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Hi all ,

Mapperley born and bred and started my schooling at the "wooden huts" on Westdale Lane .

Later though , most of my pals from Gedling School used to live in Burton Joyce and I hung out there a lot as a spotty youth .

Also did a bit of D J ing at the Saturday night dances for the student union at Digby College , must have been about 1965/6 . The most famous group we had was The Fortunes as far as I remember .

I was brought to this site because of the recent interest from the BBC about the GEM / ASDA store at West Bridgford .

Though I left Nottingham over 30 years ago to work in Cornwall I have an interest in that store as my Dad built it ( he had help !) and also I worked there on the non-food departments , from the very beginning in 1964 until I left in 1977 .

After leaving ASDA , I worked for the North East Midlands Co-op (NEMCO) based in Ripley , ( though we did have a large department store in the main street of Eastwood to come back on topic ) .

Now retired , we still have relos in the Nottingham area and sometimes get back and still maintain an interest in the area and always follow Forests ups and downs ! .

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Welcome David - you will find a LOT of stuff here about the Co-Op and many of us have connections. My dad was the Foreman Painter at Long Eaton Co-Op for a number of years (about 1958-1970), and I worked as an order boy at the Grasmere Road branch in Long Eaton.

I well remember all the fuss when GEM opened, but I think I only went there once!

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Welcome David

Whats the BBC connection?

The message on your site from the BBC producer about a programme to be broadcast in the Autumn about shopping in the 50s/60s/70s

http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10485

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yes mick about 400 yards or so up towards maperley digby collage just round the corner from co op i remember it being built i lived cavendish rd at the time..went to digby colage sep 1966 till the christmas did not like it so left and started my working life.

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I was an Apprentice/Electrician for the Nottingham Coop

Helped to build the Coop supermarket Westdale Lane in 1969.

I think it was near your school?

coopwestdalelane_zpsbea9fe75.jpg

Yes I remember that Co-op though I had moved to West Bridgford by 1969 I think .

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Welcome David - you will find a LOT of stuff here about the Co-Op and many of us have connections. My dad was the Foreman Painter at Long Eaton Co-Op for a number of years (about 1958-1970), and I worked as an order boy at the Grasmere Road branch in Long Eaton.

Thanks for the welcome . The Co-op society I worked for were nothing to do with Nottingham Co-op at the time . Each society had its own management structure so I'm afraid I knew nothing about the Nottingham Co-op (apart from shopping at Parliament Street occasionally) .

As I said we were based in Ripley and took in such places as Belper , Heanor , Alfreton, Eastwood , Langley Mill and Jacksdale until we got swallowed up by Derby Co-op....I hated working there in the main store in Derby town centre and so went to work for the Co-op in Cornwall instead . Good job I wasn't on the shop floor much I never did understand the stamps ! :-)

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i lived cavendish rd at the time..went to digby colage sep 1966 till the christmas

Thanks for the welcome . We must have been there at the same time , as I think I was there 65-67 . Digby was different to school , more grown up but more of a cramming place I think . I'm sure I scraped through one of my A levels in a year . We had to attend evening classes too and rather than go home to my lonely bedsit used to hang around for a couple of hours in the canteen , smoking and eating chips !

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Welcome DAVIDW, you will find a lot of interesting stuff here, and the combined memory of the posters on here far exceeds that on my laptop!

Cheers , Yes after a mornings browsing , I can see that !

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sorry david its babs most of the other regulars know me quite well by now so i dont often sighn off as babs , used to like the trampolines at lunch time at the collage, my main problem with digby was i realy struggled with my course because i am dyslexic and was put on a o level course that was to difficult for me to keep up with at the time now days i am sure i would get extra help but then i did not so decided to leave.

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sorry david its babs most of the other regulars know me quite well by now so i dont often sighn off as babs , used to like the trampolines at lunch time at the collage, my main problem with digby was i realy struggled with my course because i am dyslexic and was put on a o level course that was to difficult for me to keep up with at the time now days i am sure i would get extra help but then i did not so decided to leave.

No problem Babs . You are right I don't think dyslexia was even known about then . Shame you didn't get on . Wish I had done more really instead of scraping through whilst there . One of our gang , whilst there , is now a district judge whose name I often see in the press . Think I was too much into my music and chasing girls to concentrate !

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because of my dyslexia and missing quite a lot of schooling due to illness when i was young i was very far behind some kids of same age so went through school in bottom stream this being so we were not encourage to really push ourselfs and when i got to collage the course they put me on was way above my educational level at the timeand i could not cope with the homework and studying on my own .

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I agree with you, Fynger. I think babs is a special lady to come onto Nottstalgia and often struggle with her posts because of her dyslexia. In my opinion she is a very important member who has, and has given, so many memories in such detail. I've never had a problem with reading her posts and I hope she'll always remain a member of Nottstalgia.

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I like to read Babs posts - so many things I never knew about Nottingham. Even though I came to Nottingham at 18 I know more about it than my own home town.

We have a friend whose daughter has dyslexia and is (a quite young) assistant headmistress of a school in Yorkshire because it was recognisied when she started school unlike it being totally unknown when we were kids.

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thanks for the kind words every one as i said to micheal in a pm a few years back i would not have deared to write anything on a site like this, but nearly every one is so helpful and friendly on here that even those i have not met are like friends ive yet to meet. the fact that i have got a good long term memory has helped with my posts on here and i was lucky to have had a varied and interesting youthnot always easy and i made a few mistakes along the way but i hope i have learned by them all in some way. and i know when i come on here even if something or some one has upset me you lot and your post always make me smile.

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