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Childhood Memories

Memories of Christmas, will of course, depend on the period of time in which you were a child. Christmas was a low key affair in my childhood - food rationing and other shortages saw to that. The families whose husbands/fathers were away in the Armed Forces probably had quite a different time to those who were not combatants and worked in industries or agriculture. I suspect that those at home had opportunities to make or know some one who could make some form of toys; those children of serviceman may have been less fortunate. Larger families often had older, retired members who could turn their hands to making and providing things. Some families had access to their own gardens and/or allotments which provided extras as did those who were able to raise fowl. (Can't raise fowl today in residential areas - people moan about the noise they make :scream: ). My own memories are of a scrawny (probably Woolworth) tree which folded up when not in use. I was given coffee to drink (probably Camp), by Nanny and told that drinking too much coffee would darken my skin. I also remember having to queue a couple of times or so at a wine merchants shop to buy a bottle of wine or whatever. The place was only open at certain times and some products I expect were rationed. There were many other things such as fruits, groceries and meats that were in short supply and required joining a queue. The wine shop was close to the Robin Hood island, Hall Green, as I believe it may have been the nearest (even so it was a two or three miles walk away), but on reflection it was not that close to home and maybe Nanny did not want to be seen buying alcohol. Imagine queuing today for bottles of wine etc. She was also particular where she drew her pension money and presumably her allotment, for me, from my soldier father. That was usually at a Post Office in Highgate. At least that gave me the pleasure of looking into Highgate Road bus depot as we passed by. ;) I also got my sweet ration there, it was always a quarter of Dolly Mixtures. The good thing about Dolly Mixtures is they went a long way and lasted a while you could save some for later on. Presents were few but you made the best of what you got. It was, I suppose, good training for later life and not 'crying for the moon', I guess. The religious nature of Christmastide was somewhat more sincere I think. Carols were sung - and meant - and children did often call carolling. Money was not always their reward as sweets and other trinkets were quite acceptable. Children were, at the time, despite the blackout and areas still without street lighting, believed safe out at night and most parents were happy for them to go out carol singing. I remember simple displays in shops. but most traders carried on as usual and were happy with any extra trade that came. I do not recall the frantic, stressful shopping that seems to be part of today's Christmas period. Many places only closed on Christmas Day and New Years Day. Old adages say that to pay out money on New Years Day means that you will pay it out all year. Also to wash on New Years Day will wash away a family member. :eek: Whilst WW2 lasted for six years its effects lasted for a few years after that.
 
Yes I remember the old faithful trimmings used to come out and holly magically appeared from nowhere to decorate the room
(think it was from a garden up the road)???? dad always found some somewhere!
The there is the old christmas tree we had when we were young , it was ancient with almost toilet brush like branches..green of course haha and the candle clip on the end, for real candles. One year they caused a fire and we finally bought a new one! Yippeee. Happy days we didnt have much but always had a great family christmas.
Mum used th same old pale green battered shoe box for the decorations. That was big enough. The crinkley chains and crinkley metallic tinsel, fairy, bakelite icicles, and stars to glow in the dark, which didn't. Baubles. IThe fold flat bells. t was enough then.
 
Reading Nico's post made me remember and think about a childhood christmas so long ago ... and then the forum search shows I had 'remembered' it six years ago on the forum ... :rolleyes:
Jeremy Vine Radio ran a feature on real candles on a tree as if it was bizarre.Nan said they had real candles and my Leicester mate did. He said they clipped on to the tree and his mum lit them and played a carol or listened to one on the radio. Usually Silent. Then she blew them out.
 
Nico, I've got some of those clips for Christmas tree candles, have never used them though. I loved those fold-flat bells. Mother saw in a magazine how to make ornamental snow out of washing powder, made to a paste with water, we had Daz so ours was blue!! It went in the wash afterwards.
rosie.
 
That's funny Smudger.The Blue snow. A trend setter. I am told they have pink snow in Canada? I have seen candle clips on modern candles. I am told the best Christmas lights are battery operated now but we have these old fashioned ones my partner had for her daughters so they must be 40 odd years old. They go in to a 2 pronged adaptor then the plug. You can get fold flat bells and balls still but they are not so popular. I got some for my parents Golden Wedding. I put up a battered poinsettia wall decoration with raggedy leaves still. Mum gave me some money to buy new decorations as she thew the old ones out when grandad died. So I bought the latter which took most of the money from Woolworths. In the 60s.
 
As a fellow city dweller, our neighbour fed up two cockerels in her back garden, she kept them in a tiny pen to fatten them, which mum said was cruel. The size of a beer crate. They were tough and bitter. Serve her right said mum.
 
Just out of interest, in Brum do you still get carol singers knocking on your door? What about trick or treaters or penny for the guy? We haven`t had any of those in a long while. Just more traditions dying out.:(
 
Was your Front Room a bit musty as some of our relations' Front rooms were because they were seldom used or aired? We always went in the Front room at night. Me only briefly as it was cold or if Granny came. Or at the weekend.
 
Many modern phones are more fashion than use. Remember that Trimline phone, that with just a very slight pull on the cable it fell of what ever surface it was on, usually onto the floor, often disconnecting the call. Fashion accessory more that a useful phone.
Many portable type phones *(radio) are fine - if you can actually seen the keypad, in poor light or darkness. Many mobile phones are equally hard going. I find the low priced mobile - that doesn't sing or dance - the better ones. ;)
Children were discouraged as far as I recall from using or answering the telephone. Usually the operator or 999 type of calls were the only ones permitted. But then in the times most of us speak of any form of telephone was purely for business or occasional use, people were not wedded to their ''phones.
* radio scanners can often listen in to 'phones that use radio frequencies.
old analogue remote phones are on 47 mhg.and 1.6 mhz . you can hear them... But not the digital ones....I use a cheap clonker.i have had this from the day we went digital. and when vodaphone was called vodac
 

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Just out of interest, in Brum do you still get carol singers knocking on your door? What about trick or treaters or penny for the guy? We haven`t had any of those in a long while. Just more traditions dying out.:(
In Cov we don't. We have a long dark bumpy drive since the council removed the street lamp. The local children are told not to cold call with trick or treating as it frightens people.
Much of this end of the road are student lets or rentals. And we are multicural. My French partner thought they were saying Treacle Treat!
We had Carol Singers on street corners some years ago that were heckled and sworn at by morons.
A silver band play at Sainsburys on the night before Christmas Eve. Their collection is not for charity but for themselves. But it sounds nice.As I go often I tip up my pockets often for the volunteers who sang every day for the homeless. Not seen Penny for the Guy in a long while. In my step daughter's district in Yorkshire which is rural they do all of these things but they are organised so as not to frighten.
 
In Cov we don't. We have a long dark bumpy drive since the council removed the street lamp. The local children are told not to cold call with trick or treating as it frightens people.
Much of this end of the road are student lets or rentals. And we are multicural. My French partner thought they were saying Treacle Treat!
We had Carol Singers on street corners some years ago that were heckled and sworn at by morons.
A silver band play at Sainsburys on the night before Christmas Eve. Their collection is not for charity but for themselves. But it sounds nice.As I go often I tip up my pockets often for the volunteers who sang every day for the homeless. Not seen Penny for the Guy in a long while. In my step daughter's district in Yorkshire which is rural they do all of these things but they are organised so as not to frighten.
we get trick or treat's. thats all's. There was a charity run santa,that the kids loved. his sled was towed with a 155 hp green John deere reindeer. but sadly stopped.due to lack of funds
 
Here in a rural Cretan village, we don't have so many young children as we did 15 years ago - they've all grown into adults and at least one has married and has babies of her own. But we still have three or four about 13 to 14 years old who dress up for Hallowe'en or who sing door to door. Always well behaved, so we are quite happy to give them a few euros. We like village life and everybody is very friendly, even it we can't communicate that well - their English is generally non-existent apart from teens who study it at school, and our Greek is not exactly what you would call fluent! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
When I cycled to work in the late 50s I had to be in at 7-00am.used to start from Glebe Farm at 6-30 used to get to Southalls at Alum Rock after following a bus from the Pelham.From Southalls I would hold the platform pole to pull me up the hill.What a relief when we got to the Grand Cinema at Alum Rock
when i left school.i worked at BSA. and had to cycle from Aston.rain or snow.i would grab a tow if i could:grinning:
 
I cycled, for six months, three days a week, from near Shirley to Bordesley Green. I never used buses as it would have meant two different routes to get there - one from near home and the Inner Circle 8, but that mean a walk from Muntz Street. and at the age of fifteen, costly. The other two days were at Bournville when I took the bus there. One from near home and the 11 Outer Circle, from Hall Green. The return journey was cheaper as the GPO provided transport which dropped me off at Digbeth, which meant just one bus ride and fare.
My first job in Devon was located between Paignton and Torquay which also meant a near ten mile ride - and Devon is very hilly. However I was a fit cyclist at the time. :laughing:
 
Just out of interest, in Brum do you still get carol singers knocking on your door? What about trick or treaters or penny for the guy? We haven`t had any of those in a long while. Just more traditions dying out.:(

Smudger, we haven't had carol singers for quite a while. I'm not sure if today's children know carols as well as we did as some schools don't have assemblies any more. No penny for the guy either. However, I had quite a few trick or treaters this year, some small children with their parents and a couple of young men with a great sense of humour. They were Asian and on their way back from the gym. I told them they were too big for trick or treating so they promptly knelt on my step! Needless to say they didn't go away empty handed. This year I didn't buy sweets and gave everyone clementines.
 
Smudger, we haven't had carol singers for quite a while. I'm not sure if today's children know carols as well as we did as some schools don't have assemblies any more. No penny for the guy either. However, I had quite a few trick or treaters this year, some small children with their parents and a couple of young men with a great sense of humour. They were Asian and on their way back from the gym. I told them they were too big for trick or treating so they promptly knelt on my step! Needless to say they didn't go away empty handed. This year I didn't buy sweets and gave everyone clementines.
Lady Penelope, I think you are absolutely correct! I remember carol services at school where I sang in the choir at the local church. I was a three night affair1 In the US there is little in the way or carol services, some churches have them but not many. We leave near Nashville so our church has beautiful music all year long.....
 
I so liked it when the Salvation Army played on the street corner on the lead up to Christmas singing carols and they trudged through the snow and knocked at the doors with their wooden collection boxes on a horizontal piece of wood.
The school nativity or play, the Christmas class party. The Carol service at the local church. Vary occasionally mum came if should could get off work. She sang a beautiful contralto (choking up here) and I could here her from the choir stalls, from the back of the church where the handful of mothers sat. Never any fathers. Nan always went.
Trying to go to sleep as Santa would't come. So pleased opening my pillowcase of toys and toffees.Glitter which didn't go all over you. I loved giving my parents their gifts and taking them to my grandparents on Christmas morning. We took it in turns to spend Christmas dinner with them and Great Grandma across the road and them with us for tea and vice versa. Nan's pewter sweet dish came out for the Quality Street. And the cake stand. Great Grandma had made the Christmas pudding, we all made a wish as we all had a stir of it. Her sister, my Auntie, from Cheltenham would be fetched from the bus station. I would go along in Grandad's car, a treat and sit at the front!. Not many people had cars then. My Granny would be fetched on alternate Christmas Days and Boxings days to either be with us or my uncle. She did prefer us as she loathed my Auntie and vice versa, and we had a downstairs loo! I had made paper chains with mum, paper lanterns and crackers to put on the wall. Grandad always bought us a real tree, not a huge one. The Pifco lights lasted for years. Mum would be tired from baking and glueing and wrapping because she had a full time job. She did the tree and that went up the last Sunday before Christmas. If Christmas dinner was at our house, mum would invite one of her friends who lived alone to share it with us. I liked it when her friend Sheff (knickname) came as she played the piano. We eventually had a capon. That put an end to Nan's cock(erel) jokes. One point to mum. Granny was not very mobile, she lost several fingers in a factory accident but she liked to help and sat with her legs open showing her passion killers and garters (as Nan would retort, "ooh er's common") Granny peeling the sprouts (and Nan being the other mother in law.) But I liked Granny as I loved all my family. She was funny. (Choking here again).
Sherry trifle for tea and Christmas Cake Grandad made. He was a lorry driver by day. He usually made four cakes and iced them which he distributed. He saved some icing for me to squeeze in to shapes, and he stuck tiny iced flowers, and silver balls on the pink and white cake.
The sherry would come out. The tot glasses. The Advo Cat as Nan called it. The cocktail biscuits in a balsa wood box. The glacé cherries. Dad smoked a cigar. I got a tot glass if Aunty wasn't looking. The Queen's speech. We kept our paper hats on all day. Watched TV. Auntie hoiked dad out of the best seat. We played games. As an only child everybody gave me the contents of their crackers. The False noses, spectacles, and Hercule Poirot type moustaches which always made my eyes run. Did it you?
And the street was quiet for a day. ....

Hi Nico, the Salvation army always came in the local pub we frequented when we were younger, and I loved hearing them sing. there were also bell ringers which sounded great at Christmas. My kids were both in the nativity plays at school , still have the photos, my daughter was an angel and my son a shepherd. We never had a christmas without a tin of Quality Street too haha Ah the school christmas parties. You have some wonderful memories Nico :) thanks for reminding me of some of mine. Wendy
 
Hi Nico, the Salvation army always came in the local pub we frequented when we were younger, and I loved hearing them sing. there were also bell ringers which sounded great at Christmas. My kids were both in the nativity plays at school , still have the photos, my daughter was an angel and my son a shepherd. We never had a christmas without a tin of Quality Street too haha Ah the school christmas parties. You have some wonderful memories Nico :) thanks for reminding me of some of mine. Wendy
So as I am reading this I remember the last coming round selling cockells in the pub
Not that I was ever drinking underage.
 
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