High St, Erdington
From 1962 to 1968 ...
my dad was the manager of Carlines supermarket at 106 High St Erdington.
It was close to the ABC Palace where I attended most Saturday matinees for
6d in the stalls or 9d in the circle ... we were ABC Minors.
I also watched many new movies there ... Dirty Dozen, How The West Was Won,
Magnificent Seven, Fist Full Of Dollars etc.
Our family lived 2 levels above the shop in the large flat, accessed by climbing
two flight of fire escape stairs at the rear. Our balcony at the rear had a
great view for miles with Fort Dunlop on the horizon.
The ABC Palace cinema was number 98-100 and moving along the street was Curry's
Radio shop, then a fresh fish shop then Carlines (owned by Wm Cussons). My mother
worked on the checkout and got RSI in her hand due to punching in prices as
customers came through - no scanners then.
A little further on was Pugh's Stationery and further again Sainsbury's which I
think replaced the Elmos site but I'm not sure.
Our flat had windows looking out over High Street and we looked across at a
meat shop called Rowbothams and also Boots Chemist. I remember in the early
Rolling Stones days they played at Mother's as did Tom Jones who arrived in
a parade on the back of a tray top lorry ... he waved at us.
I went to school at Marsh Hill Boys School, Stockland Green, and every
school day I walked the length of High St to the Six Ways intersection and caught
the number 11 Outer Circle bus. 'Penny a'pny choild' was the fare, smokers upstairs.
I remember saving up and buying records from the Music Box, the first single I
bought was Telstar by the Tornados and the first LP was Aftermath ...
I've still got them !
In 1968 we emigrated to Adelaide ... never been back to England, I'm 75.
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