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Birmingham in 1960s

S

samurai

proper brummie kid
Hi All,
Does anybody remember the blind man selling matches in the 60's? He stood outside the post office by what is now W H Smiths, i can remember as a small boy pestering my dad for some money to buy some. He stood with a walking stick up in the air, andf he felt every coin that was given to him to check what its value was. I am going back to mid to late 1960's. Be nice if somebody else remembered him, he wasd quite a character to a small boy.
Thanks for reading my ramblings
Eddie
 
Eddie, I rememberhim too, my Aunts used to give him a couple of pennies, but never found out what made him blind.
Had forgotten him until I read your post, he wouldn't be able to do it today, he'd be either robbed or moved on!
Sue
 
Yes i also remember the blind man by C&A. Samurai not sure if the pawnshop was in Bracebridge St, I think Biddles was on Newtown Row.
 
Hi Topsy,is this the man you remember?He played each day outside C&A.Moss
 

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im sure i remember the blind matchseller but i thought he was smaller than the one in your pic moss..wore dark glasses and had his matches in a container that hung round his neck...mind you it was a long time ago and it may have been a different person selling somewhere else in town..

lyn
 
Astoness said:
im sure i remember the blind matchseller but i thought he was smaller than the one in your pic moss..wore dark glasses and had his matches in a container that hung round his neck...mind you it was a long time ago and it may have been a different person selling somewhere else in town..

lyn
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I'm sure there has been a thread about this man before.
 
Lyn the man in the photo was the blind man who played the accordian outside C&A. I think the match seller who I also remember was on New Street by the entrance to the ramp for the station.
 
Moss, that isn,t the one i was thinking of although similar . lyn the one i meant was also smaller and used to stand the top of the passage that took you down to new st by the back entrance to C&A. He tended to sway from side to side with matches in his hand.
 
Yes the photo is of Reg Cooper who used to busk outside C & A on Corporation St, I remember him standing there each day for years. I think at that time he was one of a very few busker's that were licenced by Birmingham Council. I think that the photo has been posted before (by myself) it might have been on the thread about the pavement artist that used to sit in Eden Place at the side of the Council House.

Phil
 
Hi Topsy,i know this picture is not of the match seller.The match seller used to stand outside the Post Office in what i think was Midland Passage.
Morning Lyn,i hope you are well.Moss
 
Hi All,
No that photo isn't the match seller, Topsy you have got it right on the button, i forgot that he used to sway from side to side. The matches were in his hand close to his face.
I remember Biddles. What i can remember of Etty Carters pawnshop is it was all wood panelled and as you went in the front door, there was a sharp right turn to the counter that had mesh covering most of the counter except for the part that was the hatch. I used to sit on the counter and look behind the counter, as she always gave me a sweet. Ah memories!
 
I remember him well, he stood outside of Joan Barries shop at the top of the escalator that led down to Nelson House and on to the market Etc.
One appalling situation has remained in my mind when he was shouting out that someone had spat on him, i will never forget that and me and a friend went looking for the perpetrator but it was a fools errand as we had no description of the animal that had done it.
 
TOPSYTURVEY said:
Moss, that isn,t the one i was thinking of although similar . lyn the one i meant was also smaller and used to stand the top of the passage that took you down to new st by the back entrance to C&A. He tended to sway from side to side with matches in his hand.
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hi topsy...yes i think we must be talking about the same match seller..memory is quite vaugue but i seem to recall being told he lost his sight in the war..although i dont know if this was because he fought or maybe caused by the bombings...i am going to visit our dad tomorrow so i will ask him what he remembers..

hi moss yes i am quite well thank you..hope all is ok with you

lyn
 
Topsy and Lyn, I am thinking of the same one as you, Midland passage sounds right.
Big Fella, not sure about the one by the escalators, don't recall seeing one there.
Sue
 
TOPSYTURVEY said:
Moss, that isn,t the one i was thinking of although similar . lyn the one i meant was also smaller and used to stand the top of the passage that took you down to new st by the back entrance to C&A. He tended to sway from side to side with matches in his hand.
Click to expand...
Yep,that's how I remember him too.
 
I remember the blind matchseller. He used to get on my bus sometimes (32) from around the Springfield/Sparkhill area. I seem to remember that he wore a Greatcoat which could indicate that he was in the last war.
 
Whoopee, what a decade. Have I hit on a new thread. It was Big G's idea. All that remains is to dig up some memories of this idylic era. Now let me think .............. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Traveling out to pubs in the country was one thing we used to do. I don't think drink driving had caught on in the early sixties, so having a few pints then driving home was quite the norm. Terrible to think of that now. The Dog Inn at Nether Whittaker was a good pub, great ale and a mate new the land lord, so a few free chips always went down well. This old Austin 18 taxi was our transport then, plenty of room for up to 8 passengers.2-DSCF9446.JPG This photo was taken in about 1959, me driving, Sandra Menzies in the back seat, ready for another mad journey into the unknown. Those were the days.
 
Oooooh yes! The Swingin' Sixties! Thanks for starting the thread, Bikeral. I loved the 60's, my dad loathed them as he watched me change from a short-back-and-sided clone of himself to an authority-challenging, long-haired, Zapata-moustachioed hippie-type wastrel! (I exaggerate a bit, but that's how my parents' generation seemed to view the 60's - all of a sudden they weren't really in charge any more). I remember hearing Bob Dylan for the first time, The Beatles and The Stones, and of course there was CND. My first car in 1967 was a 1952 side-valve Morris Minor, split screen and all, and soon 'decorated' with various symbols of the times. Not all light and happiness, though, as later in the 60's was a rather unhappy period of my life, but long gone. We frequented Mother's in Erdington, The Elbow Room, The Opposite Lock, and various city-centre pubs where there was live music. I saw Cream and The Animals at Birmingham University, The Who at Midnight City, The Bonzo Dog Band at Aston University, and once, amazingly, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at The Crown & Cushion in Perry Barr. There was jazz at The Salutation, The Birmingham Arms and The Warwick Castle, with Dan Pawson & The Artesian Hall Stompers the best band around.

I sometimes ask myself if it really all happened! More memories please!

Peace!

G
 
Sandra was just one of the crowd. We used to park the old taxi on the central reservation on Tyburn Road, in front of her house. I remember stripping the engine down a replacing a burnt out valve where the car was parked. I got a new valve off the shelf at H.J.Evans in Birmingham for 8/6d, fitted it and had it running again before the next weekend. It was a six cylinder side valve, no mean feat in those days.
 
Bikeral72 said:
Sandra was just one of the crowd. We used to park the old taxi on the central reservation on Tyburn Road, in front of her house. I remember stripping the engine down a replacing a burnt out valve where the car was parked. I got a new valve off the shelf at H.J.Evans in Birmingham for 8/6d, fitted it and had it running again before the next weekend. It was a six cylinder side valve, no mean feat in those days.
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Where about on Tyburn road?
 
It's amazing how our two lives differed in the same period of time. I was more a mod. We went for modern jazz, big bands,Ted Heath, Stan Kenton, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and places like the Town Hall, Birmingham, Odean New Street, Plaza Stockland Green. However we all mixed together in peace I remember. Can't remember anyone getting shot then.
 
Beeches Drive, Erdington. Off Cedar Drive where I lived, off Grange Road, Holly Lane at one end, Chester Road at the other end. Brings a tear to the eye.!!!!!!!!!
 
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