JUST about everyone in Britain - from the most famous to the most humble - has a happy memory of Eric Morecambe.

A book featuring those reminiscences of the stars, appropriately called Memories of Eric, was released this week.

But, of course, those of us in Morecambe have our own recollections of Eric.

Memories of his days at home in Buxton Street and as a school boy at Lancaster Road and Euston Road schools.

And nobody remembers him better than his childhood dancing partner Betty Ford.

"I've many fond memories of Eric although he was just a quiet lad then," said Betty. "We were good friends as teenagers and one time he came to party of mine and made me laugh all day by trying to teach me to wink. I just couldn't do it and he was having a bit of fun with me. I remember the next day he bought me a little present, it was a handkerchief.

"Really though he wasn't always joking and was quite quiet. It was as a dancer that I knew him, we learnt to dance together. We were at the same school but the boys and girls were separated so he would climb up the gates to talk to me." Eric came to visit Betty at her daughter's bridal shop (now closed) in Morecambe years after he had established himself as a major star. "It must have been in the 1970s," she remembered. "He was a bit depressed because none of his old friends were here any more and a few of them had died. So he came to see me and we sat and chatted for two hours. He went through all our old memories of the old Mickey Mouse Club by what was the Odean by York Bridge.

"He said he was surprised to see me here and thought I'd have gone into dancing in America or somewhere which was nice of him. I didn't like to see him down about his old friends and not having anywhere to go in Morecambe but it was really lovely to see him. He was just a very, very nice man."

A host of stars celebrate the life of Eric in the book but some of the best stories come from members of his family. Speaking in the 1970s Eric's mother Sadie Bartholomew remembered bringing him up on Buxton Street. When Eric was a little lad she would tie him to the doorknob with a scarf to stop him running away but one time he escaped.

"I rushed to the bottom of Lancaster Road to look for him and saw two old men sitting on a bench," said Sadie. "Have you seen a little boy go by? I asked. 'Nay,' said one, 'but we've seen a little lass with a curly top carrying a tam-o'-shanter.' "That's him.' I said.

"They pointed to Eric a little way off surrounded by builders. They'd rigged up a plank on a couple of crates for him and Eric was going through his repertoire of nursery rhymes. The tam-o'-shanter was his box office and he was doing very well. They were loving it.

"I dragged him home and told him he was for the strap. On the way back we stopped at a shop owned by a friend, Mrs Pascoe. I went in for a chat with her. Eric went behind the counter and emerged with a dog lead. 'Better give me the strap now,' he said. 'It won't hurt so much with Mrs Pascoe watching."

Memories of Eric by his son Gary Morecambe and Martin Sterling is published by Andre Deutsch priced £14.99.

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