I remember jumping off the back on those open platforms as a kid.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.
Remember the back of the seats had a match striker in the top corner !!.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
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....I am not sure if jumping off bus platforms was peculiar to Birmingham, but I never saw it anywhere else.
Always wondered why the term "alight" why not depart or otherI am not sure if jumping off bus platforms was peculiar to Birmingham, but I never saw it anywhere else.View attachment 139750
Some of us took a sarnie for lunch, not every one had there lunch catererd and rode the posh bus service in the rain .Well, those of us who, when it was raining and therefore not cycling, used the Midland Red. We were used to a more orderly exit from the bus.
No Spitting. No Singing. I saw those in a Dublin pub. I remember spitoons and one of nan's old neighbours Alice took snuff. And it used to run. Bluuurgh!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.
Mum said I would get chilblains. She did. I always sat on top of the fire, my pullover was singing and my back was freezing.I was plagued with chilblains in wintertime when young - puberty onwards. Once I left Warwickshire (aged 16) I never have had them again'
Every September in the 1940's the 'firecan season' started. We would find tin cans and pierce lots of holes in them and fix long wire loops to our cans so they could be swung overhead. Small sticks and pieces of coal were put in the cans and set alight. The cans were then vigorously swung over and over and the rush of air got a real good blaze going as we tried to make our cans glow hotter than anyone else. Occasionally a wire loop would break with the can flying off and everyone would have to dodge the mass of hot coals scattered 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 us. Thinking back it all seems daft - maybe it was the war affecting us !
I ALWAYS RODE MY BIKE RAIN OR NOTSome of us took a sarnie for lunch, not every one had there lunch catererd and rode the posh bus service in the rain .