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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

Reminds me of a real 'Peasouper', circa 1955/56. I was driving home from a 'gig', and I found myself driving through Quinton. I was hardly moving, and my nose was pressed up against the windscreen. I even had my side window open in an attempt to see better.

Suddenly, my right side front wheel struck a kerb, and I though "My God, I am on the wrong side of the road". It was scary, so I decided to run my car upon the grass verge that I had just run into. I left the car, and walked home.

The next morning I went to collect my car, knowing it was about where I thought it may be.


Sure enough, it was there, parked on the central reservation! It looked ridiculous in the daylight.


Eddie
 
Eddie,

We still had those peasoupers a year or two later as I remember going to freemasonry gigs in Kinver in the drummer's Standard Vanguard, certainly after May 1957, when I came out of the RAF, and walking in front of it with a torch for several miles on the way back to Brum. I didn't enjoy those gigs one little bit, either musically or travelling there and back.

Maurice
 
" HAVE WE GOT ENOUGH SPONDULICS ".
There were the occassions when, as a group, we kids would need a few pennies to exploit some adventure or aquire some item for the use of the whole bunch of us. I recall at one time, for some reason or another, our little street group started to try out ' pole jumping '. We began by trying to use an old wooden broom handle as our pole, which gave us an idea of the technique, but the ' pole ' wasn't long enough to give a good lift and distance on the assisted jump.
We needed a strong longer pole.
We had on previous visits up town seen a " Scout Shop " which if I remember right was on a street just off the Old Bull Ring. In the shop window, amongst other scout equipment bits, we had spotted these lovely 'Boy Scout Staff Poles ', ideal we thought for our pole jumping.
Now we needed to gather some spondulics to pay the bus fare up town and back for a couple of the group and then for them to be able to purchase one of these Scout Poles.
I think it took us around a couple of weeks to raise what we thought would be needed to cover these costs.
We were successful and the ' longest ' scout pole was purchased from the Scout Shop.
We had loads of competition fun from there on, trying to achieve the longest distance pole assisted jumps. The pole game became one of our favourite street games.
That pole came with us as well whenever the group ventured into the country side on our adventures. As daft as it sounds it was protected and looked after and became the equivalent of a ' regimental standard ' for our little group.
SPONDULICS ? This was a slang word for " MONEY " and it was bandied about a lot by the kids in our area of Brum.
 
sospiri said:
Eddie,

We still had those peasoupers a year or two later as I remember going to freemasonry gigs in Kinver in the drummer's Standard Vanguard, certainly after May 1957, when I came out of the RAF, and walking in front of it with a torch for several miles on the way back to Brum. I didn't enjoy those gigs one little bit, either musically or travelling there and back.

Maurice
Click to expand...
These peasoupers certainly continued into late 70's I recall driving towards J2 on M42 and deciding that no way was I going on to the motorway in such poor visibility. That stretch of motorway didn't open 'til late 70's.
In mid 60's I had taken a girl out on a date on a Saturday night and when we came to drive home dense fog had descended so we couldn't get home until the next morning. Her parents, like most folk those days weren't on the 'phone so we were both apprehensive of her parents reaction to our over night stop out!

Coming out of Gosta Green tech one night fog was so bad that we drove home with windows open, I sat in the nearside seat looking out of the side window to see the curb, steering by reaching across the car, in 60's cars were much smaller, while my friend operated the pedals. Great team work!
 
Roy Blakey said:
THE STREET.
Going back apiece it was amazing how the street gutters seemed to attract many of the kids.
Parents, in general, would continuously warn their children to " keep away from the gutters "
But the street gutter had it's purpose from the kids point of view.
It was a place to sit and to have a little rest between playing street games.
It was an ideal spot to play Marbles along.
It was a perfect set up for carrying out "throw and catch " ball game rebounds.
After a short but heavy rainstorm it was ideal for building little ' gutter dams ' and having a little ' paddle '.
From gutter to gutter, across the road, it was an ideal ' measure ' to use in a " longest hop,
skip and jump " competition.
The street gutter always seemed to be a good place to hunt for " shrapnel " during the war.
Doing a bit of pretend " tight rope walking " along the gutter edge was a bit of fun too.
Photos : Having fun.
View attachment 101928





View attachment 101929
View attachment 101930
Click to expand...
Watch it! you'll catch "The Fever"
 
I have posted this before, But I remember many times going over the Grans in Smethwick for Sunday Din Din. coming back in a peasouper. I even walked in front of Dads Rover giving him directions. Also coming home from a gig in Brum missing the last bus and walking home with Sax in case. feeling my way along the hedges to get back to Yardley. Of course the end of coal and coke burning helped put and end to that, John Crump
 
John,

It doesn't seem that long ago, but for me it was 54 years ago - I'd moved south to Dorset in January 1961 and two years later it was quite a hard winter and I was working till the early hours at a club in the depths of the New Forest. Instead of negotiating fog I was trying find my way along snowy and icy tracks and we'd had quite a drop to drink by then! Happy days!

Maurice
 
" HELLS BELLS, do I really sound like that ".
Recalling a family Christmas party get together around the mid 1950's.
My youngest brother introduced his latest pride and joy into the parties fun and games. It was an impressive box cased
' reel to reel tape recorder '. I guess he must have been saving his money up for sometime for it because at that time these recorders were fairly new on the market and were pretty expensive.
Anyway, once the party had got underway we ' set up' the recorder in the little Bathroom situated next to the Kitchen.
The invitation then was, for anyone wanting to ' have a go', that they could go into into the bathroom, shut the door, start the recorder and provide a little ' party piece ' without anyone else hearing their performance. I recall that it took a bit of persuasion to get some of the family members to have a go but ( eventually after a few glasses of Ansells ) most of the party began to participate one way or another.
A bit later on the recorder was brought into the living room and we all quiet downed a bit to listen to the results of the individual vocal efforts which included jokes, speeches, a harmonica performance, whistling and of course ' songs '.
It turned out to be great fun and plenty of laughs resulted from it.
The one overriding thing that seemed to emerge from it though was that almost everyone appeared to be totally surprised at the play back sound of their own voice and the Brummie accent that they had developed but hadn't realised how dominant it had become.
Some of the ' performances' were really good and if they were nor, it gave everyone a good old laugh anyway.
I recall the attempt that I made for my recording contribution. A ' Nat King Cole' impression. " Wakling my baby back home ". I really thought that I could sing just like him. Came out absolutely terrible. Took him out of my ' bathroom ' singing repertoire a bit sharpish.
It was all great fun but if you could have put all the individuals comments, about themselves, into one expression it would have been :
" Hells Bells, do I really sound like that "
Photo : The Recorder type.

image.png
 
" IT'S OKAY, THERE'S ONE COMING NOW ".
( Worth a smile on reflection).
This was before cars were widely owned. The Bus services all around Brum were satisfyingly numerous, as were the numbers of bus stops provided. Couldn't have been better.
There were the odd occassions however when a bit of whinging and moaning came to be, amongst passengers waiting at the bus stops.
How come ?
Well, there they would be, it's cold, it's windy and it's raining. They have already been waiting a bit longer than they had expected. Then one of them spots a bus making it's way to-wards them and utters the welcome words " IT'S OKAY, THERE'S ONE COMING NOW ". Now everyone in the waiting queue are ready to forget and forgive this little minor delay.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT !
On comes this bus, top speed and straight on past the waiting queue. There is was, on the front of the bus, that taunting display " GARAGE ONLY "
With rain now dripping down their necks the waiting queue now have their chance to have a good old whinge.
A worse scenario following this might have been the one where when the next bus did arrive to pick them up , it was not only the ONE bus but TWO of them ( nose to tail ) both displaying the same route number.
Time for another whinge.
A plus factor, whilst all this might be going on though, was the incidence of the ' queue ' talking to one another ( albeit a moan here and there ) giving it all a bit of a get together community feel. Maybe the odd little future friendship might have been born from it as well.
Having touched on these more rarely occurring bus service incidents it would not be fair unless it is balanced with the truth
that at these times the bus services operating in Brum were highly efficient and very much appreciated.
 
Buses were so frequent going to town from near the Rialto, Hall Green, that people didn't need a timetable. It did mean that if you waited at the bus stop for more than 10 minutes it seemed excessively long. The bus I caught was either a 32 or a 37. Sometimes, after a long wait, I might put my hand out if I saw a Midland Red coming. I don't think that they were supposed to stop to pick up passengers within the city boundary, if they were going into town, but sometimes they did. The fare was always a bit more on the Midland Red. I seem to remember that I started paying bus fares when I reached the age of 16. Dave.
 
I remember there being one Bus stop for BCT and one next to it for Midland Red, this would have been in the sixties opposite Perry avenue Perry Barr. I also only caught the M/R if I was late for work as saving the pennies when your average pay was £5 per week was very important.
 
" Have we still got any gloves Mom ? "
Come this time of the year the young kids would begin to pose this question. Meeting up and playing out with their friends it was becoming more noticeable that their little hands were getting cold too quickly and spoiling their fun a bit.
The tactic of keeping their hands in their pockets or tucking them under their armpits or pulling their jumper sleeves down to cover their hands wasn't really a good fix because it was going to limit the types of games that could be played.
A pair of gloves would do nicely.
So, next time that they go back into the house they are going to ask Mom if she can remember or knows where their gloves are.
Our own bit of story went something like.
We ask our Mom that question.
" Well, ( says our Mom ) you might try looking at the back of the cubby hole, they might be in one of those bags under the spare rugs, the old net curtains and the scrubbing wash board "
This followed by the inevitable " And don't leave a mess after you ".
Yes, she was smack on the button, all our old woolly gloves, from last year, where there. A bit tatty and a bit small, a few holes in the fingers here and there, but they'll do the job alright for a start.
There where those pairs of Mittens that Aunt Alice had knitted for us last Christmas but you couldn't play some of the games if you were wearing Mittens ( not very useful for climbing trees or playing marbles and that sort of thing ). We kept the Mittens as ' reserves '.
There was that pair of big Motor Cycle Dispatch Riders gauntlets ( our uncle Bob had given us them ) but you couldn't use those either for playing games. We kept them for us to use when we were rolling the big snowballs when the snow eventually arrived.
I think though that we might have to ask Mom if she can find time to knit us an extra pair of gloves each, to get us through.
Best wait though until one of those times when we hear her having a little sing to herself in the kitchen.
 
When I was about 13 years old I really wanted some fur backed gloves, my mother kept telling me that when they got wet they would be like drowned kittens on my hands, nevertheless, I eventually got a pair, and mom how right you were.
 
I think my sister had a pair. They made the hands look like paws!

I coveted those gloves made of nylon that looked like lace, also ones made of crocheted string (I think). They were for a different season, of course. To think that it was once quite normal to wear gloves in summer.

maria
 
A snippet of the old fashioned community spirit.
That was a nice gesture of thoughtfulness when during periods of medium to heavy snowfalls virtually all the residents of the neighbourhood would go out and clear the snow from the pavement in front of their houses.
I remember how many of the kids revelled in this little task. The snow would be piled up at the gutters edge and spaced gaps created so that the Milkman , the Breadman and tne Coalman could access each house from the road right up to the front door of each house.
Here and there some of the householders would even scatter the dead ashes from the house, onto the road to assist the traffic.
I remember also that those water hydrants, on the street corners, were cleared of snow, by the residents, so that in the case of an emergency they could be identified and used quickly.
Good people, good times.
 
Remember 1947, our street ,Tillingham St, Sparkbrook and many more were virtually cut off. The Co-op bread man and others left their horse and carts at the top of the street and used a kids toboggan to make delivers to the houses.

When the roads were cleared the piles in the gutters seemed like the Alps to us kids.
We used to sit on the doorsteps and watch the snow on the roofs slowly melt and fall in sheets onto the pavements and hope it would land on the people below. We threw snowballs onto the overhangs to bring them down.

We also used to go round asking if people wanted their pavements swept, in the hope of financial reward. It was only coppers but they bought a lot in those days. My favourite was a slab of the bread cake stuff they sold at Wimbush's in Ladypool Rd (The Lane) which cost a penny!
 
tim, as you indicate, it was an oppotunity for some of the kids to earn ' a few coppers '. You mentioning the Breadman being ' cut off ' and having to leave his horse and cart at the end of the streets and having to deliver to the houses by foot, there lay the other opportunity for the kids to make ' a few coppers ' if they were prepared to help him carry out his deliveries and work with him on a full round.
Put a bit of ' pink ' into their cheeks in the process as well. Lovely.
 
Roy Blakey said:
" IT'S OKAY, THERE'S ONE COMING NOW ".
( Worth a smile on reflection).

On comes this bus, top speed and straight on past the waiting queue. There is was, on the front of the bus, that taunting display " GARAGE ONLY "
With rain now dripping down their necks the waiting queue now have their chance to have a good old whinge.
.
Click to expand...

Late evening, early fifties, would often catch the GARAGE ONLY bus from Five Ways to the Highgate Road bus garage. It was always hair raising. The driver would take us along like a man possessed. Thankfully we always arrived without a mishap. Would then walk, without any thought of fear, from garage depot to Anderton Road. No problems in those days.

Eddie
 
Lots of community spirit, and common sense in those days Tim sadly missing today, would be unworkable as it had'nt had a health and safety in-depth study done, but then there was'nt as many jobsworths in those days.Paul
 
Paul,

I think most of us on here are getting pretty cynical and perhaps have good reason to be so. Apart from the development of computers and medical practices, I can't think of many great advances over the last 50 years or so from which European mankind has benefitted, whilst I can think of much degradation in our society and environment. Many of the youngsters may disagree, but then they haven't experienced the times that we really miss.

Maurice
 
An unexpected thrill
( Period : 1942 ish ).
Our little group were out in the street going about our usual games and social chats. We were beginning to hear this distinctive sound coming from the area at the bottom of our road ( Carshalton Road, Kingstanding ).
What we were hearing was the sound of a big engine and the squeak and rattle of a tracked vehicle. As we looked to the bottom of road ( the junction with Hurlingham Road ) there it was. AN ARMOURED TANK.
Boy O Boy, this was great.
The tank made a jerky turn and started to come up our street. It got even better for us because as it came towards us it suddenly stopped outside one of the houses and a group of men , dressed in overalls , got out and went into one of the houses.
We had all seen Tanks, from time to time, rattling and roaring along the Chester Road near Sutton Park, on the way we thought to the Tank " testing / trial " area that had been provided , for that purpose, in the park, at that time. But what we hadn't had was the opportunity to get close to any of them. Here was one one now parked up just down the road.
Too good to miss, we were down there like a shot.
Having satisfied ourselves that there was no one inside the Tank we were able to walk around it, touch it and have a good look round to see how those rollers and tracks were able to work.
After our investigations were over we hung around until the ' Tank Crew ' came out of the house and got aboard their vehicle.
Wow, what a thrill as the engine was started up, black smoke pouring out of its exhaust, plenty of engine roar and then off up the road it went.
I can say that without question, that if that Tank crew had offered us a little ride on the top of that Tank in exchange for "ALL" of our games toys,our comics, our catapults and all of our marbles, the deal would have been done on the spot.
But what a thrill it was just to touch it and look at it close up, just the same.
 
THE SEARCH. As a kid, just received your pocket money, maybe got an extra penny or two for doing a few errands, straight away check to see if one of your pennies had one of those ' rare dates ' stamped on it.
I recall that some of the children found this to be a hopeful little search as they received penny piece awards.
From somewhere or from someone, word had come down the line that pennies with certain dates stamped on them were worth more than their face value.
So, naturally the hunt was on. I think that it was more a bit of fun than actually expecting a result. I remember that on initially hearing about these rare pennies we would be checking on every penny that came into our possession. As time moved on ( and having no luck so far ) the check periods gradually got less and less but still every now and then we would have a little search amongst the change in our pockets, right up until the time of ' decimalisation '.
As far as I can remember non of us at these times had any real clues as to what these coins were really worth, only that they would be worth a bit of useful money if you could find one in your possession.
I had a little look on the Internet to see if I could find out ( after all these years ) what it was all about back then.
The Internet tells me, for example, that a 1933 stamped penny coin would be rare because it's believed that only about seven of these coins were produced by the Royal Mint ( as commemorative coins ). Of these, three were placed by the King under the foundation stones of buildings , two were presented to the British Museum and two found their way to private collectors. Later, during building work one of these coins was stolen and another was intentionally unearthed and sold.
With no record being kept ( at the time ) of how many pennies dated 1933 were actually struck, it seemed possible that one might turn up in everyday use, prompting generations to search, just in case their luck was in.
The " Mail Online ". -- ( 11th Aug 2010 ) carried a report that one such penny had surfaced on the eBay Internet Auction site, and if genuine, experts had put a possible value of £ 80,000 on it.
So after all this time and now finding this information, that seems to explain why we were seeking through our pennies as we got them. But looking at it now it seems it was much more " a wild goose chase " than we realised at the time.
It was a bit of fun at the time, all the same , and no harm done anyway.
Photo :
image.png
 
I had a `51 penny (or possibly `53 can`t be sure) which was classed as "fine condition" & i sold it for £3, lot of money back then for a young teenager, especially when you think that in the late 50s with a 10 bob note in your pocket you could have a few pints & enough left for a curry.
 
Hi roy
just been reading your thread about the old penny and the dateing ;but it had to be more than that because there had to be an intial printed on it
it was in small print and small print indeed it was [ yes the dates you have mentionoined are correct ] on the front with the head on it but the reverse side
there would have been an itial embedded around with the wtiting on the back , i recall those days ; and cor blimey did i run fast every where for people whom offered a penny for running errrands for them i lived up a big terrace in those days with old ladies for neibours some had kids but they refused to go for there parents
ASTONIAN;;;;
 
Many of those old pennies, indeed many other coins, were minted in Birmingham, for instance Kings Norton would be KN, and the letters would appear alongside the date.

I collected pennies, and halfpennies, for many years, and still have a wonderful collection of both, from pre Victorian times, and almost every year until decimalisation.

And all that started as a young boy!

Eddie
 
THE DIARY.
I wonder how many people, as they reach that Senior/Senior age, wish that they had kept some sort of daily or monthly written record of their own early days thoughts and experiences.
I know that I wish that I had.
For most children and young people I think that much of that energy and time, that we all seemed to have, was directed into searching into ever new experiences, leaving very little time ( or reason ) to write down anything that we had already done. I mean, what was the point in writing down the bits that we had already done, it was already history and already in the past wasn't it and there was much more important things to do in planning to-morrow, wasn't there.

If I now jump forward 60 plus years is there just that little problem with some of those bits of ' recall '.

Did Dad get you that second-hand bicycle when you had just had Tonsilitis or was it when you were getting better from Measles ?
What was the name of that public house, at the top of the hill on the old Birmingham Bull Ring that Dad used to pop into for a quick pint whilst Mom and us kids used to carry on shopping in the market area.
What was that year when a section of the Birmingham Symphonic Orchestra came to our school and played that music to us all in the school hall.
What was the name of that bloke who used to tell us kids all those funny jokes when he used to come round to collect the scraps from the Pig Bins.
What was that lovely dog called, the one that our Aunt Millie had, the one that could do all those clever dog tricks.

The ' big stuff ', sure , we can dig that out reasonably well but it's some of those incidental bits that get a bit ' foggy' and if you are like me I really wish that I had taken a bit of time-out to record them.
 
Just this morning I was wishing just that!
What year did I pass the driving test
When did I buy/sell that Woseley NF14 and from whom
etcetera
 
I entered info into Boots Scribbling Diaries between 1958 and 1967 (aged 15 to 24). Here is an entry for Saturday November 29th 1958 (over 57 years ago). "Went to the College Road Bazaar. Had a couple of goes on the tombola. Had a go also on the raffle. Took the dog out for a walk although I did not take him very far. Went to the library (Sparkhill) and had a book on chess and also Mechanics. We had a new kettle which cost 7s 6d. Did some homework in the evening. Mum and Dad went to the pictures. Birmingham 0 Manchester United 4. Watched TV in the evening. Watched Boots and Saddles and also Dixon of Dock Green".

Monday 22nd December 1958. " Went shopping with Mum to town. Went to Wileys café in the arcade. Had sausages, egg, plus Cadbury flake and ice-cream. Went to the Gaumont cinema. Saw "Escorts West" with Victor Mature. Also saw "Guns, Girls and Gangsters". Took the dog out for a walk in the afternoon. Went to the laundry. Very cold all day". You can see that I had a very exciting life. I don't remember Wileys Café at all. Dave
 
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