Our Day Out

Just another childhood memory to end the week. Sometimes in the summer holidays mainly before I was eight years old I came down to breakfast to find my mother preparing a packed lunch. Sandwiches were usually made of Shippams meat paste. I believe it is still produced and has had its difficulties making the paste from inappropriate meat.

Off we went on the familiar 97 bus to Manchester Oxford road and then a walk, I thought  was interminable, in,fact ten minutes to Mosley Street bus station. Then on a sunny morning to join the immense queue for the X61 to Blackpool. The number of this bus still runs even to this day. The buses were Ribble, Standerwick and sometimes Lancashire United, never Manchester Corporation Transport. The buses were crowded and to have a seat on the top deck was favourite.

The route was always the same and I presume it is the same today although with more stops. The first stop was Bolton, just a few minutes away, as I felt it, and just the beginning of the journey. Then there came Chorley and I knew we were getting near. Preston was the the final stop and the most exciting because is was from there that you could watch for the first sight of Blackpool tower. 

Then we spent most of the day on the sands with our Shippams meat paste sandwiches, a piece of fruit cake and a cup of tea. The cup of tea came from a little shed on the prom.

I amaze myself that I remember such detail as I was less than eight years old. My brother was born when I was nearly nine and he was never part of these trips.

And another thing, I can never remember the journey home.

I stole the title.

JL May 12 07:52