Another In The Series Of Old Postcards - 'oh Manchester, so much to answer for....'

I bought this postcard whilst on holiday the other week in Jersey. There is an antique shop on the edge of the very wonderful victorian market (complete with fountain and fish) and every time I visit Jersey I have to go to the market, make a good luck wish as I throw money in the fountain making sure not to hit a fish (the money is collected and goes to local charities) and buy old postcards from the antique shop.

There are a lot to choose from and I just pick at random rather than going through every single one as otherwise my entire holiday would be taken up with choosing and I'd get stuck in a paroxysm of postcard related indecision and I also set myself a budget - this year it was £2.

So I got 8 postcards and this is one of my favourites of this years choices - partly because it is my home town, I love its urban plain-ness, its over enthusiastic yet sweetly faded colour, the fact that the sun is shining, the incongruity of a red London bus outside the Town Hall but mostly because it shows Piccadilly Gardens as it was and remains in my memory - ie green,flowery, sunken and the statues still black with industrial grime. I miss the (hopefully) defused sea mine that used to collect pennies for those who had been in peril on the sea. However I never went to the toilets on the edge of the gardens as my Mum warned me not to as 'they were full of weirdos' instead we saved our pennies for the no less full of weirdos if you asked me Littlewoods (where my Nana used to work as a cleaner) or Lewis where we went to see Father Xmas.

The other thing I love about this picture is the first few letters of the name Pauldins on what is now Debenhams. It has been Debenhams ever since I can remember but it was always called Pauldins by my Mum and my grandparents. Ahh happy memories.

On the reverse is a message to Mrs Le Claire of St Brelade from Eve saying 'having a lovely time here. We are going to the Lakes for a walk on Tuesday, trust the wedding arrangements are going well.' I wonder if the wedding did go smoothly and whereabouts in the Lakes Eve and whoever went walking. It was posted in Chorlton Cum Hardy on 20 June 1975 and it cost just 5 and half pence to post.