A Trip for a friend with the flu

repost

A walk down Thomas Lane


Knotty Ash Pub closed on left
On right the boy scout hall
We�re on the left side of
the tram tracks dividing
East Prescot Road
Two shops down is the bakery
Where a four year old boy
Had the job of daily tester
Of rolls on the way to school
God were they good
I can still taste them
Then down the lane past the
Pub�s walled in bowling greens
And the second school
Across from Rudyard road
A cul de sac of single story duplexes
With shiny slate roofs
low walled hedged front gardens
And solid little swinging gates
Then the lane starts up again
The pavement�s wide enough
On both sides of the lane
for a pair to walk beside each other
And the lane�s wide enough
for two small lorries to pass
If cars aren�t parked any where
The older large houses
Are only on the right side of us
All four of them
The milk farm across from the pub
Takes up most of the down hill
Though the fields are hidden
By the barns and shed rows
The end of the lane
Past the gates to the playing fields
and top of the hill has
St John the Evangelist�s Church
With grave yards and directly
Across from the entrance steps and arbor
Is the School Yard and one room school house
Out houses and sheds to the right
Where my official education began


(The daily path of a four year old alone in 1941)