Sheffield history buff Ron Clayton harks back to days when hipsters were just trousers!

Well-known local history buff Ron Clayton harked back to a family holiday in the 1960s. He wrote: “Well, gentle reader, feast your eyes on Clayton on the verge of puberty. It’s 1965/1966 and I am in Joe’s Bar in Douglas IOM. Note the acrylic mod sweater from Mortimer’s Army Stores in Hillsborough and the hipster trousers (today’s hipsters are the beard oil-wearing craft beer inbibers who frequent the Ship Inn and umpteen other watering holes).“I am in the company of my favourite Aunt and Uncle Clara and Ted. You can get an insight into their characters by their body language. Ted quiet and laidback, Clara extrovert. There was always a book or something from them on birthdays or ‘hello my love’ and the kettle on in their snug little terrace in Cundy Street.“They were from that largely gone WW2 generation. Ted was in the Navy and presumably on a small boat when he was emptying rubbish from the galley when his vessel struck a mine. “He was the only survivor and in the sea for some time before being picked up. He made a reference to how bad it was to have to stab a man in the back and I always wondered if he had been on some sort of raiding party.“They loved their fags and sadly it killed them both. I held her hand in Lodgemoor and to my eternal regret didn’t go to their funerals. They were a lovely couple, as a cousin of mine once commented. Thanks for the holiday, Clara and Ted.”CB Medley of Parson Cross Road shared part of a programme from Sheffield Council of Boys’ Clubs Music and Drama Festival at Brunswick Trinity Methodist Youth Club, on March 12, 1955, and a photo of the cast from Croft House Youth Club who performed Big Moment, about a boxer who went blind after a title fight.CB said: “I have only met up with two of them in recent years and would love to know where they are now. We had some fantastic times back then.”