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Childhood Memories

Remember the sign at the front of the bus "No Spitting " Wouldn`t be very nice if someone did spit. :eek: 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.:cold_sweat:
 
Remember the sign at the front of the bus "No Spitting " Wouldn`t be very nice if someone did spit. :eek: 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.:cold_sweat:
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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!
 
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. :cool: 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 :cool:
 
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. ;)
 
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.
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 was plagued with chilblains in wintertime when young - puberty onwards. Once I left Warwickshire (aged 16) I never have had them again'
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.
 
My Mum was really strict in somethings .In our street all the kids played outside when possible. I was one of the youngest in the road.
We had a lamp post outside of our house.Which in the summer it was used for cricket stumps. My Mother often when she was fed up with the noise or the kids hanging around would go and shout go and play down your own end. Thinking about it we are only talking 10 to 15 houses away but the lamp post and our house had 2 corners opposite which was the end of another road so allowing more freedom to hit runs.
 
Recyling a memory ... :cool:
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 !
 
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