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Childhood Memories

As I moved from Warwickshire to Devon in 1954, at the age of 15, I guess everything here, for me, is a childhood memory. :D
 
Memories..jpg Our house did not look quite like this one but it does remind me of my early years.
 
Eric Gibson said:
I can see my house in Birdbrook Road (212) in that picture, it was opposite open ground when I was there which I think later became built on as a driving test centre.

The sand pits were still there too, I used to get off the bus on Kingstanding Road and take a short cut across the top down to near my front door.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Eric I lived in Birdbrook Rd 101 from 1942 to 1959, just below Prethrose the Fish and Chip shop we used to go for a bag of batter bits.
You must have lived close to the Caponhurst Family lived 2 houses down from Dyas Rd.
Dyas Road was an un-adopted road till well after the war when the road was constructed to allow bus to use.
The was another sand pit at the back of houses in Dyas Rd the side of the pit was the army barracks this the waste land where Pat Collins fair used.
Next to the Co-op dairy was B'ham Council Child Nursery
The other sand pit in your 2 young children killed digging sand out to constructed a cave in the cliff face
 
This pic brings back a childhood memory of when at the age of 10 I made a parachute which did not work when I jumped from a tall tree.
20180303_073517955_iOS.jpg
 
Does anyone remember these? What about those 2 piece bombs attached to a parachute?

Dave A
 

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They were made of tough stuff in them days. Even the young girls awaiting there turn on the outside of the railings.
Although it doesn't look that high up in the photo, it would seem high when your up there, like when you climb the ladder to your house bedroom windows.
Bet their Mum and Dad would have a fit if they knew.
 
adap2it said:
Does anyone remember these? What about those 2 piece bombs attached to a parachute?


oh yes dave i well remember those caps..used to put them under a little metal plate on a plastic rocket chuck them in the air and BANG....many hours of fun..happy days

lyn
Click to expand...
 
Caps, yes Dave, I remember you could buy a plastic little bomb, put the cap in the head, throw it I'm the air and it would detonate the cap on hitting the ground.
You could make a parachute out of your hankie by tying string to the four corners and putting a weight on the centre. Throw it in the air and hopefully it would float down.
Do you remember spinning the school milk tops between your fingers, if you achieved a good one it would spin and float for some time, with a bit of wind.
Ahh happy days before computer games and mobile phones.
 
Ray Griffiths said:
Hi Eric I lived in Birdbrook Rd 101 from 1942 to 1959, just below Prethrose the Fish and Chip shop we used to go for a bag of batter bits.
You must have lived close to the Caponhurst Family lived 2 houses down from Dyas Rd.
Dyas Road was an un-adopted road till well after the war when the road was constructed to allow bus to use.
The was another sand pit at the back of houses in Dyas Rd the side of the pit was the army barracks this the waste land where Pat Collins fair used.
Next to the Co-op dairy was B'ham Council Child Nursery
The other sand pit in your 2 young children killed digging sand out to constructed a cave in the cliff face
Click to expand...

I've only just seen your post Ray, I was at 212, past Dyas Road from your end, which at the time had an open field opposite, they built on that field after I left, I think it became a driving test centre.
 
Elmdon Boy said:
Caps, yes Dave, I remember you could buy a plastic little bomb, put the cap in the head, throw it I'm the air and it would detonate the cap on hitting the ground.
You could make a parachute out of your hankie by tying string to the four corners and putting a weight on the centre. Throw it in the air and hopefully it would float down.
Do you remember spinning the school milk tops between your fingers, if you achieved a good one it would spin and float for some time, with a bit of wind.
Ahh happy days before computer games and mobile phones.
Click to expand...
The ones we had were made of metal, and yes we would use our hankies to make the parachute. I do remember the milk top spinners too. We would add to the fly ability by rotating a penny of halfpenny in the top until the edge was square, this gave your fingers more to grab on to when you flicked it in the air, and a more horizontal rotation.
Dave A
 
just going back to the little plastic rockets with caps in....a shop was selling them a couple of years back...wished i had bought some now:(


lyn
 
I remember the rolls of caps and I had a little gun they went into. You could also get separate caps to put in those rockets but weren't they fiddly?
 
They came in a little round pressed paper box. I had some for my cap firing spud gun
 
ahh yes they were fiddly pen...we were all fingers and thumbs trying to get the little blighters under the metal plate....happy days though....didnt take much to keep us happy did it:)

lyn
 
I remember every September in the 1940's when the 'fire can season' started. We found tin cans, pierced lots of holes in them and fixed long wire loops so that the cans could be swung overhead. Small sticks and pieces of coal got the can alight and then it was vigorously swung over and over and the rush of air got a good blaze going as we tried to make our cans glow hotter than anyone else. Every now and then a wire loop would break and everyone would have to dodge the mass of hot coals flying everywhere. I don't remember any of our parents stopping us but there were no shiny cars parked in our road in those days. The season only lasted about a week, we probably got tired of hot coals dropping on our heads and we moved on to something else ....:)
 
well i have never heard of the fire can season phil.....sounds the sort of caper our kid would have loved:D

lyn
 
I also remember putting rolls of caps in my Davy Crocket rifle, had the full works too Davy Crocket top and trousers complete with all the tassels off the arms and down the trouser legs and racoon cap. Did I look good, you bet.
Went to see Fess Parker in Walt Disneys Davy Crocket at the Sheldon at the time, around 1958
 
hi elmdon boy...would love to see photographic evidence of you in your outfit:D i remember my brother had a cowboy outfit....was always chasing me around shooting his gun at me:)

lyn
 
Yes Lyn there were different seasons for different things, firecans, conkers, marbles,etc.
My problem was that I was never told when they changed and I don't know who organized them !
Example we had been playing marbles ( marlies in our street ) say for three weeks, so I went out next day with my bag of marbles and no one else did, they were all playing something else so I had to nip back home and swap to be the same as the others.
Ok I understand that snow or ice meant sleds and slides but why the others ????
As I write this it has dawned on me ! Nobody really liked me and I can live with that.
Cheers Tim ( who? )
 
i was just thinking tim....they were only jealous because your conkers were bigger than theirs :D:D:D

lyn
 
Elmdon Boy said:
I also remember putting rolls of caps in my Davy Crocket rifle, had the full works too Davy Crocket top and trousers complete with all the tassels off the arms and down the trouser legs and racoon cap. Did I look good, you bet.
Went to see Fess Parker in Walt Disneys Davy Crocket at the Sheldon at the time, around 1958
Click to expand...
Photograph please!!!
 
And then there was the kite flying season. Get two sticks, tie them to make a cross, pinch a reel of cotton from mom's sewing box, a double page from a news paper, flour and water paste, then out into the street to fly it and some getting stuck on telephone wires. One of mine touched the 132,000 volt wire on a pylon and got burnt .... :rolleyes:
 
and then we had the all year round money back season...bunk up over the wall of the vine pub opposite our house..pass some empties over and then take them round to the pubs outdoor to get the money off them...talk about cheek very often our dad would be inside drinking in the pub....:D:D:D
 
Lyn and Smudger, if only I had a photo, people didn't take photos much in those days. My Dad did have a camera, but chose to take pictures of country scenes and views. The few times he took pictures of people it tended to be my younger sister.
I have very few photos of me as a youngster other than school photos.
Was he trying to tell me something.:(
 
of course you are right there elmdon boy..not everyone could afford a camera back then....i know from family photos that from time to time dad had one but there are large time gaps in the photos he took or he got our mom to take and our dad was always very good at writing on the back of the photos who was on them and the date...thinking about it now i have quite a few taken of us kids so for that i must be grateful...:)

lyn
 
My mother took most of our family photos which is why so many had the head missing. I think she pressed so hard on the shutter button (Box Brownie) that the camera tilted down to the right.
 
Elmdon Boy said:
I also remember putting rolls of caps in my Davy Crocket rifle, had the full works too Davy Crocket top and trousers complete with all the tassels off the arms and down the trouser legs and racoon cap. Did I look good, you bet.
Went to see Fess Parker in Walt Disneys Davy Crocket at the Sheldon at the time, around 1958
Click to expand...
I, along with all my mates, also had Davy Crockett hats and we had all seen the film at the Sheldon. Later on there was Zorro and everyone had a plastic sword with a piece of chalk on the end so you could write "Z" on the wall.
Did you ever make a "dart" from a bamboo cane? We used to throw them with the help of a piece of string which gave it extra impetus and we could fling them a fair distance!
 
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