Carribean Club.

I was taking a few photographs today in one of my old stomping grounds. There used to be three pubs within 100 yards of each other, and the Carribean Club. Now the Carribean Club was exactly what it says on the tin, and it genuinely was a ray of sunshine in deepest darkest rainy Lancashire. One advantage with the C.C. was the licensing hours. A lot of the clientele worked in factories who worked shifts. This of course was when licensing hours were much less relaxed than they are now.When the pubs shut at 3pm, the C.C. opened until 4pm. If you visited then and nursed your drink whilst having a game of dominoes, (very popular here) you could spin it out until 5pm, when the pubs outside the Preston area, over the river, were open at 5 or 5:30 pm. The club like many others including the Hibernian closed when the membership were of an age when the people who had founded the club, were literally dying off. Not many factories open anyhow.
To play dominoes with a largely very lively bunch of West Indian guys was an education in itself. The winner would receive a can of Carlsberg Special Brew for his just reward. Now in Lancashire of course we are rather heathenish and played with a set that went up to double nine. If you comitted an unpopular play you would be cursed at in true West Indian style. 'Rass clatt was a common insult, if you wrere lucky. The way the players slapped their do's down was frightening. Alas all gone. The only upbeat thing was that I noticed a very large fruit and vegetable emporium has opened on the site. The new owners of the site are Indian and the fruit and veg reflect this. We are very well off in Preston because of the diversity of the population, and it is good that there is now a flourishing business were there once was much multi racial joy. I saw these Clementines on an outside stall and it made me smile. The steward was a guy called Cedric, who was of a very stern disposition, until you told him a risque joke when his laughter made you feel better that perhaps you deserved.
Adios.