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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

OLD " FLASH " GOT IN FIRST.
Ive been noticing on the media that another Science fiction film is on it's way to our cinemas. This one being another instalment of " Star Wars ".
It brought to mind, as Pre-war kids , our first introduction to the ' space fiction film '. Our treat was the Saturday morning cinema matinee and the black and white " FLASH GORDON " weekly serial which ended each show.
The on running space story was that ' Flash ' had rocketed off to the Planet " MONGO " in order to save Planet Earth and do battle with his arch enemy up there the " EMPEROR MING "
Looking back now I don't think that the ' Special Effects ' of those days would have scored very highly in comparison with to-days standards , but boy, we loved it.
Photo : FLASH and the EMPEROR MING. image.jpg

Photo : FLASH GORDONS ROCKET. image.jpg
 
Oh, the memories Flash Gordon at the Globe on Saturday afternoon matinee, we all lived for the following week for the next episode as it always ended as we were sitting on the end of our seats full of anticipation, who would have thought that science fiction film has come true..what with space exploration, TV's, computers and everything else ...what do the young people of today have for imagination???
living in Aston we all day dreamed of far off places now everyone hops on a plane no problem and goes where ever they want....l feel like they missed out on what we looked forward to on a sat matinee...but still it did't take much to make us happy did it........Brenda
 
Flash Gordon was my hero of the "Saturday ABC Minors Club", and I loved the stories, like millions of kids, raised in the 50's these "very tame", films filled our lives.Pau
 
Flash Gordon's rocket - I can see where those ice lollies came from now!

Talking of grotty special effects, do you remember the first film version of Doctor Who and the Daleks - instead of death rays or lasers, it looked like the Daleks were using fly sprays!

Maurice
 
IT'S OUR HOME.
I wonder, in terms of some of the ' Seniors ', if there might be a few ' memory comforters ' amongst these.
THE LIVING ROOM WALL DECORATIONS. The " Ducks on the Wall " on one side and the " Blue Lady " picture hanging on the other wall.
THE ROWS OF SHOES AND SLIPPERS stored underneath the old Sofa and the Sideboard.
THE FLY PAPER hanging from the ceiling.
THE CLOCK. When the house was occassionally quiet, the soothing ' Tick - Tock ' sound from the mechanical Seven Day clock sat on top of the Sideboard.
THE KNITTING BAG sat by the side of Moms chair.
DADS RAZOR ' STROP ' hanging by the side of the kitchen sink
For we kids this was our lovely home and all part of our family ways and comforts.
Photo : The Ducks on the Wall. image.jpg

Photo : The Blue Lady. image.jpg
 
We had a little shelf like half a "noughts and crosses". I can't think of a different way to describe it. Mom used to put tiny ornaments in it like the set of glass deer, and a small brass bell. Also there was a vase which went flat on the wall, I think it was called a wall pocket? Dad's pipe-rack was by his chair.
rosie.
 
rosie said:
We had a little shelf like half a "noughts and crosses". I can't think of a different way to describe it. Mom used to put tiny ornaments in it like the set of glass deer, and a small brass bell. Also there was a vase which went flat on the wall, I think it was called a wall pocket? Dad's pipe-rack was by his chair.
rosie.
Click to expand...

A relative had one of the shelf things, rosie, and called it a whatnot.

The same relative had a companion set - a brush, small shovel, and something else, that sat in the hearth.
 
rosie said:
We had a little shelf like half a "noughts and crosses". I can't think of a different way to describe it. Mom used to put tiny ornaments in it like the set of glass deer, and a small brass bell"
rosie.
Click to expand...

I remember there was a craze on little interlocking shelves that hung on the wall in the 60s Rosie.
At the time they were called Gayboxes, (I suspect they'd be called something else nowadays !).
 
maypolebaz said:
I remember there was a craze on little interlocking shelves that hung on the wall in the 60s Rosie.
At the time they were called Gayboxes, (I suspect they'd be called something else nowadays !).
Click to expand...
Yes my Mum had these shelves in the front room i recall she brought of a door to door salesman they came with ornaments one was a grey dog with 3 chains from its collar attached to 3 pups it was made of untreated beechwood a hardwood with lots of ticks in the grain i know this now because i became a joiner in later years my Mum must have got fed up with it i used to lay it flat and play with it as a fort for my soldiers Happy Times.
 
"The Chinese Girl" was also known as "The Green Lady" although she does look more blue in #787. Painted by Vladimir Tretchikoff in the early 1950s it is now seen as a classic of 1950s kitsch. Dave.
 
For us, shoes and wellies would be stored in the cupboard under the stairs. I seem to remember that the electricity meter was also located there. I haven't worn wellington boots for decades. Maybe the winters in Birmingham, especially 1947, had greater snow-falls than now and therefore wellies were needed. We also lived quite near to the river Cole, which resulted in the field near the back garden getting very wet. One piece of furniture I do remember is that my mother had a large mirror on her dressing table. This mirror had a large central pane with a smaller adjustable wing mirror at each side. By adjusting the wings you could get side views of yourself, which looked very odd as you don't usually, yourself, get this view. Dave.
 
THE LIVING ROOM. ( 1950's ).
The one photo here depicts a reasonably typical 50's living room. Probably had just aquired the Television set and had been required to move the dining table over a bit to make space for it. The Fireguard was occassionally extra useful for Moms to dry bits of washing on.
A pretty ' cosy ' get together family room..
The other photo shows a Dads first big ' house treat ' for a Mom. All Moms would have been over the moon with this.
This was kept stored in the kitchen broom cuboard after each time she finished using it.
Photo : The Living Room.image.jpg

Photo : Her first Washing Machine. image.jpg
 
Our pouffe was a bit bigger than that, made of leatherette with a cord round the middle. It was lopsided and leaky as it came from a jumble sale, most of our stuff did! Mom used to try and cover it but we played horses on it etc.! The arm of the chair was better for that but not allowed, we were given an old settee like the one in the photo.
I thought it was so dangerous to have the mirror over the fireplace, Nan always told me to roll myself in the heathrug if I caught fire!! We had a fireguard though.
rosie.
 
THE BOBBIE ON THE BEAT.
Looking back I think there was a good relationship between the patrolling beat BOBBIE and the ' adventurous ' kids.
We, as children, were taught by our parents to fully respect ' The Policeman '.
I mind we children were occassionally ' pulled up ' by one of the patrolling bobbies and given ' advice ' on some small misdemeanor that we had been up to.
As a kid I always did have that sneaking feeling that behind that stern bobbies face that there was " I was a kid myself once " understanding running beneath.
Photo : " Sorry mister, we was only having a look ".image.jpg
 
Hi Roy,

Re Bobbies on the beat although I became a police officer myself the only way I had anything to do with them when I was a nipper was running away when we saw the local bobby caoming down the street whilst we were playing foorball. I made sure that they never caught me. However, I am sure that what you say is absolutely true.

Chris Beresford (Old Boy)
 
AN OLD BUS JOURNEY.
Period around early Post war years.
There was always something interesting to look at on any bus journey around the city. Sitting there on the bus it was pleasing to pass the journey time observing the city folk going about their daily activities and sometimes it was possible to have a little look into the shop windows as the bus ran through the different shopping areas.
There was one set of ' viewables ' that would be hard to ignore.
THE ADVERTISEMENT HOARDINGS AND THE BILLBOARDS.
Many of these Billboards you would see mounted on the sides or backs of some buildings, the large Hoardings would be positioned in spaces at the side of main road routes.
It was fascinating to watch the ' bill poster ' changes taking place when the ' Poster Papperers' arrived and set to work with their ladders, their long handled paste brushes and their rolls of advertising posters. It was amazing to see how little time it took them to change these huge size posters.
Photo : " Hardly a space left ".image.jpg

Typical Bill Posters of the period.image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 

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I remember from my early days that we never had sandwiches in our house. In those days of rationing I use to eat a 'piece' which was usually a slice of bread cut from a National Loaf with a thin coating of jam, or dripping, and sometimes fish paste. I don't ever remember having sliced meat or spam on a piece. Often hungry and asking for a piece, I heard 'You'll have to wait because the breadman is late'. I think I only started using the word 'sandwich' in my teens. A couple of family pics below of a breadman in the 1950s.
Bread_Basket_1950.jpg
Happy_Breadman_1950s.jpg
 
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oldMohawk. You mentioning not using the word ' sandwich ' as kids certainly rings a bell. I definatley remember using the phrase " Can we have a piece please Mom" for requesting what was a one layer of bread with a bit of topping on it.
Did you happen to run into these as well ?
" Is there any ' afters ' to-night Mom " ( Meaning that hopefully there was going to be something sweet tasting after the main meal).
" Can I have a drink Mom ". The answer as often as not being " Well, get a cup, you know where the tap is ".
If I'm remembering right, there was another bread term used and this was to describe a very thick cut of bread and this we called " A Door-Step".
 
A TOP PLACE TO GATHER.
( Late 1940's ).
As young people we were always on the hunt for places and areas that provided the ' got it all ' experience.
An area that we found, that more than fitted the bill, was Perry Barr. Our group started to centre on Perry Barr when we started to cycle from Kingstanding to Perry Barr and participated in the " Cycle Speedway " racing competitions held on the Alexander Sports Ground car park.
From this we began to meet other groups who came from areas around Aston, Handsworth and Perry Barr and so Perry Barr became a natural place for having a bit of a social gathering as well.
So on non-racing evenings we would ' bus ' down to Perry Barr and then all meet up on the ' Car Park '. From there we would move on up the road on to the Birchfield Road and here we had virtually everything we could wish for in terms of activity choices.
We had : Two Cinemas, a British Reastaurant, a Fish and Chip shop, a couple of ' outdoors ' from which we could get a drink of ' Pop ' from and then there was the popular ' Fresh Shell Fish ' stall ( situated just outside the Greyhound Track entrance ).
As we got older we took interest in a Ballroom Dance School which was situated practically opposite the Odeon Cinama which we tried for a while. One of the pubs " The Old Crown and Cushion " held an upstairs dance night most Saturday nights which we very much enjoyed.
I recall a lot of us lads split off to do our ' National Service ', but even then a fair number of us met up again afterwards.
We could now swap our ' Pop ' for a ' Beer ' and we all had ' the key to the door ' by then.
The Birchfield Road was still our top place to gather and enjoy.
 
As a working class child, in 50's Birmingham we only ever had a "Piece", I never really heard of sandwiches until I went to a party in a (posher), house when about 8 or 9, we had dripping and daddies sauce, HMmmm lovely.Paul
 
We had sandwiches (as in two slices of bread)' in the 40s/50s but like everybody else we called it a "Piece".
I used to take Lunch to school, this was usually well-scraped toast, spread with wonderful dripping. It was not unusual though to find it spread with lard, sprinkled with salt.
My absolute dream was a condensed milk piece. In my army days, Scousers I met called it a "Conny Onnie butty".
 
My Dad used to say 'piece' as well.

I thought it was a Brummie thing but I have a Scottish colleague who knows the word from her childhood.
 
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