Unreal, but ‘Hello’ Anyway

Introducing Percy Grove.

Hi, I’m Percy Grove, a character in the ‘Percy’s Pawnshop’ story. (It’s a book available now as a download or in a softcover version on Kindle.) The chap who wrote it thought it was a good idea to introduce myself and chat here, just general chat, seeing that the story is based in Manchester of the nineteen fifties, in a place called Hulme, where iconic buildings, like the Lyceum and Luxor cinemas have long been demolished, leaving the area beyond recognition. He thought it would be interesting to chat across a time warp… I bought the shop on City Road in 1950… and you live in today’s world, you know, computers and stuff. It was different then; a massive deal to install a simple telephone in the shop… never mind this idea of carrying them around and being able to see who you’re talking to at the same time.

Let’s be clear, though… I’m not real… I’m a fictitious character, The most important character? Yes, well, not quite, but fictional. Between you and me, I’m the bloke who wrote the book, and I think he’s doing this so you’ll get interested enough that you might buy it. We’ll see, but hopefully, it will be a bit of fun, and some of the characters will also turn up to chat. These chats aren’t going to be wordy, just short and sweet tasters of times gone by… gossiping mainly about the story’s background and its characters. I’m going to be here at www.percyspawnshop.com each week, on Tuesdays, with a different chat

As I said, I bought the shop on City Road in 1950, when my grandson, Eric was ten. I’d held a pawnbrokers licence since before the war and, for the most time, ran it from the front room of my house in Chorlton-on-Medlock with my good lady wife, Sarah, who knows all about old jewellery and furniture stuff. In Fact, you could write what she doesn’t know about old things on the back of a stamp.

Anyway, until we bought the shop on City Road, we used a neighbour’s house whose front room used to be a shop. But, as more and more furniture became available after the war when people were being re-housed, it became too much, and we had to move out. The City Road shop was cheap… I mean, really cheap. We had to borrow money from the bank, the wife sorted that out, but it was so cheap that we couldn’t turn it down.

There was a snag, though.

Nothing’s ever as straightforward as it seems. Is it?

The problem was that Norah and her daughter Connie came with the shop… However, that’s another story, and I’ve already said I wouldn’t make these chats wordy, So take care, for now, and I’ll be here next week. Oh, by the way, If you register as a member, we’ll send these chats directly to your email address, with a promise that we won’t be selling anything (Other than advertising the book, perhaps.), and we definitely won’t pass your details anywhere. Have a great week.

Percy.