Holidays before the war were spent at places like New Brighton on the Wirral, playing on the beach with buckets and spades, or at Wallasey swimming. The Mersey was obviously a cleaner river in those days ! I can remember the occasion when Dad hired a car for the day - driven by somebody called Jack Pond - and we visited Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey and Crow Castle. Mum and I also visited Uncle Tom at Carshalton and I remember fishing for tiddlers in the local lake and taking them home in a jam jar. On another occasion, I was taken to Blackpool by Uncle Roy and Auntie Betty and I remember being scolded for getting up at five in the morning to play - they had no children !

One of the great Annual Events on the Wavertree Garden Suburb was the election of the Rose Queen and her subsequent crowning at the Annual Fete held on the Logos Playing Fields in Thingwall Road. I remember voting for a girl called Zena Holland, who was duly elected, and acting as a page-boy whilst "Auntie Muriel" of the Liverpool Echo performed the crowning ceremony.

We usually had at least one pet, Mum and Dad when they first married, having an Airedale dog called Bruce, but he caught distemper and had to be put down. I remember us subsequently having a black and white cat and, during the war there was a canary, and I kept white mice for a time. I gave this up when I found half of one after a visit by the cat !