Films at the Odeon, fish and chips, and Double Diamond: Teenage nights out in York

Remembering teenage nights out in York: films at the Odeon, fish and chips, underage pints and the last bus home.

The Odeon in Blossom Street - now the Everyman cinema

My York memories: Odeon films, fish and chips and DD beer

What a fantastic article in the York Press "Changing Blossom Street".

It brought back fond memories of my youth.

A bus ride into York, viewing a film in the Odeon cinema, nip across the road to the Lion & Lamb pub for a couple of pints of DD (Double Diamond), a really beautiful drink.

I must admit to being underage when I first sampled this nectar of the gods, fish and chips and the last bus back to Poppleton – them were the days (and all for ten bob, you tell the youngsters now, and they just laugh at you!).

On a secondary note two of the cars turning into Holgate Road off Blossom Street had the traditional York numberplate registration DN and VY .

Our first car, a grey Morris Minor had the reg TVY 419 and I still remember that lovely little car all these years later.

D M Deamer,

Penleys Grove Street,

Monkgate,

York

---The Press ‘treasure trove’

Lots to interest as usual in Wednesday’s Press on October 21.

Now, matters arising:

Page 17; I share Kemi Badenoch’s concern over defence spending but both main parties have a poor record in this department. I’m not sure the Labour Government is giving this critical matter enough emphasis…just like their Conservative predecessors. When the funding is eventually revealed and released I hope the MoD, bowler hats and brass hats, will target funds wisely and sometimes ‘think outside the box’.

I note in the ‘Changing Blossom Street’ feature pages 22 and 23 the totally inappropriate name change of the deeply traditionally-named Lion & Lamb pub in 1987 to the utterly inappropriate The Nickel and Dime. Is it any wonder it closed a year later? Don’t mess with tradition!

The double-page spread, Nostalgia pages 26 and 27, headed ‘How WW2 rear-gunner Ronnie survived 32 raids’ focused on the remarkable, 105 year-old Ronnie Holdsworth who flew with 158 Squadron from RAF Lissett near Bridlington in Halifax aircraft like the example at the Yorkshire Air Museum which represents ‘Friday the Thirteenth’, a particularly noteworthy aircraft which operated with this unit.

R Shenton’s letter ‘Ghosting’ page 20 prompts me to recall 30 years of bookselling in Shambles; frequently working deep into the evening, I never had a ghostly experience. Perhaps I’m just not susceptible. Ghost tours would after tarry outside our premises to be told the next spooky episode and sometimes, if I was leaving work relatively early, I’d walk down stairs to the front door of our darkened building and burst out of the front door, giving an extra frisson to the ghost seekers pressed against our windows and door. Very satisfying to hear those gasps, oos and sharp intakes of breath. I hasten to add I didn’t charge for these special effects. I missed a trick there.

Derek Reed,

Middlethorpe Drive,

York