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I also used to pick up the Argus for my Dad on a Saturday night. Used to go across Soho Road to Mr Pearce's newsagents on the corner of Villa Road and stand outside with the men waiting for the van to arrive with the papers for the shop. I used to feel very grown up doing that. Took it home and then had to be really quiet while Dad was reading it and also listening to the football results on the wireless. If you made a noise while the results were being broadcast you were in real trouble.
 
Jayell said:
I also used to pick up the Argus for my Dad on a Saturday night. Used to go across Soho Road to Mr Pearce's newsagents on the corner of Villa Road and stand outside with the men waiting for the van to arrive with the papers for the shop. I used to feel very grown up doing that. Took it home and then had to be really quiet while Dad was reading it and also listening to the football results on the wireless. If you made a noise while the results were being broadcast you were in real trouble.
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Remember the football results on the typewriter thing on TV, I couldn't make a sound when dad did his coupon.Dad always slapped his thigh and groaned usually. I remember when Millwall and Barnsley were at the top. I liked the Grandstand jingle.
 
I used to take the scores down some weeks if Dad hadnt arrived back in time from the Villa game. He was always hoping that the 'Pools man' would call with his winnings - never did happen though. He always liked 'spot the ball' - never won that either.
 
Dad and my uncle Bill used to have the pink, and as with a lot of households, silence was demanded for its perusal.
My Aunty Win won £25 on Spot the ball though, she was featured in the Mail.
Sue
 
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dad always did spot the ball sue.. sometimes he would let me put the crosses where i thought the ball was...cant recall him ever winning anything though...

lyn
 
There were winners on spot the ball,in the 60's my Mom and I used to enter and one Saturday my Dad told us we had won £168 which was a lot of Money,we couldn't believe it.
 
Astoness said:
maggs it was a fair step thats for sure...it was not so bad for me as the paper shop was only a few mins walk from my house..the chippy was only a couple of door away so very often i would get some chips and slowly walk home with them...dad would often say to me...what took you...lol..
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It was Lyn, and still is. There were no shops at all at the top end of Carver St. In fact there was only one tiny shop in that street called Knibbs at the end near Warstone Lane, who sold things like milk/sweets and tobacco. The newsagent at the top end of Icknield St, Howards, obviously used to close before the Argus was in, so I expect that's why he used to take his wheelbarrow to the top of Carver St, right outside the George & Dragon pub. The Argus would have to have covered the days football results wouldn't it, so suppose it was later coming in than the Birmingham Evening Mail. Like a lot of you have said, silence ruled while the football results were being listend to on the radio. I can still hear the music that intruduced it. I bet most of you can.
 
Remember when every household own a boot last Keegs? You repaired your own shoes if you could. And proper cobblers shops. We had one and they stitched some shoes I had. The cobblers were twins quite old looking at least one had a humpy back, their hammers were fine, I can smell the shop, I loved going there with nan, a big L shaped counter covered in pairs of shoes, they came back with a string label with a brown thing round the hole in the ticket to support it like an old luggage label and they gave you them back in a brown paper bag. A bit like the old fashioned photographers shops. I have some old brown photo walletts. Was Hal's in Brum or Stourbridge so you know? Nico
 
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That white shoe colour, Keegs, with the hardened sponge, mum kept her wedding shoes and nan wore them, she put the white stuff on but they looked like dirty pumps. Mum died her wedding dress blue and then shortened it, the made baby clothes for me out of it. My mate laughed at me cos I darned my trousers and my partner darns socks, she loves sewing on the yard she says it relaxes her.
 
I still have the metal bootlast that belonged to my great grandfather.It got passed down the generations.I have never used it,but could never bring myself to throw it away !
 
keegs said:
I still have the metal bootlast that belonged to my great grandfather.It got passed down the generations.I have never used it,but could never bring myself to throw it away !
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I don't know where grandad's boot last went to. Probably followed his black and decker and his mother o' pearl penknife I was promised. I would have loved all that as they were his. They can't replace people though or memories. Sniff!
 
I have fond memories of my dad sitting on the back step 'mending' his working boots. If he didn't have time to do the task himself he would leave me a note 'please take my boots to the 'menders', thanks, Dad - which I did after school. I also remember the smell of the Cobbler's shop; the label attached to the shoes or boots which identified them and the big brown paper bag they were put into. Anthea
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but does anyone remember fiberglass curtains which kept out the cold and didn't crease? I had a pair in the 1970's.

Anthea
 
Not a product as such, but very much part of shoe shopping for kids in the 1950s. Remember this machine? Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1337014286.570254.jpg
 
I do indeed Viv. They always had them at Clarks and I think took an xray of your feet so that you could get the correct width and length!!!
 
"Your Station Of the Stars" Radio Luxembourg. Their website is amazing. I hadn't visited it for a few years. I first found it in 2001 and left a message in their
Guestbook. It is very nostalgic to go through this site if you were lucky enough to listen to Radio Luxembourg in 1960 or so. There are many photos on the site of the popular DJ's. https://www.offringa.nl/radioluxembourg.htm
 
Anthea, I remember the fiberglass curtains only too well. They were great as curtains yes. I made a big mistake and put mine in the wash along with
my husbands shirt. The day he wore his clean shirt I received a frantic call from him at work saying he was itching all over and didn't know what was
happening. It was the fiberglass curtains. The fibers had transferred into the material of the shirt. He came rushing home to change! Oh dear, the memories
we don't like to hear about!
 
jennyann said:
Anthea, I remember the fiberglass curtains only too well. They were great as curtains yes. I made a big mistake and put mine in the wash along with
my husbands shirt. The day he wore his clean shirt I received a frantic call from him at work saying he was itching all over and didn't know what was
happening. It was the fiberglass curtains. The fibers had transferred into the material of the shirt. He came rushing home to change! Oh dear, the memories
we don't like to hear about!
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We had fibreglass curtains and nan did, I hated them they stood up on their own. To quote nan "yow just diddle em up and down in the soapy water an let em dry over the line" she did the same with her nets. They seemed to really shine in the sun. Proper lace curtains, they have disappeared too. Nan got slatted windows, a gale used to blow through them.
 
jennyann said:
"Your Station Of the Stars" Radio Luxembourg. Their website is amazing.
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I have fond memories of Radio Luxenbourg. I once built a crystal set radio in the mid sixties and could just about pick it up, although very faint. Much later, I was a development test driver at Longbridge in the mid seventies and whilst doing mileage accumulation at night on the motorways, (we had to drive 500 miles every night for 3 months) I always tuned into 208mw. It was then they first played 'Lovely Day' by Bill Withers. It was their "power play" record of the week and I loved it. It was played on the hour, every hour. Such a shame it closed early morning every day as I'd still got loads more miles to drive. I cant remember if it was 1.00, 2.00 or 3.00am. Whilst working at Good Year in Luxembourg, again for Rover, we accually drove past their transmitter on a rocky hillside. Such shame it closed altogether.
 
anthea said:
I have fond memories of my dad sitting on the back step 'mending' his working boots. If he didn't have time to do the task himself he would leave me a note 'please take my boots to the 'menders', thanks, Dad - which I did after school. I also remember the smell of the Cobbler's shop; the label attached to the shoes or boots which identified them and the big brown paper bag they were put into. Anthea
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That just made me think of grandad sharpening the carving knife on the stone step. He always carved on a sunday with a sharpening tool left right left right and when we had people.
 
I loved Billy Bunter. Mum said he had a sister called Bessie. I called my rabbits Billy Bunty and Bessie, Billy was a doe we found out after and Bunty (ex magician's rabbit - got too big for the hat) a buck. I remember Mr Pastry, I didn't like him.
 
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Does anyone remember Cyril Lord (this is luxury you can afford by...) carpets, we had one when we moved house. We had gas fires put in as the vacating owners had taken the fire bricks and baskets and the light bulbs and left live wires hanging where they couldn't get them off. Black and white tiles bathrooms, all the rage now, baths with feet, if you had a bath. The old house didn't have one. And Flatley heaters? When I hear of Michael Flatley I think of th toxic fire we had.
 
I cam across this lying on the drive and no idea where it has come from. But I recall the day when these would be plugged into ceiling lights via an adapter to power Radios and heavens know what else. Some folk would have what looked like a tree of adapters plugged in one after the other.

Bayonet Plug_1024x681.jpg
 
Still have one Bernie on the Christmas Tree lights. I like it because you can isolate it with the switch that is on it. One bedroom pendant is still by the window where they used to plug up the hairdryers. A family friend died about 10 years ago they still used them and had round pin sockets and 3 inch skirting boards, corded flex amd no indoor flush wc and a tiny hot water geyser by the kitchen sink.
 
Was Cyril Lord carpet foam backed then? Oh did we all have to make a start with that sort of thing? It was hopeless, the longer it stayed down, the more mess it made when getting it up. All the dust used to fall down into the cracks of the floorboards in the bedrooms. I do remember Cyril Lord now that you have reminded me Nico.

How many of us had coloured bathroom suites too? I had Pompadour pink, and was glad to see the back of it. Going back to white was so much better, but how we all longed for those coloured suite's when they came out.
 
Our Cyril Lord when we tried to take it up when we moved stuck in great rubber patches, and left great holes in it, and the rubber went powdery. Remember avocado suites and pampas what my partner calls caca d'oie, I won't translate it. We had turquoise then parents had apricot which looked nice. Another friend still has chocolate brown. Remember washable wallpaper. We seemed to go made on waste paper bins, free with Daz.
 
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