Wigan Album

Good photo DTease. A situation just as meaningful as that of any sole buyer and seller interaction that would have been played out on that day.

On the playing fields of Standish St Wilfrids Infants and Juniors Schools. The swimming pool would be to the right of the photographer. I can just make out field markings for the football pitch. Do they still have a school team these days ?

Philip, I built up a large library of books that I bought for coppers from Car Boot Sales. Books on every subject you can think of, unfortunately I ran out of room to keep them in. Faced with an ultimatum that could not be ignored any longer I was forced to part with the bulk of the collection.
Bin bag after bin bag full of books went to the Charity Shop. Fortunately, I managed to keep my books of Wigan and District from suffering a similar fate.

It makes you wonder how bookshops keep open these days. Since I discovered book buying on the Internet where you only pay for postage, it's easier to pass them on when finished with. Far more choice than going in the Library as well. I like the anticipation of receiving a book through the post! As you get older it's more important to de-clutter I feel, than letting stuff build up.

DTease, I enjoy the same kind of literary foraging, eyes searching hither and thither in a manner once known as 'skennin', and since bashed into oblivion by the cold, edgy 'peripheral vision' - what a mouthful that is! Almost all of the books that I pick up from sales are done so for the purpose of dipping into, a quick fix if you like, and then shelved accordingly. However, a particular favourite is the knowledgeable Mr Thomas Pond's 'Mending and Restoring China', which I'd bought solely for its, then, seemingly old-world charm, and methods of repair borne of experience, such as, 'You can apply the cup handle technique to the replacement of a missing leg on the figure of a dog'. I'd hate to see it splashed with tea, or coffee. Three hardbacks based on artist Alwyn Crawshaw's TV episodes, and E.H. Gombrich's celebrated The Story of Art are others that have helped to swell my collection of books, or should that be library. Furthermore, I gave my brother a Christmas present of Frank Orrell's book that shows two young boys on its front cover as they heave buckets of slutchy water every which way - my brother said that he would enjoy reading it.
Yes, it's a precious thing to be able to read, in whichever manner.
Please send more of your pics to Wiganworld.

Oh, I noticed a blue-tit as it went in and out of my box last week, so perhaps you'd like to have your camera ready, as 'others' will be building their nests much closer to the ground in the not-too-distant future. Thanks.

Once a common sight, but now disappeared since the likes of eBay came along. I’m sure carboot sales are missed by lots of elderly folk, and those who aren’t online.

I would have been about 9 or 10 when I woke up to the glory of books.
At the back of my classroom at Aspull Methodist School, there was a large, old fashioned cupboard, the bottom had large solid doors and on top of these were more, narrower cupboards with glass doors. Inside these cupboards was shelf upon shelf covered with books. This was all that the School had by way of a Library. Not that this worried me at the time, having only just learned to read the thought of having to struggle through any of these books held no appeal to me at all.
However, our Teacher (Mrs. Stott) had different ideas. Having struggled for some time to hammer the rudiments of reading and writing into our reluctant heads she was determined that her efforts would not go to waste.
To this end, she would set aside some time during the school day when she would tell us to "Get a book and read quietly"
I tried hard, I really did, but somehow I just couldn't find anything that grabbed my attention.
It became a case of running the clock down until home time and blessed relief.
Then, one day I picked up a copy of Treasure Island and an hour later I was up to my eyes with Treasure Maps, Sailing Schooners, One-legged Pirates with Parrots on their shoulder and X marking the spot!
For the first time in my short life, I didn't want the school day to end.
After that, I read a great many of those books and since then a great many more.
Mrs. Stott was a strict Teacher, but I thank her most heartily for giving me what Philip G rightly calls "A most precious thing".

When it finally sank in, all at once it seemed, the world opened up, just because you had mastered the art of reading. No more pressing a finger under every word along the lines. Why even the newspaper over the shovel to get the fire going was there to be read! Cereal boxes, labels on tins and boxes, comics and signs everywhere, over shops and on buses.
Best of all the books you could never forget from childhood that made deep impressions, 'Water Babies' etc. Lighter reading by Enid Blyton, ' The Secret Seven' and the 'Famous Five' adventures. I thank the Lord we didn't have a 'telly' until I left school. What else could you do on a long Winter's night sat in the corner on a wooden stool, but read and educate yourself, at the same time escaping the hum- drum! I can never understand people who don't read, I would be lost without a book 'on the go'.