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Top Cat said:
That's really interesting! Where was it? And when?
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Is it? Well Masons in Coventry was on the corner of Stoke Row and Clay Lane in Upper Stoke, Coventry. I don't remember when they closed but they were there up to circa 1967. George Barbers wholesale was in a back street which was in a demolition area then. Their depot was off Primrose Hill Street, Hillfields, they demolished the top shop weaving houses on P. H. Street then the vast number of row houses behind where Barbers was including Vine, Vernon and George Streets, the Ring O' Bell's pub, and a beautiful old church called St Peters which may be a garden now, but this is Cov history.
 
keegs said:
Penny bangers under upturned metal buckets.
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Does anyone remember the Carbide Bomb. We used an oldMasons pop bottle with the ebonite screw in top. Place carbide chips inside and gun quickly, add some water and screw the top on quick. Pop it into a dustin and tie the top down. Flipping' dangerous things we got up to.
 
I never heard of that one, Grandad drank Davenports in Cov and Adnams in Stourbridge can you still get Adnam's.? mum liked an Odds on Cocktail and her friends drank gin and it? and gin and pip? Maybe it should have been pep? My gran liked Nourishing stout which I fetched for her when I was 4 from the outdoor. Right up to and after World cup Willie. No probs getting served, or sherry from the wood in to her jug. I am sure it was in a platic barrell. Nan liked a schooner of it. She called it Armadillo but I think it was Amontillado. She also bought 'Tanantula' tomatoes in a black tin. And Nice (nyce) biscuits and her friend worked at the Dalmer.( Daimler) sorry I have gone off it again haven't I.
 
Phil Price said:
Does anyone remember the Carbide Bomb. We used an oldMasons pop bottle with the ebonite screw in top. Place carbide chips inside and gun quickly, add some water and screw the top on quick. Pop it into a dustin and tie the top down. Flipping' dangerous things we got up to.
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Never heard of Carbide Chips. What were they for ?

Yes we were dangerous kids werent we ? and little bl###rs as well at times.

A penny banger followed by a marley, in a bit of pipe with one end hammered flat used to be my favourite. Never managed to hit anything though. Also once a banger was fizzing, it wouldnt go out, so flushed down the toilets in upper floors of high rise flats was fun. Never hung around to find out, but our imaginations ran wild about the mess sprayed in peoples bathrooms on lower floors.
 
col h said:
Never heard of Carbide Chips. What were they for ?
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When I used to go camping with the scouts we had Carbide Lamps. It consisted of two brass chambers, one screwed onto the top of the other. at the front was a valve with a polished dished reflector and a flint wheel. Carbide chips were put into the bottom chamber and water into the top one. There was a regulator on the top, which you moved in rotary action. this allowed water to drip from the top chamber into the lower one. When water hits calcium carbide, it gives off Acetylene gas. This vented through the valve at the front and the flint wheel was used to ignite it and it was used as a torch. This being so, if you put enough carbide into a container with water and sealed tigh, pressure would build up and burst the bottle.This is why we used to tie the lid of the metal bin down.
Carbide lamp 1.jpgCarbide lamp 2.jpg
 
col h said:
Also once a banger was fizzing, it wouldnt go out, so flushed down the toilets in upper floors of high rise flats was fun. Never hung around to find out, but our imaginations ran wild about the mess sprayed in peoples bathrooms on lower floors.
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Haha, that's reminded me of the time we had a chemistry lesson at school where they showed us Sodium Metal. This is an Alkaline metal and reacts violently with water. We somehow found we had a couple of pieces tucked away after the lesson so we popped them down the lavatory in the boys toilets. Of course by this time other lads had gathered and they were feeding them with paper so you can imagine the fire risk.
 
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Does anyone remeber Barbers siftins and orrantips tea, also betty martins butter used to be around in the 40s and 50s. hope my spelling is correct.
 
We used to be able to buy little balsa wood gliders.

They came, ready cut out in a paper packet and there was a little round lead weight in the nose.

All you had to do was slot the thing together and away you went !
 
Walking along those streets adjacent to Aston Villa grounds as a child it was always fun to look into the windows of the houses and spot the ornaments. I can remember many Alsatian statues in particular. Really, it was the only chance tht you got often to walk right past people's front windows without a garden in the way. Those front rooms as we all know were very special places and kept perfect at all times and only used on very special occasions and at Xmas.
 
Thanks for the memory folks, I had those and they came in a packet/paper like what cornflakes come in, inside the cardboard box, or you got one free with something. Grandad always bought me one at the seaside, you had to put on old penny in to weigh the nose down for the big ones and the small ones woud take a paper clip or a bit of putty or plasticine. . You can get them still with plastic bits now at a price. Someone got one in their secret santa when I was at work I would have loved it. I got a desk top fish tank. Grandad also got me a free kite with a petrol name on it which escapes me like Mobil or something. We use to fly it at Burton Dassett Hills when it was free to go in. My Cov gran called it the 'illy 'ollers.
 
Another lovely memory thanks. My family took me and my best mate, (he still is,) to Stourport fair and we won these beautiful grotesque plaster ornaments on hook a duck and sticking darts in cards.
 
My Nan always wore a fine hairnet. (Not the Ena Sharples type!) For special occasions she had one with very fine glass beads all over. She always wore a hat to go out, and decorated them with wax cherries or felt flowers. She liked to wear lace collars which were removeable, with her cameo brooch.
rosie.
 
Can't see that this has already been mentioned, mom was decorating a tray bake and said how much she dislikes the look of "hundreds and thousands", because they remind her of the worm cakes she used to be given as a child, especially if she dared scratch her bum lol!!!! She says they were black cakes the size of an old penny, lasted like really cheap bitter chocolate and had them on the top - anyone else subjected to these?
Sue
 
rosie said:
My Nan always wore a fine hairnet. (Not the Ena Sharples type!) For special occasions she had one with very fine glass beads all over. She always wore a hat to go out, and decorated them with wax cherries or felt flowers. She liked to wear lace collars which were removeable, with her cameo brooch.
rosie.
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Mum and Nan did blue ones I think, Nan had toothed alligator type clips for Marcel waves and a clipper for her neck and other bits. Aunty had curling irons you heated in the fire. Would have liked those. Of two aunts I never met, one had waxed Betty Boop curls and the other this beaded hairnet mum called a snood. Aunty wore high necked crisp bloused with a brooch made from blue butterfly wings(sorry for that) at the neck and a ring with someone's hair under glass. They were smart then
 
sistersue61 said:
Can't see that this has already been mentioned, mom was decorating a tray bake and said how much she dislikes the look of "hundreds and thousands", because they remind her of the worm cakes she used to be given as a child, especially if she dared scratch her bum lol!!!! She says they were black cakes the size of an old penny, lasted like really cheap bitter chocolate and had them on the top - anyone else subjected to these?
Sue
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I heard tell of them. We had chocolate buttons, not Cadburys, in the tuck shop, with them on and in white chocolate I thought they were vile. Tasted like dog chocolate, yes I tried the dog's chocolate it was better then these.
Talking of worms, I used to fetch a measure of live maggots from the fishing shop for grandad, straight in to a special tin with air holes ,he put sugar on to make them wiggle and I played with them letting them wriggle through the gaps in my fingers.
 
I liked Going for a Song with Arthur Neagus, I saw the mechanical singing birds in the cage at the start of the programme, in a shop in Widdicombe in the Moor, as a kid, you put a penny in the slot and off they went. Just been in an antique shop to look for Christy's dumb waiter. No luck but what a rip off.The Alhambra pub New Buildings, formerly Butcher Row, Cov, now gone, was stuffed with antiques, all owned by the Landlord Jim Le Quesne it had a 3 foot high nickleodeon which played. All the tables had sewing machines underneath with treddles and one soft seat was a brass bed divided with a stuffed leopard down the middle so you sat back to back. It was a bit 'axy duxy' though if it was it wasn't too obvious like some were, and was known in my day as the Bum 'Ole. Sorry girls (& boys.) But it was.
 
The metal cages which had the small 'singing' birds within them were to be found in many tourist resorts. Another way of getting folks to part with their hard earned money I guess.

Another item, pertaining to the Midlands, which is probably no longer around is the Sports Argus newspaper. I guess it went some while ago.
 
I hated having to go for the Argus, because at that time of day it was usually pretty quiet at the top of Carver St, where the man who had a newsagent at the top of Icknield St used to bring his wheel barrow with the Argus paper's for sale. I used to run as fast as my legs would carry me. Looking back at that street nowadays, it's still a fair walk to the top of of Carver St., from where I was living. Used to think it was because I was a child that it seemed so far, but no so.
 
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maggs it was a fair step thats for sure...it was not so bad for me as the paper shop was only a few mins walk from my house..the chippy was only a couple of door away so very often i would get some chips and slowly walk home with them...dad would often say to me...what took you...lol..
 
I used to fetch dad's Pink. Our chippy was too far for little legs but some children used to buy 6 pennyworth of bits, pan scratchings. I used to fetch mum a hot pork batch when I was bigger. The tiny shop sold nothing else. It was a front room and opened at night only for the chuckin out time. The most miserable couple in the world ran it. Am I imagining it but were most chip shop interiors green?
 
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