Cheslyn and Che: A Railway Trailer

It was June 1971, and although we lived just fifteen miles north-west of it, I had been to central Birmingham only on rare occasions.

The first time must have been before 1963, because I travelled with my mother and little sister by steam from Station Street. Dr Beeching's axe was poised to prune our railway branch-line, and Flanders & Swann had not yet sung "Slow Train". (To hear Cheslyn Hay in the song, and for a free nostalgia
trip, Click HERE)

Click on Che for 1zaac'irony, courtesy of Newsbiscuit

That '63 trip had not been a happy day for a nervous six-year-old, who was terrified by the disappearing aluminium comb-prongs of an escalator which disgorged us from New Street Station into the newly-hardened concrete confines of The Bull Ring. And who then walked into a plate glass door and was rendered unconscious...

Fast forward to Birmingham city centre June '71. There we were, the members of the nearly-triumphant Cannock Grammar School Pan-Midlands French Quiz Team, standing two rides from home, conspicuously green-garbed in grey Digbeth, abandoned in 5 pm rush-hour midsummer exhaust haze, waiting for the Walsall Bus.

Merilyn Llewellyn, Elizabeth Myers, Christopher Crawford and me.

How had we arrived here, and who had sat in the front of the Triumph Vitesse? Who had pipped us to first place in the quiz? Did the pretty girl from the all-vanquishing posh, private Brummy school team slip me her 'phone number as we left the stage? What did all this have to do with Paul McCartney, Che Guevara, Spaghetti Junction and Miss Andrews? Had the teacher who abandoned us completed a risk assessment pro-forma?

Stay tuned, 1zaacs, for Zedders and Zombies.

Almost all will be revealed.