Reminiscences

I recall seeing but not using, trolley-buses, in Portsmouth and Bournemouth, but despite having been made in 1952 I never saw a tram until visiting Crich Tramway Museum a few decades later.

All those old wireless programmes....

Yes, I recall the Saturday evening litany as ever-hopeful Dad ticked the Littlewoods football coupon. "Far Tottering Rovers three, Oyster Creek United - one." You could tell which side won or if a draw before each line was completed, by the intonation.

Also, Wilfred Pickles with his wife Mabel in a more light-hearted version of Franklin Engelmann's (I think) friendly Down Your Way . Assorted comedies such as The Navy Lark and The Clitheroe Kid - and of course the very edgy Round The Horne. (I learnt only very recently that the Jules & Sandy sketches used genuine slang!) . I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again in the mid-1960s. Some of these shows are being repeated on Radio Four Extra.

The plummy accent that many announcers assumed, making some of their recorded interviews now sound as antiquated as James Clitheroe - who sadly was never able to break out of the child role that eventually destroyed his career by staleness and diminishing credibility.

Alvar Liddel - not sure if he was the main presenter on Radio Newsreel but it was ages before I learnt his name was not "Alvarlin Dale" or later, when my best pal lived in a Lyndale Road, "Alvar Lyndale".

The Archers continues as ever, the world's longest-running soap-opera though the "Everyday story of country folk" by-line was dropped sometime last century. Our Mam was the main Archers follower in the family; but also enjoyed Mrs.'Dale's Diary and was right indignant when first, that was demoted to The Dales, then replaced by something called Wagoners' Walk - a sort of Eastenders by wireless but from the right side of the tracks, I think. At least The Luscombes' amiable little lives never, to my recollection, had anything gritty in them; in fact I don't think the series was a serial.

Anyone remember Sing Something Simple? You have my sympathies! Still, I was the right age when Radio One burst upon us, after Aunty's nervous toe-dipping into pop by the Light Programme Pick Of The Pops and The Saturday Club. Shame though that everything with fine names has to be re-titled by mere numbers.

Yes, fond memories, but I would not want to return to that, given the huge choice of programmes now on the five main BBC radio channels plus its digital subsidiaries. Nor could it possibly have supported music and kept other programmes going through a pandemic as it is now doing - simply because the technical means was not available in the 1950s-60s.

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I do have one very sad and specific memory, though would not have understood it fully at the time. A Hampshire native and still South Coast resident, Manchester was unknown to me but I was an early and avid reader. My Infants' School teacher not only introduced me to Winnie the Pooh. She would also lend me her daily newspaper - and I dimly recall its front-page news one day (in 1958?) was of an air-crash in a country called Germany, killing the Manchester (City?) team...

I still have my copy of W-the-P, her gift to me on my leaving the area when Dad's work was moved to Dorset.

I treasure very few things from that era, but one I do is another book - anyone else recall The Junior Weekend Book?

Some of its contents would make modern parents and teachers of Food Technology and Design & Technology or whatever those are called now, faint... Making toffee? What? Teaching children to boil sugar and butter in a big pan on the gas-stove? (It taught me, well, with Mum's supervision.) Making a simple dinghy? What? Encouraging children to use saws, hammers and nails; and to venture forth upon the waters with the results?

The boat-building does not tell you to ask Dad nicely if he will cut the wood for you. No, you cut it, to the sizes given in simple drawings. Nor, as far as remember, is there much advice on making the boat water-tight; and none on life-jackets! Curious that my generation was not the last.

The chapter on making toffee says something revealing of its 1950s times, with, "now that sugar is off ration..."

Completing the circle, I knew buses and trains, not trams; but a bus I travelled on frequently in its 1960s Southern National days on the Weymouth Grammar School run, was a single-deck, half-cab Bristol, 'Lodekka' I think. It was bought into preservation by the locally and newly-formed Dorset Transport Circle. Subsequently it went to a Swindon owner, and as far as I know is still running. Fleet number 1613, reg, LTA 772.... Err, my portable 'phone number? Surely you don't expect me to remember that!

{ Moved by moderator from 'What Did You Do Today' to 'Reminiscenses' : hope that's OK.

Dave }

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 20/09/2020 09:21:31

I can remember visiting my great-grandmother in Wooburn Green in the late 70s. Her cottage, and the others in the row, had outside toilets, no electricity and gas lighting downstairs. The two bedrooms upstairs were lit with candles. It was still like that when sold in the mid 80s after she died, although she had been in a nursing home for several years by then. We would spend the evening visiting my great-aunt, whose house, which nearly 30 years old by then, had all the modern conveniences.

As a kid(I'm 50) I remember getting ice cream from the local van, a red and white 60s Bedford that was well-used then; he's still using it!

I'm a spring chicken (b. 1956) compared with some on here, but remember well the discovery of a chemist's shop - JN Hogg on the Parade in Birmingham - at age 12. My passion at the time was Chemistry, and you could buy pretty much anything from the amiable Mr Hogg. Fuming nitric and sulphuric acids, phosphorus red and white, ether, chloroform, thionyl chloride, carbon disulphide - no problem for a 12 year old to procure. I even bought half a kilo of picric acid for a purpose I don't recall, but nothing to do with explosions! Things have certainly changed in that respect over the last 50 years.

Another striking change is the way children get to school. At age eight I was bunged on a Corporation bus (as they were then called) to make the two mile journey, and told to get on with it. Maybe I was somewhat deaf even at that age because I listened to what other children said when they proffered their fare, and when my turn came asked for a "penny-ha'penny Charles". When you're eight everything's a bit weird - it could have been! "Child's" I eventually realised. On the back of the ticket was some text urging me to buy a Sumlock Comptometer. Ever a sucker for advertising hype I wanted one but my parents wouldn't oblige.I'm still suffering from that.

I would walk back home rain, hail or snow to save the penny ha'penny for sweets. I don't think that happens nowadays - I would certainly worry if I had an eight year old who might take anything up to 2 hours to tramp home. I don't know if the world's a more dangerous place now, or if it's to do with the perception of risk.

I should say that I was by no means a 'latchkey kid' - it was just a different world.

Robin

Edited By Robin Graham on 19/09/2020 23:23:28

Edited By Robin Graham on 19/09/2020 23:30:47

Edited By Robin Graham on 19/09/2020 23:32:53

Edited By Robin Graham on 19/09/2020 23:34:01

Oh memories. Like most I walked to school and back from about the age of six, traveled on the bus alone from the age of nine to get dinner at my grandmothers when my mother got a job in a department store. No family car so holiday travel by train, on arrival at Scarborough boys with trollies would carry your cases to you hotel. Mornings on the beach then back to hotel for dinner, back to the beach then back for tea and even supper provided.

Used to travel to Nottingham in the fifties and early sixties by train or bus, remember the trolley buses about then.

Father in the RAF for most of the war as an air frame repair fitter. He seems to have visited most large aircraft aerodromes during his time.

Greetings, like you all I have so many memories of my childhood, not all good. I remember traveling on a tram from Camberwell where we lived, over Westminster Bridge, turn right onto the embankment, then into the tram tunnel under Aldwych and Kingsway, coming up into Southampton Row, turn right into theobalds road, getting off next to the Micromodels shop, then on to Grandmas, with perhaps a visit to look in Bassett Lowke's window on the way home. Walking to school, Oliver Goldsmiths Junior mixed, past the Samuel Jones Factory, the horse trough and the cornchandlers, sailing model boats, all home made on Peckham Rye pond, wacked for playing close the the Surrey Canal, the SunPat factory in Parkhurst street, visits to Bricklayers Arms shed, I could go on for ever.

Not sure I want to see those times again, but still vivid memories.

Brian

Hi, I can remember my first day at school, it was about a 3/4 of a mile walk, no bus route and no family car, it fact neither of my parents ever drove a car let along own one, I probably went with my elder sister and brother. However, the 1st year class were still using wooden framed slates and chalk to write on. By about 11.00 o'clock I'd had enough of school and put my slate back on the shelf went to the cloakroom and got my coat and went home, bearing in mind that one road to cross was a fairly busy main road (for it's day and a five year old) into town, but did have a Zebra crossing, which I had been taught how to use. Mum was a bit surprised and she was busy mixing stuff for cakes. can't remember the conversation, but it ended in tears as I was told I'd have to go back after dinner with my sister and brother. Never did like school, but never played truant and only had about one week off with illness in my last year. Junior school was a 1/2 mile walk and a short bus ride away unless we missed the bus and it became a 1-1/2 mile walk and very often arriving late, senior school was about the same until I had a bike when I was about 12 and by the time I was 13, we moved closer to the schools myself and siblings went too. Although my elder sister had to go further to her high school but I think she got the bus into town from the end of our road. My two younger sisters only had about 200 yards to walk to their senior school, as that was at the end of our road also.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/09/2020 08:31:01

regarding the chemist sales , back when I was about 13 or 14 . mis 1950s we used to be able to buy sulphur and saltpetre to try and make out own gunpowder . Never got it quite right though ( luckily) flashes and spectacular flames and very few bangs .

. My Mom walked me to school for first few days then on my own from age 5 just like everyone else and we thought it was normal ( well it was ) I did get a lift some mornings with the milk man on his horse and cart ! Happy days !

Phil

Granny nearly bumped tiny-tot me off with a Shilling in the Slot gas-meter. Mum and dad out on the town with me sleeping in a bedroom while granny babysat (she had Redifusion TV, remember that?).

Both rooms had ancient gas fires fed with town gas, full of deadly Carbon Monoxide. When the shilling ran out, she popped another one in the meter and relit her fire forgetting mine was on too. Fortunately mum and dad came back soon after, and immediately smelt gas in the house. Granny, of course, couldn't smell it!

Big kerfuffle at the time apparently : I don't remember any of it.

Dave

Saturday morning matinee cinema? 9d if memory serves or 3 empty Corona bottles if litter bin diving found them. Roy Rogers or Lone Ranger and an Atom Ant cartoon. Streets filled with bicycles for the morning and evening commutes? Having your hand or bottom smacked for misbehaving at school. Mobile chippy van belching smoke from the crooked stack. Milk bottle in a crock pot for evaporative cooling 'cos who had a fridge? Meat safes. Salt tablets for the tropics.Bread and dripping (with salt). Sugar was good for you too.

pgk

You were lucky, then. Our chemist would only sell us Chile saltpetre (sodium, not potassium nitrate). It sort of worked, but it was hygroscopic, so you had to dry it out on the boiler or in front of the fire (!!!!!) first.

Don't do this at home, kids...

Hi, Saturday morning pictures as we called them was sixpence, and if it was your birthday, you could go up in front of the screen before the start and have happy birthday sung to you from everyone, luckily my birthday never fell on a Saturday.

Regards Nick.

Reading the above just shows how much I've forgotten.

Does anyone remember the Children's Newspaper? Arthur Mees I think.

Shopping - no car, no supermarket, just the bus to the nearest town (20min bus ride). Local, in the same village, grocer, butcher, sweet shop (I wonder how he made a profit, the markup must have been huge), even a local haberdashery store. Mother always used to complain about the local shop prices, but she would still go by bus to Halifax or Huddersfield for shopping. I wonder if she ever thought about the bus fare costs? Local mobile greengrocer with a reputation for being drunk, the village even had a chippy until it burnt down, and two farmers delivering milk, ours eventually became TT.

But just think, no internet or email, and very few telephones - once you left work at the end of the day, that was it until the following morning - if the boss needed you, he/she had to send someone to call you in. No tv until sometime in the '50's and then only one or two programmes on 425 lines - to get BBC2 one had to have a 625 line tv - as long as there was a local 625 line transmitter. Must admit, I'm not sure that we are any better off looking at the junk that purports to be programmes these days.

Going to the cinema, there were two on the way to Huddersfield, and from memory at least four actually in the town. Halifax had 3 or 4 cinemas: even Elland had two (I believe it still has one of them).

Anyone from Huddersfield remember the Regent Ballroom at Fartown? Going strong in the early 60's/late 50's.

Radio Luxembourg on 208 metres & 49.26 MHz shortwave - not too sure about that last frequency, although I did once find it on S/W. Later on Radio Caroline which was moored just outside the 3 mile limit which made it more or less untouchable. Great for us teenagers, not so great for the Beeb.

Starting work in Huddersfield at 7.45 am. Meant getting up about 6.45, then a 15 min walk to catch the 25 past 7 trolley bus into Huddersfield (18 min journey) followed by a sprint across town to get in before the signing on sheet was ruled off. Work was a 44 hour week in 1959, with the adults working Sat am and doing 48 hours a week. Gradually reduced to 42, then 40 for a long time and then down to 37 !/2 hours a week. I wonder how today's moaners would go on with those hours?

Getting told off by Dad for "scorching down Station Rd" on my bike. True, I was - 1 in 7 or possibly 1 in 6 - head down, body down horizontal, coat tails flying! During the eventual house clearance on our parents death we discovered that he had been done for speeding! I've somehow managed to keep a clean licence! So there, Dad.

Peter G. Shaw

I could write all day on this but won't.

However I remember, with great jollity, being on a trolley bus in Derby that tried to overtake the trolley bus in front. Also two of us, as kids in London, would wait for two buses travelling together, usually 19s or 38s, board one each and race each other for miles.

TV pictures, just BBC, were just a blizzard of white dots.

JA

Hello Mick , Maybe that's why ours never worked properly Wrong sort of saltpetre

I remember when Fairy liquid first came out, and we kids used the empty ones with a little water in them as foam squirters. Corona drinks were all the rage and my favourite was dandelion and burdock. Hula hoops came out after polypropylene tube was first made. I also remember mum taking me to see 20000 leagues under the sea at the cinema in Horsham.

Can anyone recall doing this as a WW2 pastime? I was brought up in Woking, Surrey where there use to be an Art Deco style Co-op building long since demolished, equipped with a spiral staircase fitted with a steel banister rail capped with a red PVC? top covering. I have vivid memories as a child during WW2 of climbing the staircase to get to the upper levels and being allowed - yes allowed - to drop dud electric light bulbs down to the basement floor where an image of a swastika had been laid out where of course they smashed to smithereens. Great fufn. Fancy being allowed to do that in this day and age! It would be interesting to know if anyone else can remember doing this sort of thing.

Peter your mention of radio Caroline reminded me that when I was in the RAF and posted to Sharjah, a desert airfield which was in what is now the UAE, we could listen to Caroline for about an hour before dawn because the temperature and atmospherics meant the signal would skip round the globe and we could pick it up on our trannys when were on guard duty out on the airfield, this was in 1967.

Dave W