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lorjones-78458
Reviews
The Way We Live (1946)
Window into the past
This was the Plymouth both my grandfather's returned home to after demob. What a sorry sight it must have been too. My mum told me my dad's mum, my grandmother Jesse and her daughter, were regulars up the Hoe (as in the film) dancing with the Yanks. My dad played truant from school to go shoot dice with the Yanks up the Hoe too. I know Efford well and the mums in the film could well be the grans of more than one of my school chums. I grew up on the post war Ernesettle estate with street names like Biggin Hill and Rochford Crescent. , German POWs used as labour force. My gran Jesse moved from a Devonport slum to a new build at Dryburgh Crescent, Ham Estate c1945 and was there till her death, my dad was still in the house in 2005, when it finally past from family hands back to the Council. Unlike social housing since 1970s, the council houses were so well built and had such big gardens, rear for dads veg, front for mums flowers, that many never moved again. As a Janner the film makes me feel a part of my roots and see old Plymouth through my parents (as children) and grandparents eyes. A gem of a film. Rewatchable.