FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th DECEMBER 1970)
This week's stories include a week of power cuts and misery for St Helens folk, 200 jet-set Saints fans fly to France, St Helens soldiers speak of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland, a Polaroid feature is in the Reporter and there's criticism of the Catholic church's response to alcoholism.
Last week the St Helens Reporter warned of a possible Christmas blackout in the town. That was because power station workers would be starting a national work-to-rule on the 7th in support of their pay claim. However the likelihood of any electricity outage in St Helens in the short-term was played down as unlikely. They were wrong, big-style! Throughout this week families and shopkeepers had to cope with a series of cuts and some furious people took out their frustrations on power workers.
There were reports of electricity engineers at substations in St Helens being threatened, abused and jeered. A Manweb spokesman told the press: "Some of our engineers have been terrified by these threats. Men and women have waited for them to leave the sub-stations after their power had been cut off. They have had abusive language shouted at them and at one station two of our employees were threatened with stones." As the power workers had rejected a pay rise of 10%, some people felt they were being made to suffer through their greed.
There was pandemonium on the roads as traffic lights were blacked out and the Army was called in to deliver an emergency generator to St Helens Hospital. Although Pilkingtons was able to switch to back-up generators, other firms and shops were not so fortunate. Marks and Spencer said they had thrown away large amounts of perishable food and Tesco described their position with frozen foods as "highly serious".
Ron Foster went on a hunt for jam jars when power cuts threatened to kill off his stock of tropical fish. He told the St Helens Reporter: "The temperature dropped in the tanks when the power went off and it was reaching danger level." The Westfield Street dealer had 25 tanks housing angel, tetras and saracen fish but managed to keep them warm by floating jars in the tanks half-full with hot water.
Essential services and industries like collieries where men might be in pit cages were given ten minutes notice of cuts but most people were taken completely by surprise. Water pumping stations were hit and loudspeaker vans toured Haydock appealing to residents to conserve their water use. On the 8th ten St Helens infant and junior schools were forced to close because they had no heating. Most reopened on the following day but then another six sent their children home. Ashton councillors were even forced to hold their evening committee meetings by candlelight.
From his office in Carlton Street, John Acklam – Manweb's assistant district engineer – was calling the shots as to which areas of St Helens should lose power and when. "I don't suppose I'm the most popular man in town at the moment", Mr Acklam admitted to the St Helens Reporter. "But I don't want people to think I am an ogre, sitting here pressing switches when I feel like it. Areas are blacked out from sub-stations. We work a rota system to make sure the same places are not hit too often."
The industrial action meant that electricity supplies from Bold Power Station (pictured above) and elsewhere had to be reduced by almost one-third. However matters were expected to worsen from next week when technical staff and control engineers planned to join the work-to-rule. And now for the rest of this week's news.
In October 'Gone With The Wind' had been shown at the Savoy for the unusually long period of two weeks. The near 4-hour film that originated in 1939 had been re-released in 70mm widescreen and full stereo. The Capitol must have thought that there was still mileage in the Clark Gable / Vivien Leigh Oscar-winner as on the 7th they started showing it for a week. However the power cuts affected some of their screenings.
The Fairey Band was scheduled to perform at the Theatre Royal on the 8th under their new, shortened name. Whether they did with the power blackouts, I'm not sure. But the last time they played St Helens was in June 1969 when the ensemble was called the Fairey Aviation Brass Band as they had been formed by aircraft factory workers.
St Andrew's Church in Dentons Green Lane held their Christmas Fair on the 10th with proceeds going to their Day Schools Appeal Fund. On the following day Pimbletts opened a new shop in Clock Face behind the ACMO Four Acre Garage. Their College Street bakery would be producing fresh pies and sausage rolls daily for the new premises, which was their seventh branch in the district. Pimmie's other shops were in Bridge Street, Westfield Street, Thatto Heath Road, Duke Street, Rivington Gardens and Church Road, Rainford.
Quite a few homes must still have had pianos back in the seventies. The Reporter described on the 11th how Carr Mill Derby and Joan Club had received thirty offers of help after vandals had smashed up their piano. The club had been concerned they'd have no music at their Christmas party but were now spoilt for choice after putting out an appeal for a loaned piano.
"Smile And Win A Swinger" was the intriguing headline to an advertising feature in the Reporter. It was a promotion for Polaroid instant cameras – "a great wallet-sized picture ready in seconds". And guess what? They were that simple to operate that even women could use them! The Reporter wrote: "The majority of women are not technically minded. Provided a thing is nice to look at, is simple to operate and works first time, they are quite happy. This is where the Polaroid camera scores a hit."
Being a bit specialist there were not that many advertisers but Helena House had a large ad selling the Polaroid "Swinger" gift set from £9 7/2, including camera, film, flash gun and bulbs. F. S. Laughton of 6/8 Cotham Street were promising "instant fun this Christmas" with a Polaroid and J. Brunskill at YMCA Buildings in North Road was also advertising their cameras. Elsewhere in the paper Krazy Kuts in Eccleston Street had a big ad offering "big, big savings on your Xmas fare" and a cut-out coupon worth 6d off Tide washing powder.
Recently the first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous had been held in St Helens. This led to an angry letter being published in the Reporter from someone using the pseudonym "Disgusted". The correspondent was furious that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the district had attended the meeting, despite invitations being sent out to all parishes. The Reporter put the criticism to the Dean of St Helens and got an equally annoyed response.
The Very Rev. Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick said priests were very busy people with evening duties to perform but he clearly did not care for people criticising his church, saying: "This criticism is most unfair… If they do not know the reasons why there were no priests at the meeting, they should come to see us, not make a public issue out of it. I wonder how many parsons attended the meeting? Very few I should think." However the Dean did not offer an explanation as to why only four priests had bothered to reply to the invitations to say they could not attend.
Reporter journalist Phil Swift talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland. Private Billy Walker from Morley Street told how a man who had been his friend had joined a rioting mob and thrown a stone in his face. 21-year-old Alan Edwards from O'Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook described how bad the situation had been:
"At the height of the riots it was really vicious. The crowd got out of hand and threw everything at us. They broke up paving stones and grids and threw bottles and house bricks at us. A petrol bomb landed not 10 yards from where I was standing. I was in a snatch squad and when we fired CS gas into the crowd we charged them and made several arrests. We had no sleep for three nights and at the end I was exhausted and bitter."
These days Saints fans travel to Perpignan to watch the team take on Catalans Dragons without the slightest fuss. But it was a different story fifty years ago when nearly 200 St Helens fans flew on two planes to Toulouse to watch a match between the English and French champions. The St Helens team beat St Gaudens 30 - 11 with the Liverpool Echo writing: "The Saints turned on one of their finest performances and gave the French side a lesson in the finer points of the game."
However the Reporter focussed on the new experience of "jet set fans" flying to a match with a full-page picture special of the event. 86-year-old Jack Manchester was the oldest fan to make the trip and one of the youngest was 11-year-old Peter Wood of Prescot Road. Stan Macgowan of Ellisons Travel was given much praise for his organisation of the trip.
Ken Goodwin was still some six months away from fame when the Granada TV show 'The Comedians' would be launched. On the 12th the Mancunian comic and singer performed at St Helens Town Social Club in Hoghton Road. Not that TV exposure necessarily leads to fame, of course. Yodelling Bill Cory performed in Sutton on the following day and claimed to be a winner of 'Opportunity Knocks' – but I can find no info on him. It sounds like he had his 15 minutes of yodelling fame but then his time was up! And so is mine for this week.
Next week's stories will include the demise of the Peasley Cross Derby and Joan Club, the end of the power cut misery, Helena House's Christmas Specials and the Billinge councillor who said he didn't give a tinker's cuss about a bus company.
Last week the St Helens Reporter warned of a possible Christmas blackout in the town. That was because power station workers would be starting a national work-to-rule on the 7th in support of their pay claim. However the likelihood of any electricity outage in St Helens in the short-term was played down as unlikely. They were wrong, big-style! Throughout this week families and shopkeepers had to cope with a series of cuts and some furious people took out their frustrations on power workers.
There were reports of electricity engineers at substations in St Helens being threatened, abused and jeered. A Manweb spokesman told the press: "Some of our engineers have been terrified by these threats. Men and women have waited for them to leave the sub-stations after their power had been cut off. They have had abusive language shouted at them and at one station two of our employees were threatened with stones." As the power workers had rejected a pay rise of 10%, some people felt they were being made to suffer through their greed.
There was pandemonium on the roads as traffic lights were blacked out and the Army was called in to deliver an emergency generator to St Helens Hospital. Although Pilkingtons was able to switch to back-up generators, other firms and shops were not so fortunate. Marks and Spencer said they had thrown away large amounts of perishable food and Tesco described their position with frozen foods as "highly serious".
Ron Foster went on a hunt for jam jars when power cuts threatened to kill off his stock of tropical fish. He told the St Helens Reporter: "The temperature dropped in the tanks when the power went off and it was reaching danger level." The Westfield Street dealer had 25 tanks housing angel, tetras and saracen fish but managed to keep them warm by floating jars in the tanks half-full with hot water.
Essential services and industries like collieries where men might be in pit cages were given ten minutes notice of cuts but most people were taken completely by surprise. Water pumping stations were hit and loudspeaker vans toured Haydock appealing to residents to conserve their water use. On the 8th ten St Helens infant and junior schools were forced to close because they had no heating. Most reopened on the following day but then another six sent their children home. Ashton councillors were even forced to hold their evening committee meetings by candlelight.
From his office in Carlton Street, John Acklam – Manweb's assistant district engineer – was calling the shots as to which areas of St Helens should lose power and when. "I don't suppose I'm the most popular man in town at the moment", Mr Acklam admitted to the St Helens Reporter. "But I don't want people to think I am an ogre, sitting here pressing switches when I feel like it. Areas are blacked out from sub-stations. We work a rota system to make sure the same places are not hit too often."
In October 'Gone With The Wind' had been shown at the Savoy for the unusually long period of two weeks. The near 4-hour film that originated in 1939 had been re-released in 70mm widescreen and full stereo. The Capitol must have thought that there was still mileage in the Clark Gable / Vivien Leigh Oscar-winner as on the 7th they started showing it for a week. However the power cuts affected some of their screenings.
The Fairey Band was scheduled to perform at the Theatre Royal on the 8th under their new, shortened name. Whether they did with the power blackouts, I'm not sure. But the last time they played St Helens was in June 1969 when the ensemble was called the Fairey Aviation Brass Band as they had been formed by aircraft factory workers.
St Andrew's Church in Dentons Green Lane held their Christmas Fair on the 10th with proceeds going to their Day Schools Appeal Fund. On the following day Pimbletts opened a new shop in Clock Face behind the ACMO Four Acre Garage. Their College Street bakery would be producing fresh pies and sausage rolls daily for the new premises, which was their seventh branch in the district. Pimmie's other shops were in Bridge Street, Westfield Street, Thatto Heath Road, Duke Street, Rivington Gardens and Church Road, Rainford.
Quite a few homes must still have had pianos back in the seventies. The Reporter described on the 11th how Carr Mill Derby and Joan Club had received thirty offers of help after vandals had smashed up their piano. The club had been concerned they'd have no music at their Christmas party but were now spoilt for choice after putting out an appeal for a loaned piano.
"Smile And Win A Swinger" was the intriguing headline to an advertising feature in the Reporter. It was a promotion for Polaroid instant cameras – "a great wallet-sized picture ready in seconds". And guess what? They were that simple to operate that even women could use them! The Reporter wrote: "The majority of women are not technically minded. Provided a thing is nice to look at, is simple to operate and works first time, they are quite happy. This is where the Polaroid camera scores a hit."
Being a bit specialist there were not that many advertisers but Helena House had a large ad selling the Polaroid "Swinger" gift set from £9 7/2, including camera, film, flash gun and bulbs. F. S. Laughton of 6/8 Cotham Street were promising "instant fun this Christmas" with a Polaroid and J. Brunskill at YMCA Buildings in North Road was also advertising their cameras. Elsewhere in the paper Krazy Kuts in Eccleston Street had a big ad offering "big, big savings on your Xmas fare" and a cut-out coupon worth 6d off Tide washing powder.
Recently the first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous had been held in St Helens. This led to an angry letter being published in the Reporter from someone using the pseudonym "Disgusted". The correspondent was furious that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the district had attended the meeting, despite invitations being sent out to all parishes. The Reporter put the criticism to the Dean of St Helens and got an equally annoyed response.
The Very Rev. Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick said priests were very busy people with evening duties to perform but he clearly did not care for people criticising his church, saying: "This criticism is most unfair… If they do not know the reasons why there were no priests at the meeting, they should come to see us, not make a public issue out of it. I wonder how many parsons attended the meeting? Very few I should think." However the Dean did not offer an explanation as to why only four priests had bothered to reply to the invitations to say they could not attend.
Reporter journalist Phil Swift talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland. Private Billy Walker from Morley Street told how a man who had been his friend had joined a rioting mob and thrown a stone in his face. 21-year-old Alan Edwards from O'Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook described how bad the situation had been:
"At the height of the riots it was really vicious. The crowd got out of hand and threw everything at us. They broke up paving stones and grids and threw bottles and house bricks at us. A petrol bomb landed not 10 yards from where I was standing. I was in a snatch squad and when we fired CS gas into the crowd we charged them and made several arrests. We had no sleep for three nights and at the end I was exhausted and bitter."
These days Saints fans travel to Perpignan to watch the team take on Catalans Dragons without the slightest fuss. But it was a different story fifty years ago when nearly 200 St Helens fans flew on two planes to Toulouse to watch a match between the English and French champions. The St Helens team beat St Gaudens 30 - 11 with the Liverpool Echo writing: "The Saints turned on one of their finest performances and gave the French side a lesson in the finer points of the game."
However the Reporter focussed on the new experience of "jet set fans" flying to a match with a full-page picture special of the event. 86-year-old Jack Manchester was the oldest fan to make the trip and one of the youngest was 11-year-old Peter Wood of Prescot Road. Stan Macgowan of Ellisons Travel was given much praise for his organisation of the trip.
Ken Goodwin was still some six months away from fame when the Granada TV show 'The Comedians' would be launched. On the 12th the Mancunian comic and singer performed at St Helens Town Social Club in Hoghton Road. Not that TV exposure necessarily leads to fame, of course. Yodelling Bill Cory performed in Sutton on the following day and claimed to be a winner of 'Opportunity Knocks' – but I can find no info on him. It sounds like he had his 15 minutes of yodelling fame but then his time was up! And so is mine for this week.
Next week's stories will include the demise of the Peasley Cross Derby and Joan Club, the end of the power cut misery, Helena House's Christmas Specials and the Billinge councillor who said he didn't give a tinker's cuss about a bus company.
This week's stories include a week of power cuts and misery for St Helens folk, 200 jet-set Saints fans fly to France, St Helens soldiers speak of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland, a Polaroid feature is in the Reporter and there's criticism of the Catholic church's response to alcoholism.
Last week the St Helens Reporter warned of a possible Christmas blackout in the town.
That was because power station workers would be starting a national work-to-rule on the 7th in support of their pay claim.
However the likelihood of any electricity outage in St Helens in the short-term was played down as unlikely. They were wrong, big-style!
Throughout this week families and shopkeepers had to cope with a series of cuts and some furious people took out their frustrations on power workers.
There were reports of electricity engineers at substations in St Helens being threatened, abused and jeered.
A Manweb spokesman told the press: "Some of our engineers have been terrified by these threats. Men and women have waited for them to leave the sub-stations after their power had been cut off.
"They have had abusive language shouted at them and at one station two of our employees were threatened with stones."
As the power workers had rejected a pay rise of 10%, some people felt they were being made to suffer through their greed.
There was pandemonium on the roads as traffic lights were blacked out and the Army was called in to deliver an emergency generator to St Helens Hospital.
Although Pilkingtons was able to switch to back-up generators, other firms and shops were not so fortunate.
Marks and Spencer said they had thrown away large amounts of perishable food and Tesco described their position with frozen foods as "highly serious".
Ron Foster went on a hunt for jam jars when power cuts threatened to kill off his stock of tropical fish. He told the St Helens Reporter:
"The temperature dropped in the tanks when the power went off and it was reaching danger level."
The Westfield Street dealer had 25 tanks housing angel, tetras and saracen fish but managed to keep them warm by floating jars in the tanks half-full with hot water.
Essential services and industries like collieries where men might be in pit cages were given ten minutes notice of cuts but most people were taken completely by surprise.
Water pumping stations were hit and loudspeaker vans toured Haydock appealing to residents to conserve their water use.
On the 8th ten St Helens infant and junior schools were forced to close because they had no heating.
Most reopened on the following day but then another six sent their children home.
Ashton councillors were even forced to hold their evening committee meetings by candlelight.
From his office in Carlton Street, John Acklam – Manweb's assistant district engineer – was calling the shots as to which areas of St Helens should lose power and when.
"I don't suppose I'm the most popular man in town at the moment", Mr Acklam admitted to the St Helens Reporter.
"But I don't want people to think I am an ogre, sitting here pressing switches when I feel like it. Areas are blacked out from sub-stations.
"We work a rota system to make sure the same places are not hit too often."
The industrial action meant that electricity supplies from Bold Power Station (pictured above) and elsewhere had to be reduced by almost one-third.
However matters were expected to worsen from next week when technical staff and control engineers planned to join the work-to-rule. And now for the rest of this week's news.
In October 'Gone With The Wind' had been shown at the Savoy for the unusually long period of two weeks.
The near 4-hour film that originated in 1939 had been re-released in 70mm widescreen and full stereo.
The Capitol must have thought that there was still mileage in the Clark Gable / Vivien Leigh Oscar-winner as on the 7th they started showing it for a week.
However the power cuts affected some of their screenings.
The Fairey Band was scheduled to perform at the Theatre Royal on the 8th under their new, shortened name.
Whether they did with the power blackouts, I'm not sure.
But the last time they played St Helens was in June 1969 when the ensemble was called the Fairey Aviation Brass Band as they had been formed by aircraft factory workers.
St Andrew's Church in Dentons Green Lane held their Christmas Fair on the 10th with proceeds going to their Day Schools Appeal Fund.
On the following day Pimbletts opened a new shop in Clock Face behind the ACMO Four Acre Garage.
Their College Street bakery would be producing fresh pies and sausage rolls daily for the new premises, which was their seventh branch in the district.
Pimmie's other shops were in Bridge Street, Westfield Street, Thatto Heath Road, Duke Street, Rivington Gardens and Church Road, Rainford.
Quite a few homes must still have had pianos back in the seventies.
The Reporter described on the 11th how Carr Mill Derby and Joan Club had received thirty offers of help after vandals had smashed up their piano.
The club had been concerned they'd have no music at their Christmas party but were now spoilt for choice after putting out an appeal for a loaned piano.
"Smile And Win A Swinger" was the intriguing headline to an advertising feature in the Reporter.
It was a promotion for Polaroid instant cameras – "a great wallet-sized picture ready in seconds".
And guess what? They were that simple to operate that even women could use them! The Reporter wrote:
"The majority of women are not technically minded. Provided a thing is nice to look at, is simple to operate and works first time, they are quite happy. This is where the Polaroid camera scores a hit."
Being a bit specialist there were not that many advertisers but Helena House had a large ad selling the Polaroid "Swinger" gift set from £9 7/2, including camera, film, flash gun and bulbs.
F. S. Laughton of 6/8 Cotham Street were promising "instant fun this Christmas" with a Polaroid and J. Brunskill at YMCA Buildings in North Road was also advertising their cameras.
Elsewhere in the paper Krazy Kuts in Eccleston Street had a big ad offering "big, big savings on your Xmas fare" and a cut-out coupon worth 6d off Tide washing powder.
Recently the first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous had been held in St Helens.
This led to an angry letter being published in the Reporter from someone using the pseudonym "Disgusted".
The correspondent was furious that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the district had attended the meeting, despite invitations being sent out to all parishes.
The Reporter put the criticism to the Dean of St Helens and got an equally annoyed response.
The Very Rev. Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick said priests were very busy people with evening duties to perform but he clearly did not care for people criticising his church, saying:
"This criticism is most unfair… If they do not know the reasons why there were no priests at the meeting, they should come to see us, not make a public issue out of it. I wonder how many parsons attended the meeting? Very few I should think."
However the Dean did not offer an explanation as to why only four priests had bothered to reply to the invitations to say they could not attend.
Reporter journalist Phil Swift talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland.
Private Billy Walker from Morley Street told how a man who had been his friend had joined a rioting mob and thrown a stone in his face.
21-year-old Alan Edwards from O'Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook described how bad the situation had been:
"At the height of the riots it was really vicious. The crowd got out of hand and threw everything at us. They broke up paving stones and grids and threw bottles and house bricks at us. A petrol bomb landed not 10 yards from where I was standing.
"I was in a snatch squad and when we fired CS gas into the crowd we charged them and made several arrests. We had no sleep for three nights and at the end I was exhausted and bitter."
These days Saints fans travel to Perpignan to watch the team take on Catalans Dragons without the slightest fuss.
But it was a different story fifty years ago when nearly 200 St Helens fans flew on two planes to Toulouse to watch a match between the English and French champions.
The St Helens team beat St Gaudens 30 - 11 with the Liverpool Echo writing:
"The Saints turned on one of their finest performances and gave the French side a lesson in the finer points of the game."
However the Reporter focussed on the new experience of "jet set fans" flying to a match with a full-page picture special of the event.
86-year-old Jack Manchester was the oldest fan to make the trip and one of the youngest was 11-year-old Peter Wood of Prescot Road.
Stan Macgowan of Ellisons Travel was given much praise for his organisation of the trip.
Ken Goodwin was still some six months away from fame when the Granada TV show 'The Comedians' would be launched.
On the 12th the Mancunian comic and singer performed at St Helens Town Social Club in Hoghton Road.
Not that television exposure necessarily leads to fame, of course.
Yodelling Bill Cory performed in Sutton on the following day and claimed to be a winner of 'Opportunity Knocks' – but I can find no info on him.
It sounds like he had his 15 minutes of yodelling fame but then his time was up! And so is mine for this week.
Next week's stories will include the demise of the Peasley Cross Derby and Joan Club, the end of the power cut misery, Helena House's Christmas Specials and the Billinge councillor who said he didn't give a tinker's cuss about a bus company.
Last week the St Helens Reporter warned of a possible Christmas blackout in the town.
That was because power station workers would be starting a national work-to-rule on the 7th in support of their pay claim.
However the likelihood of any electricity outage in St Helens in the short-term was played down as unlikely. They were wrong, big-style!
Throughout this week families and shopkeepers had to cope with a series of cuts and some furious people took out their frustrations on power workers.
There were reports of electricity engineers at substations in St Helens being threatened, abused and jeered.
A Manweb spokesman told the press: "Some of our engineers have been terrified by these threats. Men and women have waited for them to leave the sub-stations after their power had been cut off.
"They have had abusive language shouted at them and at one station two of our employees were threatened with stones."
As the power workers had rejected a pay rise of 10%, some people felt they were being made to suffer through their greed.
There was pandemonium on the roads as traffic lights were blacked out and the Army was called in to deliver an emergency generator to St Helens Hospital.
Although Pilkingtons was able to switch to back-up generators, other firms and shops were not so fortunate.
Marks and Spencer said they had thrown away large amounts of perishable food and Tesco described their position with frozen foods as "highly serious".
Ron Foster went on a hunt for jam jars when power cuts threatened to kill off his stock of tropical fish. He told the St Helens Reporter:
"The temperature dropped in the tanks when the power went off and it was reaching danger level."
The Westfield Street dealer had 25 tanks housing angel, tetras and saracen fish but managed to keep them warm by floating jars in the tanks half-full with hot water.
Essential services and industries like collieries where men might be in pit cages were given ten minutes notice of cuts but most people were taken completely by surprise.
Water pumping stations were hit and loudspeaker vans toured Haydock appealing to residents to conserve their water use.
On the 8th ten St Helens infant and junior schools were forced to close because they had no heating.
Most reopened on the following day but then another six sent their children home.
Ashton councillors were even forced to hold their evening committee meetings by candlelight.
From his office in Carlton Street, John Acklam – Manweb's assistant district engineer – was calling the shots as to which areas of St Helens should lose power and when.
"I don't suppose I'm the most popular man in town at the moment", Mr Acklam admitted to the St Helens Reporter.
"But I don't want people to think I am an ogre, sitting here pressing switches when I feel like it. Areas are blacked out from sub-stations.
"We work a rota system to make sure the same places are not hit too often."
However matters were expected to worsen from next week when technical staff and control engineers planned to join the work-to-rule. And now for the rest of this week's news.
In October 'Gone With The Wind' had been shown at the Savoy for the unusually long period of two weeks.
The near 4-hour film that originated in 1939 had been re-released in 70mm widescreen and full stereo.
The Capitol must have thought that there was still mileage in the Clark Gable / Vivien Leigh Oscar-winner as on the 7th they started showing it for a week.
However the power cuts affected some of their screenings.
The Fairey Band was scheduled to perform at the Theatre Royal on the 8th under their new, shortened name.
Whether they did with the power blackouts, I'm not sure.
But the last time they played St Helens was in June 1969 when the ensemble was called the Fairey Aviation Brass Band as they had been formed by aircraft factory workers.
St Andrew's Church in Dentons Green Lane held their Christmas Fair on the 10th with proceeds going to their Day Schools Appeal Fund.
On the following day Pimbletts opened a new shop in Clock Face behind the ACMO Four Acre Garage.
Their College Street bakery would be producing fresh pies and sausage rolls daily for the new premises, which was their seventh branch in the district.
Pimmie's other shops were in Bridge Street, Westfield Street, Thatto Heath Road, Duke Street, Rivington Gardens and Church Road, Rainford.
Quite a few homes must still have had pianos back in the seventies.
The Reporter described on the 11th how Carr Mill Derby and Joan Club had received thirty offers of help after vandals had smashed up their piano.
The club had been concerned they'd have no music at their Christmas party but were now spoilt for choice after putting out an appeal for a loaned piano.
"Smile And Win A Swinger" was the intriguing headline to an advertising feature in the Reporter.
It was a promotion for Polaroid instant cameras – "a great wallet-sized picture ready in seconds".
And guess what? They were that simple to operate that even women could use them! The Reporter wrote:
"The majority of women are not technically minded. Provided a thing is nice to look at, is simple to operate and works first time, they are quite happy. This is where the Polaroid camera scores a hit."
Being a bit specialist there were not that many advertisers but Helena House had a large ad selling the Polaroid "Swinger" gift set from £9 7/2, including camera, film, flash gun and bulbs.
F. S. Laughton of 6/8 Cotham Street were promising "instant fun this Christmas" with a Polaroid and J. Brunskill at YMCA Buildings in North Road was also advertising their cameras.
Elsewhere in the paper Krazy Kuts in Eccleston Street had a big ad offering "big, big savings on your Xmas fare" and a cut-out coupon worth 6d off Tide washing powder.
Recently the first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous had been held in St Helens.
This led to an angry letter being published in the Reporter from someone using the pseudonym "Disgusted".
The correspondent was furious that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the district had attended the meeting, despite invitations being sent out to all parishes.
The Reporter put the criticism to the Dean of St Helens and got an equally annoyed response.
The Very Rev. Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick said priests were very busy people with evening duties to perform but he clearly did not care for people criticising his church, saying:
"This criticism is most unfair… If they do not know the reasons why there were no priests at the meeting, they should come to see us, not make a public issue out of it. I wonder how many parsons attended the meeting? Very few I should think."
However the Dean did not offer an explanation as to why only four priests had bothered to reply to the invitations to say they could not attend.
Reporter journalist Phil Swift talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland.
Private Billy Walker from Morley Street told how a man who had been his friend had joined a rioting mob and thrown a stone in his face.
21-year-old Alan Edwards from O'Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook described how bad the situation had been:
"At the height of the riots it was really vicious. The crowd got out of hand and threw everything at us. They broke up paving stones and grids and threw bottles and house bricks at us. A petrol bomb landed not 10 yards from where I was standing.
"I was in a snatch squad and when we fired CS gas into the crowd we charged them and made several arrests. We had no sleep for three nights and at the end I was exhausted and bitter."
These days Saints fans travel to Perpignan to watch the team take on Catalans Dragons without the slightest fuss.
But it was a different story fifty years ago when nearly 200 St Helens fans flew on two planes to Toulouse to watch a match between the English and French champions.
The St Helens team beat St Gaudens 30 - 11 with the Liverpool Echo writing:
"The Saints turned on one of their finest performances and gave the French side a lesson in the finer points of the game."
However the Reporter focussed on the new experience of "jet set fans" flying to a match with a full-page picture special of the event.
86-year-old Jack Manchester was the oldest fan to make the trip and one of the youngest was 11-year-old Peter Wood of Prescot Road.
Stan Macgowan of Ellisons Travel was given much praise for his organisation of the trip.
Ken Goodwin was still some six months away from fame when the Granada TV show 'The Comedians' would be launched.
On the 12th the Mancunian comic and singer performed at St Helens Town Social Club in Hoghton Road.
Not that television exposure necessarily leads to fame, of course.
Yodelling Bill Cory performed in Sutton on the following day and claimed to be a winner of 'Opportunity Knocks' – but I can find no info on him.
It sounds like he had his 15 minutes of yodelling fame but then his time was up! And so is mine for this week.
Next week's stories will include the demise of the Peasley Cross Derby and Joan Club, the end of the power cut misery, Helena House's Christmas Specials and the Billinge councillor who said he didn't give a tinker's cuss about a bus company.