The last time that I was able to communicate with Mum was on 11 March 2018, and so two years have passed since that time. I usually mark significant dates with some sort of visit which enables reflections upon the past, even if, as with today, these prove to be ambiguous. Today I decided to go to Southport.
I wasn’t exactly sure why Southport, as it did not figure much in Mum’s life, so far as I know. On the way there by train, however, I did perceive an affinity, as it was by her suggestion that I first visited Southport for the first time. My father drove everywhere, but Mum preferred not to drive outside Wallasey, and so we took the train there in the mid to late 1960s. My memories of that and a subsequent visit, over 50 years ago, are hazy. However, I did recall walking from Liverpool James Street to Exchange Station – there was no underground Loop Line in those days – and on electric trains that were slightly taller than those that used the underground line to the Wirral. We visited Lord Street, the Burton Arcade (now the Wayfarers Arcade), and the Pier (landward end, with a train running along it). Further south, I recall the old “Model Village” (the Land of the Little People), the closed Birkdale Palace Hotel, and the former railway station (then in use for buses). I doubt if much of this registered greatly with Mum, so I am writing more about my history than hers. She told me that we had returned to Southport later because I had clearly enjoyed it the first time. But I reflected today that it was something she enjoyed, going places with her very compliant young son, and that was what I was celebrating. I don’t think she explored places with her own mother in any similar way.
I also recalled a poignant visit, on August 21 1988, with my niece, then still an infant, Mum and my first wife; we arrived by car. We visited the River Caves amusement at the Pleasureland amusement park, and Mum was doubtful about my niece sitting in a boat going through the “caves” – “you’ll be frightened”. She certainly wasn’t! We also boarded the miniature railway that ran from near the Pier towards Pleasureland, and I remember a dark moment, in which I suddenly felt that I would look back on a time when Mum was no longer here. Ironically, she was to live for nearly 30 years from then, but my first wife would be gone 14 years later. It is odd, to recall so little detail of the past, but yet to feel a deep rush of poignancy at one moment, realising that one will look back at that time with sadness. That said, once that moment had passed, it was a pleasant day, and Mum had no idea that I was feeling a moment of sadness.
Mum would not be impressed by Southport today. Despite much public investment, there have been many retail closures in Lord Street and elsewhere (the department store Beales is about to close, and much of the Wayfarers Arcade is vacant). The modern Model Village is up for sale, the miniature railway was not running, and, on a sunny mid-March day, admittedly with less visitors due to the coronavirus outbreak, the place seemed forlorn.
November postscript: The full lockdown started 12 days after my visit, and I re-visited just before the November lockdown. The Beales premises is empty, as is much of the Wayfarers Arcade.
August 2021 postscript: Astonishingly, Beales has reopened.
Joan Boughey Recalled 