Let's Reminisce.
 

I am putting this in general chat rather than Nostalgia because:-
1) It will get more attention there.
2) Nostalgia sounds like a painful ailment...and right now there is enough misery in the world.
I am prodded into starting this thread by the reminiscences tha Taddy and I share(totally inappropriately) in another thread.
I am sure there are many of you out there thatbhave stories from your 'growing up' days....one that would make us smile...or even chuckle.

So please post your tales of mischief, fun and frolicks(as long as they are decent) here.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

used to put dolly blue in broadway fountains looked very good i thought.wasnt doing any harm either,

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Would it be possible for the originators, compilers, processor's, or whatever the people who run and maintain Accy Web are called; to move the recent Nostalgia posts from Monkey Hanger, Myself, Margaret Pilkington , etc, to this post under reminisce? Just a thought but maybe not because as you all know I am only a luddite (but learning slowly), with this electronic wizardry.
Your's , the Luddite.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Sorry I should have said "try to move" the recent Corona virus reports from Monkey Hanger, myself and Margaret Pilkington to Reminisce, (if possible). to many Hobgoblins I fear.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

The moderator has the power to do this, but it might leave the thread a bit disjointed so Taddy....you have had a very rich experiential life....tell us about your exploits.

One of ours was taking a rope up Priestley Clough.tying it to a high branch of the tree and swinging across a gorge that had water in the bottom....trying to land on the other side without getting wet.
There was always a queue....and children came from all over to join in the fun.
We were on the go from morning until night.....no chance to get fat.

Oh yes, and the catching of sticklebacks...we got into trouble for that as we were not supposed to go down to the lodge without adult supervision.....so it was early bed that night...no cookies or milk for us(was there ever?)

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Maybe tomorrow,a couple or three (or so) Hobgoblins is not really condusent, with trying to tax the old grey matter into remembering things from over 60/65 or more years ago.
As I tell my kids and grandkids I am not losing my memory,(yet), it is just that I have 70 plus years of memory to drag out; where as they have only between 14 (the youngest) and 50 (the oldest) to remember.

Stay Safe, Stay Happy, Enjoy your Hobgoblin. Your's, The Luddite.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Why don't you copy them from there and paste them into this thread?

That way the other thread doesn't get disjointed and you don't have to wake a mod.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

reckon taddy knows less than me, and thats saying summat less,were both pretty useless with technology.:D

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

A bit like this:-

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Gosh, I wouldn’t know where to start, so many memories. I grew up in a village and looking back I’m not sure what sort of a wish we all had but it just seemed like having fun at the time – and no we were not village idiots even if we sound like we might have been, reading some of this. We liked to think we were daredevils, everything was an adventure.

If there was thunder and lightning we wouldn’t worry about running home but we would dare each other to stand under the tallest tree in the woods. When walking through fields we would choose to take the field that said ‘no trespassing’ or even ‘beware of the bull’ – with fingers crossed that the bull was tethered by the ring in its nose. Life was never boring.

We jumped across brooks – without the help of a rope, Margaret. Usually did this until someone fell in. We went robbing apple orchards where so much of the fruit got wasted – yes, those horrible green apples. Then had to eat them before we got home so that our mum’s didn’t know what we had been up to. Never thought of throwing them away. Not like they wouldn’t have guessed when we were up all night with bellyache. Even on this ‘excursion’ we would climb over back fences and walk up paths – hoping someone would see us and give chase, that was part of the ‘fun’. I was often scared witless at times but I wouldn’t let anyone know – and I suppose others felt the same.

Come to think of it we were right little *****, but did we hurt anyone, except ourselves, no! Did we ever expect anyone to do anything or everything for us, no!

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

My brother used to go tickling trout and then would have to hide his spoils in his towel as it was illegal to take fish from the river – don’t ask me why because whoever owned the reach of that part of the river never fished there. We went swimming and playing in that river – even though we were aware that further upstream there were probably dead cows and sheep floating in it. None of us got any dreadful disease from this.

We had conker competitions, marble championships, went train spotting – hanging over the bridges while the trains went under us. We also walked along the train tracks because wasn’t that the quickest way to get from one place to another.

We went sledging down hills when the snow came. The bigger the hill the better. At Easter time we rolled hard boiled eggs down the same hills, they cracked open like it’s a wonder our heads hadn’t when we were sledging.

…and yes, I encouraged my own children to be adventurous and to go climb trees – and they did!

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Absolutely right Cashy.

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being interested in sport and being quite good at it helped me no end in finding friends after a moved. in winter unless there was a school game about 10 of us used to go up to the local rec to play football. we took it in turns for 2 of us to arrive early between 8 and 8.30 to bag out goalmouth. there was a shelter to change in where you knew no one would touch your stuff or bikes for those who cycled. one morning i,ll never forget. it was snowing so what we all thought. we were there our usual 2 hours with the snow getting incresingly heavy. when we got back to the shelter we all had a shock. we looked back up the field and all the snow was green. it was actually what we thought snowing green snow. on walking back home everything including cars were one shade of green or another. do not know to this day what went wrong with us apart from my old mans explanation of it was an early stage of snow blindness. after a hour or so i was fine but it put me off green cars for life.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Ooh Dotti....that takes me back.
Do you remember that toys had seasons?
Skipping ropes, well they were your Ma's washing line.....and ten or twelve girls would play with it....two turning up(that is what the called it back then.....and the rest of us jumping into the rope and out of the other side....or sometimes five or six of us in the middle all skipping to rhymes that were handed down from Grandma.
Five stones....or jacks...that had it's season too....as did marbles.
I cannot remember anyone ever saying ' next week it is whip and top week'....or next week the hopscotch tournament starts......yet we all knew when these games were to begin.

We also played 'knock and run'.....and we tied door handles together.....knocked on the doors and watched (giggling) while neighbours struggled to open their front doors, often having to come out of the back door to solve the situation.
Mischief it was, nothing more.....and on odd occasions the 'bobby ' would catch us....and take us home for a lecture from out parents.
Then we would find whoever was supposed to be keeping 'cavy' and give them a Chinese burn.
No drugs, no alcohol, though some of the older lads used to steal dog ends and smoke them.
Fun times indeed.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

[QUOTE=Margaret Pilkington;1242503]
Mischief it was, nothing more.....and on odd occasions the 'bobby ' would catch us....and take us home for a lecture from out parents.

wasn,t there a dedicated mischief night that was just before bonfire night if i remember. basically it was more about mischief and the worst thing that could happen was when a rival gang{not the modern version of a gang either** would set fire to someones bonfire. conkers also had their own season for a few weeks. cannot think of any activily that was banned in the playground even with minor injuries we picked up. surprised i was never hooked on iodine for life.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Monkey Hangers post about the snow blindness stirred the old grey matter, I had a similar thing happen to me when I was about fifteen or sixteen. I had been allowed to buy a single barrelled 410 shotgun out of my wages from Redac Brickworks, you only needed a 10 shilling gun licence from the post office in those days
One winter evening I was sat amongst the trees in a small wood known as Shorten Wood waiting for the Wood pigeons to come into roost, after bagging a couple and staring into the branches for some considerable time I came to realise that wherever I looked I saw the same branches. As M.H. said the wood blindness as I was later told that is what it was,did go within 10/15 minutes of leaving the wood.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

That was Halloween Taddy...and yes, it was the night for raiding the woodpiles of other kids to make your own bonfire bigger.
There was a lot of kudos to be had by having the best bonfire.
Our lads used to make the centre hollow and sleep out in it to make sure their wood stash was safe.

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I can still remember our Co-op number.
It might be because I used to run along Nuttall St saying all the time 10168.
I dared not go home without the little ticket to go on the spike under the stairs.
Back then, the 'divi' was two and six in the pound and it was paid twice a year.....summer and just before Christmas.....and the money meant that we got treats...things that we would not be able to afford if not for the 'divi'.
Ma could work out what was coming to within a few pennies.

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they wouldnt have been safe if someone had lit it margaret:eek: we never slept in ours cos of that.

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Cashy, they did not consider that.
All they were concerned about was that they kept their stash.
They crept out when everyone was in bed....and crept back in early doors.
Back then, no-one locked doors...and the lavvy was out back so no suspicions were aroused when they came back in.....a blanket was stashed in the bin hole.
To them it was all part and parcel of the excitement.

Another thing we did was put Philip(the baby of the time) into his push chair and put a sign on him ' Penny for the guy ' we stationed ourselves on Mount street just as the factories were loosing......and we got lots of coins.
Some was put aside for fireworks...some was spent on treacle toffee :)

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

We did that penny for guy with a little lad in Alan E Dents doorway bottom of burnley rd but one night a drunken teddy boy ran up the doorway and kicked him the face.:eek: didnt do much for his teeth,

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What a horrible thing to happen.
We were lucky because we got lots of coppers.....threepenny bits....and the odd tanner.

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I do hope that this was a tongue in cheek response to my post, because (No), this was not Halloween, if you read the post properly you will note that I said that I was out in the woodland,on my own at night with a shotgun after Woodpigeons, (to shoot, pluck and eat). After staring at the night sky through the branches of a wood for many hours, the affliction known as "Wood blindness" can atttack/Affect your eyesight,it is not a commonly known phenomenon but it can occur in the circumstances that I have discribed, I do know that it can happen because it happened to me.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

By the way, it was before Hobgoblin was even invented.

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No Taddy it was not a tongue in cheek comment...it was regarding your observation of 'Mischief Night' a time which occurred shortly before bonfire night...and I said that night was what Halloween used to be termed.

It was nothing at all to do with your eyesight issues...nor was I challenging your experience of this. These can be due to staring too long at an image(bright or otherwise) and it is akin to screen burn in computer terms...which is why you have moving screen saver images to prevent this.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Apologies Taddy..it was Monkey hanger who mentioned mischief night...which explains why I could not find it in your posts.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Margaret you really have started something. My mind is now buzzing with memories. We also had a mischief night but it wasn’t until years later that I associated it with Halloween even though looking back I’m sure it was the same date. This was when we would tie the front doors together, knock and run. As this night was a very old tradition in the village most people just went along with it. Probably brought back memories for them. I wore old trousers so that I looked like a boy in the dark. We would string up an attachment on windows so that we could pull the string and there would be tapping on the windows. We played lots of pranks – but not one of them would have hurt anyone. We called through letter boxes for people to beware because it was mischief night.

On bonfire night there would be one huge bonfire that everyone had contributed to. Potatoes were thrown into the fire and then the burnt offerings were thoroughly enjoyed. Mums made treacle toffee to be shared. The lucky ones who could afford them had sparklers.

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My mum and I would listen to really enjoyable plays on the radio on a Saturday night. However, you could guarantee that just before the play finished my dad would come home after having had a pint or three at the local and usually he would be singing some song or other. We would ask him to shush so we could hear the end of the play but you know what people are like when they've had one or two.... However, he would bring my mother two OBJ’s and fish and chips for both of us. Yummy fish and chips they were, definitely better than today’s. My mum would offer me a drink but I thought it tasted awful – and I still think the same about any beer. One of the songs my dad used to sing was ‘She’s Too Fat For Me’. I remember it well.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

More memories – a train ride to the illuminations with my mum every year, coach trips to the seaside, the many street parades, the celebrations when war ended (the second World War that is, not the first – I’m not THAT old!). The walks with my dad when he would carry me on his shoulders when my little legs got tired – he used to walk a long way. The very old customs that the kids carried out at weddings in the village church.

Phew! I think I'd better stop now.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

No, no...please don't stop.
It is by sharing these times that it loosens the memories in other people's minds.
We all have stories to tell about our lives.....and they are so very different from the lives being experienced by the children today.

We had adventures, we played outside, we ate fruit off the tree or bush...we never sonsidered that it was dirty......WE got dirty....we played in the dirt, we fell down, we grazed knees elbows and chins....but a bit of spit on it and we were ready to go again.
These things made us the people we are today.
All those dangerous things we did...and yet we came to no harm.
The mischief we got into, the telling off, the spankings....they all formed us.
They did not make us bitter, or victims.....they taught us the every single thing in life has consequences.....and we have to live with the consequences of our choices.
Most of us did that in spades...and were moulded into solid citizens....responsible people.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

And for that I am truly thankful.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

[QUOTE=dotti34;1242550]More memories – a train ride to the illuminations with my mum every year,

did you get those cheap half day train excursions where they seemed to use the oldest carriages that were available and returned home at midnight or later. as for what we called mischief night i thought it was in the same week as bonfire night as the hated halloween hadn,t drifted across the atlantic back then.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

moving on a little to our early teens in the early 60,s. we seemed to have a number of youth clubs around in those days when we started to realize that the opposite sex existed in a different form than they did even a few years earlier. its the efforts all seemed to put into their appearance back in those days. being a shy lad with lasses back then you had to be noticed. being an early developer physically i was shaving from 12 years old. i always made doubly sure i had no bum fluff present and spent more time in the bath room, shoe polishing and then trouser pressing that would be laughed at by kids nowadays. jeans on a saturday night was a no go unless you wanted lasses to laugh at you.

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No need to apologise Marge, maybe you had a touch of "Screen Burn" ;);)

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Yes, I definitely had a touch of something..it wasn't HOBGOBLIN either:D

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About 6 months ago I was telling a young lad about the railway line that ran through Priestley Clough and there was a bridge in Mount Street when he asked me where Mount Street was I said go to the end of Factory Bottom and that's the street that goes across. "Factory Bottom?" "Yes it was called that because it was factories from one end to the other and they were large mills and "Workers Playtime" was broadcast from two of them at least".
"Your pulling my p***er, workers playtime really, I'd get checked out for dementia if I were you". A couple of days later I met the lads mother "Our Jimmy's been telling me about chatting to you, Did you mean Victoria Street?" "Yes" I said, and she just nodded her head, give me a funny look and walked off and I started wondering if I did remember things properly.

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Yes, the Railway line DID go at the back of the factories and the start of Priestley Clough....the Railway bridge was over Nuttall St....near the junction of Nuttall St and Belfield Road.
The Factories were Warburtons and Highams....there was a sewing room too.The Cotton Club was on Nuttall St....and it was the social venue for the factories....the panto and the children's Christmas parties were held there.....and I think there were dances from time to time.
Mount Street and Bath Street were at the Marsden st end of Nuttall St.
I think that Workers Playtime was broadcast from the big canteen at the corner of Victoria St.

I know these things because I lived up there until I was 19....both of my parents worked at the mills at one point or another...and it was a lovely place at that time....a real community.

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Remember home made trolleys (go carts). Kite flying also raiding other kids bonfires for their wood. Happy days.

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Oh yes.....our lads had a trolley which they built themselves.
During the summer we used to slide down the hill...on the grass, on tin tea trays.....we got into trouble for picking gas tar from between the cobbles, mainly because we got it on our clothes and Mick(my brother) managed to get it into his hair.
He ended up with a shaved head.
Ma was ruthless.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

And Mick was hairless.

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Spent many happy hours up Priestley clough but for the life in me cannot remember the name of the clough that was at the very end of Richmond Road. And Cockleum? Cannot remember where it was or how we got there.

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Okay, Margaret, so here’s another one. My brother (7 years older than me) was called William, and he often went searching for conkers so the school’s headmaster called him William the Conkerer (pardon the play on the spelling). One day my brother took me off to find some conkers, I was only a little thing but he let me tag along. We were a fair way from home when we came across a field which had a ‘No Trespassing’ sign but also had the horse chestnut trees which we were looking for.

We were doing no harm and we had got some conkers but wanted more. My brother had just started to climb another tree when we suddenly heard a shout ‘you little buggers, wait ‘til I catch you’. Sure enough the farmer had driven fairly close without us hearing his car. The door had been taken off the car for some reason and he was attempting to get out. He had a long stick that I’m sure he would not have hesitated to use on us, but the silly man had the stick sideways and it was blocking his exit from the car. Also being fat didn’t help him.

I can still remember my brother throwing the conkers towards the man and pulling me along to escape – I wasn’t very old and I couldn’t run fast but somehow he managed to get me over fences and once again to freedom. Of course we didn’t tell my mother.

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More things that come to mind. Liberty bodices (don’t ask!), camphor square hung round neck, Fennings Fever Cure, Malt and Cod Liver Oil, Cod Liver Oil on its own – yuk!, thick pink square of some sort of padding (can’t remember what it was called) held against chest by the liberty bodice, so many things to ward off colds – but I still got them……

If I had been ill and was still in bed recovering my mum would buy me an orange or a peach (wrapped in its special paper) from the fruit and veg man when he was selling his wares in our street, as this was sure to make me well again, having got magic powers (or so I believed). The peach especially was not cheap and so I don’t know what my mum had to do without to buy this for me.

Toffee being made for a treat. Stirring, stirring. Testing it on a saucer of water.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

I said earlier that I encouraged my own children to be adventurous – well they were and they did build go-carts and went off for the day with them, and when they came home I never asked……

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

fennings fever cure. thats a real memory as my old man, who passed his perma cold onto me and my sister, swore by the stuff. tried it once, i prefered keeping the bad cold.

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any of you lot used to go down to the local gas works with your mam with an old pram filling it up with coke in winter. if it had been snowing your sledge was used in place of the pram. funny how going smokeless coincided with the vast amount of time it then took to get warm if you were frozen.

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Monkey Hanger, my dad swore by Sloan's Liniment for all his aches and pains, but he wasn't very happy the day my mum was rubbing some on his back and it went right down and under....I hadn't realised how well he could dance about until that day. We couldn't help laughing - he was not amused.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

[QUOTE=dotti34;1242595]Monkey Hanger, my dad swore by Sloan's Liniment for all his aches and pains,

wonder if we are related dotti. with my fathers reputation there is a real possibility. can still smell that sloans stuff, actually i quite liked it like all stuff like detol and TCP.

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The pink wadding was called Thermogene.....and there was Scott's emulsion.....worm cakes, these looked like big chocolate buttons with hundreds and thousands on them....the chocolate was not real chocolate, but a cousin of ex-lax.....and made you poo.
Bile beans, Indian brandee, this was something I really wanted to try.....I faked a belly ache and was give a tablespoon of the stuff.....nasty, really nasty.

You used to be able to buy 12 little liver pills for a penny(I think).
When you bought them they were wrapped up in a twist of paper.
One day my dad was feeling ropey(not from beer I hasten to add).
I was sent to the shop for a pennysworth of little liver pills.
They looked like small white sweets....I popped one into my mouth and sucked it.....once the sugar coating was sucked off it tasted horrible and I spat it down a grate.
When I got home my dad countedthe pills and said I had been 'jewed' and he made me go back with the twist of paper for the one that was missing.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

[QUOTE=dotti34;1242576]More things that come to mind. Liberty bodices (don’t ask!), camphor square hung round neck, Fennings Fever Cure, Malt and Cod Liver Oil, Cod Liver Oil on its own – yuk!, thick pink square of some sort of padding (can’t remember what it was called) held against chest by the liberty bodice, so many things to ward off colds – but I still got them……

The pad or thick rag that you refer to was smeared thickly with hot "Kaolin" clay,
the whole cabodle,(not spelt right, I know),was known as a kaolin Poultice, I suffered many of them as a youngster.
Malt extract I used to love.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

No but I was sent with a push chair along Nuttall street to Bob Wilkinsons Hardware shop for a gallon of paraffin and two packs of coal bricks.
This was because the coal man would not come up the hill unless there were a few people getting coal.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Thermogene does ring a bell but I tend to think that my mum used cotton rags that she brought home from the mill, these were boiled and the Kaolin smeared on as hot as you could stand it.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Taddy you are right about the kaolin poultice..we used those for patients who had wound infections and those who had pneumonia...the heat soothed the discomfort at the base of the lungs.
A bit like a hot water bottle with no risk of spillage.
We were told that even a cold Kaolin poultice would draw out infection, but I liked to use the hot.

We also used a Nelsons inhaler to give Friars Balsam (tincture of Benzoin)inhalations for chest infections....old fashioned but very effective.

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If I remember rightly, the hardware shop that you mention, used to sell Fishing baskets, laundry baskets etc. I have mentioned in earlier posts that I think that my father could well have been one of, if not the last (tradesman trained) basket makers in Lancashire. I do know that he carried on his trade after getting a job at Huncoat Pit and he made many for a shop on Nuttall Street. that shop plus other outlets for his wares kept him in beer money for years.
They say that you shouldn't look back on life but I do regret not taking up his offer to teach me his art and it was an art, anything from shopping baskets to baby's cribs and antique wickerwork chairs.I fact anything made from Cane or Willow.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Yes, I did call it a Poultice in an earlier post.:D:D

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Not spotted until I posted...now edited to reflect that.:)

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Yes you are right about Bob Wilinson selling wicker baskets....and fishing baskets.....they used to hang high up on the ceiling.....and the large laundry baskets were in the back of his shop....many of these were used as a first bed for a new baby,suitably padded of course.

The co-op smelled of coffee and cheese....Bob Wilies smelled of Lamp oil, firelights and coal dust(which is what the coal bricks were made of).

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Hazels Aunty Ethel lived at number 63 Nuttall Street for 30/40 years maybe, her married name was Yates.

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The clough at the end of Richmond Road was called Nelson's Clough and Cocker Lumb (as we always called it) was up Green Haworth and could be got to going up Broadfield to Benjamins Row and then down to the river in the bottom, usually we followed the river down to Hoyle Bottom and then up Pt House Lane back to Broadfield.

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Dotti your story about your dad and Sloan's Liniment made me laugh and reminded me that many years ago I was up Peel Park with me dad and a player went down injured and lay there for some time, one of the blokes in the crowd shouted "Put some Sloan's down crack of his a**e he'll get up" everybody round about burst out laughing but I didn't know what they were laughing at until several years later when I had a similar incident to your dad - and like him I wasn't amused.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3cn-iPEEzfA
Dorothy, this may make you smile, it will certainly take you back in time.

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Going down the marsh at the back of the railway station by us & catching frogs & newts with tiddler nets, get a bucket full then let them go again, heading home covered in gunk & goo, then swearing blind we'd not been down the "Swamp". :D

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Oh, Margaret, thank you - that certainly brought back some good memories. Mind you I doubt my dad knew more of the song than the first few lines because he never seemed to get past those.

Yes, Thermogene was the word I was trying to think of. It kept the chest warm and so supposedly would ward off colds. I do remember the emulsion.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

More memories. The weekly bath in the little tin bathtub. Friday night was bath night for me. Afterwards my mother would comb through my hair with a fine-tooth comb and vinegar to make sure that no unwanted guests had moved on to my head. I had longish hair but through my mother’s diligence I never had any visits from those nasty little critters. Mind you the smell of vinegar lingered for a while. The school nurse would visit regularly, we would all line up and she would check our heads. If she found any nits then everyone knew about it – the child’s feelings were not considered. Boys with nits often had their hair shaved off. Hurtful times that would not be tolerated these days.

Another thing we lined up for was vaccinations. No-one had any option – line up, sleeve pushed up, and jab…’there that’s done, move along - next one, please’.

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Inkwells in desks, pens with nibs – and a slap on the hand if the pen wasn’t held correctly. .
Girls with plaits were fair game for having these dipped in the inkwells by the horrible boys who sat behind them. The cane. Whack, whack, whack – on the left hand if you were right-handed and vice versa, so that it didn’t matter how much the hand hurt you could still do your schoolwork. Irrespective of all that, schooldays were mostly happy ones. None of the pressure like today and we always knew there would be employment at the end of it.

Parents didn't interfere with what went on at school. Definitely would never abuse a teacher.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

brilliant. sounded like something from the late and great spike jones. if theydid it again the word fat would have to be replaced with obese.

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[QUOTE=dotti34;1242644] None of the pressure like today and we always knew there would be employment at the end of it.

that could be the reason there was no pressure on kids in those days. there was pressure at grammar school as it was really just an examination passing factory. if you got a job and didn,t like it you just left. her in the kitchen left one job a couple of times on a friday night and started another on monday. most ended up in a job that suited you with less round pegs in square holes like nowadays where just getting a job is the thing whether its really for you or not.

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Dorothy, I really liked that song.....I might even download it onto one of my MP3players....it is a very cheery ditty.
Glad it stirred the memories for you as well.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Dorothy, if you went home and said you had been caned or had been in trouble in class - then you were in far more trouble at home...so if you had any sense at all then you kept your gob shut.

By the time I went to school, your parents had to give permission for vaccinations.
You took a little slip of paper home and they signed and you took it back.
Nitty Nora was different...she just used to come in without warning.
Dental checks were done at school too....and the school Dental Service was at the Clinic on Cannon St.
The Dental nurses there were like Russian Shot putters......and if you did not comply with their 'requests' they would hold you down....(this was the beginning of my Dental phobia).
I remember being only about 8 and going on my own, the dentist hurt me and I tried to get out of the chair.....this huge woman held me down until the dentist finished....I cried my eyes out on the way home and did not go to school that day.
I cannot remember my parents doing anything about it....but that is how it was back then.....as you say Dorothy,children's feelings were not considered important.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

As a teenager, dancing to Big Bands such as Ted Heath and Joe Loss. Famous bands and singers would come to local dance halls and the price of admission would be the same as if it was an ordinary Saturday night. I remember going to a dance where the brilliant jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was doing her stuff.

Going dancing at every opportunity.

Listening to Radio Luxembourg Top 40’s on a Sunday evening.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

I used to go to a church hall somewhere in Spring Hill.....it started at 7pm and finished at 9.30.
It was just pop records played on a record player....no sophisticated disc equipment back then.
I would call for my friend Sheila and her dad would walk us over to the church hall. It was fourpence to get in and this entitled you to tea and biscuits....or if you wanted to live dangerously, Kia-ora Orange drink.
I could not dance for toffee and spent most of my time sitting on the seats at the edge of the hall.
Sheila's Dad would appear at the door just after nine pm and he would walk us home....so ther was never any chances for any kind of hanky panky.

I used to hear the girls at school talking about Mort't and Knowlemere street, but I never ever made it to either of those places.
Oh, I planned to go many times, but my plans were always scuppered by telltale snots of brothers....who would tell Ma and she would put the block on such adventures by telling me that there were people who worked there that she knew and they would let her know if I was seen in either place....too late now!

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Looking back, I realise what a sheltered life I lived.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

Playing Cowboys and indians , Simon says, farmer farmer, making slides in the snow or using tin trays from the oven to slide down hills in the snow.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

And the mean people who came out of their houses and sprinkled ashes onto your slide...spoiling all the fun.
Did you 'polish' your slides with water to make them faster, slippier? We did, and were mightily upset when they were sabotaged.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

In all probability even that wouldn't be allowed, something more along the lines of "Weightily challenged", in modern wakey snowflake land! :rolleyes:

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

I think the word 'fat' could be replaced with the word HOT....except it would not happen.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

During the school holidays we (my brothers and I) would go on adventures.
These invariably took us up to the five arches......though it would take us a long time to get there.
There was a stream that needed to be crossed three times....this was done by straddling pipes that went over this stream......pipe one was easy....and the lads used to walk over it like it was a tightrope....pipe two was nicknamed the spike bridge.....this was because in the middle it had a sunray of spikes to stop kids like us using it to cross the water.....but we just used to swing round it.
Pipe three was simple too.....unless you were my brother Micheal....with mud on your shoes and showing off.
He plopped into the stream at the deepest part and came out of the water coughing and snotting.
There was no way that we could go back home with him as wet as a stranded codfish...when we got to the five arches we collected wood.
My brother Peter had matches so we lit a fire....it took a lot of matches and wafting.
The aim was to dry Micks clothes.
It was a useless task and there was no way his jumper was going to dry.
We trundled home and as soon as we got in the backdoor Ma could smell woodsmoke.....and Mick was still more than damp.
Needless to say....we got our hides tanned and there was no milk and cookies at bedtime that day either.
I got a very stern lecture as I was the eldest and was deemed to have more sense.
You couldn't tell Ma that sense had nothing to do with it...but a Chinese burn DID.

Re: Let's Reminisce.
 

my old man was the eldest but i doubt was whats called as a good role model to his siblings. before he was married he was sick of a younger brother pinching his chocolate. he decided to teach him a lesson by buying a bar of laxative chocolate and leaving it on the table. when he arrived back home from training he was met by the news of their stu had been taken to hospital after eating a full bar of it. he received the full wrath of granny harker a fearsome 6ft plus of a woman. would love to have seen the sight of a big rough and tough full back being given a good hiding big style by his mum.