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It's 1942 ish. It's Kingstanding. It's the Kings Road near the junction with Harringay Road. It's night time. It's wartime and the ' blackout ' is fully operational. It was a small wooden hut type building that stood just off the main road. It invited anyone in for a chat and a cup of tea. It...

Thanks ' Smudger ' . Felt good to get back into contact. Thanks ' farmerdave ' . Just tried your " add photo " suggestion. Great. Worked a treat.

Summer season ( fun in the Sun ). As this part of the season began to emerge children were able to reintroduce into their play and outdoor activities some of the advantages offered by this lovely warm period. One of the advantages I recall was ( with our friends ) being able to sit out on the...

A period of opportunity. Thinking back to a ' time span ' that seemed to provide the perfect progression and opportunities for the young ones ( particularly in areas like Birmingham ). Looking at the sequence, it seemed to compile as follows : (1) The final school leaving age for most young...

" All togged up, sleigh loaded, reindeer harnessed. We'll be off soon. Looking forward to all those Mince Pies and those little liquid nips that nearly everyone seems to leave for me ". " Just want to drop a quick ' post ' on the B.H.Forum before I go". " That's it I think. All ready to move out...

jimbo, try tapping onto or click onto this link. https://www.allfreecrafts.com/kids/corker.shtml

The Cotton Reel. Okay, so it was a rainy, windy day, not ideal for playing out in the street. So the kids looked for their indoor toys. Out came the old cardboard box which housed all their toys and games. Amongst the collection would sometimes be the home-made cotton reel tanks ( for the boys )...

Seasonal excitement and curiosity. Thinking about some of the children in the 5 to 8 year age group and their build up to Christmas. Wasn't it about this time of the year and at this age that the kids began to wonder what presents Father Christmas might really be going to bring them. Some of the...

THE DIARY. I wonder how many people, as they reach that Senior/Senior age, wish that they had kept some sort of daily or monthly written record of their own early days thoughts and experiences. I know that I wish that I had. For most children and young people I think that much of that energy and...

THE SEARCH. As a kid, just received your pocket money, maybe got an extra penny or two for doing a few errands, straight away check to see if one of your pennies had one of those ' rare dates ' stamped on it. I recall that some of the children found this to be a hopeful little search as they...

An unexpected thrill. Sketch.

An unexpected thrill ( Period : 1942 ish ). Our little group were out in the street going about our usual games and social chats. We were beginning to hear this distinctive sound coming from the area at the bottom of our road ( Carshalton Road, Kingstanding ). What we were hearing was the sound...

tim, as you indicate, it was an oppotunity for some of the kids to earn ' a few coppers '. You mentioning the Breadman being ' cut off ' and having to leave his horse and cart at the end of the streets and having to deliver to the houses by foot, there lay the other opportunity for the kids to...

A snippet of the old fashioned community spirit. That was a nice gesture of thoughtfulness when during periods of medium to heavy snowfalls virtually all the residents of the neighbourhood would go out and clear the snow from the pavement in front of their houses. I remember how many of the kids...

" Have we still got any gloves Mom ? " Come this time of the year the young kids would begin to pose this question. Meeting up and playing out with their friends it was becoming more noticeable that their little hands were getting cold too quickly and spoiling their fun a bit. The tactic of...

" IT'S OKAY, THERE'S ONE COMING NOW ". ( Worth a smile on reflection). This was before cars were widely owned. The Bus services all around Brum were satisfyingly numerous, as were the numbers of bus stops provided. Couldn't have been better. There were the odd occassions however when a bit of...

" HELLS BELLS, do I really sound like that ". Recalling a family Christmas party get together around the mid 1950's. My youngest brother introduced his latest pride and joy into the parties fun and games. It was an impressive box cased ' reel to reel tape recorder '. I guess he must have been...

" HAVE WE GOT ENOUGH SPONDULICS ". There were the occassions when, as a group, we kids would need a few pennies to exploit some adventure or aquire some item for the use of the whole bunch of us. I recall at one time, for some reason or another, our little street group started to try out ' pole...

THE OLD " PEA SOUPER ". Before the Air pollution clean up act had come about and when household coal fires, factory chimney emissions and backyard bonfires were allowed there came the occassions of winter ' smogs'. Sometimes referred to as a " Pea souper " The city and its suburbs became...

LINING UP FOR THE SCHOOLS XMAS FESTIVITIES. I would hazard a quess that about this time of the year infant and junior teachers at schools all around Brum will be making plans for their class and school Xmas break-up festivities. They are probably in the process of deciding what sort of ' play '...