Childhood Memories

[sospiri]

Phil,

There are certain people today who would be supplying a cannabis farm in the attic from that.

Maurice

 

[Lady Penelope]

Alan, I well remember those thre'penny bits. They had a different sound to all the other coins. Why thrift on the reverse? Anyone know? Or the portcullis come to think of it.

 

[Radiorails]

I have seen it suggested that the thrift was a psychological way of getting people to save. Maybe, but I do wonder how many people knew the name of the plant. Of course they may have been told when it was first produced in 1937.
The portcullis is apparently a Tudor design, which of course can be seen today on many government items - from letterheads to chairs etc.

 

[johnjohnhohn]

As well as the area in post#39, I roamed or travelled to grandparents across this area but some years later than the 1938 date of this image.
Red dot marks the Hare & Hounds Pub on the Kingstanding Rd.
Green dot marks a gap between the houses in Atlantic Road - why was it not built upon ?
Yellow dot marks the Kingstanding Rd-Hawthorn Rd-Dyas Rd-Warren Farm Rd junction.
Blue dot marks a sand quarry off Dyas Rd ... the 'cliffs' were as high as houses.
Mauve dot marks Kingstanding Rd Drill Hall with Co op dairy next to it and Goodway Rd to the right.
Orange dot marks Cavandale Ave unfinished in this image but finished by the start of WW2.
Most of the dot-marked places on the pic have been mentioned in various posts on the froum.
Click or tap on the pic to enlarge it ... use scroll bars to move across it.
View attachment 113851

What a fantastic photo! Could you tell me the source please as I would like to get a similar dated photo of the area to the left ie where the library now stands John

 

[I Am Nico]

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.

We still get goldcrests though I hear them rather than see them. A very sweet thin song. They seem to like the old fashioned roses to get food from.So tiny. We had 12 baby blue tits one. Minute like bumble bees.

 

[Ray Griffiths]

What a fantastic photo! Could you tell me the source please as I would like to get a similar dated photo of the area to the left ie where the library now stands John

Wonderful picture I remember the very well, I lived at 101 Birdbrook Road from 1942 onwards.
Interesting to see the view of thr sand pits on either side of Dyas Road, how was the pits formed was sand extracted or are the natural ? Dyas Road didn’t have a road surface till the 50,s it was just hard core till they run buses down

 

[I Am Nico]

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.

My partner played cabbages and pretend food with wild parsley and other plants.
Dolls houses with carboard boxes, toothpaste tops and other tops for bowls. J cloth curtains.
A bit of wood with a rubber band propeller boat.
I played with grandad's screws nuts and bolts and a collection of seashells with characters.
Stating that, our grandchildren have the most expensive electronic toys and plastic toys and they go for things they can make and invent themselves. Grandson persuaded Sainsburys to give him the LOL doll box to make a house. I gave him bottle tops to make wheels for his cardboard car, but they like to do it themselves is what his mum doesn't quite get.. She like to make things for them out of boxes.Granddaughter has a whole alcove of rooms for her 30 odd Barbies and LOL dolls. She loves it when you give her something for it.That is like a lid etc or a box or a tray.

 

[I Am Nico]

I used to ask for the wrapping from tarts and cake boxes turn them upside down and pretend they were eggs and make a nest out of grass.
I would asked dad for some of his pipe cleaners and bend them in to animals.
Nico's tricko's...I still make snowflakes with the grandchildren and paper chain animals. I am good at découpage apparently.
Cut a disc round a plate fold it in half and half again as many times as is possible, then cut holes and shapes in it. Voila snowflakes. Similarly take a long thin strip of paper and fold it like a concertina. Cut your shape in then open them out.Missed my vocation.
Remember making snowmen, with cottonwool stuck on a jar?
Or on a toilet roll, or making trees from rolled up newspapers. The grandchildren still love it like talking through the tubes that hold the wrapping paper, or hats cut out of cartons.
I used to make animal pens for my zoo from easter egg cartons.

 

[Dave89]

We still get goldcrests though I hear them rather than see them. A very sweet thin song. They seem to like the old fashioned roses to get food from.So tiny. We had 12 baby blue tits one. Minute like bumble bees.

Hi

I never saw a Goldcrest here until i put up one of those plastic feeders with the little
slots in the side for Nyger seed.

After a couple of weeks at least one pair used to come daily, but I have not had a visit
from them for a few weeks now. Perhaps they migrate for the winter?

Kind regards
Dave

 

[I Am Nico]

I think lots of them do Dave. Such tiny little bids that cross the continent. I saw a TV programme of them coming in around Clay next the Sea. Norfolk. So exhausted they could be handled.

 

[I Am Nico]

Hi

I never saw a Goldcrest here until i put up one of those plastic feeders with the little
slots in the side for Nyger seed.

After a couple of weeks at least one pair used to come daily, but I have not had a visit
from them for a few weeks now. Perhaps they migrate for the winter?

Kind regards
Dave

I stopped putting Nyger seeds. Nothing would eat it and it started to sprout. I have tried 3 different seed feeder packs from Wilko and there is something in every pack they won't eat, till now. They are so hungry they clean us out.

 

[I Am Nico]

I stopped putting Nyger seeds. Nothing would eat it and it started to sprout. I have tried 3 different seed feeder packs from Wilko and there is something in every pack they won't eat, till now. They are so hungry they clean us out.

I don't remember having such pretty birds in the garden as a child. The cat brought dead starlings and blackbirds onto the yard.
We had pretty butterflies then, loads, our garden was wild and full of nettles. And red moths. We fed the birds with bread and scraps and the chicken carcass on the stone line post. I don't know how the cat got up to it but he did.
Nan had blackbirds and gulls flying over. Sometimes a swan! Maybe we had not encroached so much on their territories.

 

[I Am Nico]

Re: Cadbury's Bournville



View attachment 104274View attachment 104275

Paul, I guess my memory sucks because i only remember R/luxembourg for the music. I can`t remember the others you mention except for Special agent Dick barton (was he on r/lux ? And surely Muffin & the Woodentops were on tv?

Afore my time folks. I did had The Wooden Tops, WATCH with mother, Rag Tag and Bobtail, Bleep and Booster. Fireball XL5, Marine Boy, Skippy. The Banana Splits!
Double Deckers, They eat them now,
Parsley. Paulus the Wood Gnome. Sorry to all Pauls out there.
Topo Gigio.
The Black Theatre of Prague.
Tales from Europe. My partner had those in France, and Zorro. I suppose they were just tales! Like French doors. I said what do you call French doors. I showed her. Doors! she replied.

 

[oldbrit]

Air raid sirens the drum drum of bombers passing over, the boom of bombs falling, wet damp Anderson shelters. That was the GOOD things!!! Cold damp house, sitting by the fire to get warm, walking to school in the rain then riding my bike to work in the rain. BUT we did have some fun times; Weekends drives steak and kidney pies at Can't remember the name of the pub, in the country. Holiday in Falmouth Cornwall. Playing conkers, cricket and tennis across the street train spotting at Stechford smoky and dirty but loved it. Happy TIMES

 

[Bob Davis]

Air raid sirens the drum drum of bombers passing over, the boom of bombs falling, wet damp Anderson shelters. That was the GOOD things!!! Cold damp house, sitting by the fire to get warm, walking to school in the rain then riding my bike to work in the rain. BUT we did have some fun times; Weekends drives steak and kidney pies at Can't remember the name of the pub, in the country. Holiday in Falmouth Cornwall. Playing conkers, cricket and tennis across the street train spotting at Stechford smoky and dirty but loved it. Happy TIMES

You have just said it all, memories yes, enhanced by time, probably, but never forgotten, remember that foggy damp cigarette smell on the top deck of a crowded bus, more will now be published, we all have our own.

Bob

 

[Radiorails]

I was plagued with chilblains in wintertime when young - puberty onwards. Once I left Warwickshire (aged 16) I never have had them again'

 

[sospiri]

Alan,

Warwickshire used to be a dampish county and was why we had lots of trees and green grass and proper snow occasionally. Can't have it all ways!

Maurice

 

[oldMohawk]

Monday's were wash days for every house in our road and I remember the gardens with sheets pegged out flapping in the breeze. In our house whites were boil washed in a grey enamel gas boiler. If it rained we had a drying rack in the kitchen which could be lowered from the ceiling and then raised in front of the open fire grate. Mom had two flat irons which were heated on the old gas stove, one being heated while the other ironed and I have a memory of finding out that the handles were very very hot.

Just as I was about to click the 'Post reply' button I had a quick search and noticed I had remembered this before but in a different thread .... so a touch of copy and pasting ....

 

[Spargone]

Mom had two flat irons which were heated on the old gas stove, one being heated while the other ironed and I have a memory of finding out that the handles were very very hot.

That brings back memories of 'winding up' someone at work thirty years ago! I told him that I had been thinking of taking up golf, (I knew that he played a bit), and that I had taken some advice for beginners which was that a 'number 9 iron' was a good club to start off with. My colleague, nodded in agreement and I continued my tale saying that I had seen an advert for one and had sent off for it. From behind my back I produced one of my nana's old flat irons, marked '9' on top.

When my nana did the washing she used an old 'copper' in the corner of the kitchen which once was heated by a coal fire underneath. In my day she would boil kettle after kettle on her gas cooker to fill it. (Pre-cooker days cooking was done on the 'kitchen' fire/oven, now the living room. What we called the kitchen she called the 'back kitchen'). There was a dolly tub in the back yard and a mangle. There was no room to hang up large amounts of washing, (not much wind anyway), so it all went out 'on the green', on a rope slung between two vertical railway sleepers. She paid British Railways five shillings a year rent for that.

 

[oldbrit]

You have just said it all, memories yes, enhanced by time, probably, but never forgotten, remember that foggy damp cigarette smell on the top deck of a crowded bus, more will now be published, we all have our own.

Bob

I hated that, I would sit with all the women in the lower deck. Dad smoked like a chimney I hated cigs, I have never smoked my whole life, played with our band in smoked filled dance halls and bars. Never thought then of the effects of second hand smoke maybe that's why I cough a lot at now 86 years young John Crump

 

[Smudger]

Remember the sign at the front of the bus "No Spitting " Wouldn`t be very nice if someone did spit. Also on the old buses was a open platform for getting on & off, & we nutcases would see who could jump off furthest from the bus stop. Took a tumble many a times.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Remember the sign at the front of the bus "No Spitting " Wouldn`t be very nice if someone did spit. Also on the old buses was a open platform for getting on & off, & we nutcases would see who could jump off furthest from the bus stop. Took a tumble many a times.

I remember jumping off the back on those open platforms as a kid.
I was on the No 60 coming from town . I was due to get off at the traffic light at the Wheatsheaf on the A45 just after it turned left into Sheaf Lane. The bus had to stop at the traffic lights so I thought 8 would get off early. Just as I started to disembark the bus started to move and I went sprawling in the gravel just outside the old Woolworths.
Nothing worse than grazed knees, which just added to all the other scabby knees we boys all seem to have in them days with our short pants.

 

[Robert Ensor (bob)]

I hated that, I would sit with all the women in the lower deck. Dad smoked like a chimney I hated cigs, I have never smoked my whole life, played with our band in smoked filled dance halls and bars. Never thought then of the effects of second hand smoke maybe that's why I cough a lot at now 86 years young John Crump

Remember the back of the seats had a match striker in the top corner !!.
Sitting here typing this I am chuckleing what the hell were we thinking, if we had said anything about secondhand smoke we would have gotten a clip round the ear.

 

[Radiorails]

I am not sure if jumping off bus platforms was peculiar to Birmingham, but I never saw it anywhere else.

 

[adap2it]

I am not sure if jumping off bus platforms was peculiar to Birmingham, but I never saw it anywhere else.

We would jump on the platform if the conductor was doing the tickets and jump off when he came back. We would do this on several buses until we got where we were going. When you've got NO MONEY, you had to improvise....
Dave A

 

[Radiorails]

 

[Sugar]

There must of been people that got killed or seriously hurt falling off these platforms on the buses.I remember hanging on with dear life when we went round witton circle we always went to the edge of the platform cus it was more thrilling going round the circle on the number 11 bus. We could only go to the edge when the conductor was upstairs busy.I remember the fare being 2d and we always tried to dodge the conductor so we could spend the 2d on sweets (mind you that was not often) When I was at marsh hill girls we always got on the number 11 which was right outside the school gates and many a time we all got told off in assembly for letting the school down of the behaviour of us young Ladies while getting on the bus.we use to all dive on at the same time and our satchel straps would get tangled around the bar on the platform.We definitely never acted like young ladies SHOULD!

 

[Robert Ensor (bob)]

I am not sure if jumping off bus platforms was peculiar to Birmingham, but I never saw it anywhere else.View attachment 139750

Always wondered why the term "alight" why not depart or other

 

[sospiri]

For pupils of Moseley Grammar coming to school from the Stratford Road end on the 1A service, jumping off at the top of College Road was the norm. The stop was 50 yards or so further down Wake Green Road in the opposite direction to which we needed to go, so it made sense to us kids. The bus had to slow down appreciably to take the corner, so it wasn't a great risk in those days of much less traffic. If we did come unstuck, it was due to the fact that too many kids were trying to jump in the space of 3 or 4 seconds.

Maurice

 

[Radiorails]

You can see why buses with doors were introduced.