I attended a Nursery School at Mrs Leathers in Northway in about 1935 or 1936. My only two recollections are of ducking apples in the bath on duck apple day, and encountering shorthand for the first time because one of her daughters was learning it and left her practice book lying around. It was I imagine in 1937 that I started School proper at Beechenhurst, a small private school on the corner of Crompton's lane and Menlove Avenue. It was run by Miss Blake and the House-Keeper Miss McConnell. Memories are fairly sketchy, but include singing "All things bright and beautiful", hanging up one's street shoes in a bag with a draw string on which one's name was embroidered, on a peg in the cloakroom which was housed in a big glass conservatory, and taking part in a play which involved a big white tent on the stage and wearing a brown teddy-bear helmet.

Our next door neighbours at 24, Wavertree Nook Road, were the Coleman family. He was an industrial chemist who worked for I.C.I. at Widnes, and who never reached home until six o'clock in the evening - which I thought was dreadfully late, because my father was always home by five o'clock ! They were Christadelphians who used to sing hymns at home on Sundays, which I once mocked and earned a ticking off from Dad. I also got into trouble by bootblacking their daughter Anne just before she was due to go into hospital for an operation. No particular reason - it just seemed a good idea at the time as we were playing - but it earned me another ticking off !

In the next house lived the Hewitts, Mr. & Mrs with no children. He was a Public Health Inspector with Liverpool Corporation. During the Second World War, he made a hobby of rebuilding and selling second hand bicycles - new one's being unobtainable until quite long after the War. Beyond them lived the Laing family. They were Scots with a red-haired daughter named Jean.

Next door but one to Grannie and Grandad Ellis, lived Alan Lane and his wife. He was a professional writer who entered every competition going to boost his earnings. He often won and complained when the prize was a box of chocolates instead of money. Maureen and I used to go round there to play dice games. Other neighbours in the Road included the Tudor Jones's : he was an anatomical demonstrator at Liverpool University and she used to complain about the corpse grease on his shirt cuffs ! She was a Doctor too. The son Roger, was later at Eaton Hall with me and then signed on as a regular in the Kings Regiment. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel and I last saw him at an Open University Summer School at York in 1977. Jack Relton lived nearer the shops. He was a salesman with a car who always let Dad have some petrol for his motor mower during the war years.