WERE you a child in Southampton during the 1950s?

Southampton-based author Penny Legg and I are writing a book on childhood in Southampton in the 1950s that is due for publication in May 2013.

We are looking for memories from this period from people who were children in Southampton at that time. Do you remember boys in short trousers and long socks or dressed as teddy boys, girls in flower patterned dresses and full circle skirts, schools you attended and things such as ABC Minors, playing marbles and conkers?

Could you play in roads with no traffic to worry about and positively no parked cars? Did you do bob-a-job? Did your big brother go off to do National Service and how did this feel in the family?

Penny and I will be very pleased to hear about all of these memories and more.

JAMES MARSH, Southampton.

marsh809@btinternet.com