Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 12th September, 2021)

coming to something when even charity shops close, don't tell me you buy online !!

The Grot Shot of the year?

What a sight! Didn't that used to be Kinley's high-class menswear shop? Still, it's hardly worth trying to make anything look nice in King Street where it would only be weed on or vomited on of a Saturday night.

Margaret Susan Ryder was born in 1924 in Leeds, and educated at Benenden School. When World War II broke out, she volunteered to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, even though she was only 15, and she was soon assigned to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive. In this role, Ryder's job was to drive SOE agents to the airfield where they would take off for their assignments in Europe. In 1943 she was posted to Tunisia and later to Italy.
After the war was over, Ryder volunteered to do relief work, including some in Poland. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1957.[4] In 1959 Ryder married Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC (later Lord Cheshire), the founder of the major UK charity Leonard Cheshire Disability. Both Cheshire and Ryder were Roman Catholic converts. They received a joint Variety Club Humanitarian Award in 1975. Ryder was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1976.[5]

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1956 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, London.[6]

I suppose even Charity shops will disappear eventually as the the Charity bags continue to plop through the letter box.
I receceived one yesterday for 'Troop Aid' supporting our injured troops' one I haven't seen before. A picture of the Union Jack on it. It's easier to fill one of those instead of trekking up to a Charity Shop. Plus they cut out the rent for a shop etc....

Thanks for that, Copy and Paste I didn't know that Sue was married to Leonard
Irene when was last time you was down King St.

Yesterday morning, actually, Mick, as I got off the bus there. I wouldn't want to go at night! We once parked down there at night on the car park near Sovereign Road and walked up to watch our grand-daughter's confirmation at Wigan Parish. This was a couple of years ago. It was a week night so King Street was quiet but outside The Bees Knees there was a fight going on and people screaming foul language. This was before seven o'clock at night and people were taking their children to the confirmation service and had to walk past. I certainly wouldn't want to be there at weekend! My son went to Manchester one night on a night out last year. I don't care if he's 44 and married....your child is always your child and you will always worry about them. I told him to be careful and his reply was that it was safer than being in Wigan at night.

"Caring for the sick and handicapped of all ages", it says over the door.
And there lies the irony.
These days, the (genuinely) sick and handicapped get more in benefits than some working people.

This shop has been empty for a long time.I think Pa Kinley's was nearer the County.

Mary,yes Kinleys was just further up than the County,my Mam used buy Cliffs shirts etc from there when it was his Birthday.
I know I've said this before but the last time we went up King Street all we could smell was urine and see vomit everywhere..it's very sad..King Street was very respectable some years ago.

But yet if the sick and elderly have to go into a nursing home and they own their own home - it has to be sold! When those who do not own property get all the financial help that's needed. Probably worked and struggled to pay their mortgages and paid the tax on it , they( the family) have to watch it disappear by the thousands of pounds, gone in no time...!? Is it worth owning your own home?

Veronica, that happened to my brother. He didn't own his own home but had never been married and had saved a lot of money. When he had to go into a home they took almost everything he had saved in fees. Had he gone on foreign holidays three or four times a year or squandered money on cars or other things he would have got the nursing home free. But because he had lived simply and frugally and saved his money he had to pay.

Veronica,no and it makes you wonder about private pension too..I looked after my Mam at her home..was there morning noon and night for two years..but when things got really bad she had to go in a nursing home..her pensions and my Dads went in no time,in fact they seemed to be a bit flummoxed at first as it seemed that no one had gone in there with pensions before..this was in 1997 and she was paying £310 per week..so what will it be now.

Must have just missed you Irene, I was walking down King St yesterday, after stepping off the train at 9 10. I thought it was very quiet and there didn't seem much rubbish/cans etc. I went to the Range. Going back into town up Millgate I noticed a lot of stalls being set up. Also later on the Troops( genuine ones) were in at the Market Place, some wearing 40's uniforms. Also nurses in their 40's uniforms. However I couldn't stay but thought of you looking round. You must have seen them.

The same happened with my dad and his private pension. It all went - after working in a manual labouring job " up to his armpits in water" as he used to say. Such a shame. Let's hope some things can be resolved in the future but I'm not pinning any hopes on it.

Yes I did see them, Veronica. I had gone to the official unveiling of the WHAMM statue, (Wigan Heritage and Mining Monument), showing a miner, a pit-brow woman and a child. It should have been unveiled just after it was put in place but Covid intervened and it had to wait. I saw the stalls but didn't stay in Wigan, just nipped into The Card Factory and B&M Bargains for things I needed, then went home. The statue is in the road where Wigan Life Centre is, between Millgate and Library Street so we would have been quite near each other!

If you feel disinclined to pay for the care you receive when your family have finally taken a vote and consigned you to the veritable scrap heap that is commonly known as the " care home ", then why not sign your assets over to the animal rescue shelter right now, before it's too late?. ..,that would be my advice.

Or if daytime TV adverts are anything to go by, you could get rid of most of it by adopting a snow leopard, an elephant or a donkey, or any amount of dogs or cats....( you'll receive a monthly update, as well as a cuddly toy by the way ).

You could even help to treat kids with eye diseases in impoverished countries,...or assist in funding billion pound companies in helping to provide clean water in countries that would struggle to find their own backsides using both hands if truth be known.....
( I've often thought that if I had to walk 5 miles every day to obtain water, I may consider relocating 5 miles to be closer to the water. )

So do it now!, please do not hesitate!...

After all, that's what the UK is all about isn't it?...sorting out every other country's cock ups?...., whilst at the same time disregarding our own.

Apologies for using your most excellent daguerreotype as a vehicle for my rant Mick...

[ note to self...must encourage Mick to try and buck up a bit ].

Ozy, I knocked on your door one day last week but there was no answer.

I would most probably have been down in the Anderson shelter Mick, putting another log on the AGA....

But then you probably haven't heard about my AGA have you? , as I don't tend to brag about it as a rule.

He was hiding behind the sofa, Mick.

He was in his back yard looking for a supply of water close to home Mick.

He was probably wearing his gas mask - he can't hear a thing with that on - plus if he smells any muck spreading he thinks it's gas...

Or he saw you coming, Mick, and hid behind the couch, like when the rent man came.