Wigan Album

A Labour club trip no doubt , and every Wigan kid who went on one would probably have had the same experience , shiny faced looking through the window at the changing scenery .

The Morris Dancers Pub , and even mundane things like lamp posts seemed a different character , the myriad coaches parked up in lines and the thought you wouldn't be able to find yours again .

The quid in the envelope (or was it 10 bob ) to spend at at the fair ; the Fun House with the spinning disc and rotating funnel ; the crazy cottage and Caterpillar , the carpet mat you carried up the helter skelter then corkscrewed down to the bowl of spectators ; the carousel ....

The miniature train that took you for fish and chips by the pier ; the sea that wasn't there and the white wooden roller coaster with sand dunes round it's pillars , the bridge over the Marine lake more majestic than the bridge of Sighs ; the open air pool of sea water ( the only evidence of the sea ) , and Parbold Hill coming home , cries of "There is Blackpool Tower " , the thrill induced in the belly as you crossed Wrightington bridge ( when did that leave us ? ) .

I went to Southport yesterday (and the sea was in lapping up to the Esplanade ) the pier is shut for maintenance so the old fashioned penny arcade is out of use . So too the telescopes that for 50 pence a minute you may scan North Wales and the Lake District . On our Labour club trip I got
a full day for that price !

This was probably Whelley Labour club. It was ten bob poet. When ten Bob was paper money. You can't believe, like you say, you got a full day for that price.