Steve McElroy talks about standing on the ledge on his school playground wall
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 29th July 2011 by Liam Physick
Steve McElroy talks about how he would stand on the ledge on the railway wall of his school playground, an activity that was both dangerous and risked punishment if you were caught
Interviewee: David and Steve McElroy
Interviewee Gender: Male
Date of Interview: 25th March 2011
Interview Transcript
David: You mentioned Crown Street before, that was the original station in Liverpool, that’s where the Rocket started from . . .
Steve: Well, well, the, down the cut towards the, the Wapping Tunnel is where it, where it all was, that’s where the, the original, original station was down there, and talking about that, I’ve, I’ve – you never did it this, did you?
David: (laughing) I don’t know! Have to leave . . .
Jenny: (laughing) Is this a confession, now, Steve?
Steve: Another thing that my mother never found out about! St. Anne’s School . . .
David: Which one?
Steve: The playground, you know, the, the junior school down there.
David: Junior school, yeah.
Steve Yeah, there was a railway wall up the, on the playground. On the other side of that wall was the jog-downer to the cut, and what we used to do, is – this is one of the things she never put me in the coal hole for (Jenny laughs) – was, there’s a ledge on that, and it’s about that wide, and one of the rites of passage . . .
David: Was to stand on the ledge!
Steve: No, it was, like, do this. (David and Jenny burst out laughing)
David: No, I didn’t, didn’t ever do that one!
Steve: No, I didn’t think you did it!
David: Not, not sure I would have done that!
Jenny: No! No. How long was it?
Steve: It’s not, it’s not (indecipherable due to laughing) walk back, walk down, I’ll show you, it’s not, it’s not that far but it’s not that high, really, either, but . . .
David: Well, parts of the, that . . .
Jenny: Yeah.
Steve: . . . there, there, there, there, there, there, there were few kids really badly injured doing it, and there was a couple of kids fell onto the power lines, when they put the power lines in there, as well . . .
David: Yes.
Jenny: Oh, yeah.
David: Yeah, it wasn’t obviously, it wasn’t anything like a hazardous from that perspective, but there were still, lots and lots of things that, you know, you made a mistake, you could . . .
Jenny: Yeah.
David: . . . be, become seriously injured.
Steve: You’d ne punished for it.
David: Oh, yeah, well, you could guarantee that . . .
Jenny: Yeah.
David: . . . if you weren’t dead! (they all laugh)
Categorised under: Social Life
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