Sten Thomas
knowlegable brummie
When we lived in our back-to-back in Brighton Place just off Summer Lane our Sunday afternoon treat was to wait in great anticpation for a man who came into the yard with a basket selling what in those days we called "Pykelets", which we toasted in front of our cast iron "Workwell" fireplace which our mom blackleaded with Zebo. I think they were thre'pence for six, and as there were five of us in the family, it was always a fight for who had the extra one!
But why do we all have so treasured memories of such things from so long ago? Was it because life was so much simpler then, or perhaps because the hardships of those times generated a commeradrie which brought the community together? After all, we did have communial privvies and a "brewus" up the yard where our mums did the weekly washing, and your neighbour would "leave yer her suds" if you were next.
So what now those long-forgotten terms, like peg rugs, mangles, guzzunders and the babby playing in the 'orse road? What now how many of our kids today make a trolley from a plank and some old pram wheels, or a "fire can", or play marbles, hop scotch, conkers, and 'ackey-on-two-three - and shout "barley" if a squabble over who was the winner broke out? Who now remembers going to school in "pumps"?
How many moms now say to kids "Goo 'an play down yer own end" and Sunday Schools take the kids on a three 'appenny ride on a tram up to the Lickeys?
It is now these half-forgotten recollections which beg the question of whether or not kids in the future will likewise have such fond memories of their first iPad, mobile 'phone, or visiting a "Whacky Warehouse" or some other purchased pastime in eighty years time? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, if I bought any Pykelets today I'd have them all to myself, for all the family that I shared them with in those days so long long ago are now just treasured memories.
Regards to all Brummies wherever you may be, and remember - "It is darker when the light goes out, than if there had never been a a light at all"
But why do we all have so treasured memories of such things from so long ago? Was it because life was so much simpler then, or perhaps because the hardships of those times generated a commeradrie which brought the community together? After all, we did have communial privvies and a "brewus" up the yard where our mums did the weekly washing, and your neighbour would "leave yer her suds" if you were next.
So what now those long-forgotten terms, like peg rugs, mangles, guzzunders and the babby playing in the 'orse road? What now how many of our kids today make a trolley from a plank and some old pram wheels, or a "fire can", or play marbles, hop scotch, conkers, and 'ackey-on-two-three - and shout "barley" if a squabble over who was the winner broke out? Who now remembers going to school in "pumps"?
How many moms now say to kids "Goo 'an play down yer own end" and Sunday Schools take the kids on a three 'appenny ride on a tram up to the Lickeys?
It is now these half-forgotten recollections which beg the question of whether or not kids in the future will likewise have such fond memories of their first iPad, mobile 'phone, or visiting a "Whacky Warehouse" or some other purchased pastime in eighty years time? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, if I bought any Pykelets today I'd have them all to myself, for all the family that I shared them with in those days so long long ago are now just treasured memories.
Regards to all Brummies wherever you may be, and remember - "It is darker when the light goes out, than if there had never been a a light at all"
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