Just Sandgrown
I am one of those who was born in Blackpool because of the war. My mother, with lots of others, were evacuated from Manchester to have their babies so I was born in the dining room of the Kimberley Hotel, Promenade, South Shore. You can’t get much more sandgrown than that!
Later on I lived in Blackpool when I worked for Blackpool-based Telefusion. I was a salesman with them when they opened thier new showroom on Talbot Road. The shop was officially opened by Violet Carson (Ena Sharples of Coronation Street fame) and Talbot Road was blocked from the bus station right down to North Pier. We also had a record department and I convinced the manageress to stock the Beatles first record as I knew them from playing in groups round Liverpool and suspected that they would be big; we must have been the first record shop in Blackpool to have pre-stocks of “Love Me Do”.
I have lived in the South since the late 50’s but Blackpool seems to come in and out of my life; I was the chef at Jimmy Citheroe’s Fernhill Hotel and, whilst it was Over-Wyre, I was in Blackpool very frequently.
It was a strange experience, many years later, when I stayed with my family at the Kimberley Hotel and explained to them over dinner that this was the very room in which I was born!
I don’t know what it is but the sight of the Tower always seems like a homecoming!
More Stories about Sandgrown'uns
December 11th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
your dad and granddad have to be born in blackpool as well as you to make you a true sandgrown
December 11th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
your dad and granddad have to born in blackpool as well as you to make you a true sandgrown
September 5th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Did you know my Dad Vernon Wood.I was the little girl that presented lots of bouquets to Ena Sharples Kathy Kirby and various other celebrities that opened Telefusion Shops throughout the country.Such happy exciting times huge crowds and ballons let off into the air. My Dad started off at Blackpool then was area manager of the midlands.He was indeed a very special person and Dad and sadly much missed.Would love to know if anyone remembers him.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
My Dad, Griff Watkins, worked for Telefusion but on the service side rather than retail. He died very suddenly in 1968. I don’t think anyone would remember him as it’s such a long time ago. I do remember Violet Carson opening the shop though and all the balloons with her face on. My first home was over the shop in Bond Street, South Shore.