Take a nostalgia trip with Bob Hind ...
NOSTALGIA expert Bob Hind’s daily stroll down memory lane always rekindles great memories. Today he looks at one of Southsea’s most well-loved features.
Is there a lovelier spot in Southsea? The marvellous photograph, right, from the Roger Young collection, captures Canoe Lake beautifully. This was in the days when all the hire boats were fitted with oars, unlike today.
The girls always sat down first then their boyfriend would sit opposite and start to row the love of his life across the lake.
Of course, if there was a sailor in uniform also out with his girl then the civilian would keep well away so as not to show himself up if he caught a crab – fouled his oars.
There is the classic call from the lake edge, ‘Come in number nine….. are you in trouble number six?’
In the distance is a Solent fort with the Isle of Wight and the far off Downs above Sandown.
I find it amazing to think about all the stars who have appeared at Portsmouth Guildhall over the years.
To appear at Carnegie Hall in the Manhattan district of New York one week, and Portsmouth Guildhall the next, is just incredible.
Perhaps the greatest of all jazz pianists, the Canadian-born Oscar Peterson, graced the stage to a packed audience in 1968, below left. He was 42 and in his prime.
Ten years later he was again on stage at the Guildhall and I was lucky enough to be in the audience, four rows back and right in line with him.
I could see his fingers moving like lightning over the keys. Fantastic.
Though I must admit to actually going to the show to see his drummer, Louie Belson, to me the greatest ever.