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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

Seasonal excitement and curiosity. Thinking about some of the children in the 5 to 8 year age group and their build up to Christmas. Wasn't it about this time of the year and at this age that the kids began to wonder what presents Father Christmas might really be going to bring them. Some of the kids had maybe already been asked by their Dads and Moms what they would like Father Xmas to bring them ( the parents probably guiding their level of expectancy down a bit ), the parents would most likely then tell their children that they would see what could be done.
As a kid, do you remember maybe that you thought that Dad and Mom had to buy those presents prior to sending them off to to Father Xmas for him to deliver on Christmas night whilst you were asleep in bed. Does it come to mind how maybe, you as a child, and getting more excited by the hour , began to nave a little ' nose around ' the house perchance to coming across your presents being hidden there somewhere before being sent off to Christmas Land.
So you already looked in the cubby hole, and already looked in the Shed. Nothing doing.
When Mom asked you to pop upstairs and bring her slippers back down for her, was this a perfect opportunity to have a quick look around Mom and Dads bedroom. Quick under the bed lookie. Nothing doing there either.
There on top of the Wardrobe was a couple of ' somethings ' wrapped in some brown paper but they were much too high for you to reach or touch.
Dunno now!
Perhaps they've sent some money and a letter off to Father Xmas then,after all, and done it that way.
 
Christmas, in my childhood was a very magical thing, some how the 50's Christmas's, differed only very slightly from the "Old Victorian", ones, with home cooking,( all mince pies, sausage rolls, Xmas puddings, Xmas cakes), were made by my Mom, home made presents , (Oranges wrapped in silver paper, Dad may have made a wooden aeroplane, or train, of course some toys were shop brought but not many, we belonged to the "Working Poor", in those days, but magical it was, I never remember a bad Christmas, or one with out snow.,but how my poor Father managed to pay for it all "with3 kids", I don't know, but Bless Him he always did. Paul
 
Hi Maria

My wife goes through at least two bags of Tangerines a weeks, I sometimes am able to get one when she isn't looking. She gets them from Sainsbury's Supermarket at somewhat less than £1.50 a bag containing five or six in a bag. That must be worth a free bag at least for the advertising.
 
Phil said:
Hi Maria

My wife goes through at least two bags of Tangerines a weeks, I sometimes am able to get one when she isn't looking. She gets them from Sainsbury's Supermarket at somewhat less than £1.50 a bag containing five or six in a bag. That must be worth a free bag at least for the advertising.
Click to expand...

At Waitrose they're £2.50 for a bag of five - or, as my husband remarked, 10/- each!!
 
image.pngimage.pngThe Cotton Reel.
Okay, so it was a rainy, windy day, not ideal for playing out in the street. So the kids looked for their indoor toys.
Out came the old cardboard box which housed all their toys and games. Amongst the collection would sometimes be the home-made cotton reel tanks ( for the boys ) and the home-made cotton reel ' corkers ' for the girls. Both these gadgets could fill in a substantial ammount of fun time.
Winding the ' Tanks ' up and distance racing them against one another or testing them against what things they could climb over made for some good competition for the boys.
The girls could carry on from ' last time ' and develop more of their decorative ' wool ropes ' on their cotton reel ' corkers '.
As wrist bands the finished coloured roped used to look pretty good.
There might have been an extra bonus, whilst they were playing, if Mom let them have a sweet off the Xmas tree meanwhile.
 

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My husband made some of these tanks recently for the grandchildren, they were amazed! Modern cotton reels won't work as it has to be the wooden ones. I always save them for things like this!
rosie.
 
In November 1940, my mother, sister and I spent a night, underneath the stairs at the house of our aunt, mothers sister. As we listened to the bombs whistling down, we spent the whole night 'corking'. We left for our home the following morning, arriving to discover that Herr Hitler had redesigned it. That night of 'corking' saved us.


Eddie
 
Roy Blakey said:
View attachment 102714View attachment 102713The Cotton Reel.
Okay, so it was a rainy, windy day, not ideal for playing out in the street. So the kids looked for their indoor toys.
Out came the old cardboard box which housed all their toys and games. Amongst the collection would sometimes be the home-made cotton reel tanks ( for the boys ) and the home-made cotton reel ' corkers ' for the girls. Both these gadgets could fill in a substantial ammount of fun time.
Winding the ' Tanks ' up and distance racing them against one another or testing them against what things they could climb over made for some good competition for the boys.
The girls could carry on from ' last time ' and develop more of their decorative ' wool ropes ' on their cotton reel ' corkers '.
As wrist bands the finished coloured roped used to look pretty good.
There might have been an extra bonus, whilst they were playing, if Mom let them have a sweet off the Xmas tree meanwhile.
Click to expand...

Anyone remember how we did it? Spent hours and hours "corking" after scrounging any leftover wool off the girls in our class.
 
Yes, did that with my children and grandchildren.
Waiting for the greats to get a bit bigger. Get started all over again.
 
I can remember how to "cork" but the hard part is that cotton reels today are plastic so you need to have some "old" ones to hand!!

Janice
 
My Dad made me a "corker" from an old wooden handle, probably from a mincer or sewing machine, it was lovely to hold. We were "re-cycling" before it became fashionable again!

I was thinking about those pieces of brown cardboard at school for weaving. The piece of fabric was supposed to make a tiny purse but mine was so distorted it wouldn't have made anything.
rosie.
 
" All togged up, sleigh loaded, reindeer harnessed. We'll be off soon. Looking forward to all those Mince Pies and those little liquid nips that nearly everyone seems to leave for me ".
" Just want to drop a quick ' post ' on the B.H.Forum before I go".
" That's it I think. All ready to move out ".
" It's Ho, Ho, Ho time again.
image.png

Have a nice one folks.
 
A period of opportunity. Thinking back to a ' time span ' that seemed to provide the perfect progression and opportunities for the young ones ( particularly in areas like Birmingham ).
Looking at the sequence, it seemed to compile as follows :
(1) The final school leaving age for most young boys and girls was at the time when they reached the age of fourteen.
(2) Then there was the compulsory National Service call up for the young men at the age of eighteen.
(3) There was the flourishing numbers of successful factories and businesses that Birmingham had during this period.
(4) There was also the opportunities that the introduction of Evening Class " Further Education Technical Colleges " provided.
I would place the emergence of this period roughly around 1943 and at the time when many young boys and girls, at the age of 14, were leaving their elementary schools to begin their first full time paid jobs.
At the time and for most youngsters their own schools would have organised ' starter ' work positions for them in the factories, shops, offices and the service industries so that a ' job ' was available to them upon immediately leaving school and for them to begin to learn how to ' earn a living '.
On reaching the age of eighteen most of the young men received notice of conscription for " National Service " and would have been automatically called up to join one of the Military Services ( some conscripts were called up and directed into the Coal Mining Industry ). The majority though were conscripted into the " Army " or the " Royal Air Force ". Without going into ' over detail ', most men that have experienced National Service will tell you what a bit of a shock and a wake-up this was at the beginning of their service, but they will probably also tell you what a huge growing up and character build experience they finally found it turned out to be.
Leaving the forces and returning to ' civvie street ' they were again fortunate in so much that Post War prosperity ( particularly in Birmingham ) was flourishing, especially around the 1945 - 1975 period and good jobs and careers were widely available to them. Now with their lessons, experiences and often new trade skills, picked up during their National Service, wider choices of jobs and careers were available to them, on demob.
Now came the ' Period of Opportunity '.
This came by virtue of ' Further Education '.
Technical Colleges such as " Garratts Green "', " Brooklyn" and " Gosta Green " gave them the opportunity to attend " Night School " courses.
On offer were technical awards such as " City and Guilds ", " National Certificate " and the " Higher National Certificate ".
Here was the chance for these young people to not only carry on with their normal day work but to also attend a technical college three nights a week and with a bit of of week-end swotting and a bit of grit and staying power, the doors opened for them to achieve their awards and go on to considerable advancement and promotion at their place of work.
A great period for the young people to be gaining those all important growing up lessons and getting their feet on the ladder.
 
Roy Blakey said:
Now came the ' Period of Opportunity '.
This came by virtue of ' Further Education '.
Technical Colleges such as " Garratts Green "', " Brooklyn" and " Gosta Green " gave them the opportunity to attend " Night School " courses.
On offer were technical awards such as " City and Guilds ", " National Certificate " and the " Higher National Certificate ".
Here was the chance for these young people to not only carry on with their normal day work but to also attend a technical college three nights a week and with a bit of of week-end swotting and a bit of grit and staying power, the doors opened for them to achieve their awards and go on to considerable advancement and promotion at their place of work.
A great period for the young people to be gaining those all important growing up lessons and getting their feet on the ladder.
Click to expand...
The early and mid-1960s also saw the emergence of "Sandwich Courses". These were certainly available at the Birmingham College of Advanced Technology (CAT) at Gosta Green. A student could spend 6-months in industry followed by 6-months at the CAT, repeated over a 4-year period and qualify for a Diploma in Technology (Dip Tech) which was said to be equivalent to a university degree. I believe that many of the larger companies in Birmingham were in favour and sponsored Sandwich Courses. Dave.
 
In spite of post war austerity, there were lots of opportunities for young people in those days.

During the last period of my schooling, we would visit factories and business'. There was plenty of work, and visits meant that the factory management, were hoping that we would start our employment there. They were crying out for young people.

We would never be out of work for long......there was always another job around the corner. There was work for everyone in Birmingham...."The City of a Thousand Trades".

In January 1949 I commenced work in a music store.

The dreaded National Service was, upon reflection, a wonderful life for many young men. I never worried about going in the forces. I realised that it was inevitable, so my motto was "Lets get something out of this". In my basic training I saw a few young men talking about all sorts of ways of trying to get out. Pointless.

I actually put myself down for the army, Royal Corps of Signals, and achieved both. Not only that, but I applied to take the cypher course, which was a six month training course, and also achieved that, which threw me, a secondary school pupil, in with the ex.grammar school and University students. That in itself, changed me a great deal. I was very happy. Army life taught me a lot, comradeship, discipline, fitness and most certainly in my role in cyphers, responsibility. Having only ever played the drums, I learned a different trade (at 82 I still 'touch type'), and a chance to see some of the world. It was the first time that I ever left these shores.

After demobilisation, I returned to the music store in the daytime, played in bands some evenings, and also took "Evening Classes" at the old Birmingham School of Music. Loved every minute of my working life in Birmingham. Speaking professionally, we were all indeed fortunate, to have lived in those easier times of 'plenty of work available'.

To my older mind, I think that life today, for young people, means fewer jobs, but still some wonderful opportunities if one is prepared to fight for it, but it certainly is tougher. Even with a degree.

Eddie
 
I was looking through some of my old documents and found this which was handed out to all of us at school in 1946.
GeorgeVI_Message.jpg
 
oldMohawk said:
I was looking through some of my old documents and found this which was handed out to all of us at school in 1946.
View attachment 103021
Click to expand...

So much for the hopes of King George to establish world unity & peace. I wonder what was the longest period since 1945 without some sort of conflict going on in the world? Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Korea, Suez, Cyprus & many more. Would it be any safer if women ruled the world? Maybe not if they were like Maggie. There was a song around in the 60`s which basically said that two little men in a flying saucer visited Earth. didn`t like what they saw & quickly flew away. Who knows, maybe one day aliens will invade & we`ll all join together to collectively kick their butts. (I must stop playing these arcade games).
 
image.png Summer season ( fun in the Sun ).
As this part of the season began to emerge children were able to reintroduce into their play and outdoor activities some of the advantages offered by this lovely warm period.
One of the advantages I recall was ( with our friends ) being able to sit out on the warm pavements and create our bits of " pavement art " with little pieces of chalk. If we were short of chalk we would do our little creations in a bit of compacted ground soil using a small stick as our drawing tool.
Then there was the concocting of our little " fishing nets ", on the end of a stick, whereby we would pop down to the nearest public parks pool, have a nice foot cooling " paddle " whilst we tried to catch a few " tiddlers " for our Jam Jar.
I recall how the metal " slides " provided by the public parks used to get a bit on the hot side on warm sunny days and we had to keep our knees tucked up as we came down the slide. Bit too hot on the back of your legs if you didn't do this.
It made for loads of fun if one of the gang could " sneak " a bowl of water out into the back yard so that we could all join in with a game of " Water Splashing " each other. This was normally brought to a halt when one of the " grown ups " became aware we were doing it.
Then there was always that mystery of the " optical illusion ", that one whereby when you were looking at a distant tar-mac road you would see it " shimmering" and it appeared to be totally wet. We never could work that one out.
Whenever we found ourselves in an area of trees and hedgerows it was always lovely , providing we kept quiet enough, to see the varieties of wild birds " to-ing and fro-ing " , feeding their chicks.
That was nice as well when a lot of the " grown ups " started to keep the outer kitchen doors open ( because of the warm weather ) and some of the lovely cooking smells wafted out to us as we played outside.
Typical kids. It never entered our thoughts as we enjoyed the fresh sunny air that we might be achieving that desirable " Sun Tan " look. Wasn't on our " wish for " list in any form.
Seemed a bit boring to us when we observed some of the adults " flopped out " in the back gardens, on a sunny day , trying to change their skin colour tone.
But, I suppose best of all, this season with it's longer daylight hours, enabled us kids to occassionally be allowed to " stop up " a bit later before having to go to bed.
A great season for all, but just a bit extra special for the kids I think.
 
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Can I echo Smudger's reply. It's very good to see you back Roy. With regards to adding a picture, I click on "upload a file", to the right of the "post reply" button and that seems to lead me to a browser and my saved jpg pictures. Hope that works for you. Dave.
 
Thanks ' Smudger ' . Felt good to get back into contact.
Thanks ' farmerdave ' . Just tried your " add photo " suggestion. Great. Worked a treat.
 
Happy summer days with mycycling mates some taken in the back of my home on Moat Lane.Yardey Brum. Does not seem possible that I am 83 today and many of my mates are long gone.GOD BLESS EM ALL. John Crump003.jpg
 
image.png It's 1942 ish. It's Kingstanding. It's the Kings Road near the junction with Harringay Road.
It's night time. It's wartime and the ' blackout ' is fully operational.
It was a small wooden hut type building that stood just off the main road. It invited anyone in for a chat and a cup of tea. It had a small black curtained entrance space at it's front and a further blackout curtain to the main room which solved any problems of escaping light.
It's main room was set out with a few tables and chairs with a small kitchen to the rear.
If I recall it correct, this little hut had some Christian religious affiliation and it had a name
(I can't recall what either was, but I do remember that they were nice enough people that put their time in and ran it ).
The American soldiers had just recently taken over many of the houses on the newly built
Pheasey Estate ( which was about one mile further up the Kings Road, passed the Kingstanding Circle ).
We were just a bunch of young kids.
At night time the pavement in front of the wooden hut became a natural social magnet for us kids ( little groups, from the roads around could meet up on these dark nights for a chat and a get-together ).
A fair number of the newly arrived GI's would pass as they used their free off-time periods to walk the length of the Kings Road as a means to explore and make friends with the local people. To this end some of them would ' pop in ' to the little hut to see what was going on.
The kids, hanging about outside would be pretty quick to get into conversation with these soldier men from the country where the Cowboys came from and where Laurel and Hardy lived.
I recall, bar none, all these soldiers were very friendly and would tell us interesting stories about their way of life back in America prior to coming to Birmingham.
I guess the icing on the cake came when they shared with us kids their ' candy ' or their lovely
chewing gum.
These memories came to light yesterday whilst I was browsing " Google Maps " on the Internet
and used the App to view up and down the " Kings Road " looking at some of our old haunts that we frequented as kids.
I came upon the spot where the old wooden hut used to stand but I see now that in it's original position
there now stands a brick building which looks to be of a slightly larger size but still appears to be used as a religious site.
 
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image.png image.png
Photo appertaining to the previous post : Where the old hut used to stand and the pavement area where the kids used to meet up for their chats and get-togethers.
 
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