Nostalgia Street - Tony Usher

I was born in a pub in Liverpool and then stayed at my grandparents a lot in Huyton, Dovecot and Knotty Ash before moving over to the Wirral at first, before settling in Seacombe Wallasey as a five-year-old. I lost my biological mum in 1967 when I had just turned six and it was a few years before my dad remarried making a family of nine living in a two-and-a-box Merseyside terrace. Besides living and working abroad I travelled and stayed in many places from London to Glasgow and these 'anecdotes in rhyme' (I don't class myself as a poet, or these pieces as poetry) are a one size fits all for every working and middle-class towns and cities in the UK.

I, of course, mention Merseyside in the synopsis introducing each piece. Particularly my beloved spiritual and childhood (from four-years-old) home of Seacombe.

I stress though that these pieces are universal and are part of everyone in the UK's nostalgia banks (just change names and places) as to how we all lived mainly in past decades although there are some contemporary pieces.

I hope to take the reader on a fantastic nostalgic ride. Here we go with part one of 'endearing (and not so endearing) observations.'

I hope it gives you all some wonderful recollections and topical observations.