YOU ARE VIEWING ARTICLE - ID:20040811012

‘There was a place where I could go when I felt low when I felt blue. In my mind there was no sorrow, there was all bright tomorrows’.

It was a few years later, when I turned and viewed the Aylesbury road sign (all that remained was the post the sign had long since gone. in my mind I recalled the days past of around 16 years previous, when I took the long run up and scored into the Shaftsbury avenue goal, with that I turned round and stared at the Shaftsbury avenue goal and remembered how the ball hit the post and bounced into the goal, I recalled how like Mike Channon, I twirled my hand around. then I placed the ball onto the pitch and prepared myself for the goal kick, I had grown and put more weight on, but the image was there here in may 1991, to score just a spectacular goal as I did all those years beforehand I looked up to see the other goal, years had past and the people I were playing football with were different, the old games with Malc and Paul had long gone,(for Paul it had been years since he has last kicked a ball) I glanced down at the ball and kicked it with a long hard kick, the force of the ball took it high into the air whilst I fell forward onto my leg I got up to see it bounce into my nephews penalty area. and back into the air just above marks hand as he dived sending him crashing into what would be the net. with that the game ended and that would be the very last kick into the goal in my very last game of football on the field, in many ways it was a poignant goal as I saw peter Shilton score a similar one on TV .sadly mine was not recorded on film but just in my mind.

I do recall my mum along with other neighbours talking years before in the early 1970s about a plan the council where thinking about which would have resulted in Evelyn Avenue been slight different as it is today street access wise. The idea was to link streets which run alongside Evelyn, such as Dudley road, Runnymede road, and Essex avenue, this would have resulted in a alley way been run through some back gardens. This was to take traffic off Evelyn and give residents parking, similar to that like near the intake club. This never came about and people were left to cut there green lawns in peace, that was in the days when the sound and smell of a freshly cut lawn was triangle, the summer sound of push and petrol mowers has been lost forever, taken over by Flymos which never ever will make bowling green quality and lawns are not green anymore, they are yellow and all sickly colours. Next to the field the bungalows otherwise known as Evelyn close have circled the community centre since the early 1970s.i recall the workers putting them up, even in those days it did not take them long. The ten bungalows have stood the passing of time well. They still look quite pretty and I am sure they will be there for many years. Let us be honest if they are there as long as the community centre they were worth the money.

It was July 1951,when my parents moved into Evelyn Avenue. There was a few people in those houses even back then that had connections with tenants that have left recently or are still there, others can be traced back years that live nearby. On one of the first days in the house in the 1950s,my granddad Ernest Stevens, a miner from Rufford road Hyde park, came to see them, as he looked out of window and said gosh they have still got that blooming hut up after all this time. He had helped to put it up years before. If he was to look done today he would see it looking a bit worse for ware but he would be happy it lasted this long, I am told one of his sayings was if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well. How true!

The intake community centre has been used for many things, it was the catholic church used before intake and Wheatley Parish joined to became our lady of mount Carmel and St. Mary Magdalene, on Armthorpe Road. The community centre was St. Mary Magdalene, after the church, which was on the site of the market hall for centuries.

At the side of the community centre was door to the little library, the library was small but had a good stock of books. I recall a old lady who was the librarian, who use to help me find books, (there was also a lady who went to work when the library moved to Montrose, I use to go to school with her brother, it was strange as every time I went my old school mate Dave Bird would be there with his sister Debbie, even though I lived over road I always got a card though post saying could I take books back and book fine of 5p,so I would walk in and the dear old librarian lady would say not again Peter, so head done I would chose a book which I had out 4 times before, there was some McDonalds published red books, that had tons of titles I liked those, but my favourite was secret seven books ,I thought these would be good friends, I wanted to be in the gang .back then I thought they where cool guys. Crazy times!!!!!!.

There are no pictures to accompany this article