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My Grandfather was General Foreman for W.J. Whittal the building company and was involved in the construction of the Turbo Bays - I think they were called in the 1930's. My father was a Foreman there at the same time. My Father told me that because of the depressed times there were always long...

Jean, I forgot to mention this, but do you remember the Head - Miss Tinley, she was very tall and sort of larger than life. She went to visit Mr and Mrs Liggins in their new bungalow for a weekend and died there in her sleep. I don't know the precise details because I was working abroad at...

When tossing a coin my Father would always call, "what a cat's got" . The opposition would assume tails, but when it came down heads................. a cat has a head too.

When my Father thought I was telling him a lie or someone told him something he could hardly believe, he would say, "You must think I came up on the down train". A great put down, I still use it to this day. On the same theme he sometimes would say, " Is there (or, see) any green in my eye ?"

Jean, Really sorry, football was never my game. I only remember the name of the Brookvale team because I had a chum that played for them.

Alf, Just found this site. The football team you mentioned, was it not Brookvale Park Rangers or was that later? The path over the top and down to Deykin Avenue was called "The Gully"- an odd contradiction in terms. From Deykin to the park was a good half hour walk. It was fenced either side...

I am trying to track down JOHNNY CLARKE who left Yew Tree Junior for Deykin Avenue Secondary in 1959. There are 3 of his best school pals from Yew Tree who would be delighted to hear from anyone that knew him at Deykin or what became of him.

Alf, Thanks for the info Linda, Sorry about your travel sickness. In a way I'm not suprised, if we take away the rose tinted specs, on a rainy rush hour morning when the buses were full, there was the smell of diesel fumes, wet clothing , coughs and colds and if you were upstairs there was...

Linda, Never heard the 39 called The Witton Clipper, but what a wonderfully evocative name. Did the 39A have a different route ?, does anyone recall.

Watching football, there were quite a few footballers who were bow legged. We used to shout "You're useless, you couldn't stop a pig in an entry"

Colin, Very many thanks for that and the links. I seem to recall a long bus ride to visit my father!

Manufacturers of valves and fittings for the process industries. I worked there for a short period in the early 1970's. My uncle Tom Townsend was personel officer (that's how I got the job !). My cousins Paul Chiles and Roy Hartley were also employed there. The Company Chairman was hardly...

Canting, as in gossiping. Cant was the secret language of the underworld and dates right back to around 1600

I had some major dental work done at The Carnigie when I was a child. Can anyone tell me what the place was and where it was ? Also in the 1950's my Father had a hernia operation at a hospital in somewhere called Ronkswood -any ideas ?

Maxwell, You are right, cod liver oil was supplied by the Government in the early 1950's as a supplement for children. I think it may have been supplied via a coupon scheme. All I recall that the dreaded stuff was in a small bottle with a green screw top and was awful to taste. One...

Barley is a truce term in kids' games and is used throughout the West Mids and Wales, whilst the term "Cree" is used in S. E. Wales, Somerset and Gloucestershire and right up the west coast into Scotland "Fainites" is used in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Essex , Greater London and...

Thank you Jennyann. My parents were almost reduced to penury in that outfitters buying my school uniform and all the bits that went with it (gym kit, woodwork apron etc.). It was the only shop that stocked the uniform so I think there may have been a little profiteering.

Erdington High Street was my old teenage stamping ground in the min 60's. I recall a coffee bar in a side road called the Pop Inn and also the Monday evening Youth Club in the rooms over the Co-Op. There was also a posh gents' outfitters which supplied school uniforms. I have to say I met my...

Ladies & Gentlemen, I'm delighted by the response to this thread, isn't it amazing how memories can be triggered by a bus route ! Thank you Jennyann I think you were about right. Did anyone remember that for some reason the number 39's were always older buses unlike the swanky no.11's. I...

Ray, Very many thanks - that sure evoked a memory or two. Except that the trains wern't electric when I last walked down there. The old green diesel rattlers as I recall.