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" CAN I MIND IT FOR YOU MISTER ". (Period : Around 1974 ). A Saturday car trip to the local ' pro ' football ground. You would find yourself looking for a parking spot to leave your car. Get in as close to the Football stadium as possible. Yes, this will do ( a street parking spot not far from...

" HEY, LOOK AT THAT, IT'S A ROLLS ROYCE ". Thinking about how we kids viewed cars and car makers. There wasn't too many cars to be seen at the time that I'm talking about.I recall that we kids would see a few cars of the likes of the Austin 7 ( that was a little one to us ) there was the Ford...

THE EXPORT DRIVE. " Brum "and " Cov " rolled up their sleeves and led the way. Early Post War British debts meant that it's balance of payments were a necessary priority and needed to be tackled quickly. Export, Export, Export became the rule. The Motor Vehicle industry was recognised as an...

" BACK INTO THE SWING OF THINGS ". Period : July 1951. There was a whole bunch of us Brummagem young men that had just been demobed from our National Service stint. Our old gang had now regrouped and we were ( having had the great experience that the National Service had given us ) now generally...

Just another comment on the Dick Barton- Special Agent radio programme discussion. Browsing through a book " Chronicle of the 21st Century" I came across a short column referring to January 16th 1948 in which it states; Writers and Producers of the BBC's popular radio series " Dick Barton...

" THE WEDDING RECEPTION ". Recalling some of those reception plans that confronted young couples. Time period : Around the early Post War years. A typical list and notes by a young Bride to be, preparing for her Wedding reception, would probably have included some of these reminders. THE LIST ...

WHEN ' AUNTIE ' MET UP WITH THE ' MODS '. I bumped into an old School mate sometime ago and amongst the general catch up conversation he told me an amusing story ( Referring back a while ). Aparently his family had decided to take one of his ' Aunties ' out for a lunch time drink to celebrate...

THE EARLY MORNING MAD DASH. Period : around the early 1950's. On working days young single men, in the main, would push the limits on the time that they went to bed and the time that they needed to ' get up ' and go to work. That mad straight out of bed early morning dash to have a splash wash...

READING THE TEA LEAVES. I recall one time when my brother and I were playing games, with our mates, out on the street, a sudden change in the weather persuaded us all to return to our homes. Arriving back in our house we found Mom and some of her friends had been having a little get together...

Eddie. Just had a look on the internet. Apparently the gadget was called a ' Soap Saver ', but probably like you the call round our house was for the 'Swisher '. Photo : Happy Bubbles.

SQUEEZING THAT LAST BIT OUT. We would see our Dad, on occassions, as soon as he got home from work during the winter period, bring his bicycle lamp batteries into the house and place them on top of the warm oven. This was during the general shortage times of the war and post war years. New...

SORTING OUT THOSE " AICHES " AND " FOIVES ". " Stop that please. Start again and speak properly this time ". How many times might the kids be told something like that by their parents ( always seemed to happen when Uncles and Aunties were visiting ). The parents would be trying to get their kids...

THE GOLF BALL EXPERIMENT. ( A typical " I wonder if " try out by the kids ). Early 1940'S. One day whilst we were playing out on the street corner one of the lads pulled a Golf Ball out of his pocket that he had been given by someone. Golf Balls we had heard of, but at that time none of our...

DICK BARTON-- SPECIAL AGENT. ( BBC Radio 1946- 1951 ). Here was another radio programme series that would get the older kids hurrying off the streets in order to listen to it. This was an early evening programme and on every week night. It was a short drama featuring " DICK BARTON and his mates...

" WATCH OUT OUR KID. DAD'S A BIT VEXED " ( It made sense to quickly slope off some where else.) Like many men our Dad would carry out D.I.Y jobs around our house and garden. He was mainly successful in most things that he attempted but there was the odd ccassion when something didn't come off...

Dead right Paul. These days you wouldn't even get the ZIG bit done, never mind the other ZAG part.

THE OLD ' ZIG ZAG ' TECHNIQUE. ( Going back to when most bicycles were limited to " Single Speed " gears and motor traffic was minimal.) On a countryside bicycle trip a common sight would be seeing cyclists, negotiating steephill gradients, making life easier by Zig Zagging across the road. Had...

To farmerdave. No Dave , I've not been on a bicycle for quite a while . Nice to hear that you had a little cycle ride to-day down there in Surrey. Is the wife still expecting you to give her a little ' saddle push ' up the gradients these days ?

NOT A GOOD DAY FOR RONNIE. We were always on the lookout for small round stones that were to become our ammunition for our Catapults. Very often, wherever we where,we would spot the odd ideal shaped stones and put them in our pockets for later use. Other types of stones that might be collected...

SAFARI DAYS. For us kids we would take every opportunity to meet up and then spend a full day at Sutton Park, Period : Around 1938 - 1940. Into the park through Banners Gate we would begin our day by doing a bit of exploring in Westwood Coppice. Here was an early treat because just inside the...