The clinic, the prefabs and the coat of arms

I also well remember the shops in the small crescent on Warren Farm road. Browns/Days paper shop, Home and Colonial, (is that PC these day’s?)..Friends groceries, Ferguson’s veg, Betty’s, a tiny half-shop who sold nails, paraffin etc, the other half was Fred the cobbler. And kingstanding baths. Over the road were the local schools metalwork and motor vehicle training workshops. Next door was the dreaded clinic where many a small child was terrified by the school dentist. I can still recall the smell of the rubber mask, disinfectant and the brain-bursting mixture of Halothane and Nitrous oxide gas. In between the prefabs there was a path over the brook. In the middle was a beautiful crazy paved pattern of the Birmingham Coat of arms. My mom would point out the figures of the artist and blacksmith, and get me to spell out the banner “forward”. Little did I know then that I would find myself looking at that coat of arms every day, on the side of the buses, stooped down fixing brakes etc as an apprentice in Miller Street bus garage.