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Childhood Memories

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![/QUOTE said:
No...but we did make darts from discarded pen nibs. If you pushed down on the point it would break of and reveal double points that were really sharp. We then squeeze the other end to make it crack. We would then insert a paper flight. Those things would really fly and stick into any soft surface, including clothing.
Dave A
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Our homemade toys:

Two tin cans and a piece of string = telephones.
Rose petals freshly picked from the garden in water = perfume
Playing with left-over pastry (fore runner of Playdough)
Folded paper boats in a bath of water
Grass heads = darts
Grass blades blown between thumbs = whistle
Camps in bushes along our alleyway = house, shop etc
Wooden plank and bricks (or similar) = see saw
Bowl of water or old bath = paddling pool

Blimey, weren't we inventive !

Viv.
 
I remember one holiday, Mum and Dad at work, my mate came round, and we thought what good fun it would be to get some of those old 78 records from the gramophone and skim them over the allotments at the back of our house. Boy did they travel some distance, lucky no one got in the way. Inevitably they broke on impact.
Don't remember ever getting told off for it incredibly. They were never played, so I assume never missed.
What naughty boys we were.
 
I was looking at some old coins the other day, a farthing, a halfpenny and and a penny. When I was little I liked the farthing as it had a robin on it!
I was trying to explain to my grandson that there were four of them in an old penny and 240 old pennies in a pound. I always felt rich if my Aunties gave me two half-crowns for my birthday.
rosie.
 
That's real money Rosie. I remember Mom regularly replacing Dad's trouser pockets due to the wear and tear caused by old coins.
 
260px-1919farthingrev.jpg
220px-British_farthing_1951_reverse.png


The Britannia design was changed to the Wren design in 1937. I do remember having the old design and am sure there is one here somewhere.
 
1937 was the year that I was born and I only ever remember the wren, not that it was worth a lot even then.

Maurice
 
The farthing disappeared around 1959/60. Until well into the mid 1950's it featured in a large number of prices in food stores and drapery and some household furnishings. It was the equivalent of the 99p of decimal currency. It was a ploy of retailers to make things appear cheaper than they really were - rather like the nonsense of petrol prices today. (121.9p per litre). :eek:
 
It's a tried and tested ploy Alan, especially with the ladies, "Look hubby I bought these new shoes, only a fiver." £5.99 in truth. :)
 
I recall saving 'ship' halfpennies at Sunday School but I can't remember what we were saving for. Mission to Seamen perhaps?
 
Ship halfpennies were collected at schools - and maybe other places as well - during the war. I guess they helped the war effort in one way or another. I am sure that because the coin featured a ship on one of its faces we were under the impression that it built warships. That of, course to landlocked Midlanders, was quite impressionable.
Birmingham, maybe due to the plethora of canals within its boundaries, seems to have a feeling for the sea. I visited the city in 1980 (if I remember correctly) to find a collection for a new RNLI lifeboat for a Devon sea port. On a more humorous note the floating gin palaces, in marinas in the South West, are often referred to as the Birmingham Navy. :D
 
Collecting for the lifeboats Alan...………...in our class at Cranbourne Road juniors we were sent out door to door (imagine that nowadays :eek: ) they gave us a card for the contributors to sign, at one house a young woman came to the door wrapped in a bath towel which she dropped while trying to sign...……….my first naked lady and I was only ten ;), a fleeting glimpse as she disappeared in a flash.
 
Eric Gibson said:
Collecting for the lifeboats Alan...………...in our class at Cranbourne Road juniors we were sent out door to door (imagine that nowadays :eek: ) they gave us a card for the contributors to sign, at one house a young woman came to the door wrapped in a bath towel which she dropped while trying to sign...……….my first naked lady and I was only ten ;), a fleeting glimpse as she disappeared in a flash.
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Hard luck, nowadays you would have been invited in, then of course you would not have known what to do, nowadays....wheyhay, picked up the towel and made her a cup of tea to calm her nerves and probably got a silver threepenny bit for being a good lad. Aah the innocence of youth.
Bob
 
Eric Gibson said:
Collecting for the lifeboats Alan...………...in our class at Cranbourne Road juniors we were sent out door to door (imagine that nowadays :eek: ) they gave us a card for the contributors to sign, at one house a young woman came to the door wrapped in a bath towel which she dropped while trying to sign...……….my first naked lady and I was only ten ;), a fleeting glimpse as she disappeared in a flash.
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Scarred you for life Eric? I doubt it, but to be sure some pc person today would say it did! :D
 
Thanks for the photo Alan, all these years I thought it was a robin! I wouldn't like to think I had mislead anyone reading this for school etc.!

Jmadone, I've got a couple of those silver ones, a bit like the "new" 5p.

I still sometimes convert prices into "old money".
rosie.
 
iu

iu


I guess the only way I would instantly know the robin from the wren would be his red throat. I assume the wren was chosen for a coin as it is one of the smallest birds to be found in Britain. We have a wren here but he keeps his distance from the boisterous sparrows. The robin is always close by when doing garden work - watching to see what turns up for his dinner.
 
The new currency 1937.

It does say that the wren is the smallest British bird, but there is a bird smaller!

[correction....it should of course be two smaller birds.]

8E5EAAC8-0548-4233-9639-AFE3D4C87693.jpeg F4FC6674-64C3-44F5-BD30-57D7484C1C99.jpeg
sospiri said:
1937 was the year that I was born and I only ever remember the wren, not that it was worth a lot even then.

Maurice
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Rosie, I think I thought it was a robin too. I don't think I knew what a wren was then but I knew a robin from Christmas cards!
 
maypolebaz said:
I'm pretty sure the Goldcrest or the Firecrest is smaller than the Wren.
(Saw a Goldcrest once, very small !)
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Yes the consensus seems to be that the Goldcrest and the Firecrest are about the same size. We had an old Xmas tree that had grown well, not far from the kitchen window. The Goldcrest was a frequent visitor, but never managed to get a picture.

I got told off for cutting a branch off to get down the path. Couple of years later she who must be obeyed dug it up! Only seen one Goldcrest in the garden now in the last 10 years.
 
Pedrocut said:
The new currency 1937.

It does say that the wren is the smallest British bird, but there is a bird smaller!

[correction....it should of course be two smaller birds.]

View attachment 127003 View attachment 127004
Click to expand...
EE lad, that`s proper money, not like the soulless currency we have today. Mind you, i very rarely carry money, nearly always use a debit/contactless card when possible. My favourite bit of old currency was the ten bob note! I can remember buying a Oxo cube for a farthing.
 
Smudger said:
EE lad, that`s proper money, not like the soulless currency we have today. Mind you, i very rarely carry money, nearly always use a debit/contactless card when possible. My favourite bit of old currency was the ten bob note! I can remember buying a Oxo cube for a farthing.
Click to expand...
Smudger
......and it kept you going for three days!
Bob
 
Hi Smudger. An Oxo cube for a farthing. You should have bought lots at that price and try to sell them today as I'm sure they would keep. 12 Oxo cubes at 1 farthing each would be three old pence or 1.25 new pence. A packet of 12 Oxo cubes currently costs £1.39, an increase of 111 times when you paid a farthing each. Dave
 
jmadone said:
I also remember the silver 3d piece coins we had as children.View attachment 126999
Used to go into the Christmas pud.
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I still have some silver 3d. pieces, one is Victorian. I also have a couple of the George VI and Elizabeth II versions (see pic). These threepenny pieces, also known as threepenny bits, or thruppenny bits - depending on regional accent. I know many here will have fond memories of these older coins, which disappeared from regular use in 1971, but many will not.

200px-Threepence_1943.jpg
 
I was aged 6 when I had my first electric shock. Playing outside I saw a street lamp with the cover missing and touched a shiny brass terminal I could see inside. A sharp pain shot up my arm but luckily I survived ... :)
 
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