I remember the Bull Ring prior to the sixties very well even though I was barely into my teens when they started to obliterate it from the face of the earth.
Whatever you want to say about the Bull Ring of the sixties, it was my Bull Ring the one I grew to adulthood with. I knew every nook and cranny of it, I knew most of the people in most of the shops.
I knew all the girls in Woolworths and can say without any conceit that I dated nearly every unmarried girl in there, and some who's marital status I was not too sure about.
In fact my mate and me got banned from Woolworths for taking girls over to the Talbot (Bull Ring Tavern) in their dinner hour.
I suppose I was what you would class as a Townie, not one of these weekend types. We were the ones who would spend days and nights on end up there in the pubs, clubs, and all night cafes, and sometimes even the all nighters at the town hall. In the summer we would sleep all day in Manzoni Gardens.
I loved the place, even when it started to go down the nick a bit, It was still wonderful to me. The only drawbacks were when money got short and I had to work for a while to replenish the coffers. It was a sad day when I became part of the establishment and became respectable, if thats what you call it.
Phil
