Jack_The_Lad wrote:

J. Simons opened in 1981, following on from his 'Ivy Shop' in Richmond (opened in 1965) and various other shops too, but it was only when I was told about the place in 1985 that I knew it even existed. I had walked past Russell Street in Covent Garden for years but had never been down it. I had been out for drinks after work when I met two guys in a club who dressed a bit like me. Like me, but much better. They had this really cool American 'college-boy' style, which was what I was aiming for, but they were wearing the real clothes, which I'd only ever seen in films and in old photos, not English clothes altered to approximate the look like I was wearing. So I thought they must be Americans. Tourists, probably. And then one walked over to me (we'd been checking each other out on the sly, but not even nodding or smiling at each other - you know,  the way blokes do in clubs...) and then the guy said 'Hi'. Well 'Hi' is American in my book so I said 'Hello' back to be sociable, thinking that I had this guy sussed and we were about to have one of those 'Have you been to the Tower of London yet?' conversations that Londoners often get stuck with when randomly friendly tourists take a shine to you. But then he carried on talking and to my amazement he was English and so was his mate who strolled over next. They were North London boys who talked in this really piss-taking way (to use an English expression) punctuated with what I was later to learn was Yiddish and also 'Yiddish-ish' the mock-Jewish street slang of their neck of the woods. It was a complete brave new world for a white-bread boy like me.
So we got talking and drinking until the club closed & they told me about John's and then that next Saturday we all went there. Simple as that.

Hello old son! You talk like you were there!
I remember an under age kid who swaggered around the place. We thought you were a teenage lesbian at first. Kidding.

Hello to Alex Roast for getting me posting.

PN

PADDY wrote:

Hello to Alex Roest for getting me posting.

And hello to you Paddy ! Nice to have you here, enjoy.....

Malchik this is all kack and you know it. We brought you up better than this.

"The mix-ups of two single straight men raising a teenaged daughter provided the story each week."


Good for a grin?


I'll phone.

This thread now requires a post from Beatnik as a counterpoint to all the fanboi stuff.

Happy memories of the old place...

I'm not sure i'd want to.

Oo Bop Sh'bam wrote:

I'm not sure i'd want to.

Only 'cause you want Geezer Ivy to do the doing batty boy.


Your inbox is full again BTW.

You know, "does" as in "doing". Sorry it was a piss poor joke. I won't let it happen again.

Just snatched that JS surcingle on the 'Bay!