LETTER: I miss Beatties of my childhood
I will miss Beatties, as a child it was a great store to visit, and as a teenager I saved up to be able to buy make-up there.
The Christmas grotto was every child’s dream.
In 1948 my late father who was a magician – I was his assistant – was asked to entertain 5,000 children in the Civic Hall waiting for Father Christmas.
He had been driven from Pendeford Airport on a mobile iceberg to make an appearance down a large fireplace with the help of the Mayor Alderman Lane who had borrowed my father’s magic wand.
From the Civic Hall he then went to his grotto in Beatties where hundreds of children waited to visit him. Very happy days.
When the toy department closed, followed by the wool and materials, the book department, Beatties lost a lot of its old magic.
I wonder what James Beattie would think of all of this?
Eunice Parry
Wednesfield
