Gary Gardner wrote more of his memories
Being born halfway through world war II all the men folk in the family were away in the services, so my mother was a big influence in my early years. I remember her taking me to a coffee bar which was located a few hundred yards up from where Woolworths used to be. This coffee bar had one of the early jukeboxes which in those days played the old Shellac 78s. I quite clearly remember hearing what I later discovered was Glenn Miller playing one of his hits. It was only very much later in life I heard a record of Glenn Miller in a record shop, and instantly found the music familiar. I then realised where all those years ago where I had heard this music. I've been a fan of Glenn Miller ever since, and now have a reasonable-sized library of his music.
During the war access to the beach was not permitted because of the large concrete blocks that were there to help prevent German landing craft coming ashore. At the end of hostilities, these blocks were removed and were used to make a base for a car park that was on the sea side of the coast road going towards Shoreham. My first reaction on seeing the sea for the first time was to run into the sea and look for the plughole as the only water I had seen previously was in the bath. My aunt had a beach hut along this stretch of beach, and we spent many happy hours there in the summer. When the tide went down to expose the sand my old nan and I would go shrimping with a net and then bring the shrimps back to the hut and cook them over a paraffin stove. I loved eating them for our tea before packing up and going back home to my aunt's bungalow in Monks Avenue. The beach hut remained with my aunt for many years. The next-door neighbours were the Last family who used to own a chemist shop on the High Street on the opposite side of the railway station. Their hut was a much bigger one than ours but they did have a big family. Childhood memories of Lancing Beach are with me still, even though I'm now getting old but look back fondly of these times gone by.
For a short time, my mum and I lived in the block of Flats in South Street which was located next to a small park. There were shops at street level and we had a small flat on the second floor. Across the road was a parade of shops including an electrical shop which sold a very limited range of electrical appliances. They have one of the shops on the opposite side of the road under the flats which they used as a repair workshop. I remember the owner of the shop inviting the residents to come down to the repair workshop as they had something interesting to show us. The room was packed when we arrived and I had to be picked up so I could see what was going on. At the other end of the room, there was what appeared to be a small screen on which there was a moving picture! It turned out to be small TV that one of the technicians had built from odd parts he had acquired, of course, this was a one-off unit and not for sale, but again it left a lasting impression on me, and almost certainly why that in my later years my interest in electronics became my hobby. It wasn't until I was 11 in 1953 did my aunt buy a Philips TV with a 12 " screen which we all crowded round to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
