When I walk Pickles, Mum’s dog, I often take the route my Mum and Dad would to the park on Old Hall Road. This was once the site of Maghull Grammar School, attended by my two sisters, just a short walk from our home. My brother and I were in the Scout Group here, so one way or another my Mum often watched us coming and going to the school. And making sure we weren’t late! On leaving the park, we walk alongside the Leeds Liverpool canal, one of the many canals my Mum would enjoy on the cabin cruiser my Dad had for many years. After a short distance we walk under the pedestrian bridge that would be on our route to the railway station. As a child my mum would often take us to the railway station. We used to go to a number of stops along the line into Liverpool, including visiting mum’s friends and relatives, shopping and even the dreaded dentist. But most commonly it would be Kirkdale station and on to see her Mum and Dad in Roxburgh Street. I remember often running ahead and up the steps of the bridge to look along the canal. Across another park Pickles and I head into Hudson Road and go by the flat we first lived in in Maghull, around the time my brother was born, having moved from Roxburgh Street. Continuing down Hudson Road follows the route we walked to my primary school. I remember my mum walking me there on my first day and making sure I was settled before leaving, not an easy task with all the tears elsewhere in the classroom. We turn back through another small park, Moorhey, that Mum must have taken all her children and grandchildren to play at one time or another. And all the dogs! And then back home.