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Occupations That Have Faded Away

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I Am Nico

I Am Nico

master brummie
Eeya then!

As no one wants to start the thread.
Yes I remember clippies. My grandad drove a bus in Coventry when he came from Stourbridge. The buses had screw in lightbulbs and the bell was on a wire, you got on at the back. Sometimes the smell inside of fumes made me feel sick now its usually someones chips or sick. The conductor would help you on and make sure you stood up for a lady and stopped any aggro.Sometimes they shouted out the stops.

The clippie or conductor and the driver were a team. They had a code with the rings they did if there was any aggro and for reversing etc.
Grandad's clippie was Vera. She had Betty Boop waxed curls a bit like Poirot's Miss Lemon, and she came from Salthill in Galway. There used to be a thing going round with cards in 'digs' windows, no Irish need apply. So my nan put her up till she got a place. She had 2 other Irish bus conductors at different times. They were really nice to me with sweets etc and to my great gran.

Digs I think are a thing of the past too. With battle axe landladies another thing of the past.

As to commissionaires, when I started work in circa 76 we had them on the door, then they became, security men, then they worked through an agency. Then you had a swipe card and they were defunct. Except the gate kept jamming. I used to climb over it.

I have not seen or heard the comforting sound of a milk float in years. The small garages with little shops are going as are the post offices small schools and hospitals and local police stations.

I no longer see herbal shops dark inside with mysterious drawersm surgical appliance shops, mature ladies undergarments stores, we had Gladys Bryants where my grans got their stays and passion killers as they called them.

Pork batch shops, pram shops,pet shops (good thing I suppose) cobblers, hardware shops (rare) fishmongers, game, army surplus stores, music shops that sell instruments records and sheet music, philatelists, pen shops,. habidasheries, hatters, tailors, corsitiers (yow cor sit eer, nan's joke) Fishing tackle shops, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, horse drawn vendors, lamplighters, trolley buses, street cleaners with handcarts, night watchman outside with a brazier, .

Nico

What do you remember?
 
The Driver and Conductor had four bell signals, one for stop, two for go, three for full so don't stop as no one to get off and four for emergency stop. The buses you describe we're my normal mode of transport when I started work in 1960, quite an innovation when strip lighting came in.
 
I remember they had a push button on the stairwell to ring the bell. Our buses were maroon with the Coventry Crest on the side, what colour were yours? The X68 I think still runs from Cov to Brum. The bus drivers made sure there route was legible on the front and the route number and it corresponded with the number on the back. Now they couldn't care less. I think they still wind them manually though and the buses have gone back to upholstered seats. The windows slid open. Now they shut with a bang and everyone has a heart attach. I can't remember when I last got a bus I walk a lot now or take the car.
If they took the corner sharp the shopping under the stairs and prams fell off. I used to will it as a kid. I lie=ked to sit over the wheel at the or the long seat at the front facing backwards, or upstairs at the front.
Their uniforms were smart and lasted forever I still have grandad's busman's badge and a photo of him in his uniform. The drivers wore a smart cap. Some clippies wore skirts. The ticket machines looked heavy on their long leather straps. I liked the way they wound the handle to punch the ticket and put the price on. I think it was nine old pence to town and four pence for me. The tickets were small and pink. My gran (dad's mum) used to try and not pay her fare if grandad (mum's dad) was driving but they still made her pay.
Nan told me at the bus club they had a parrot which swore badly. There were 2 clubs, one in the bus station where they had a cuppa (Pool Meadow) and another one.
Grandad had to give up as he injured his leg jumping down from the cab outside, he also went out at 4 or 5 in the morning, he cycled to the bus garage. He took a tot of rum on cold mornings.
 
I also remember bread, laundry beer and pop delivered to the door. Nan had a big wicker basket on the doorstep for the bread. The laundry came in crisp brown paper which crackled tied with string. She wrote her name and address on the sheets somehow with ink. The tea came in a packet. Do they still have dinner ladies that just walk round the playground? We had 2 old dragons, Fish Face and Parrot Face.
I think Sandwich board people are coming back, I saw some at MacDonalds.
Dairymaids? I remember Lyons Maid Ice Cream. I had a colouring book with it.
Bar men and woman that had to reckon up.
Doll's hospitals.
Milk Bars.
Ice Cream parlours.
Cooked meat shops. I love hand operated bacon slicers.
Do they still have out doors in pubs?
Nico
 
Birmingham Corporation Transport were cream with a black border and Midland Red were, yes you guessed it, red :)

The Drivers badge for Birmingham would have began with the letters DD, mine was DD52788 and was a new badge, when I moved to the north east a new badge was issued which began AA, this badge was what was known as a dead mans badge as it had been issued previously.
 
Nickcc101 - Are you sure about the colours of BCT buses? I recall them as a very dark blue and Lloyd say this in an earlier post about the colours:

"The actual shades chosen were known as Prussian Blue and Primrose, and as the old paints were mixed with, and later overpainted by heavy oil-based varnishes, the shades appeared darker than they really were, pale yellow and almost black. These colours remained as the fleet livery until the City's transport department passed to the then new West Midlands County Council Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) in 1968, when the Prussian Blue, which was not by then a shade covered by the BS (British Standard) colour chart, was changed to a slightly lighter shade".
 
I remember the Midland Reds, and Cheltenham's Black and Whites were called that. Dublin was Green of course last time I was there 20 years or so ago they were a dull orangey buff.
I am going to look for my grandad's bus badge.
Nico
 
My Dad trained as a Cooper back in the 40's at Atkinson's Brewery. Real wooden barrells. You don't see Coopers or wooden barrells anymore do you?
 
Not sure where Chocks but I am sure coopered barrels are still made for wine etc.
 
Nico said:
I remember the Midland Reds, and Cheltenham's Black and Whites were called that. Dublin was Green of course last time I was there 20 years or so ago they were a dull orangey buff.
I am going to look for my grandad's bus badge.
Nico
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Drivers badge red and conductors green, you'd sometimes see a driver wearing both as many drivers started as conductors.
The older Female drivers here in Cornwall mostly started as conductresses and retrained as drivers when one man operation was introduced, not many left nowadays.
 
nickcc101 said:
And what officious fellows most of them were, give them a uniform and sometimes a bike and you thought the 3rd reich had been reformed.
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And parks, as I grew up with. They keep hacking away at them and commons.
Bowling greens are also fewer. And paddling pools drinking fountains public loos and horse troughs. I always said truff.
 
My grandad was a bus driver for the Corporation and also drove coaches for Midland Red, have his old log book, but not his badge. My aunty was a clippie until she had her children.
Sue
 
rosie said:
Matrons in hospitals, and the "nit-nurse"!
rosie.
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WELL, they have so called modern matrons now Rosie, who have no clout and do sweet fanny adams to quote my grandad. I had a meeting over my late parents lack of care in the hospital and the matron sat in and I tied em all up in knots. The top the lot they sent a midwifery sister along as the renal sister never turned up! I liked the nit nurse as we got out of class. Wonder if they still get TB jabs we got a jelly baby for being brave.
 
True about the modern matrons, but in fairness to them, they don't have the autonomy the old matrons used to have as they have to report back to more managers instead of just doing!! Also, there is no respect any more from hospital staff or patients and relatives, I cringe at how some of the students backchat their seniors! And the nit-nurses role is now covered by the school nurse, as it was back then, but human rights mean they can't line the kids up to inspect them, in case it upsets them lol. TB jabs are still out at the minute as the incidence of TB had dropped, but as it is now on the up again, talk about bringing it back.
I don't think there are the mobile knife sharpeners any more are there - they used to come to one hospital I worked at and sharpen the kitchen utensils and the theatre equipment.
Sue
 
sistersue61 said:
True about the modern matrons, but in fairness to them, they don't have the autonomy the old matrons used to have as they have to report back to more managers instead of just doing!! Also, there is no respect any more from hospital staff or patients and relatives, I cringe at how some of the students backchat their seniors! And the nit-nurses role is now covered by the school nurse, as it was back then, but human rights mean they can't line the kids up to inspect them, in case it upsets them lol. TB jabs are still out at the minute as the incidence of TB had dropped, but as it is now on the up again, talk about bringing it back.
I don't think there are the mobile knife sharpeners any more are there - they used to come to one hospital I worked at and sharpen the kitchen utensils and the theatre equipment.
Sue
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Yes you have ward managers now. A nurse refusedto bring a mop to clean up some solidifed food that had been in mum's room for a week as she was not on that Matron's ward and she was not allowed not use a mop belonging to another ward. So I took the mop of the nurse and did it myself. The porters also bad mouthed the sister and the ward manager. On a lighter note I saw a knife grinder in Oliver, I remember nan telling me they shouted knives ta grind etc. This production had a hurdy gurdy also.
I heard that teachers are not allowed to humiliate children now. Not in my day it was a norm for punishment. Our nit nurse got a slap round the face off a mum whose daughter was said to have nits. It was humiliating when your mates got led away. I was humiliated by the yearly visit of the health nurse about my posture. She said in a loud shocked tone that I had the body of an old man in front of my class. I had a double spinal curve and hernia, she didn't even realise that. Still I don't look drastically worse as I get older!
 
Neville
We had a coal fire years ago. (30years) now time flies. The house we bought had no gas so had to use coal to heat radiators. Even back then coal was so expensive to use. In the end we paid to have gas put in. We had to pay to have gas piped from main road. But it was the best thing we ever did. Apart from not having to clean out the ashes every morning it was so much cheaper It paid for itself in the matter of months. I would hate to think how much a bag of coal cost these days.
 
Sister Sue
Did they ever get the knives mixed up after being sharpened. On a serious note a friend of mine and I were only saying today how many nurses you see on buses going to work wearing their uniforms and a nurse who lives close to me sometimes mows her lawn in her uniform. Can you imagine what the old time matron would have thought of that.
 
James_the_3rd said:
Sister Sue
Did they ever get the knives mixed up after being sharpened. On a serious note a friend of mine and I were only saying today how many nurses you see on buses going to work wearing their uniforms and a nurse who lives close to me sometimes mows her lawn in her uniform. Can you imagine what the old time matron would have thought of that.
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Mows her lawn in her uniform?! :fatigue:
 
Pet Shops. which sold gold fish, jerbals, rabbits, they also sold bags of dog biscuits and canaries, budgies etc.
paul
 
Neville Philpott said:
You don't see the coalman these days either..
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Remember they carried the heavy bins sometimes with hot ashes in on their backs? Now the lorry lifts it and they chuck em at you regardless if they jave passed your gate or not. Regardless we have our numbers on. They won't walk up the path either they have to be put out. My neighbour had an antique bin very small a half circle.
 
I was pleased when pet shops faded out as the pets suffered, now they have huge pet marts and they still suffer. I loved visiting the pet shop though from school everyday. They had wriggly terrapins in a big plastic pond, chickens, tiny fluffy chicks, the usual pets, a parrot who escaped once and roosted in our playground's one and only tree, a room about 14x12 in old money full of caged birds, my mates used to go in but I had an abhorrence of it. Flashbacks to the film The Birds maybe. Our 1st shop to be closed down I think was in Paynes Lane, they had loads of tortoises on their backs in the window. I was given a puppy much to my parents' annoyance from a pet shop. he was smelly only just weaned, could hardly walk and had worms. I loved him though. He smashed 2 glass front doors, a glass coffee table, a window frame, some Webb's crystal, bit the postwoman, the insurance man, harried next door's cat and we still loved him.
 
Remember when the pet shops had puppies in cages, thank goodness this has been outlawed. We were surprised to find kittens in cages when we were on holiday in Florida at a branch of a world wide chain of pet stores, something you don't (hopefully) see here.
 
I won't set foot in the likes of Pet City but my neighbour had a sickly rabbit from there. we used to have puppies and kittens in the shop windows under lights covered in sawdust and wood shavings. Saw some in Doncaster when I
 
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