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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

THE DECK CHAIR.
( popular around 1940's to mid 1950's ).
The good old fashioned Deck Chair. Sometimes became the ' prop ' for some interesting and amusing observations .
To watch some persons trying to ' set up ' a chair would be a fair comedy.
Got it the wrong way round or upside down during the initial opening up bit and they got themselves into all sorts of problems. Then there was the getting up and down bit as they tried to find the right ratchet slot in order to get best comfort out of the blessed thing.
On the other hand there would be the " clever clogs " who could set up a deck chair one handed with just a shake and a click. Straight in first time.
Trying to get Grandad ' up and out ' and then back in again could be a masterpiece of team work. Needed to move him around a bit to keep him out of the Sun.
On the Beach.
Some of the Deck Chair ' attendants' could be a bit of a misery. I mean what was wrong with soaking your feet in the tide shallows whilst relaxing in your hired deck chair.
There would be some parties using the unopened deck chairs as sort of stretcher carriers. Turn one or two of the deck chairs with the backs facing upwards and with a bloke on either end they would pile all the Picnic gear onto them and off they would go to their favourite spot on the beach.
PS : Ok, ready to have another go, try not to get your finger trapped this time .
Photo : What more can you say. image.jpg
 
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I remember my gran with her "Brains on Toast" half a pigs or sheep's head, pigs trotters, steamed Haddock, Camp Coffee, steralized milk & the hot water urn on the side of the black leaded range.
 
You have prompted my memory with all this talk of tinned fruit, my favourite was "fruit Cocktail", with cold blancmange or custard. and little sandwiches of tinned salmon mashed with vinegar and sliced cucumber, very posh on a Sunday with Nan coming. So long forgotten by now remembered.Paul
 
image.jpgTHE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS CAME TO BRUM. ( 1950 's or there abouts ).
Here was an interesting ' introduction ' to Basket Ball for many Birmingham people. This top American basket ball team came to Brum and performed a series of exhibition matches at the Alexander Sports Ground, Perry Barr.
I suspect that many people ( as did I at the time ) connected net-ball and basket ball as much of the same thing.
Net-ball was probably in the same way, thought to be a game that Girls and Young Ladies played on small hard courts at schools or in some parks.
I recall being there, amongst a large crowd, at the Alexander Sports Ground on one of the exhibition occassions put on by this American basket ball team.
The whole event began with the sound of the GLOBETROTTERS signature tune " Sweet Georgia Brown " and onto the centre pitch came the ' Performers ' . The whole event was made up of comedy stunts and basket ball skills, all within the boundaries of basket ball. An accompanying opposition team was also there to allow a competition match demonstration to take place.
What a cracking couple of hours entertainment they all provided. It was close on unbelievable, the ball handling skills and the well thought out comedy ' inserts ' that were on view.
I recall that from there on I became very respectful of ' Basket Ball " as a skilled sport.
Photo : Loads of fun, loads of skill.
 
A very pleasant activity in the Summer used to be attending a Garden Fete. They were often held in Hall Green and Shirley and I remember going to one that was opened by Anthony Newley at the Gaskell and Chambers sports ground. I have just come across this article in the Birmingham Weekly Post of 4th July 1958: "Birmingham's United Nations Association is holding a garden fete tomorrow in Selly Park Road. Mrs D. Johnstone, the Lady Mayoress, is to do the official opening at 2.30pm and amongst the numerous attractions are excerpts, on the lawn, from the repertoire of the Janet Cranmore Ballet School, an athletic display by a youth club, music by Bournemouth Works Silver Band and side-shows and stalls for all ages, plus competitions with prizes to be won. Canon R.S.O. Stevens, Industrial Chaplain to the Bishop of Birmingham, will speak during the afternoon". Dave
 
I remember going to see the Harlem Globetrotters at some time in the 1950's but I don't think it was it was at Perry Barr (are we talking about the old athletics track) it was at an indoor venue. The one "star" who has remained in my memory was the dribble wizard MEADOWLAK JOHNSTON with his tremendous ball control . As you said brilliant entertainment.
 
Hi MartinB. Yes, my recollection of watching the Harlem GLOBETROTTERS was at the old the old Birchfield Harriers track, Perry Barr.
Im thinking that MAYBE the ' tour ' did include some other venue(s) around Birmingham.
Good though weren't they.
 
A FAVOURITE LESSON PERIOD.
Peckham Road school around 1942 - 1943 ish.
We had a ' Woodwork ' teacher who would attempt to teach us the rudermentries of basic woodwork.
We learned right from the beginning ( by virtue of the playground grapevine) that this particular teacher was fairly easily distracted from his lesson delivery if one of the pupils casually asked him a question about the war. It was quickly down tools as we gathered around him to listen to his stories about his experiences in WW1 and his views of the war going on.
This was much more enjoyable to us than than planeing and chiselling some piece of wood.
We did however at the end of each year get a few bits ' knocked up ' in wood that looked like we had achieved something.
I suspect that if you were to ask any pupil that had passed through the school during this teachers stay, you would find that they would remember and tell you this same story.
Probably didn't get too many ' Carpenters ' eventually coming out of Peckham Road School at that time, but those war stories he told were great to listen to.
 
I remember when I was at Peckham Rd School. I was 13yrs old. The Woodwork teacher was a Mr Ludlow. There was this certain student who was a well known trouble maker. On this paticular day we were in the woodshop class and this teacher was trying to explain a certain way to use a Chisel.Anyway this student wasn't paying attention and was talking away to the kid next to him. Mr Ludlow called him out to the front of the class and gave him two whacks with the cane across each hand.The kid shouted at him while shaking his hands and told him ,"You will never see me in this class again", and he ran out with Ludlow shouting for him to come back. I understand that the next day his Mother came to the school to complain to the Headmaster and the kid was with her and had both his hands wrapped in bandage. Have a nice day, Wally.
 
My Husband says that in his first woodwork lesson the teacher said they would make a pencil sharpener. They were quite let-down when this meant sawing a small piece of wood and fixing a bit of sandpaper to it!!
rosie.
 
rosie said:
My Husband says that in his first woodwork lesson the teacher said they would make a pencil sharpener. They were quite let-down when this meant sawing a small piece of wood and fixing a bit of sandpaper to it!!
rosie.
Click to expand...
Mr Martin at Loxton St. Remarking to one kid that he would do well with a job at Bryant & May, remember them, they made Swan Vestas matches
 
carolina said:
Peckham Road 1955
I remember at Loxton St., those old iron framed wooden desks being phased out. We had dozens of them in the woodwork room to take apart. All the wood, being oak, was kept. The iron was sold as scrap. Happy days.
Click to expand...
 
Roy Blakey said:
View attachment 98226THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS CAME TO BRUM. ( 1950 's or there abouts ).
Here was an interesting ' introduction ' to Basket Ball for many Birmingham people. This top American basket ball team came to Brum and performed a series of exhibition matches at the Alexander Sports Ground, Perry Barr.
I suspect that many people ( as did I at the time ) connected net-ball and basket ball as much of the same thing.
Net-ball was probably in the same way, thought to be a game that Girls and Young Ladies played on small hard courts at schools or in some parks.
I recall being there, amongst a large crowd, at the Alexander Sports Ground on one of the exhibition occassions put on by this American basket ball team.
The whole event began with the sound of the GLOBETROTTERS signature tune " Sweet Georgia Brown " and onto the centre pitch came the ' Performers ' . The whole event was made up of comedy stunts and basket ball skills, all within the boundaries of basket ball. An accompanying opposition team was also there to allow a competition match demonstration to take place.
What a cracking couple of hours entertainment they all provided. It was close on unbelievable, the ball handling skills and the well thought out comedy ' inserts ' that were on view.
I recall that from there on I became very respectful of ' Basket Ball " as a skilled sport.
Photo : Loads of fun, loads of skill.
Click to expand...
What a great evening that was, I had forgotten it until I read your post.
 
rosie. That little story that your husband relayed to you. ( Post#672 this thread ). Loved it.
I can just imagine the opening expectations of the kids in that Woodwork class. Nice little story.
 
Thank you Roy!
On the theme of craft classes at school, my brother took metalwork. He came home proudly with a toasting fork, when we used it the end came off in the fire!! Dad had to mend it but we used it for years, even in front of the gas fire but the toast wasn't the same.
He had more luck at woodwork, with a little fishing stool which folded neatly and had deck-chair fabric across it.
rosie.
 
GEOMETRY. ( The battle with the bent ruler ).
Imagine it's the weekly geometry lesson. A pencil, a piece of paper and a wooden ruler has been handed out to each pupil.
Under the worst circumstances three unfortunate things could happen to you now.
(1) You haven't understood hardly a word that the teacher has said during his or her opening lecture piece.
(2) You've been given a blunt pencil.
(3) You've got a ' bent ' ruler.
You may remember trying to pin down a bent ruler and attempting to keep it still whilst you drew a straight line was a bit difficult.
How come some of these rulers got into such a bent state.
It was years before I figured this one out.
Remember the little ' play up ' periods when the teacher left the room for some reason or other and the class ' Monitor ' wasn't too bothered, or brave enough, about keeping the class in order.
Now do you remember that little bit of mischief that came about when one or more of the kids in the class would get a small piece of screwed up blotting paper, a button, or a farthing piece and then place this ' projectile ' on the end of their
wooden ruler, hold down about a third of the ruler on top of the desk ( leaving the other two thirds, with the projectile on, hanging out from the desk ). Then bend the end of the ruler down. Then release. Up would shoot the little projectile. The target was to get it as high as possible. Contact with the ceiling was the ultimate.
Never thought about it at the time but I reckon that's how those rulers got bent and the sometimes struggle with drawing straight lines is probably the reason that I for one never became an Architect or a top Draughtsman.
 
rosie said:
Thank you Roy!
On the theme of craft classes at school, my brother took metalwork. He came home proudly with a toasting fork, when we used it the end came off in the fire!! Dad had to mend it but we used it for years, even in front of the gas fire but the toast wasn't the same.

Again on the theme of metalwork, we used to make pennies to put in the chuddy ( gum ) machine. I still haven`t grown up :-}
Click to expand...
 
" WHAT'S THE WEATHER GOING TO DO "
BBC censorship during WW2 didn't allow weather forecasts to be broadcast which would reveal weather conditions, around Great Britain, to the enemy. ( Didn't want to tell ' Jerry ' that it was going to be an ideal afternoon or night to bomb our towns and cities ).
As kids I recall that we would have to do our own forecasting.
Here we were with a full free day at our disposal. Another adventure to plan out.
But what was the weather going to be like.
On the day. Feel the temperature. Have a good study of any clouds knocking about ( just a few clouds over over the back of Kings Road ). Yeah, looks reasonably okay.
We'll do Sutton Park again and explore over the other side at Bracebridge and Blackroot pools, Might see a railway steam engine or two whilst we're over there. Gonna be good.
Got the weather a bit wrong though didn't we.
Should have noticed that bit of a chill in the wind and those darker grey clouds coming over that we saw as we passed by Keepers pool.
Jeez, came back soaking wet. Got another telling off from our Moms.
Not to worry, we'll get it right next time.
 
Roy,

During the war, as you rightly state, no weather forecasting. A device that we used was a pine cone.

We would hang a pine cone outside. If closed....bad weather, if opening, or open, a sign of good weather.

I don't think that it really worked, but as kids, we never really bothered about the weather anyway.

Eddie
 
Roy / Eddie,

Despite all of today's technology, I don't think that the accuracy of weather forecasts has improved one iota. Every morning I look at the Google forecast for the next 4 days, which I have set to our nearest town. Without exception, the temperature is understated by at least 3 degrees C every day at this time of the year, and in the winter overstated by the same amount. With such consistency and huge number crunching computers, you would have thought that they would have sorted out this little problem by now!

Maurice
 
Where have all the WHITE shelled chicken eggs disappeared to?

Everywhere they are BROWN shelled. In my youth our Anderton Road corner shop would beg the question:..."White shell or Brown shell?".

Most folk preferred brown shell, so I suppose that big business profits are responsible for the disappearance of white shelled chicken eggs.

Also, the run of the mill eggs that we buy today seem to be pretty bland. I miss the lovely, rich, almost orange yolks. For a while, our daughter raised chickens, and we had some delicious eggs, brown & white shelled.

Living in the countryside, we occasionally get private 'farm fresh' eggs, but they are not always that 'farm fresh'!

Eddie.
 
When I kept chickens many years ago it seemed the best eggs came after we dug the garden and the hens had fresh worms, the yolks were so deep and rich!! I tried not to think about worms when eating a fresh egg!
rosie.
 
Living in a traditonal Cretan village we get lots of fresh eggs given to us by our Greek neighbours, so many in fact that we sometimes have to give a few to friends. Yolks are beautiful, but I've never seen a white shell yet. I guess they've been slowly bred out everywhere.

Maurice
 
My late brother in laws partner has chickens that lay blue eggs. I was a bit wary of trying them at first, but they had lovely orange yolks & tasted yummy.
 
We get Labour eggs at Easter, but they're just dyed bright red! Now UKIP eggs would be different!

Maurice
 
POLISHING UP THE PLOT A BIT.
Just had a couple of hours in the garden, Pruning, Slab cleaning and Weeding. Job done and thinking back brought a few things to mind.
As kids we were pretty sound in the area's of endurance, energy and physical abilities and that all important ' agility' and now I'm comparing all those lovely gifts with this afternoons gardening performance. There's been some obvious changes over the years though that's for sure.
During to-days gardening venture ( hope no one was watching ).
All but fell off the two step baby ladder ( twice ).
Tripped over the ' rake ' at least twice.
Had an eye watering shin contact with one of the flower tubs.
Had four breaks for a cup of tea ( mainly to get me breath back here and there ).
On reflection though and pushing the adverse bits to one side. Well worth the effort. Gardens look lovely.
Putting my feet up now and going to have another cup of tea.
 
Roy, I think you have been watching me in my garden efforts. Just one slight difference. I normally have cups of tea, but today, it is quite warm, so I had a small bottle of cold shandy. Delicious.

Eddie
 
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