My nostalgia mode kicks in every time I hear The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Summer in the City or tunes like Downtown. Forever played back in my head via the tinny transistor radios wherever we would go, in the kitchen at home and in every shop.
Kind of ironic given that I grew up in semi-rural South Shropshire after leaving Bearwood aged 18 months old. Mom tells me that I’d yell “I want me Nan” every time I was unhappy and I can imagine just how spoiled I was in that first home in Bearwood. My Nan and Grandad putting up my Mom, Dad and me, their first grandchild, plus two lovely Uncles and twin Aunties who were only ten years older than me. I have no memories of that first 18 months but many happy memories of later visits, the trees that grew out of wobbly block bricked pavements from my low down eyeline and visits to Warley Woods to feed the squirrels. There was a lot of love in that house and perhaps as important a lot of laughter. Lots of relatives just a walk away too and another warm welcome. Tea from a china cup will always remind me of Dad’s old family home the other side of Warley Woods along Hurst Rd. I returned to my Nan and Grandad’s in Bearwood aged 18 and was spoiled again right into my early 20s.
Town meant something different then, hopping on the number 9 or any other city centre bound bus along the Hagley Rd would be a trip “to town”.
Those tunes though 👌