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Childhood Memories

wendylee said:
I can remember the same such things Nico, lovely memories of family and having grannie around as ours lived with us... it was our childhood, hasn't life changed? I can remember all those house callers except the egg man!
Wendy
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Nan lived with us too.
 
Nick,

Rural and an island - the police only have to watch the airports and a two ferry terminals - if the criminals aren't there then thet are somewhere on the island. Youngsters are kept busy with school and more school (frontiserio) in the evening, If they've got any spare time after that, many of them are helping the family on their land. Cities are more of a problem, of course, but we only have a few of those. I don't need guard dogs as my neighbours will quickly spot a stranger and watch him like a hawk until he leaves or settles.

Maurice :cool:
 
just put a copy of your profile in the window. that will keep intruders away:).... beware of the Maurice.... we had a burglar look through the window when i was watching the tv, back in the 50s.my dad ran out but he had legged it.
 
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In my dealings with nursing/care homes and hospitals over the last 25 years it is apparent that the larger percentage of residents are people who have retired to this area or moved here for business purposes. Few are native born. The problem for many is that their families are miles away often in another country. But that is how the world has changed since the widespread movements of people in the last hundred years.
 
Radiorails said:
In my dealings with nursing/care homes and hospitals over the last 25 years it is apparent that the larger percentage of residents are people who have retired to this area or moved here for business purposes. Few are native born. The problem for many is that their families are miles away often in another country. But that is how the world has changed since the widespread movements of people in the last hundred years.
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  • Duggie's Wagon Collins Avenue.jpg
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As well as the rag and bone man's horse drawn cart, there was a flower seller and the milkman till I was 5 because we moved house = different milk round. The Midland Counties I think it was after had the battery powered open little van, with the laboured whine of the engine and the rattle of the milk crates. The vegetable man had a horse drawn cart too but he tethered it around the corner and the wares were displayed like a market stall. The one in the picture is when I used to stay with my mate's relations in Ireland.
We can't even get a window cleaner now they say the house is too high? The ice cream man is not allowed to stop where we live yet cars park on the pavement and double yellers and lorries block drives.
 
I sent the photo to my old friend over the water she said the wagon was an old milk float converted. She was very high in animal welfare assuring me the horse was well cared for. He had a waterproof blanket on sometimes. Duggie didn't have to tell him he just clicked and the horse would move to the next house whilst he was delivering his produce.
My mate's gran used to buy 2 stone of potatoes. Great big round round ones. She said they came from Belfast? They were the best? They did hold up in a lovely potato cake made in the frying pan.
 
I just remembered a type of sweet. My partner had them in France too. They were white small oblong wrapped, hard but then chewy, not a boiled sweet, I struggled with the wrap I often ended up eating paper. They tasted of mint.
 
Hercules, the Steptoe horse:

Steptoe & Son – Nostalgia Central

1 9 6 2 - 1 9 6 5 (UK) 26 x 30 minute episodes 1 9 7 0 (UK) 7 x 30 minute episodes 1 9 7 2 (UK) 7 x 30 minute episodes 1 9 7 4 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes + 2 x Christmas shows Steptoe and Son, one of the comedy highlights of
nostalgiacentral.com nostalgiacentral.com

Even Hercules, the Steptoe’s horse, achieved stardom. A genuine rag and bone man’s horse – he belonged to Shepherd’s Bush brothers Arthur and Chris Arnold – he was often recognised by children on his rounds and offered carrots and sweets.
 
Radiorails said:
Prior to supermarkets many women bough 1 or 2 stone of potatoes, carefully chosen and weighed.
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I wish Nan had kept her scales and weights. I used to play with them. Her pan was smaller , more open. Grandad had a meat scale too in brass, looked like a thermometer a bit, just a big hook you hung the meat on and the pointer showed the weight. Yes they were dead on with the weight. And the cheese wire.

I remember Nan unpacking her shopping, all in white for meat and brown for fruit and veg paper bags. She fetched her soaked peas in her own dish and her dripping when she brought her own bowl. She sang too, never stopped. Sometimes she would stick a bunch of bananas on her head and sing, " I, I, I, I, I, I like you vaiiiiiry much, I, I, I, I, I, I think your grand!" in a funny voice. I never realised she was imitating Carmen Miranda till much later in.
She called Tarantella tomatos taranatula.
 
While I remember, Nan used to buy a sliced white loaf in a see through wrapper with a red logo called 66. She called it her Clickety Click loaf. And a little bag of Chipples for me. You can get them in huge bags in France I forget what they are called. But they have a fancy name don't they? We had one bakery too, Thelma's who gave you the baker's dozen for everything. Unheard of now I would think.
 
Nico said:
French family life is the same but they still have crime. Maybe rural is better? I find they have great respect for anybody especially older people. It's always Monsieur. et Madame, everywhere you come in to contact, unless you say otherwise. Tradesmen and gardeners say bonjour and shakehands always, road workers say bonjour. I am told it is starting to die out with younger people they say they are becoming Americanised.
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At the two funerals over there I attended, all the undertakers said bonjour to everybody at the funeral and they shook hands with the immediate family, from the conductor, driver, pall bearers, even the grave diggers who followed us at the graveside and made the sign of the cross with the holy water sprinkler. What I thought I gave back to them and which I felt they greatly appreciated was proper conversation, not just polite deference, and greatly so with the ambulance staff and porters who seemed to go unnoticed who said as much, to me.
 
Hl all.my nan (dads mom) was something special she lost my grandad in the first world war and was left with six children under 13 to bring up she later married and had 4 more daughters yet in my memory she was always laughing and cheerful, she did like her snuff though, l used to watch put a pinch on the back of her hand and sniff away, on both her knuckles was love and hate with other faded tattoos up her arms this was because she and my grandad were members of Brum canal boat people. Regards acklam19
 
Nan's neighbour Alice took snuff. It used to trickle 'like 2 candles' said mum. My friend's sister in law is a 'narrowboat person'. I know they scatter flowers on the canal for funerals. I don't know if they would go up to Brum on it from here. Canals were a main mode of transport weren't they and the towpaths were kept clear and clean. And the canals. Some of my birth family I discovered were smugglers on the canal. That was a new one on me!
The Swan in Upton on Severn has every beam in the long bar covered with barge names. I visited Naburn marina there was much memorablia and historical items to be had. Chap told me all the painted utensils had a meaning.
 
Nico said:
Nan's neighbour Alice took snuff. It used to trickle 'like 2 candles' said mum. My friend's sister in law is a 'narrowboat person'. I know they scatter flowers on the canal for funerals. I don't know if they would go up to Brum on it from here. Canals were a main mode of transport weren't they and the towpaths were kept clear and clean. And the canals. Some of my birth family I discovered were smugglers on the canal. That was a new one on me!
The Swan in Upton on Severn has every beam in the long bar covered with barge names. I visited Naburn marina there was much memorablia and historical items to be had. Chap told me all the painted utensils had a meaning.
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Nan's birthday so I am thinking about her, (again) another trip to the crem, anything like a daisy was her favourite, born a week apart in their' horror scopes' as Nan called them, but my 2 grandmothers were so different. Nan would say after lunch, "I am going to change me,.... for a bottle of Guinness!" and change out of her work clothes to a home knit twin set and a tweed skirt. Put her feet up on what she called the poofie, and knitted and read Woman's Weekly and the Peoples' Friend, and helped herself from a huge bag of eclairs and toffees. Then she would changed back again and 'to get the tea on'. My mate liked Nan too, and I liked his, he called for me early at lunch time, to go back to school. She would be singing pop songs in her flowery overall to Terry Wogan, or whistling I was Kaiser Bill's Batman, and we would laugh, when we all tried to whistle together, then make us a coffee, washing drying round the fire.

In about 10 years of my earliest years, our street saw three fires, usually fences. Which became minor social events. Wives on their husband's arms, children all went to inspect the aftermath, at intervals, are you going Nan? I would ask eagerly, "when yer grandad comes home from work and has had his tea". And they did, arm in arm, with lots of others throughout the day I remember a Plymouth Bretheren family going. The old lady was very smart, with very long white hair and a scarf. Our neighbours would cluck and tut and make a brief exchanges with the other neighbours, then go back home. I find that odd now.
The same with accidents. We had a few fatalities as our road became a rat run for lorries to the retail market. One lady made dozens of cups of tea for the shocked in the accident and the neighbours who all came out in couples.
 
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I was at Moseley Grammar School from 1947 to 1952 and although the regular route was the 24 stopping at the traffic lights at the Wake Green Road cross roads, sometimes we'd catch the 1A into Moseley and transfer to the tram which terminated at Alcester Lanes End and then walk home near the Maypole. How those old trams rattled.
 
Hi Laynot,

I've sent you a private message - click on envelope icon, top right - as we were both at MGS at the same time.

Maurice :cool:
 
laynot said:
I was at Moseley Grammar School from 1947 to 1952 and although the regular route was the 24 stopping at the traffic lights at the Wake Green Road cross roads, sometimes we'd catch the 1A into Moseley and transfer to the tram which terminated at Alcester Lanes End and then walk home near the Maypole. How those old trams rattled.
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I grew up in the Maypole area, 40s - 50s, where did you live?
 
I have no idea where to post this really but it is about childhood memories so here seems as good a place as any.
I also have a question which has puzzled me to this very day.

I lived on Green Acres Rd up until 1963 when we immigrated to California. My old neighborhood was the foundation and cornerstone of the abomination now known as "Hawkesley," Things were quite different back then. Man, those were the days!

We spent endless times playing in the fields, the stream, the ponds and the dells, what a paradise it was! I even met old farmer Morris of Hawkesley Hall a few times. Yes, he caught us scrumping apples but was very kind about it and laughed it off. I recall seeing him delivering milk from his horse and cart every morning on Green Acres.

The thing that has always puzzled me from those days, though, was this: Around 1962 or so we started noticing armed young adults (30 to 40 years old, perhaps) patrolling the area especially during the night and twilight hours. On weekends this group of pseudo vigilantes would congregate in a large secure shelter that they had built in a dell near the stream that bisected Morris' lower fields. God knows what went on there!

The group was led by a fellow known as "Palmer," who also lived on Green Acres in those days. Today, I can only suppose that they were some sort of end times survivalists or something but I don't recall hearing of that during the early sixties era. Even odder, they dressed kind of in the Beatnik style, bearded but well kempt, presentably clean, wearing fashionable scarves and hats etc. with rifles slung over their shoulders.

This has puzzled me since my childhood days. What were they up to? My only guess is that it was in response to the Cuban missile crisis of '62 perhaps. We all sincerely thought that we were going to be invaded by the commies or that the world would be destroyed by nuclear catastrophe in those days. In retrospect, Palmer's rag-tag commandoes should be commended for their efforts to save England if indeed that was their cause! They certainly had the blessing of old farmer Morris... Were there similar armed groups in other neighborhoods as well? Does anyone else recall this strange period in South west Birmingham? If anyone has any info on this or would just like to share some tales of the golden age of Green Acres prior to Hawkesley, that would be great.

Reply
 
mv52 said:
I have no idea where to post this really but it is about childhood memories so here seems as good a place as any.
I also have a question which has puzzled me to this very day.

I lived on Green Acres Rd up until 1963 when we immigrated to California. My old neighborhood was the foundation and cornerstone of the abomination now known as "Hawkesley," Things were quite different back then. Man, those were the days!

We spent endless times playing in the fields, the stream, the ponds and the dells, what a paradise it was! I even met old farmer Morris of Hawkesley Hall a few times. Yes, he caught us scrumping apples but was very kind about it and laughed it off. I recall seeing him delivering milk from his horse and cart every morning on Green Acres.

The thing that has always puzzled me from those days, though, was this: Around 1962 or so we started noticing armed young adults (30 to 40 years old, perhaps) patrolling the area especially during the night and twilight hours. On weekends this group of pseudo vigilantes would congregate in a large secure shelter that they had built in a dell near the stream that bisected Morris' lower fields. God knows what went on there!

The group was led by a fellow known as "Palmer," who also lived on Green Acres in those days. Today, I can only suppose that they were some sort of end times survivalists or something but I don't recall hearing of that during the early sixties era. Even odder, they dressed kind of in the Beatnik style, bearded but well kempt, presentably clean, wearing fashionable scarves and hats etc. with rifles slung over their shoulders.

This has puzzled me since my childhood days. What were they up to? My only guess is that it was in response to the Cuban missile crisis of '62 perhaps. We all sincerely thought that we were going to be invaded by the commies or that the world would be destroyed by nuclear catastrophe in those days. In retrospect, Palmer's rag-tag commandoes should be commended for their efforts to save England if indeed that was their cause! They certainly had the blessing of old farmer Morris... Were there similar armed groups in other neighborhoods as well? Does anyone else recall this strange period in South west Birmingham? If anyone has any info on this or would just like to share some tales of the golden age of Green Acres prior to Hawkesley, that would be great.

Reply
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Just seen this post. Surely not true? Were there really armed vigilantes patrolling the streets of a Birmingham suburb? I have never heard of such a thing. RIFLES SLUNG OVER THEIR SHOULDERS?
You say you noticed them which implies you actually saw them. Did anyone report them to the authorities?
If not, why not?
Or perhaps this post is just a wind up just to see what reaction it provokes.
 
Yes it is absolutely true. We would see them on pretty much a daily basis until we moved to California in the autumn of 1963. I remember that my parents would talk about them in hushed tones when we asked who they were etc. I suppose they didn't want to alarm us children. I know that they were terrified of them and as we were Eastern European refugees, they didn't want to make a fuss about it or report them. It was different times... or perhaps not.

I DO know that most people who lived in that neighborhood at that time were aware of them. They were impossible to miss.
 
I think this is quite interesting and is something that needs exploring. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, so I would not be surprise if there were survivalist type groups popping up. We have already witnessed panic buying and some very irrational behaviour in this most recent pandemic.

I am wondering if they did have real firearms or even shotguns which can be carried on private land with permission of the landowner.

I understand that gun laws may have been a slacker in 1963.

I am also aware of a lot of decommissioned .303 rifles be around. They had DP stamped on the stock. Also, a whole host of replica firearms were available.

There has been, in America at least many survivalists, vigilante. Military style religious groups who wish to save the world for the greater good and themselves.
 
Morturn said:
I think this is quite interesting and is something that needs exploring. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, so I would not be surprise if there were survivalist type groups popping up. We have already witnessed panic buying and some very irrational behaviour in this most recent pandemic.

I am wondering if they did have real firearms or even shotguns which can be carried on private land with permission of the landowner.

I understand that gun laws may have been a slacker in 1963.

I am also aware of a lot of decommissioned .303 rifles be around. They had DP stamped on the stock. Also, a whole host of replica firearms were available.
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true there was
 
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mv52 said:
Yes it is absolutely true. We would see them on pretty much a daily basis until we moved to California in the autumn of 1963. I remember that my parents would talk about them in hushed tones when we asked who they were etc. I suppose they didn't want to alarm us children. I know that they were terrified of them and as we were Eastern European refugees, they didn't want to make a fuss about it or report them. It was different times... or perhaps not.

I DO know that most people who lived in that neighborhood at that time were aware of them. They were impossible to miss.
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probably wolfy smith and co:grinning:1592980935465.png
 
maypolebaz said:
Same here, '41 to '57.(Joined the army). Lived at 210.
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Hi I lived at 124, the nearest person I knew to you was Johnny Cooper at 172. I still remember Miles the butcher on that parade adjoining Highters Heath Lane and I still have a sister living in sheltered accommodation on the corner of Glenavon rd. I remember the many happy times I spent with my pals in Daisy Farm Park. A long long time ago.
 
Hiya,
I estimate that your friend lived around a large grassed area that we called "The Island", it was a big grassed area that we played on, also where we had our bonfires. I'm afraid I can't remember a Cooper family. A mate of mine, Pete Owen, lived at 84, he had an older brother, Tony who I suspect would be around your age.
I'd forgotten that the butcher was Miles. There was a thriving shopping area in those days. Mundays, who sold sweets, toys, fireworks, you name it ! I was an errand kid for Favours, the grocery shop next door. I was around that way a few years ago and the area was dead.
We were lucky there weren't we ? As well as the park, there were areas of countryside we could walk to.
Great memories !
 
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