My Nan had a victorian granny. Don't speak until you are spoken to. Please may I leave the table (like I was taught). But she was afraid of her. She had to wear her best clothes and have her brushed. I was of afraid of my cousins' mum. I also called her grandma. She used to chase the kids.
One lad at my mum's school would swing an oil can round his head with 'fire' in it. His nickname was King Kong. She saw him years later on Midlands Today giving his two pennuth. She jumped up and shouted "King Kong!"
Yes we sort of flicked the marlies putting out thumbs on the ground and flicking with your middle finger. It was a bit like crown green bowling I think. Some kids would says mine is a tenner. Meaning he had stolen (won) 10 other kids' marlies. Not many girls played. I don't know why. Some Kids had a pram bottom with a piece of wood on it and charged up and down the entry. Mum said I wasn't to throw stones or play with any rough kids. We played Queenio Coky O whose got the Ball ee o. Or a Stick if you didn't have a ball. I first played this with my Brummie cousins in Bewdley. Maybe it's a Brummie game?
We played lots of singing games like Tisher Ma Tosher Mateazer. There came a duke a ridin, a ridin a ridin, There came a duke a ridin, tisher ma tosher ma Teazer,. The Duke picked a lady etc. Nan also played it calling it Tittle ma tittle ma Too.Her in and Out The Bonny Bluebells was In and Out the Darkened Windows.
We actually had a big black telephone, placed high up. as it was in the house when we moved in. But I was not allowed to touch it. Not like now. The grandchildren calling up strangers, and being on Facebook which is supposed to be illegal. It has gone the other way.
But many wives will tell you their husbands never grew up.
I liked the feel of pressing the button as it sort of resisited a bit. I hate pressing doorbells and you cant feel any pressure giving the impression it has no rang somewhere.As recorded here, probably more than once, phones were an attraction - when in phone boxes. It seems it was always worth trying button 'B' for loose change.
Reading Nico's post made me remember and think about a childhood christmas so long ago ... and then the forum search shows I had 'remembered' it six years ago on the forum ...
). My own memories are of a scrawny (probably Woolworth) tree which folded up when not in use. I was given coffee to drink (probably Camp), by Nanny and told that drinking too much coffee would darken my skin. I also remember having to queue a couple of times or so at a wine merchants shop to buy a bottle of wine or whatever. The place was only open at certain times and some products I expect were rationed. There were many other things such as fruits, groceries and meats that were in short supply and required joining a queue. The wine shop was close to the Robin Hood island, Hall Green, as I believe it may have been the nearest (even so it was a two or three miles walk away), but on reflection it was not that close to home and maybe Nanny did not want to be seen buying alcohol. Imagine queuing today for bottles of wine etc. She was also particular where she drew her pension money and presumably her allotment, for me, from my soldier father. That was usually at a Post Office in Highgate. At least that gave me the pleasure of looking into Highgate Road bus depot as we passed by. I also got my sweet ration there, it was always a quarter of Dolly Mixtures. The good thing about Dolly Mixtures is they went a long way and lasted a while you could save some for later on. Presents were few but you made the best of what you got. It was, I suppose, good training for later life and not 'crying for the moon', I guess. The religious nature of Christmastide was somewhat more sincere I think. Carols were sung - and meant - and children did often call carolling. Money was not always their reward as sweets and other trinkets were quite acceptable. Children were, at the time, despite the blackout and areas still without street lighting, believed safe out at night and most parents were happy for them to go out carol singing. I remember simple displays in shops. but most traders carried on as usual and were happy with any extra trade that came. I do not recall the frantic, stressful shopping that seems to be part of today's Christmas period. Many places only closed on Christmas Day and New Years Day. Old adages say that to pay out money on New Years Day means that you will pay it out all year. Also to wash on New Years Day will wash away a family member. 
Whilst WW2 lasted for six years its effects lasted for a few years after that.
Mum used th same old pale green battered shoe box for the decorations. That was big enough. The crinkley chains and crinkley metallic tinsel, fairy, bakelite icicles, and stars to glow in the dark, which didn't. Baubles. IThe fold flat bells. t was enough then.
Jeremy Vine Radio ran a feature on real candles on a tree as if it was bizarre.Nan said they had real candles and my Leicester mate did. He said they clipped on to the tree and his mum lit them and played a carol or listened to one on the radio. Usually Silent. Then she blew them out.Reading Nico's post made me remember and think about a childhood christmas so long ago ... and then the forum search shows I had 'remembered' it six years ago on the forum ...
old analogue remote phones are on 47 mhg.and 1.6 mhz . you can hear them... But not the digital ones....I use a cheap clonker.i have had this from the day we went digital. and when vodaphone was called vodacMany modern phones are more fashion than use. Remember that Trimline phone, that with just a very slight pull on the cable it fell of what ever surface it was on, usually onto the floor, often disconnecting the call. Fashion accessory more that a useful phone.
Many portable type phones *(radio) are fine - if you can actually seen the keypad, in poor light or darkness. Many mobile phones are equally hard going. I find the low priced mobile - that doesn't sing or dance - the better ones.
Children were discouraged as far as I recall from using or answering the telephone. Usually the operator or 999 type of calls were the only ones permitted. But then in the times most of us speak of any form of telephone was purely for business or occasional use, people were not wedded to their ''phones.
* radio scanners can often listen in to 'phones that use radio frequencies.
In Cov we don't. We have a long dark bumpy drive since the council removed the street lamp. The local children are told not to cold call with trick or treating as it frightens people.Just out of interest, in Brum do you still get carol singers knocking on your door? What about trick or treaters or penny for the guy? We haven`t had any of those in a long while. Just more traditions dying out.
