RogerC Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 David Dwight - 2013-01-17 9:18 PMAnd what a great time we had. Beyond the Garden gate there were a thousand adventures.Proper fireworks 1d and 2d bangers put in a bottle drop in the pond wow!6d of chips with scraps fried in proper fat.Scrumping apples if you got caught you got a thick ear of the local bobby and then a good hiding off your parents when he took you home.Cycle 10 miles to school and if you were late you got the cane, but you wouldnt let Mum and Dad know because you would get another one.Did it do us any harm, no we learned to respect our Parents the Police and other people especially their property. big 2d bangers ......elastic band and strap them to a frog.....light the touch paper....drop it into the local horse trough and watch in giggled amazement as it shot across the water and exploded in a shower of water and bits.....Just imagine the outcry these days if youngsters did such a thing......RSPCA court case maybe? and yes I agree with all of the foregoing. I seem to recall the only time school was closed was during the 2 months of the severe winter of 1963 and then not for very long. Ah fond memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Remember getting a clip round the ear when I said bugger on a bus once, got another off the old man when he heard me tell my mum a bloke had hit me on the bus and why. Could buy a single fag from the sweet shop, or a pack of 4 Dominoes if I was flush,no wonder I'm a smoker, oddly enough my Mum did not smoke when all of us did in the house and even with the Winter "Pea Soupers we called the smog in those days, she still lived to be 94 Took the girls round the bike sheds for a hand job, or have a "bit of top" Used to ask perfect strangers "Mr can you take me in " when a "A" film was showing at the flicks Used to go over the pub fence to nick a soda syphon bottle, then take it to their "outdoor" and ask for the deposit back. Used to grab the entrance handle on the back of the bus on my pushbike, until the conductor copped you Used to go down the tip and get bits of old bikes to make a good un. or some pram wheels to make a trolley. Used to go in my neighbours sidecar on his motorbike, no seat belts, no hard hat. Used to collect Gollywog badges without being called racist Used to sneak a look at the old mans Tit Bits mag he used to hide under the Sofa, the closest you could get to porn, or Health and Efficiency you could sometimes find in the woods Used to go on "the Pumper" and the "Witches Hat" and only suffered two badly gashed forehead wounds, and one broken arm before I was about 14 Amazing that I've made it to 67 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I started school in 48 in a Devon village . . We still had slates to write on. Later there was as school radio where I heard of the Kings death. One coke fired stove in a huge hall. Free milk came in a big can and was served in chipped mugs. Free orange juice. My first sweets came from Australia in a food parcel. Thanks to the internet i have restablished contact after a two generation break with descendants of the relatives who sent it . The original emmigration from Devon was in 1852 but g grandma came back. Half the population were relatives. We roamed for miles and as long as you shut gates and kept out of crops were normally welcomed on farms with the the greeting Hello boy, hows father? Helping Dad on the allotment and munching carrots straight from the ground with quick rinse in the waterbut. Folowing the hounds on foot. Swimming In the tidal millpond close to the sewer outfall probably gave immunity to lots of nasties. It might have something to do with surving a year in Malaysia in my 20s living in an orphanage with no tummy upsets Unsupervised rowing aged nine with my cousin with no life jackets. Age 12 building rafts on the estuary taught lesson in bouyancy and stability. Even in the 50s there was still explosive WW2 debris for the odd noisy experiment or trade at school. H& S was in the hands of a generation that had survived a couple of wars. Secondary School where the cane was in fairly regular use. Stange to relate it did not turn us all into brutal monsters. No street lighting and playing hide in seek after dusk gave gave a confidence in the dark that was usefull twenty years later when I joined the police. Dad a gardener worked full time but had a lot of side lines like salmon fishing and private garden work .Mum work part time just to make ends meet and put enough by for a deposit on a house so they were no longer renting or worse in a tied cottage. Its sad but true that while the availabilty of cheap motorcars gave freedom to travel to adults but the fear of abduction by car means it has in many respects turned modern childhood into a prison. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 You've just reminded me, we as kids used to regularly swim in the cut, and try to avoid the dead dogs and drowned kittens that would be there from time to time, we also used to sneak on to Minworth sewage plant and swim in a pond right in the centre of it, we used to be amused seeing how many "rubber johnies" we could spot coming in the inlet channel, blimey a wonder we did not get the bubonic plague or something. Happy days P.S, I thought we were the only ones to play with and explode railway detonators, I remember them vividly, a round metal case full of explosive with ears to wrap on to the lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Oh yes… the good old days…. When I had a maid to wash my handkerchiefs and another to starch them; when our Butler [Mr Hudson] brought the Pater a hot toddy each evening; when the chauffeur polished the Rolls; when Mrs Bridges served 7 courses for dinner … oh yes….. when Mrs Thatcher restored the pride of the ruling classes, all before the PC lot banished children from climbing chimneys and sleeping in factories [spoil sports], and stopped press ganging men to fight … ERMMMM hang on… am I getting my nostalgia a bit mixed up here …. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Gwendolyn - 2013-01-19 11:32 PM Oh yes… the good old days…. When I had a maid to wash my handkerchiefs and another to starch them; when our Butler [Mr Hudson] brought the Pater a hot toddy each evening; when the chauffeur polished the Rolls; when Mrs Bridges served 7 courses for dinner … oh yes….. when Mrs Thatcher restored the pride of the ruling classes, all before the PC lot banished children from climbing chimneys and sleeping in factories [spoil sports], and stopped press ganging men to fight … ERMMMM hang on… am I getting my nostalgia a bit mixed up here …. Mmmm, now your spoiling our fun, and whatever you do don't mention Rheumatic Fever, Polio, or Diphtheria, or Thalidomide, ah happy days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Just adding to the fun… did you doff your cap to The Gentry? Did you “riddle the ashes”? We had to run past the “Murder Stone” in the graveyard in the village church….. it does exist, complete with its curse engraved on it. And, going back to the OP… we made “gambos” not “go-carts”. We hung ropes over trees to make swings, which swung out over steep drops in the cliffs. [i fell off into a wasps’ nest – painful.] We dammed the stream “up the woods” to make a pool so we could swim in it, and we made rafts to cross the river – they always sunk….. fortunately we didn’t …. And all the while…. Berlin Blockade, Suez, Cuba Crisis, men getting killed down the mines, Aberfan….. etc….. [a random selection from not a so good memory…] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Gwendolyn - 2013-01-20 12:05 AM Just adding to the fun… did you doff your cap to The Gentry? Did you “riddle the ashes”? We had to run past the “Murder Stone” in the graveyard in the village church….. it does exist, complete with its curse engraved on it. And, going back to the OP… we made “gambos” not “go-carts”. We hung ropes over trees to make swings, which swung out over steep drops in the cliffs. [i fell off into a wasps’ nest – painful.] We dammed the stream “up the woods” to make a pool so we could swim in it, and we made rafts to cross the river – they always sunk….. fortunately we didn’t …. And all the while…. Berlin Blockade, Suez, Cuba Crisis, men getting killed down the mines, Aberfan….. etc….. [a random selection from not a so good memory…] Ah but now we've got home grown suicide bombers, I get nervous any time someone sits down next to me with a rucksack now, in those good old days I would not have thought it could be filled with Semtex, only sandwiches and a bottle of Dandelion and Burdock. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Dave Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 when my Mum used to light the fire she would chop some sticks up and pile up the coal on top then having lit the paper layer at the bottom, she would stand the dustpan up in front of the fire and stretch a full sheet of newspaper across the front of the fire to make it 'Draw' then as the paper changed from a light scorched brown to blazing inferno she would stuff it up the chimney in a two fingers up to safety fashion. Occasionally there would be a chimney fire on the village which would cause some entertainment as the chimney pot looked like a jet engine nozzle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Gwendolyn. You have to alter your viewer settings. Its the negative image not positive you should be viewing. In my case for a couple of years we were in a tied thatched cottage when dad was gardener and mum the cook at the big house. Dads left leaning politics were tilted even further by the fact the big house butchers bill was bigger than his monthly wage. Still as kids we had the run of the estate including the beach as long as we kept out of the view from the front windows of the big house. Most of the staff acted as beaters for the shoots but Dad was exempt. Injured pigeons often made it home to their roosts in the trees close to the house before keeling over and falling to the ground. The palce had to be kept tidy so were speedily cleared to our larder before the shooters got home. Every job had its perks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerro Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Thank you ever one for bringing back so many memorys,We played kick can and a game called nippsy. and there were long hot summers. I remember the Sheffield blitz when we were in the shelters and shrapnel hitting the roofs we watched the dog fights on the way to school between the germans and our airmen. and the sat matinee after the war was two pence the first two rows and three pence after that. And my first Walls ice cream I still only eat walls. and from Canada out first apple and an Orange. Bliss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 I may be repeating myself, but imagine how in todays world it would look seeing a 13 year old approaching an adult man, and asking him to take you in the flicks when an "A" film was showing, as all us kids did, mind you Mum always used to say don't let funny men sit by you, shame that because Ken Dodd once sat by me, and I moved away, I could have got his autograph ! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Dave Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 There was always the statement when we went out of the house 'have you changed you underwear' In case you get run over. 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikethebike Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Dr Dave - 2013-01-20 6:47 PM There was always the statement when we went out of the house 'have you changed you underwear' In case you get run over. 8-) Waste of time having clean underwear on, if a bus was coming toward me I'd sh-t myself anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Yes I always got that one as well, mind you my shoes were another matter, when they were holed a piece of cardboard was shoved in, unless they splashed out and bought some Philips sticka-soles. I was always told not to talk to strangers, that always posed a problem when getting on the bus,or going to a shop. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Dave Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-01-20 8:08 PM Yes I always got that one as well, mind you my shoes were another matter, when they were holed a piece of cardboard was shoved in, unless they splashed out and bought some Philips sticka-soles. I was always told not to talk to strangers, that always posed a problem when getting on the bus,or going to a shop. :D For me (probably posh) a bit of lino in the shoes. and dad who was at the 'pit' stuck old bits of conveyor belt on the bottom. No shop bought soles for us the conveyor belt was mighty slippery though.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 I must check under my workbench to see if that once valued family heirloom dads cobblers last is still there. I still have a 60 odd year old 1/4" thick piece of rubber sheet used to replace heels. Most working class homes had a last but aspiring families had a sowing machine as well Other essential kit in rurall was a sawing horse. When we moved into a town with a sawmill the Saturday morning chore was trundling down with the cart made from a stout wooden box and pram wheels to lug it back up the hill with offcuts to feed the sawing horse. A nearby cider store closed and the old staves were available free. Those kept us warm for a couple of years but the smell stopped me from aquiring a taste for scrumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Blimey 8-) ............................How old are you lot? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 pelmetman - 2013-01-21 10:07 PM Blimey 8-) ............................How old are you lot? :D Mmmmmmmmmm, hang on it will come in a minute............Oh bugger I can't remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Dave Posted January 21, 2013 Author Share Posted January 21, 2013 pelmetman - 2013-01-21 10:07 PM Blimey 8-) ............................How old are you lot? :D That old that when i was a child we had pelmets on all the windows THAT OLD! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 pelmetman - 2013-01-21 10:07 PM Blimey 8-) ............................How old are you lot? :D A lady never reveals her age. But younger than you; in wisdom, older than time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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