Mics are live…

I would love to be a good gardener - even just a gardener - but it’s not to be. I do know though, that every plant starts with a little seed and this is mine. I hope you like hearing ordinary people’s voices because my interviewees have great stories, most not already heard.

Bangor is the place I have called home all my life and there have been some big changes to our new city and lots of small ones which were probably hardly noticed by most. We were just getting on with our lives beside the shores of Belfast Lough.

The seed was planted during walks with my husband around the town. As older people do, we’d often stop at a street or a particular building and remember (or try to) what business was there or which school friend lived where. We told each other stories of different times and it sparked an interest.

I mulled the thing over for a while and then one winter’s evening in between Christmas and the New Year, an old, old friend knocked at the door. I hadn’t seen her in decades, yet we were thick as thieves as children, and we did the fastest “remember when” and “what about now” in history.

It turned out her father was still going strong in his tenth decade and she really wanted people to know about what he’d done for Bangor. And although I’m not quite into my nineties, I knew the universe was saying “go!”

And here’s what’s coming up!