mother fell out with Mr Heaton, which she did often.
In the distance past the post office are the really posh people with some large houses. I used to help one old lady - well she looked old to me - do her garden pruning in the autumn. She gave me the tree branches for my plot night bonfire in our back garden. She also gave me an old Monopoly, which I have still got used last time two nights ago, believe it or not Blog. Surely that must be the oldest game in use in this country at the moment???? Dear Mr Gluiness, after you have finished supping your glass of Guinness, could you tell me what the second oldest game being play in this country is, please. Cheers, Colin.
Next time if I remember Blog, I will tell you have I came within 2 inches of killing myself about six months after we had moved in!!!! Blog, I kid you not, 5 centimetres of killing myself!!!

                                                 Colin