Which city, state and country 
do you live in now?

When and why did you leave?

Steve Weinert (crafts@dataplusnet.com) is from rural Pott Shrigley, but has also lived in Didsbury. He left reluctantly in 1986 and now lives in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The move doesn't seem to have done him any harm :"I rather think in Manchester we woudn't have an airplane, five extra cars, travel twice a year across the pond and once a year to somewhere warm and sunny".

Peter Robinson (peterrob@telusplanet.net) lived in Chorlton, but in 1981 moved to Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, where "mechanics can make a decent living, and are not treated so poorly. Mechanics, in Manchester at least, are still paid very low wages for the highly technical job they have to do".

Katrina Phillips (axel@axel.com) left in March 1997 to marry Axel, her American husband, and remembers "Chorlton, luvverlee Chorlton - a great cosmopolitan yet community-oriented neighbourhood.". She longs to visit familiar places, including Chorlton Green in the summer, Beech Road and the Horse and Jockey. She misses the people too: "Miserable but honest Manchester people. Happy Manchester people." Katrina used to sing with well-known Manchester bands Colorfield and Skeletal family, and now sings with Manchester band G-Sensation in California.

David Boardman (db@mail.espbed.edu.on.ca), grew up in a terraced house on Holt St, later Holderness St, Longsight. Though he is now nostaligic about his childhood, he always wanted to emigrate and did so at age 21. He became an elementary school teacher and lives in Espanola, Ontario, Canada.

How do you remember your home area?

Llewellyn Clarke (llewlc@freespace.net) remembers a different Longsight from the one David Boardman knew: litter, demolition of flats built in the 1960's, and the aroma of curry wafting through the air are three of his most vivid memories. He left in 1987, and moved to Canada in 1994, where he works as a chef.

The street in Longsight where David Boardman grew up has long since been pulled down, like much of the city in the post war years. Keith Stokes (sec@webquill.com) a chemical engineer now living in Fairfield County, Connecticut, remembers seeing 17 chimneys from his bedroom window overlooking Winton Park, Salford, but how many are there now?

Joan White (joanw@istar.ca), a retired nurse living in Toronto Canada, doesn't miss "emptying the grate" of the fireplace at her parental home in Middleton, but remembers the area as being "friendly, safe, clean and caring". Can the same be said for that area now?

Ray Mooney (Ray.Mooney@airservices.gov.au) is from the nearby Langley Estate, but now lives in Canberra, Australia, and will shortly move to Brisbane. He remembers Langley as tough, but safe, with no drugs and great pubs. The last time he visited was in 1992: "Langley looked about 100 years old. About one third of the houses were boarded up. People were exactly the same - brillant".

Generally, expat memories of their home areas are both positive and negative - "clean", "friendly", with "nice pubs" and "good neighbours" say many of them, but "depressing", "colourless", "grey" and "rainy" are also adjectives which cropped up frequently.

The earliest memory came from Geoff Warren (warren96@msn.com) who lived through the Blitz. "I remember watching the action from the second floor window from my folk's semi-detached."

What do you miss about home?

Pubs come high up on the expat Mancunian "missed list", as well as the friendliness, cameraderie and sense of humour to be found in them. Other things they long for are football, especially United and City, old buildings, the countryside, baker's shops, the public transport system, delivered milk, fires, snow, white Christmases, wine gums, Eccles cakes, fish and chips, pub sing-a-longs, black pudding and stores such as Marks and Spencer's and Quicksave.

Boddingtons is the subject of frequent expat fantasies, and is frequently quoted as a symbol of Manchester. A remarkable number of people said they missed pies, especially those made by Hollands. One respondent specified that no other brand would do. Ray Mooney (Ray.Mooney@airservices.gov.au) said he'd even had dreams about pies made by Hollands.

Tony & Lynda Langham (tonylang@OntheNet.com.au), now living on the Gold Coast, Queensland Australia, left Manchester in 1965. They especially miss the old buildings and sense of history here, as well as pubs, fires and snow. They run a family history website (http://www.onthenet.com.au/~tonylang/Mainpage.html) and are closely associated with the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.

And Lynda and Bernard Youel (youel@tower.net.au) in Perth, Australia miss "good old fashioned pubs, friendly people and good quality shopping!"

Expats frequently lament the absence of close relatives. Brenda Wright (mailto:macbren@academy.net.au), nee Core, a resident of Australia for 33 years, but originally from Stalybridge, misses her brother and sister-in-law in Audenshaw. She also pines for things like real English fish and chips and mushy peas, Hollands steak and kidney pudding, Ashton and Oldham markets, Coronation St and good English comedy on TV.

A woman in Brisbane, Australia had this to say: "I miss the close contact of family and friends. I miss staying out till late at night when the days are long and the nights are light. I miss fish and chips wrapped in newspaper and soaked in vinegar. I miss the snow and white Christmases."

EXPATS PAGE THREE