Tim in the North East

The shots inside the postal sorting office - with sorting racks for each county and mail being moved around in whisker baskets - were not much different to when I had a Christmas holiday job at Huntingdon Street in 1970.

About post 114 - I had a car breakdown on the unclassified road between the villages of Co-operative Villas and No Place in County Durham. When I phoned the RAC call centre (down south) the operator asked me if I could be more precise than saying I was in no place.....

The slab square one is also after The Black Boy was demolished and replaced by the soulless Littlewoods / Primark store

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up. – Benjamin Franklin

The former Manchester Liverpool Road station is still there and part of the Museum of Science and Industry. It maintained access to the national network until fairly recently but that was severed by the construction of the 'Ordsall Chord' - the new rail link between Victoria and Piccadilly stations - see www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mosi-ordsall-chord-steam-trains-7131494

The early Daimler Fleetlines were used on the routes that went up Hucknall Road - I remember catching them from the stop outside the City Hospital entrance back towards town. Was that the 49 and 64?

It would be around 1960 or 1961 my brother and I would get day returns to Grantham to see the swan song of the Gresley Pacifcs on mainline services. I seem to remember that the station platforms had canopies then which nearly met over the main running lines - so that when an A4 went through at speed your senses were well assaulted by noise, steam swirling under the canopies and the platforms 'throbbing'. There was still a shed at Grantham then visible from one of the platform ends where you could see inexperienced (or could not care less) drivers or shunters starting a B1 or V2 by

To keep their weight down the imps had cast aluminium engine blocks - that them prone to cracking if they were not properly maintained.

I watched it on BBC iPlayer yesterday - definitely worth watching. My first car was a 1968 Morris Minor Traveller - so I have a vested interest!

The Mexborough and Swindon trolleybus network was always referred to as 'The Trackless' to distinguish it from the trams that were also run by the same operator.

One of my set books for Isolation theme for English Literature O level in 1970 was The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe.

As someone more erudite than me pointed out 'books don't require batteries'! Having said that I have digitised over 200 CDs, got a lot of them on a phone that fits in my pocket and on holiday I take more digital photos in a day than I used to take with a film camera in a fortnight. This new technology is just too convenient.

Compo Re #3755 - I had forgotten the 1980s blue square sealed packets of salt - a poor imitation of the original! The machinery for dispensing the original blue twists of salt was none to accurate - it was often possible to get three or four in one packet, which to my eight year old former self seemed a real bonus. I was easily pleased.

Smith's Crisps packets with the salt contained Ina twist of blue paper that you opened up and shook into the packet.

The church at the end of Villa Road has clearly 'changed hands' several times. I don't remember it as a Presbyterian church but in the 1960s it was a Christian Scientist Church - with their display window showing key texts built into the wall next to the NCT bus stop.

I worked for a while in Leeds in the 1970s and never got used to everyone calling each other 'luv' - not just friends, but work colleagues, people you met in a shop etc. In the 'she who must be obeyed' genre of endearment I heard a bloke turning round to look for his other half and muttering 'I seem to have been temporarily detached from the command module'

I used to get misty-eyed with nostalgia for my first car (OVO920F) a Morris 1000 Traveller until I drove a friend's Minor about 3 years ago - noisy, wobbly steering, unsupportive seats, clunky gear change, not very powerful brakes.... I currently drive a 1998 VW Golf diesel that I have had from new and which currently has 296,000 on the clock - so I guess it is the best car I have ever owned. It has certainly been the one I have kept the longest!

When not just the Police Constables look young, but also the Segeants and Inspectors...

Replaced (briefly) by identical yellow oil lamps when yellow became the official warning colour before the new-fangled battery operated ones appeared.

And the Frau Blucher running gag in Young Frankenstein

And Gibbs Dentifrice toothpaste in a round tin that you rubbed your toothbrush against (to clean your teeth after sucking green mint imperials and acid drop spangles)

In the early 1970s my cousin and her husband decorated their dining room with (then ultra chic) brown hessian wallpaper. It was a shame that their kitten could then climb up the wall...

Cliff - would a photo from the car park look as good on a wet Sunday afternoon in February when there are no leaves on the trees?

If ever you take a trip on a BA flight from Newcastle to Heathrow on a clear day you can get stunning views of Nottingham from 28000 feet

In the late 1960s, when I was still at school, you could join the library of what was then the Regional College of Technology (now Nottingham Trent University) which was located on the top floor of the Newton Building. You could get great views to the east and west from the library itself and to the North and South from the stair lobbies. I suspect you have to be a student now to get access.