K
Kandor
Guest
Times change, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.
In the 1950's things that had stood in many cases for a hundred years were ripped out of the heart of the City.
Lets face it, it had to happen and was in many cases overdue..
I remember reading about Adams St and how it had been one of the poorest places in the City, when I worked there in the late 60's there was certainly no evidence of poor housing...those houses were long gone by then..Yet when you think of some of the other 'inner city' areas that it compared to, I'm amazed they could single out an area never mind a street..
All of Nechells was poor then, so were large parts of a declining Handsworth, Lozells, Witton, Aston...the list goes on.
So to point out one street as being poor among that lot, I guess things must have been pretty dire.
I keep returning to this theme but for me it was true..
The fact I was poorer back then than an evicted Church mouse didn't really make an impact, I never had anything of value except the people in my life, and the thing about people is you dont know the real value of them until they're gone.
We were all from the Council back then, that was my world see, everyone I knew either rented from a Landlord or lived in a Council house.
We had heard of a fabulously rich Aston family living in Phillips St who did own their own place but in the main, such stories were in the realms of Fairy tales.
Nechells was poor...full stop.
It wasn't a place where dreams came easily or came to fruition.
Most people were born there and Nechells lay in wait until the day they died, back then Nechells was reluctant to give up its Sons and Daughters.
Stephen Hawkins and Kip Thorne wrote about Black Holes where nothing can escape...Nechells beat them to it by many years.
It was a bit like Dantes Inferno, 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'
We did though, we broke the mold..
Norma married John who came from Kingstanding..I remember when she told Dad she was buying her own house in Brownhills..
I remember dad saying 'yow must be cowin' barmy, nobody can afford £5 a week mortgage'..Norma could and did and even now 40 years on, they still call it home.
Then came Johnny, my dear and great brother Johnny.
It was he who showed me that life could be better than the Lemon Nechells had handed us.
Johnny gave me dreams and the vision to pursue them..he showed me there was life beyond Inner city Brum.
I can never repay what he did for us.
The seven of us all own our own houses now, in fact some of us own more than one..
We are all financially richer than any Robinson who has ever lived before, but are we happier?
We're spread over the Midlands, only Rita and Peter are left in Brum,
the one in West Heath and the other in Castle Bromwich.
That's the curse of modern life, you trade a 'better' area for Community spirit..
Sometimes the cost in not in the Mortgage you pay, but in the happiness you are forced to relinquish.
I hadn't had any debts now for many years, the recent turmoil in my life has turned that all around..
Oh..dont feel sorry for me, instead of 3 to 4 holidays a year I'll now be down to 2 or 3..no big deal.
I'll survive, I always have and I always will, I guess I'd gotten just too used to the 'Easy life'
At the moment I feel like my sun has set but I do know there will be a tomorrow and I know that it's light will blind me...and I know it will leave me in the brightest day.
In the 1950's things that had stood in many cases for a hundred years were ripped out of the heart of the City.
Lets face it, it had to happen and was in many cases overdue..
I remember reading about Adams St and how it had been one of the poorest places in the City, when I worked there in the late 60's there was certainly no evidence of poor housing...those houses were long gone by then..Yet when you think of some of the other 'inner city' areas that it compared to, I'm amazed they could single out an area never mind a street..
All of Nechells was poor then, so were large parts of a declining Handsworth, Lozells, Witton, Aston...the list goes on.
So to point out one street as being poor among that lot, I guess things must have been pretty dire.
I keep returning to this theme but for me it was true..
The fact I was poorer back then than an evicted Church mouse didn't really make an impact, I never had anything of value except the people in my life, and the thing about people is you dont know the real value of them until they're gone.
We were all from the Council back then, that was my world see, everyone I knew either rented from a Landlord or lived in a Council house.
We had heard of a fabulously rich Aston family living in Phillips St who did own their own place but in the main, such stories were in the realms of Fairy tales.
Nechells was poor...full stop.
It wasn't a place where dreams came easily or came to fruition.
Most people were born there and Nechells lay in wait until the day they died, back then Nechells was reluctant to give up its Sons and Daughters.
Stephen Hawkins and Kip Thorne wrote about Black Holes where nothing can escape...Nechells beat them to it by many years.
It was a bit like Dantes Inferno, 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'
We did though, we broke the mold..
Norma married John who came from Kingstanding..I remember when she told Dad she was buying her own house in Brownhills..
I remember dad saying 'yow must be cowin' barmy, nobody can afford £5 a week mortgage'..Norma could and did and even now 40 years on, they still call it home.
Then came Johnny, my dear and great brother Johnny.
It was he who showed me that life could be better than the Lemon Nechells had handed us.
Johnny gave me dreams and the vision to pursue them..he showed me there was life beyond Inner city Brum.
I can never repay what he did for us.
The seven of us all own our own houses now, in fact some of us own more than one..
We are all financially richer than any Robinson who has ever lived before, but are we happier?
We're spread over the Midlands, only Rita and Peter are left in Brum,
the one in West Heath and the other in Castle Bromwich.
That's the curse of modern life, you trade a 'better' area for Community spirit..
Sometimes the cost in not in the Mortgage you pay, but in the happiness you are forced to relinquish.
I hadn't had any debts now for many years, the recent turmoil in my life has turned that all around..
Oh..dont feel sorry for me, instead of 3 to 4 holidays a year I'll now be down to 2 or 3..no big deal.
I'll survive, I always have and I always will, I guess I'd gotten just too used to the 'Easy life'
At the moment I feel like my sun has set but I do know there will be a tomorrow and I know that it's light will blind me...and I know it will leave me in the brightest day.