These excerpts were written by a north Manchester women who were in their seventies and nineties at the time of publication in 1985.

Mary: We used to walk to the Clough and then walk back, and you know the bridge at Weaver Street? We used to walk up to there-to the edge of Weaver Street, that was near town- and walk back again to the Clough. And there was droves! You had to walk in the middle of the road, there was that many, walking up and down and laughing and talking. A lot of them did it to click, you know-try and find a boyfriend. And we did that for hours and hours, till about ten o’clock. That was our Sunday night’s pleasure. And they called it the Monkey Walk. And you know the toreador hats with the tassles? My friend and I got one of those. It was only about five shillings. We walked up and down the monkey run with these toreador hats and we thought, ooh gosh, the tassle hanging down! And sometimes we hadn’t even got money to buy powder. It was a tiny box and it was only about twopence. So we used to put flour on our face. With these fancy hats on, flour on our face! We did that for years, every Sunday night. Two hours of walking up and down. And you hadn’t two ha’pennies for a penny in your purse!

Monica: The women were never away from washing and cooking. The only fun they got were when they went to a funeral. People didn’t have weddings to the extent
they do, but a funeral they’d always club money to join.
Ida: They had that cake – they called it funeral cake. They all did it with the currants.
Monica: If you had ham sandwiches they’d say, “Oh yes, they give him a good funeral. They buried him with ham”.