The Year Meme - 1979

[chickenfeet]

At the start of 1979 I was living in an incredibly grotty bedsit about 200m from Anfield football ground. The building had an alcoholic cat that was frequently sick on the stairs. The cat was no the least salubrious of the inhabitants. I was working shifts as a supervisor of the preparation area at the Bird's Eye factory in beautiful downtown Kirkby; a 'town' arguably unmatched for squalour anywhere in England. Later in the year I moved into another, much nicer, bedsit near Sefton Park.

I was still in an on/off more or less long distance relationship with wandra. My free time was split between Labour Party/ILP stuff and folk clubs. I was on the ILP executive still at that time. I think that was the last year I made a serious attempt to get back into rugby before the start of multiple years doing so much travelling that it wasn't possible. I played a few games for one of the less exalted sides at Liverpool RFC before, inevitably, injuring my ankle again. Playing on wind and rain swept mudflats by the Mersey was not especially appealing anyway.

Towards the end of the year I was transferred to Walton on Thames. I found a house share near Wandsworth Common and thus began the only time I've actually lived in London.

Want a year? Just ask.

Comments

[lnr]

Go on then! Mind you my memory is rubbish.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1999

[kaet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, go on. I rolled of the line in 1975.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1992

[ann1962]

I'll take a year!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1981

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'd love a year, if only on the basis that it might jog my memory...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1980

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

That's going to take a lot of jogging....

[thidwick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too.

My very earliest (and foggiest) memories are from 1981-1982 or thereabouts, so sometime after that would be preferable. ;-)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

81/82 was my first year at Uni - so my most foggy, too...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1985

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

I'll take one. (And forgive me, but what's a bedsit?)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1992

A bedsit might euphemistically be described as a "studio apartment"

[lnr]

It's short for "bed/sitting-room" - in other words your living and sleeping accommodation are all in the same room.

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll take one.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

2000

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Alcoholic cat? How can you lead off with something than that and leave the rest of us hanging, waiting for an explanation of the poor feline's sordid descent into the hell of drink?

That was just plain cruel.

Year me.

[brelson.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

The cat wasn't the only alcoholic in the building. It was an awful place but finding furnished lets in England in the late 70's was a nightmare and one pretty much had to take what one could get. Basically, long before I arrived one of the building's less savoury caracters had started to share his meths with the cat. The rest followed with grim inevitability.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1995

[forthright.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll take a year.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

2002

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

Kirkby? *shudder* Though 1979... Liverpool. {sigh} Musically a good time there, on the cusp.

I'll take a year. :-)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

The folk scene in Liverpool was pretty good and it was during the period when the Everyman had some of the best theatre in the country. Kirkby was grim beyond belief. People usually think I'm joking when I tell them some of my experiences there.

1995

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Year please?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1968

[frumiousb.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a year, so long as it's not in the last three years. :)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

1980

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the fascinating glimpse into your past. I just can't picture you in the Bird's Eye factory. It sounds so Orwellian.

And an ex on LJ - wow!

It's a cool meme; I'll take a year too please.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I spent quite a few years in manufacturing as a supervisor, manager and consultant. I'm quite at home in large food processing plants. The Bird's Eye thing was funny though because that was the year the Everyman staged "Love and Kisses from Kirkby" which featured Bird's Eye quite prominently and had a character clearly intended as my boss appearing as a giant frozen pea.

You can have 1989.