Was a member of The Stretford Childrens Theatre for a couple of years in my early teens, I never had any delusions of treading the boards, it was just somewhere to meet friends on a boring Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I just once appeared as a soldier in Macbeth. They used to put their plays on at the Stretford Civic Theatre. Think I got involved because it was run by an English teacher from school, Mr (Dutchy) Holland. Bit of a strict teacher, but I think his heart was in the right place, giving up huge amounts of his own time running it.
Duerrs Jams was based in Prestage Street where I lived for many years, they still have premises there, but I think it's just used for storage these days, fairly certain the production is done at bigger premises in Wythenshawe.
There was a factory round the corner from our house called Ludwig Oppenheimer, they manufactured mosaics. As kids we used to pick up and collect these small bits of shiny ceramic and glass which spilled out of the factory doors, don't really know why now, but if you Google "Ludwig Oppenheimer" they were quite a prestigious company.
Like most kids many Saturday afternoons were spent at the childrens matinees, I went to the Imperial at Brook's Bar, a tanner at the front, 9d in the middle and, if you were posh, a 1/- at the back.
My mother took me to the library for the first time when I was about 7 years old, it was situated in a very impressive building, "Technical Institute" is still written in terracotta on the building fascia, which is on Stretford Road, it's now a Buddhist Temple.
It opened up a whole new world to me, even at that young age I loved reading, and still do, I've always got a book "on the go", but these days the book is on a Kindle. I remember going through all the volumes of Billy Bunter, it was another world of private boarding school and summer holidays spent in the countryside, but great fun and hilarious to my young mind.
Speaking of summer holidays, something I did in the school hols, usually with a pal or two, was a day ticket on the buses and spent hours sat at the front of the upper deck, gazing in wonder at all these new places, Longsight, Levenshulme and onto Stockport, and then through Chorlton past Southern Cemetery onto Didsbury. It was just at the end of trolley buses running out of Piccadilly. Great fun, all for 1/3d a day.