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Christmas’s past

I remember when I was knee-high to a ration book, my dad putting some lights on the xmas tree that he'd made himself, (he was an auto electrician). He'd connected a load of car bulbs, (6volt sidelight, I imagine) and painted them various colours. I think he used the transformer off a train set to step the power down. I can still smell the paint as the bulbs warmed up.
 
Thinking about Christmas Trees makes me remember a favourite present I found under the tree each year, even if some years it was secondhand. It was the 'Rupert Bear' annual. I've dug into my old memory rather than Google and can remember Rupert lived in Nutwood and had a friend Bill Badger and I seem to remember a Professor with spectacles.
 
I remember Rupert Bear annuals too. I had one before I moved onto Judy and Bunty. The Rupert annual was a great thumping volume made out of thick paper - a bit like the recycled paper you sometimes get today.The cover was made of quite thick card and it had, I think, red linen binding along the spine. I think they were good value for money. Viv.
 
Money can't buy things like that Baz. I had second hand annuals and toys too sometimes. Superman and Roy Rogers, the Magnificent Seven, The Maverick. Rupert. They came from an older lad up the street. I remember mum said I had to give my Tinga and Tucker annual to someone less well off than us. She got me to give away some of my toys for the poor kids she said. But I was reluctant to part with some of them. I remember Tiger Lily in Rupert, Ping Pong the Pekinese, Algy Pug, rastus and Willie Mouse. Constable Growler. A sailor with a plait. One of the few humans in the book. One of the places the sailor and Rupert visited, an island, would not be politically correct now, undesrtandably.I loved the rhymes. Lo and behold many years later I had an eccentric neighbour renting next door. She said she was an actress and her name was Tiger Lily.I thought of Rupert Bear. Mum used to says how's Tiger Lil then!
I remember when Rupert hit the screen and you could buy bold checked trousers called Ruperts.
 
I forgot a second hand book of Baba the Elephant. Or was it Barbar? And Tiger Tim and his friends and Ross Salmon's horse race about a Dartmoor Cowboy, I wondered if he was a real person?
 
Nico said:
I remember Tiger Lily in Rupert, Ping Pong the Pekinese, Algy Pug, rastus and Willie Mouse. Constable Growler. A sailor with a plait.
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Hi Nico - Those were some of the names I couldn't remember. I think I first read the rhymes immediately under the pictures then later you could read it all again with more of a story under the rhymes, and my books had thick paper with hard back covers. I remember one Christmas when my Dad decided I wanted a model railway set. We could not look or go in the front room while he built it on a large board. I wanted a model railway but really preferred to fit the track together in my own layout. The large board prevented the usual Christmas use of the front room. Funny thing is, I did the same thing many years later with my own son! I built it in the garage, brought it in on Christmas Eve, he wasn't impressed ....
 
I bet your son appreciates what you did then, now, Old Mohawk. My favourite toy was a farm, I think mum and dad went in to debt to buy it, it was in a big box and I loved opening it and assembling it. Each little stall was a gasp of pleasure and they enjoyed watching me open it.
I forgot Edward Trunk in Rupert. Some of the books were heavy paper and some were a bit waxy they must have been later editions. I can't remember the sailor's name. In one he was described as a matelot. I made mum laugh as I pronounced it mate alot. She said she bet he did but thankfully I didn't get it then.I liked his plait. At work I remember a trendy lad and a girl having the one sailor plait, without the tar though.
 
Hi i used to get a annual with Roy of the Rovers in it but i can't remember the actual annual it was in.My sister had the rupert annual every year and i loved to read it.
 
I remember the annuals had interesting facts, conundrums, sayings, proverbs etc often on the inside covers. I remember Corporal Clott in one, Deep Deep in the African Jungle (to home on the range) where the dear and the antelope roam, there's a camp full of goops? and they call themselves troops, and they're browned off and far off from home. That always stuck in my mind and it made me feel sad. And as I was going up to Leeds I met no more than seven steeds etc. And I saw a ship a sailing a sailing on the sea etc. I can even remember stories from them. I read them over and over and never got tired, kemo sabay!
 
Hi all has my memory gone completely wonky? i seem to remember in the late 40's and early 50's there being a Christmas day post. I was very young so i'm probably dreaming.
 
I remember shops being open on boxing day Podgery. There was always a football match, dad used to go and we would all meet up at his uncle and aunts. His Aunty would make a cup of tea for everyone and his uncle would play the piano. That's the only time dad's family ever got together apart from weddings and funerals. Would they have had milk deliveries and papers on Christmas Day?
 
There certainly used to be a delivery on Christmas Day, my first one in 1953 was round the Wast Hills area of Kings Norton, the Cadbury owned estate.I remember having my lunch about 3.30.It was discontined about 56/57 time. Bernard
 
Let's face it, there were no fridges so fresh milk was important. My Mom went shopping every day to get fresh food. How times have changed! Our local Royal Mail have combined 2 deliveries in to one so we get our only delivery about 2 o'clock. I remember we used to get our 2nd delivery before then. Can't blame the postman, just the big fat cat bosses.
 
Thanks Bernard i thought i had birthday cards delivered on christmas day, but i can't trust my memory now.
Bernard67Arnold said:
There certainly used to be a delivery on Christmas Day, my first one in 1953 was round the Wast Hills area of Kings Norton, the Cadbury owned estate.I remember having my lunch about 3.30.It was discontined about 56/57 time. Bernard
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