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Dorothy
Moir
"When
I was a teenager, I had two real good friends, Phyllis and Eileen.
We went to the Rowan School and they taught us ballroom dancing.
Our
favourite little places for dancing was the New Cross Palais, it
never had drinks licence or anything like that, and it's now The
Venue painted black! At Laurie Grove Baths, they used to cover it
over with a beautiful floor over the swimming pool, and there'd
be a proper band. But New Cross Palais had the best band, because
it was Art Tullock and his band and it was a beautiful dance floor.
I can't remember how much it was, I think it was about two shillings.
We
used to go to Greenwich Town Hall, and dance to records, it was
a shilling on a Tuesday, and walk home. Go on the tram because you
didn't want to get your hair all messed up, and walk home. Two shillings
at the Palais, and Sunday it used to be Club Day only, but we used
to go up and stand outside, and some of the lads would come up,
and they'd sign us in you see, so we used to get in that's what
we used to do.
We
didn't do a lot of drinking in those days, only if the young lads
from our youth club used to go up there. Hardly any of them could
dance, but they used to suggest the three of us might go up the
Marquis, and we'd have a larger and lime, and then go back to the
dance thing. There wasn't a lot of money around in those days.
I used
to belong to this youth club, which was in a church which was on
the way to Peckham. It's been pulled down now. It was a scruffy
old place really, but we all used to up there twice a week. It was
a Methodist youth club, and you had to attend the Sunday service,
just all of you in a little room, in order to go to the youth club.
So we used to get in our Sunday Best and go to the Sunday Service.
After
the service we used to have a debate on anything which was going
you know, and that would end about half past ten, and that would
be our Sunday out you see, because it wasn't expensive."
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