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Health and safety in the 1950’s

B

BOBJ

master brummie
Health and safety in the 1950’s
I had my grandchildren round for a birthday party in thegarden a week ago, I was watching the antics and I thought of the things thatwe used to do in 50’s when I lived in Gosford Street Balsall Heath. Fewexamples:
· Dropping walls, there were some beauties offBalsall Heath Road behind Gosford Street and Opposite Wenman Street intoKensington Gardens. A miracle we weren’t injured considering we were about 4feet tall and the walls were about 10 to 20 feet high.

· Down the hill on trollies/go karts, always agreat competition to build the best one, so we used to race down Balsall HeathRoad with no brakes and weaving between the cars (not too many). My big crashwas trying to turn onto Gosford Street at speed and hit the wall and road sign,a few cuts and bruises from that one.


· Wrecking and lighting fires in bombed buildingsbelow Kensington Gardens, Attics and cellars were favourite, very fewfloorboards, hop over the joists.

· Throwing Molotov cocktails at trees in the woodsbehind Cannon Hill Park, petrol came from my mates older brothers motorbikewhen he was at work. I bet the fuel consumption was terrible.


· Building dens on the bombsites and beingattacked with house bricks from the rival gang (all in good humour) still gotthe scar on my eyebrow where one connected.

· At a time of National Service there were oftenlive 303 bullets about, It was not me, but I remember a kid probably 10years old putting one in a vice and trying to detonate it with a nail andhammer, luckily it did not go off.


· On a similar theme railway fog detonatorsexploded with a brick in an entry, put them in a corner a lob bricks (blues werethe best), better than any banger always got the neighbours out.
Anyone else got any dangerous adventures to share? I grew upto be a normal adult honest.
 
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BOBJ said:
Anyone else got any dangerous adventures to share? I grew up to be a normal adult honest.
Click to expand...
Fire cans were fun ... maybe the craze had died out by the 1950s ... wouldn't be allowed today ...
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Firecans ...
Every September for a few years in the 1940's the 'fire can season' started. Maybe it only happened in our area and if I saw it going on these days I would be rather alarmed. We used to find tin cans pierce lots of holes in the outside, and fix a long wire loop so that the can could be swung overhead. Small sticks and pieces of coal were obtained to be put in the can and set alight. The can was 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. Every now and then a wire loop would break and everyone would have to dodge the mass of hot coals flying 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 our heads and thinking back it all seems daft - maybe it was the war affecting us !
 
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As a lad when my older brothers were doing their national service, they would on occasions bring home a few of the military thunderflashes that were used on army training.
Great fun tying one to a housebrick, lighting and dropping into water, made a hell of a bang with a goodly shower to go with it.
One bonfire time we tied a banger to a stone and dropped into a brand new enamelled bucket.
It took every bit of enamel off the metal. My sister was not best pleased, she had only bought the bucket the day before.
All good fun, with no malice intended.
Kids today get so bored.
 
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I think most kids did the trolley/go-cart thing, always best if you lived on or near a hill. Luckily there were very few cars about. Sitting on a piece of cardboard & sliding down a steep grassy embankment was fun, making a narrow hole in the hillside, bung a banger in & put a smallish stone over the hole. Someone dared me to walk across a frozen Brookvale park & like a fool i did. Makes me shudder now just thinking about it. I also walked (very gingerly) across pipework that straddled a very fast flowing river. Bows & arrows, french arrows, air pistols, it`s a wonder any kids of our generation weren`t blinded or disfigured. It`s no wonder i can`t win the lottery, i`ve used up all my luck! These days it`s considered dangerous to play conkers!
 
Hi yes we did the go carts and the house brick battles on the bomb sites, but the one i remeber the most was the banger fights. One gang would attack another gang lighting bangers and throwing them at one another great fun at the time, but thinking about it now frightens me to death.
 
Austin K2 said:
Smudger, Can't say I've heard of FRENCH ARROWS, whats that all about.
(I remember French Letters)
Click to expand...

A French arrow was a normal arrow but you didn`t need a bow to propel it. It`s a bit complicated, but basically you looped a piece of string just below the flights, pull the string down to the bottom & then simply throw it. Works a lot better than i can explain it! It`s probably got a proper name but for some reason we called it French arrows. (PS) it doesn`t work with french letters :-}
 
I have no memory of "French arrows" but we, in Our Gang used the same method to launch our arrows.
The principle works the same as a throwing stick or Woomera and was very effective. One day I thought it would be a good idea to attach the head of one of my Dad's darts to my arrow. It worked brilliantly but as was often the case in those days my parents scuppered the whole idea as being too dangerous.
 
Remember those arrows very well, great fun don't think we had a name for them, also the railway fog detonators round with a band on like a wristwatch, drop a brick on them and Bang!! that's after you've been down on the tracks and took them off. not very clever I know now. I didn't then. Michael.
 
As a lad when my older brothers were doing their national service, they would on occasions bring home a few of the military thunderflashes that were used on army training.
Great fun tying one to a housebrick, lighting and dropping into water, made a hell of a bang with a goodly shower to go with it.
One bonfire time we tied a banger to a stone and dropped into a brand new enamelled bucket.
It took every bit of enamel off the metal. My sister was not best pleased, she had only bought the bucket the day before.
All good fun, with no malice intended.
Kids today get so bored.

Further to this, my previous post, we used the same type thunderflashes and put one under a dustbin lid.
Bang, off went the lid, couldn't see where, then bang four gardens away.
Never did get that lid back.
 
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