In message <005f01c4f498$70a2f2b0$a67e36d2@MURIAL>, pollyp <pollyp@xtra.co.nz> writes > Talking of the peasoupers of the past; Coventry used to >have some beauties. Hi Muriel, Yes it did. They often seemed to happen on a Sunday night when I was due to come back to London on my scooter... scary that was. Several times I had to return home and come up the next morning after it had cleared. > Thankfully, Clean Air Acts, and changes in industrial fuels >and domestic heating mean that the smogs are a thing of the >past. Funnily enough when I wrote to the MRC to ask if they had any vacancies they sent my letter to the Air pollution unit which was housed at Bart's Hospital. They were set up to try and do something about the bad atmosphere. They didn't need anyone but passed my letter on to the doctor who then became my boss for the next 36 yrs! > As it was quite a way >into the city, our greengroceries and meat bought, (as in Dorothy's >family), late on a Saturday night, were from the General Wolfe >shopping centre. My Brother still has an electrical goods shop near the General Wolfe. We also used to shop at the General Wolfe when I lived at Bell Green. >I kept >well away from the area of the fish stalls, knowing that when >we went to Birmingham, and got off the bus in the Bull Ring, Oh yes I remember that smell... we too used to go to Birmingham shopping after the centre of Coventry was bombed..... we also used to shop at Nuneaton... for the same reason.... the shops there had survived better than ours. My two older sisters were working so there was a bit more money coming in. At Nuneaton there was a milk bar at the start of the market street and a fish and chip bar at the other end... food sorted! Grin We had a similar chicken incident too... I suspect us kids had something to do with that. We went home with them and poor old Dad had to set to and make a chicken run in the garden. The little blighters went and got some sort of paralysis in their little legs and couldn't walk. I can still see Mum with a bottle of warm olive oil massaging them diligently. They all got better too! >Sadly I feel that the city has >lost its way and the centre is no longer memorable. You are sure not wrong there. Dorothy -- Dorothy Gibbs (in Hertfordshire UK)