August 1967

The summer of 1967; the summer of love, they called it. Flower power, I heard them say, when a load of American oddballs appeared on the television news. They called them Hippies and yes, they really did wear flowers in their hair. Even the Beatles got in on the act. I thought they were all daft.

As the summer holiday drew to an end I went see Richard Pascall at his home on Montrose Avenue. Along with Trevor Hickson, we’d been teamed together by Mister Potts to do a Geography project during the holiday and I needed to see how we were progressing. I was pleasantly surprised to find our contoured model – of the hills and valleys in the local landscape – near completion. All in all, the three of us had done a splendid job. So what if Richard had done all the work, it still counted as a team effort. Happy to leave the project in Richard’s capable hands, I went on my way.

Mam sent me on an errand to Twydall shops. Amongst other things she needed some packets of tea. With no great hope I asked if we could switch from PG to Typhoo; as Typhoo had pictures of footballers on the packets that could be collected and sent off in exchange for large picture cards. I was chuffed when Mam agreed. A family our size went through an awful lot of tea and I soon had a growing collection.

The new football season kicked off with the Charity Shield game between United and Spurs. It finished 3-3, but the big story was Spurs goalie Pat Jennings scoring from a kick that went down the field, bounced, and sailed over the United goalie’s head and into the net. Amazing. 

As the new football season got underway, league ladders were always the must have free gift in one comic or another.

After sellotaping it to my bedroom wall I put the team tags in, learning the ground of every team in the process. The Shay: Halifax Town. Roots Hall: Southend. Edgeley Park: Stockport County. Updating them from the sports pages of the Sunday newspaper was exciting at first. Then when it got boring it was fun to stick my team at the top and the teams I disliked at the bottom.

In the news…

Brian Epstein died. People seemed shocked, but not me. Old people dying were always on the news.