I remember the shoe repair shop and often went there in the 1950s when the soles and heels of shoes were leather and constantly in need of repair. There were little metal studs for the heels called Blakies which made a tap-dancing sound as you walked but made the heels last longer. I remember the cosiness of the shop and tge smells of wax and leather. Linda McMillan nee Parlane. Opposite Kennets was an old-fashioned sweet shop. An old couple ran it and the old woman told me how she would have loved a daughter. She had seven sons if I remember correctly, but had she had a daughter, she would not have made her work doing all the washing and mangling that the old woman had been made to do as a girl. Happy memories of Bluetown in the 1950s when I was ten.
Linda McMillan
11-Jun-2019 20:08
I lived in Bluetown at The Duke of Clarence hotel which became a cafe in the 1950s. Garrison opposite. Soldiers came in for tea when I was 6,or7,or8. My dad was George Parlane.
John Simlett
18-Dec-2005 21:16
The thing I remember about the Kennet's was that they had a wonderful wooden motor boat all varnished. They were not poor, yet they lived in the midst of poverty. With Blue Town there was no class problems and little, if any, crime.
In the late 1940s I lived in Blue Town's School Lane, which really was the lowest of the low. A wooden terraced house with one bedroom and one living room for a family of five; no electricity or running water; one gas light and a coal/driftwood burning range for cooking and heating. We wern't poor, it's just that other folk were all rich!
