HAPPY memories of tea dances, complete with buttered toast, came waltzing back for Teresa Doyle when she spotted a mention on this page about the old Neighbours Club, once a major social magnet in the Thatto Heath area.

Teresa (nee Culley) from Booth Street, Nutgrove, recalls: "It was our special meeting place from the age of 15 years on, and I attended twice a week - Mondays and Thursdays. It was what I would call our haven".

There, in a place that provided sporting activity and various entertainments, Teresa and her friends would glide around the floor at the twice-weekly hops, to music from gramophone records. Tea and toast was on the menu, served up by a Mrs Burrows.

"You would have thought we were going to a ball, as we wore our taffeta skirts," adds Teresa, who met her hubby there in 1952. They married four years later, so they will be celebrating their golden wedding in 2006.

"Dancing instructress Rita Pover used to come in to give us a few dancing lessons, mainly waltzes, but my friends and I preferred jiving to Glenn Miller's swing number In the Mood".

Teresa also recalls that Bob Dagnall, of Saints fame, met his wife Rita there. "I could go on and on, writing about the wonderful times we had. We didn't have much money, but that didn't matter, we were blissfully happy".

ANYONE else got a recollection or two to share about that neighbourly institution of bygone years? Then why not drop a line or two to Whalley's World?