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Birmingham in 1950s

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One of our neighbours died and her relatives had a skip, but invited all of her friends to see of there was anything going into the skip that they would like - they ended up only needing one skip and there are some happy memories for her friends too!!
Talking of make do, Dad and mom built my girls a boat from a large box which mom had from school, it was the attraction for the whole summer, on the grass if it was fine, in the garage if not!
Sue
 
In the 50s my sister made use of our old birdcage. Removed the cage and used the frame for hanging all kind of things on in the bedroom.
 
The kids at Summer Lane school used to make do with these hammocks,there again they were probably more comfy than the sleeping conditions at home.moss
 

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Your comments seem to show we were all brought up to be much more resourceful. And we started early I suppose. Remember building a camp? Gathering up whatever you could find lying around, then hoofing it off to the nearest field to build your camp? I expect less kids are allowed to do such things these days. We must have learnt so much about the usefulness of things from doing that. Lovely, I'm now back in sunny days mode!

The little hammocks look so comfy as well as hygenic, Moss.

Viv.
 
Viv, we went camping with our rugby team last year and sent them off to make a den, they did pretty well, but not sure where they got the materials from!!!
Sadly, you do have to think twice about letting them go unsupervised, Owen and two of his friends went out to the local woods last summer, and one of the las was approached by a man who tried to drag him off, luckily the other two were close and created a rumpus, including hurling things at the attacker and none of them were hurt, the man was never traced though and the lads are wary now of going anywhere, sad times really.
Sue
 
I remember our mom unravelling jumpers and cardies we had grown out of to reknit a bigger size, there was always a stripe in a different colour to make the wool go further.
Lynne
 
My Mum unravelled jumpers too, and then re-knitted in Fair-isle patterns. On a different thread I mentioned Nan could make me little skirts from the best bits of Grandad's old trousers!!!
rosie.
 
We sometimes made our own pedal cars in the olden days - not sure where those nice looking back wheels came from, but the wood grain shows on the sides - the hand-brake only for show...and the steering wheel not quite right...:peaceful:
Family_Pedal_Car_.jpg
 
The wheels look a bit like the ones on those two wheeled trailers parks used to use to carry grass etc around in ?
 
Granddad was a master are finding secondary uses for things. The interior doors in their house came from old telephone kiosks, not that you could tell. An old bench seat from a lorry was converted into a sofa, I still have it today. The bathroom door handle was off a car of some kind and his shaving mirror was again off some motor vehicle. There was a garage just down from the house and any waste from it was liable to be used for something.
 
Crikey you lot are experts at the craft. That's one fancy car Oldmohawk. And I'm trying hard 6918 to visualise the statement telephone box interior doors!! I have a less creative addition to this list. We never ever owned a rolling pin. Well why bother when you have a bottle of stera milk in the kitchen? Viv.
 
We never had pastry cutters, Mom always used a cup or a glass depending on what size she needed but we did have a wooden rolling pin.
 
oldMohawk said:
We sometimes made our own pedal cars in the olden days - not sure where those nice looking back wheels came from, but the wood grain shows on the sides - the hand-brake only for show...and the steering wheel not quite right...:peaceful:
Click to expand...

You were lucky.:rolleyes:
We only had the wheels from a pram. Mind you if you let it run down hill it went really fast, but the brakes were rubbish :sneakiness:
 
Mom had a treasured glass rolling pin, you could fill it with water of you needed to, not sure if she still has it, but used to use cups or glasses the same for cutters.
Micks nan used to have a myriad of uses for her old stocckings - in the garden to tie plants with and everything that was together in the house had stocking around it, when we cleared the house, all the garden tools had newspaper tied with stocking around them,always had a use for things we would bin now,she said it was from the war years.
Sue
 
Sue. Stockings are also good for filtering port before decanting. Tip: wash stocking before using! Viv.
 
An old neighbour, a keen gardener, stored his onions in stockings with a knot between each onion, when he needed one he cut the bottom one just below the knot so the one above didnt fall out. They looked like knobbly legs hanging up, very funny.
Lynne.
 
We used to make fishing nets out of stockings. We formed a piece of wire into a ring, the bent ends after the stocking has been threaded through were pushed into a hole in the top of a cane. The stocking was then knotted at the right length. Great for catching newts and crayfish too!!
 
hi guys;
i use to do many times over what i was taught by some old fellow i met during my growing up and that was to use a ladies stocking
for a fan belt if the oriniginal car fan belt snapped tie it around and into a not it last for a week and it got us back home
and on the subject of car maintenance ; like your radiater is leaking ; like when years ago my old cars of yesterday i would drop two eggs into the rad and it would temp; stop your leak ; i dare say there will be some guys on the forum especialy the older ones like me have tried and tested it methord before
have a nice day everybody ; astonian ;; astonian ;
 
Good god Alan, you have just bought back so many memories with that last post.
stitcher.
 
One thing that stands out for me in the 50s were the Teddy Boys always wanted to be one but never quite made it.
 
Playing with my young grandchildren, and looking at their multi coloured toys with buttons and music, I thought back to when we used to make our own
toys. I told them I could make an aeroplane from a sheet of paper.
They watched fascinated as for the first time in half a century I carefully folded paper to result in an aeroplane like the one I've made this morning for the photo below, and just to show 'old Grandads' can keep up with modern technology, I've pinched my avatar from the forum and 'photoshopped' it in for roundels on the wings.
When I go for my pension I might fly it by the Post Office !!...:rolleyes:

air2.jpg
 
Congrats on the quality of said aircraft, oldMohawk. I used to make the same thing but never that well !
We used to modify ours I recall, folded up wing tips-a' la modern long haul jets and a piece of string tied to the tail, (helped with the stability).
 
Lots of great ideas/memories coming out here. They could well see a revival in 'austerity Britain 2012'. Viv.
 
With these and a few scraps of material I had many hours of fun creating peg dolls. However, it didn't get the washing dry! Viv.

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Hi nico i went on holiday to Margate in the early 50s that was were i first saw a hippie my first impression was weird but they were great fun.
 
Hi

not sure of Mods and Hippies in the 50's but by the late 50's
Teddy Boys had gone and new groups were developing. Rockers
their love of BSA 500 began with Marlon Brandons 1953 the Wild One.
Their love of pure Rock and Roll the ACE Cafe. Strangely the well dressed
Teddy Boys were to somewhat replaced by Mods with there dress and Scooters.
.

Happy days

Mike Jenks
 
Hi podgery ;
mike is quite correct they was not hippies in the fifties they never appeared before the sixties
thats when the name came out hippies in the sixties because of there dress and bells and charms they wore
and spreading love around ; the teddy boys was on the scene in the fiftys along with the rockers ;
the ones you are on about was called beatnix they was universaty students with the long hair and and beareds and the long
sweaters and jeans and sandalls and drinking cider some was univ; drop outs
the hippies came out in the early sixties along with the rockers and the mods ;
i was a rocker with the tony curtis hair style and the da at the back ; then i became a mod ;
i had a motor bike ; but never got to buy a scooter ; i bought my fashion clothes from a carnaby fashion shop
along the aston rd north whilst it was there it was a very small out let that brought carnaby to brum first
before the city centre got hold of the idea bring carnaby fashion to brum ;
those where the days my friend we thought they would never end as the song went best wishes astonian ;;
 
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