Thanks to Floyer Road 1955

[harryrages]

I remember boy days
When the sun went on long rows
Terraced red houses with
Polished steps and pride
And the strip of garden like a parking bay for privet.
On  long evenings
The smoke rose in coils
From crowned roofs
And lay flat in the air
Over the chimneys
As someone shouted
‘duck’
like they did in the park
when you threw stones.

I remember those end of evenings
The smoke red smear
Of the dayend
As it sighed into
Gotobed time
Across the end of the thin curtain
To the garden and
The end of the world road
In the distant where the sea was.

All things came to an end
Like the cat that came for a day
and was rested in a hole under a brick in a hole
in the garden a lifetime later
And the small bird that died in the snow.
And the lawnmower that lived in
the nettles at the bottom of the long garden
where the crawlies lived.
And the day the school door closed
And didn’t the teacher wave a
Hankie ‘ bye ‘bye to childhood.

 

[postie]

I know it well. O0

 

[Rod]

Tremendous. Good Poem

 

[Jerry]

Definitely my kind of poem O0
If you lived in Floyer Road then we must have a lot of shared memories as I lived not far away in Grange Road

 

[harryrages]

Aye - I'm sure we do . I was born in '48 at 194 Floyer Road.   I grew up in the rough and tumble of Floyer Road and Digby Park, went St. Bens school.  There was a shop next to the entrance to Digby Park that used to have a sign set in to the ground on a post.  For many years my mark - made when the cement was wet, was still there. My grandather Bill Humphries kept a shop in Greenway Street and my uncle Ken Humphries and wife Audrey kept the 'offie' on the corner of Floyer/St. Benedicts Road. I can still remember the beer smell from the cellar.  I can remember Wright's Toy Shop where my Mom took me before Christmas.  We left Floyer in about 58 and moved to a new estate out at Stourbridge.  I went back with my Dad to bury his Mom Lizzie in 70.  All changed now from what I can see so it is truly excellent that people are keeping that part of Brummie life and culture alive if only in memory.  The childhood was a fairly safe place - in Small Heath and we were lucky I think. Pic attached is of 194 Floyer Road in 1966.  I have lived all over since but always been very proud to have come from Brum and born a wukkin class kid and never forgotten.  Thanks to the people who made and keep this site - yowm the best our kid.
Gerald Humphries- Argyll Scotland

 

[Kate]

I really loved that poem - it brought tears to my eyes it was so poignant.

 

[O.C.]

Nice poem, notice in your pic Ya Davy Crocket suit you must have been well of,we only had a Davy Crocket hat which we made with Rabbit Fur from the Butcher but we had to throw it away when it began to smell, I still smile about it now

 

[Fmacd]

Aye - I'm sure we do . I was born in '48 at 194 Floyer Road.  I grew up in the rough and tumble of Floyer Road and Digby Park, went St. Bens school. There was a shop next to the entrance to Digby Park that used to have a sign set in to the ground on a post. For many years my mark - made when the cement was wet, was still there. My grandather Bill Humphries kept a shop in Greenway Street and my uncle Ken Humphries and wife Audrey kept the 'offie' on the corner of Floyer/St. Benedicts Road. I can still remember the beer smell from the cellar. I can remember Wright's Toy Shop where my Mom took me before Christmas. We left Floyer in about 58 and moved to a new estate out at Stourbridge. I went back with my Dad to bury his Mom Lizzie in 70. All changed now from what I can see so it is truly excellent that people are keeping that part of Brummie life and culture alive if only in memory. The childhood was a fairly safe place - in Small Heath and we were lucky I think. Pic attached is of 194 Floyer Road in 1966. I have lived all over since but always been very proud to have come from Brum and born a wukkin class kid and never forgotten. Thanks to the people who made and keep this site - yowm the best our kid.
Gerald Humphries- Argyll Scotland

Hi, I have only just found this reference to Floyer Road! I lived at 188 Floyer Road from 1943-1979 and I do remember a nearby family named Humphries. In between were the McGinns and the Spooners. I remember the off-licence where I used return bottles for crisps. Also, the shop by the park entrance, run by an old lady (Annie Lawrence?). I was born in 1941 so it is unlikely we mixed as kids. I went to St Benedict's School until 52. In those days we could play marbles in the gutters up and down the road. Now it is lined with cars , nose to tail.
Best wishes, Frank MacDonald (still in Birmingham)