lodstewart

12 hours ago, toofarnorth said:

Your last para.   School and summer hols.  A bag of sandwiches then mum ' Be back before it gets dark '.   Climbing trees , swimming in an old quarry , putting pennies on the railway line and after finding them ; the size of saucers.  Now what is it kids do , play with their app things to talk to friends.

yes and we got up to some very dangerous stuff at times, one of the older boys in our area was mucking about down the railway,

and found a box of detonators, his surname was Lawrence, for the rest of his life known as hooky Lawrence , for obvious reasons.

3 hours ago, bobandyson said:

 

 

To me, I don't recall ever hearing the name 'Paedophile'. Not even the word 'Pervert'. I only thought of molesters as 'dirty old men'.

 

I remember 3 incidences clearly. One time when I was around 8-10 yo, me and my mates were in the park and an old guy about 70-80 yo exposed himself and wanted one of us to touch 'it'.  We just joked around for a while and then went off somewhere.

 

Whenever I bunked off school I couldn't go home and had to be careful no-one saw me around town somewhere. So I'd often go to the ABC cinema. I was watching 'Emmanuelle' one time when an old guy in the next seat started squeezing my leg saying that the movie was a bit tame. I quickly moved back a few rows so I could keep an eye on him.

 

Another time in a market in a nearby town, I was drinking tea in a cafe and a guy started asking why I wasn't at school. It wasn't long before he asked if I wanted to go back to his place for more tea.

 

I often think that if those incidences are so vivid to me and are seemingly etched into my mind, even though nothing really major actually occurred, then it makes me think of what it must be like for poor victims who've been subjected to horrendous abuse or molestation. 

 

And to think that there could've been people like Myra Hindley and/or Ian Brady in close proximity to me during my youthful days. 

 

yup very scary to be in the area of those pair, I remember it well, when they were looking for those poor kids,

and Hindley's description with lepeopord pattern coat at the fairground.in the newspaper. was it around 1962 ?

12 hours ago, toofarnorth said:

Yes I remember those Domino fags . The packs were the size of a domino with coresponding numbers on. I wonder if they were made for us kids , surely adults could afford a pack of 10. They were the days when " I am going outside for a fag " meant something different to today.

it sure did toofar, everyone smoked everywhere, even on trains , upstairs on the bus, even in Hospital.

there was a big fire at one of the London undergound stations , I think it might have been Old st, Station,

started under the escalater a lighted dog end, no-one thought of the accumalation of debris beneath the staircase,

so it was never cleared. and once it started the fire and smoke just overwhelmed the whole station.

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

Like this.....

 

 

yes thanks , but thats beautiful concourse condition and today you  would be looking at North of £75k

mine cost me £50 as you can imagine .....not that beautiful condition , but I loved every bit of her.

covered many thousands of miles in her too

3 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Ha......my recollection is No6 cigarettes (?)......or senior service (?).    I can remember the lady in the shop opening  packets and selling cigarettes, as you say, individually or maybe in batches of five. 

I remember in the 60's a skinny fag called Domino came out sold only as fives in a paper pack with no lid 6d a pack

36 minutes ago, toofarnorth said:

In deed I do sir . My fist car was given to me , a 1938 Hillman Minx , I past my test in it in 1968 , I think I sold it for a fiver and with insurance money that had been with held since a bad bike accident in 1964 , at 21 yo bought the Morgan , 250 quid . Same Dutch au pair girl but a better car. Ah 1968 , 21 yo and not a care in the world.

great thanks,  yes you could pick up a morgan then for around the £250 mark  one of my best was an Alvis TC21 3litre

I am trying to find a pic but all gone I think, but what lovely days they were, I can still smell that lovely exhaust and sound of those old engines

58 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Spangles

Jelly snakes

Bubble gum with Beatles cards inside

Comics

Barley sugar sticks

Gum ball machines

 

yes Now you bring back the memories spangles 55, that gumball machine was out the front of every sweetshop .

usually a newsagents, fags and sweets,

many sold cigarettes single for those that couldn't afford a full pack, had 5 packs then too, 

Turf always had good fagcards , players weights, woodbines were

the working mans fags, later was Kensitas (or some name like that) with gift tokens.

yes,  all sweet shops had scales, loose sweets were sold usually 2 oz in a paper bag.

and were all still on ration until the fifties I think , I remember when sweets came off ration, but I cannot remember the date.

only allowed 2oz of sweets a week on ration. that would have made a lot of difference to the nations teeth , if they had stayed on.

anyone remember House Of Bewley shops ? tobacco of every kind sold loose , what a lovely smell that was .

20 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Austin A35.......15 plates pop riveted into the floor....you could see the road through the passenger footwell.

 

Got 10 people into it once, stopped by the police and told........... go steady.

there were no seatbelts then, and no breathalisers, you only had to be able to walk along a white line at the cops shop  55

3 hours ago, faraday said:

Looked a lot smarter than all those hippies, unwashed dreamers.

 

Loved my DM's, Cherry Red & I was constantly polishing them. For which I had the pish taken out of me!????????

me too loved a good polished pair of leather boots, still do it now.

3 hours ago, bobandyson said:

 

There was a Dutton&Foreshaw showroom only two blocks away from our house. But it was a car showroom with a repair garage at the rear. Above the showroom there was a snooker hall. Nothing like the halls of today that are carpeted and have good air ventilation and lighting. No, this snooker hall was so smoke-filled it resembled low lying clouds and the smell of tobacco smoke and spilled beer was horrible to me as a kid.

 

And yet quite often at tea-time, my mum would send me to go look for my dad who would pop-in there occasionally from work on his way home. So, mum would give me 3d to go and see if he's there and my dad would give me 6d to tell mum that he wasn't there.

 

I had a nice little earner for a while. That is, until one time I said to my mum 'Dad said he wasn't there.' ????

in London all Burtons tailors had a billiard hall above, Joe Davis was the name I remember, but it was always Billiards

no snooker, I think snooker originated in colonial India

my first car was a 1938 Standard flying nine, side valve engine , 6volt battery crank handle of course as they all did.

the cylinder head was just a slab nothing was in it at all except the spark plugs , as all sidevalve engines were in those days.

then later came the OHV but still had the camshaft in the block, valves operated by push rods up to the rocker shaft ,

then came the Overhead cam , which was the obvious progression for all production cars. many variations of this were tried ,

the Jowett Javelin was one,  a flat 4,  I remember,

anyone else remember those old engines and models of  long ago

6 hours ago, Pilotman said:

That's the one, a very nice stout.  Do they still produce it? If so, I wonder if you can order it here? If I recall, we used to mix it 50/ 50 with cider, wasn't that a Black Velvet? Goodness, my mouth is watering. 

mate of ours drank Maccy stout  or guiness with a glass of red ruby port tipped in, lovely.

yes Black Velvet with Cider I think, Black &Tan with Mild. same colour as the pub ceiling with all the years of nicotine stain   55

and what happened to the public and saloon bars ,  where did they go and why ?

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

There was Mild Beer and there was Bitter Beer and you could mix the two or have a shandy.  Not a bottle of foreign lager anywhere and if you asked for a cocktail outside of London you would be laughed out of the pub. 

Brown & Mild yes , a lovely Pint I think it was about 1/10 just under 2 bob. often saw older women  drink stout

26 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Town I grew up in had 2 cinemas. One proper one and the town hall had movies on Saturdays for the kids. I wasn't allowed to go to the town hall, as my mum though it too rough. I'd hear the kids yelling and screaming at the movies from outside, and I'd think they must be enjoying themselves.

The proper cinema was 2 shillings upstairs and 1 down. At the interval ( they showed proper "short" movies, not ads before the main feature, plus the Movietone News reels, as no tv then ) a boy would come in with ice cream cones in a box for 9p. The cinema also had a "Nibble Nook" next door to stock up on sweets before going in. We also had to stand up for "God save the queen" before the movie, like they still do in Thailand.

On Sundays they had a double feature for the price of one, and often the cinema would be packed.

Happy days then.

yes we had great respect for our Royal Family in those days, all been lost now I am afraid, and a lot is their own doing,

I remember when King GeorgeV1 Died, and the very beautiful young Princess Elizabeth was  crowned, all the Street parties

was such a happy day , all over the UK

1 hour ago, bobandyson said:

My home town has gone back to using trams.

 

First phone we had was a trim phone. Kids at school were able to imitate the ring tone which was bloody annoying. I wished I could do it.

 

Hearing the phone ring me, my sister and brother would rush to answer it. If it was a gf of mine I'd be on the phone for an hour or more just talking sweet nothings. If it was a call for my brother or sister I'd mime hand gestures to them that they'd better not talk for too long or they'll know what will happen to them.

 

I remember my uncles would never go anywhere without wearing a trilby, tie, jacket, dress shoes etc.

 

Ben Sherman shirts with a pleat down the back was like wearing an original polo shirt of today.

 

Brand new slip-on shoes that fit nicely at the shop but felt 2 sizes too small when at school. Couldn't complain to mum that they were crippling me or she would knock me into the middle of next week.

 

'Blancmange' was probably the only foreign sounding food we ate. Except maybe when we ate 'pomegranates' with a safety pin or needle. 

 

 

ha ha yup, all seems like yesterday, Ben Sherman shirts, I think they were the first button down collars in the UK.

and don't forget the tapioca milk puddings,

6 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

No phone in our house until around 1964. When my younger brother was born a neighbour had to run about three-quarters of a mile to the phone box to call the midwife. Most kids were born at home.

 

Later we had a phone installed at home, but on a party line. You had to make sure nobody was using it before making a call. My parents had moved to the Midlands from the Scottish borders for work. Calling their parents meant a trunk call, put through manually by the operator. Cost a lot too.

 

I was talking about this with my Mum, back in the UK, just the other day. It was a video call lasting about 30 minutes with crystal clear pictures. She showed off her garden with all the new flowers and plants - all totally free. 

 

EDIT: The call was free, not the plants.

 

 

 

we had our phone about 1963 and after about a year, post office telephones (as it was then) told us that we had to go

on a party line with someone else, I refused , saying that I didn't want to share my phone. They replied that I had no option,

I still refused , so they took my line away, no phone at all then. hard to believe today, but it is the truth.

8 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Prefabs!

ha ha yes, and what about trams, certainly not many of us who remember trams in London area.

and the tram rails were laid on oak blocks soaked in tar, when they ripped up the tramways,

us kids had to bring back the tarry blocks, they burned lovely on the old fires.

all helping that famous London smog. so thick that the only thing Buses could see was open flames all along the kerbs,

some people wore smog masks.......now history repeats itself

4 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I am one. Born 23 May 1944. Still tottering along.

 

I remember in winter the frost on the inside of the windows and sleeping with my clothes inside the bed to keep warm for the morning.

 

My Mum and Dad had no electricity, gas lighting and cooker. I paid for electricity to be put in during 1964 but Mum would never have a fridge or a TV.

 

Open fires in the living room and the 2 bedrooms and a coke stove in the kitchen with a back boiler for hot water on Sundays for a bath. Being the youngest I was always last.

yes your just in, I was born June 43 and evecuated up to Norfolk with mother and sister, babies in arms stayed with mums.

while you of course were born just two weeks before the assault on Normandy.......D day,

and here we are, talking about it on a Thai board, 55 it's a funny old world bill ennit

14 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

My Dad was a TV engineer and we got our first color TV in 1955.

For some reason the neighbours became very friendly.

do you mean 65 ? I am sure there was no colour tv in the uk in 1955 was there ? , crumbs we had only just got 2 channels

and all B&W

2 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I was a child of the fifties, television did not exist. Listened to radio soaps instead.

My mother made fruit mince tart, lemon meringue pies, pavlovas and coconut ice. Roast chicken was a Christmas luxury. Lamb was cheap, roast lamb and veggies every Sunday.

Had bantam chooks, walnut, apricot, pear and apple trees in the back yard. My mother would preserve them all with a Fowlers Vacola bottling kit. We'd pick mushrooms in the nearby fields in season.

I collected scrap copper, lead, aluminium and brass from the local tip, used the proceeds to buy my first pushbike. Caddied at Royal Melbourne until I was 18, compulsory retirement.

There's a lot of ways of life that have been buried under government regulations now.

yes no tv until for us until 1952 just in time for the Coronation of Liz, but my grandma wouldn't go near it     ha ha