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Sunday Afternoons

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
If you sat in the garden on Sunday there was always a lovely sound nearby, of a lawnmower being trundled up and down a lawn. You could hear birds singing against its gentle sound. Now the lawnmower is hard on the ears, when ours is gobbling up the grass I want to get away from the noice it makes.

Behind walls of some of the smallest of front gardens in Brum there was always a privet hedge. Some were green and others yellow, they were clipped to perfection into a square. The shears were kept oiled and sharp, and dads arms were toned to do the job, but it was mom who swept the clippings from the pavement. The job was done, dad was off to the Aston for his well earned Sunday pint.
 
How it used to be on Sunday

I remember that it used to be on Sunday that all shops were shut,
most people were not at work(except my Dad who was a policeman)and washing was not hung on the line.
We had our roast meal at 1pm, in those days called Dinner 'not lunch
On Sunday it was always Bath and early to bed for school the next day.
now it is hard to distinguish sunday from any other day of the week.
 
How it used to be on Sunday

No sound of lawnmowers ever rang out were I lived, the only grass we saw grew in Aston Park. For me Sunday means the smell of cooking cabbage or sprouts YUK. It means friends not being able to play, most of them were grounded on Sundays. Sundays meant bath night, that usually ended up with a sore bum because of the "Pot Menders" used to fix holes in the bath, and to add insult to injury, I couldn't play out after my bath in case I "Cought a Death of a Cold".

Sundays meant Sunday dinner, we were never allowed bread to eat with that? but we always managed to steal a peace to mop up the gravy. Sundays meant Sunday Tea..... Sandwiches, home made pickles, a cake, and a 1/7 share of a tim of mixed fruit with carnation, washed down with milky tea. All this was followed by us lads having to wash up, that was perhaps the best bit, there was lots of fun to be had with a sink full of bubbles?
 
Sunday

When I was 11yrs old Sunday at our house dureing the summer, meant that after the table was cleared and dishes washed and put away, there would be one of three choices. One, we would all, Mom, Dad, my brother and sister,and I would go for a walk to Sutton Park where we would go in one gate and walk through the park to the other gate, which it so happened was close to the Parson & Clerk Pub where we would sit outside in the gardens and us kids would get a lemonade and a bag of Crisps while Dad had a couple of pints and Mom had a Gin and Tonic. Then when it started to get dark we would walk home. The second chioce was a walk up Doebank Lane to the Bar Beacon and then back down with a stop at the Deers Leap Pub. Third choice, a walk along Shady Lane to the Old Horns of Queslett Pub, sit there in the gardens, run around on the lawn and then walk home. Although these Sunday outings were at least a 5 or 6 miles round trip walk we always enjoyed it. Sometimes Aunts and Uncles would visit for Sunday Tea and bring there kids and they would enjoy the walks along the country lanes. Happy Days. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Jonah and the whale

Lovely new thread Di

Sunday for me was Church day.
Neither of my parents were church goers, but every morning and evening my neighbour would collect me and we would walk to the local Evangelical Church on the Holyhead Road - Emmanuel Hall.
Mornings were 'Sunday school', which I thoroughly enjoyed and evenings were 'proper church services', which were hard going at times.
I loved getting ready in my 'Sunday best', and although I couldnt sing (still cant) I loved belting the hymns out like a 'good un'
Sundays were very peaceful/reflective days.........and thinking back, I suppose I was sent to church to give my parents a bit of peace too :roll:
Nowadays, Sunday is very family orientated here - large roast dinners, fat busting puddings.............cheese, crusty bread, pickles and spanish onion for tea...............with as many family members present as possible :D
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Sounds wonderful :) Sue can we come next week? only joking. :lol: It is a sad fact that since the loss of both sets off parents Sundays are just not the same :cry: We just do not seem to meet up as a family that often, we used to go to one or other parents each Sunday but all that has now passed. I think having 3 brothers and 2 sons does not help i am quite happy to take my turn entertaining but men just do not seem to be prepared to put themselves out. Bit of a miserable 5od today sorry :( can of worms and all that.
 
How it used to be on Sunday

We just returned from a local retail park, and its madness? Sunday....... if someone had told you 30 years ago that Sunday would be a major shopping day, would you have believed it? :oops: I didnt like Sundays really as a kid except for the food aspect perhaps. But now? theres something to be said for the keep Sunday special campaign.

In the 70's and early 80's Bren and I spent pretty well all weekend with my mom and dad, it was the only way we could survive through the week financially. It was a cracking time, nice and cosy.... Once mom departed, the family sort of drifted apart. Theres just me and my brother now, but we both have differing agendas on what Sunday is? Thinking about it, I do miss those far off days. You never know what you had till it's gone?
 
Sacrosanct Sunday

I suppose it is all down to what your weekly life is all about, that you find it necessary to out to stores on a Sunday. I have reached that time of life when the days mingle into each other and one loses track of them. Any shopping can be done on a weekday and Sundays are my day of slumming around as I call it. Old clobber and unshaven.
I was a child of the late forties and fifties and Sunday with one's parents was sacrosanct however boring it was for your truly. It was a time one either stayed in one's house or went visitng various aunts and uncles for tea.
I remember the time it took to wait for and then travel on the Sunday bus service across the city. Similarly the return journey after one parents had imbibed on the Ruby Port or the beer collected from the local pub in a jug.
No no one ever considered shopping, the need was not there. What you hadn't got you went without attitude existed but the mother ensured that all food had been obtained and it was a family time.
Now I only recall that it is Sunday because I am unshaven and in my old clothes - Oh and also my daughter and our granddaughter come for dinner. So I suppose in one way Sunday is still sacrosanct but now the boot is on the other foot.....
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Morning: Up, Breakfast with Braden - a full English - and out to Bishop Latimer's church while Mom started preparing the dinner and Dad went for a pint.

After church: Records on the Dansette, Masons' ice cream soda or Dandelion and Burdock with ice cream, smell of the roast, chopping up mint if we had lamb.

After Dinner: A fight with my sisters over who should wash and who should dry. Usually ended up with me getting clattered - they were both bigger than me and Dad always took their side. :cry: A ride round the outer circle or a visit the art gallery and science museum (Mom and Dad always seemed keen to have Sunday afternoons at home with us kids out of the way, I've never worked out why :roll: )

Evenings: A tea very similar to what Rod has described and another fight with my sisters over who should have the heart of the celery. If we had visitors, the sandwiches would be cut into diagonal corners and the best china would get an airing.

Before going to bed we'd have co-co and a listen to Radio Luxemburg.
 
Tell me on a Sunday..please....

Well that was it see...40 years ago We were a more God fearing society and laws were around to protect our so called 'day of rest'..
Of course Moms never thought of it that way...there was all the washing and ironing to do, there was the preparation and cooking of probably the best Dinner of the week, there was getting the kids bathed...just think of that last one...these days we hop in the shower or run a quick bath, think of the time that must have took, the boiling of the water, two kettles at a time etc.....we even have the luxury of indulging in a long soak...did your parents ever do that?
Probably not..
We were'nt a religous lot my family..just the 'Big 3' ...Christenings, Weddings and funerals..
To this day I've never been to Sunday school, neither have my children..it's not like I've stopped them or anything, I've always felt that religion was something they needed to find out for themselves but lets face it, I've been no role model for the existence of a Jesus either..
We miss the quiet of those days but lets face that too...we'd scream blue murder if those times were back again..
We get the society we deserve...
Like Rod, I went to the Retail park this morning ...no one made me...the things we bought today we could have got yesterday...we all could have...we have Fridges and Freezers to store things dont we?
No, we moan about how the past has died on us yet we do everything in our power to ensure it stays that way..
We complain about noise and traffic yet jump into a car to cover a journey that we could walk in 15 minutes..more to the point the excercise would do us good..
If there is a solution to the hustle and bustle of modern life, short of a Nuclear war or the second coming, I cant see it..
I'm just an old tired agnostic fighting my way through a world that speeds up just that little more each day..
So whats the answer?
I dont know..... but if you do..
Tell me on a Sunday....please.

And Rod? you really did make me laugh with that 'Catch your death' quote..I hadn't heard it in that context for years...
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Catch My Death? what it really meant was, theres no way your gonna get dirty, now your all squeaky clean? :lol:

From just before I was 8 I used to go to the Gospel Hall on Park Lane. I wasn't particularly religous, in fact I never did understand the word repent. If we managed to get through bible class with not too much giggling, wed be given little pictures and a few toffees.... Well worth a visit to church hey? I also left Aston for the 1st time, and got to see the sea at Colwyn Bay.

I just remembered something really special about Sundays of my youth. WAR!! I have to backpeddle 24 hours though till Saturday. Not far from the Orient Cinema was a printers, just on Potters Hill in fact. Me and our Al would slip in there, and buy scrap paper. On Sunday evenings, Alan and me would spend hours making paper planes. At some point the manufacturing would stop and war would start? Who Won? Well our mom always won...... cus me and Alan always ended up arguing, and it would be "Get Up The Bloody Dancers" :lol:
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Sundays were very different in the 50`s when I was growing up. Sunday best clothes Morning service at Allsaints church, Hockley. Then the 3 of us children would have to go to visit our grandparents in George Street West,(sneak into the small park for a while), back home for roast dinner. Our treat every Sunday afternoon, Paul you reminded me of this, a bottle of icecream soda with a blob of ice-cream in...mmmmheaven. Then to Evensong on the evening and home to bed, we never had much but many others had even less. happy memories for me.Jackie :)
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Lovley stories of all of your Sundays. I have one thing to add, In the late 40's mom would sometimes buy cream trifles in waxed paper, not the cream of today, but a synthetic concoction. They would come in with the shopping on Saturday, ready for Sunday tea. I couldn't bear not to eat mine, and whinged until I got my way. But oh the agony of sitting watching mom and dad eating theirs on Sunday afternoon was almost more than I could bear. It must have taught me some sort of lesson I guess. :D
 
How it used to be on Sundays

Sundays were always special I grew up in the 40s and 50s, we all sat down to a full English breakfast, then dad would get ready and off for his walk into town, sometimes I went, always the same back to Gosta Green, and round the Fire Station where he grew up, when he went alone he always had a couple of pints.

Sunday mornings would be spent preparing the roast dinner and pudding
(the only day we had a pudding) whilst listening to Two Way Family Favourties, Educating Archie, and The Billy Cotton Band Show. After dinner off to Sunday School at Christ Church, Six Ways, Aston, then in the summer we would go out, sometimes to Perry Barr Park, ending up with Mom and Dad having a drink in the Tennis Court pub, or sometimes to Aston Park to watch the cricket, but Dad's favourite was Cannon Hill Park, we would walk round, feed the ducks, then into a rather posh cafe
or so it seemed to me at the time, where they had tea, and I had a glass of pop.

As I grew older what got me was the silence of Sundays it drove me mad,
my parents would listen to Max Jaffa from the Palm Court Hotel, and Semprini. Today we live in such a frenetic society that we have to a large extent lost the pleasure of the simple things in life. As far as shopping goes I NEVER go on Sundays, I don't like it any time, but until they changed the law, small shops did open for a few hours but were very restricted in what they could sell, I can't recall details but they were very
contradictory, such as you could buy a bottle of milk, but not a loaf of bread etc.
 
How Sundays used to be

The Sunday remembrances from years ago echo mine in so many ways. We who experienced them through the l940's and l950's in particular saw life unfold in much the same way. Reading the accounts of those times brings back memories of a different way of life to the one we experience today on Sundays. Church was definitely in the picture for us children. So was the full English breakfast. When we kids were out of the way at Children's church, preparations for Sunday dinner started. All the shopping was done on Saturdays either in Town or locally. I too remember the strange cream we sometimes had on our fruit, my Mother bought it at Lewis's Food Floor...we all hated it really. We always listened to Two Way Family Favourites whilst my father chopped the mint, if we were having lamb. Listening to messages being relayed to soldiers stationed in Germany from their families and vice versa. Munchengladbach being a German name I remember. The signature tune music of "With a Song in Your Heart" always brings back those memories for me. The Billy Cotton Band Show was always on as well. "Wakey Wakey"..... then Peter Brough with Archie Andrews singing....

I'll take the legs from some old table
I'll take the arms from some old chair;
I'll take the stuffing from a sofa
And from a horse I'll get some hair
I'll take the hands and face from off the clock
And baby when I'm through
I'll get more lovin' from that dum dum dummy
Then I ever got from you.

Beryl Reid with her characters Monica, the rude school girl and the Brummie Marlene who said "Good Evening, Each"!!!!

My brothers and I then departed for Sunday School. After the mad hustle of Saturday shopping in Erdington High Street, Sunday's were a complete contrast. The High Street was pretty well deserted for most of the day except for the church goers and pub people. In later years Meeson's, the Sweet shop opened up briefly in the afternoon just in time to claim our
bus fare money on occasion.
The paper shop, which opened for an hour in the early morning, used to clip the current day's editions on a rack outside the shop with a note to buyers to place the money through the letter slot in the door after they had closed. We had the whole High Street to ourselves. The shops mostly had pull down blinds on the windows and we used to play games making faces through the blank windows and hiding in the shop doorways. It was all a bit of an adventure really.

We took the bus from Stockland Green to Six Ways, Erdington or walked to Erdington Parish to save our bus fare. The bus rides on the Outer Circle 11 were often most interesting since at that time of day most of the passengers were men who were carrying out their Sunday ritual of dropping in, via the bus, to one or more of their favourite pubs along the route. Some of them were dressed to the nines with white silk scarves,sometimes trilby hats and shiny shoes. Many of them were a little tipsy at times but well behaved for the most part. These were generally the older "gentlemen" drinkers who must have been doing this for years, although I can remember a huge chap everyone called "Beery Billy" who didn't bother with the a suit, he sported a huge jumper and silk scarf!! The bus conductors would generally let these chaps drop off the bus platforms at the intersections near the pubs where there was no official bus stop. The bus smelled like a pub when you got on.

Then for us it was home to salad, tinned salmon or boiled ham with tinned macedone vegetables, with the ever present bread and butter, followed by fruit cocktail and evap plus home made cake made specially for Sunday or a Battenburg cake or a Victoria sponge picked up from Baines Bakers the day before. In the summer I remember people walking past the house carrying shears usually on their way to Witton Cemetery to tidy up the family graves. At the Moor Lane entrance there were flower sellers with a large selection of blooms for sale. I also remember people in the area clipping their privet hedges.
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Jean Metclafe and Cliff Mitchelmore were on Two Way Family Favourites in the 40's weren't they. They married after a courtship on air. I was supposed to be peeling the veg while all those lovely prgrammes were on while mom dusted the bedrooms. I used to put them in the hand bowl and sit by the wireless, then make a dash for the kitchen when I heard her coming down stairs. :D
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Our Sundays were a bit different because my dad was a church organist, at St Marks Washwood Heath until 1950, then St Michaels Handsworth - both high Church of England places with bells and smells. Also my mum was fond of singing and used to sing in the choir when she was able. I usually went weith them on Sunday morning. That meant a 5 bus into town and the a10 tram from James Watt Street to Washwood Heath.
As a result we had our roast dinner on a Saturday and a warmed up version on the Sunday.
My dad would read the News of the World and the Sunday Express and then go to sleep. I would disappear upstairs and listen to the radio. Mid afternoon there was an hour of light music with an orchestra like George Melachrino or Peter Yorke.
Until my voice broke and I joined the choir in 1950, I never went to the evening service, but often used ther opportunity to travel round the Black Country by bus and trolleybus. My favourite route was the 8B trolley from Wolverhampton to Dudley, now the 558 and I still enjoy a trip on it.
 
How it used to be on Sunday

Sundays for us was occasional trips out in the motorbike and sidecar to a castle or up to Kinver edge or the clee hills , or south west down to Worcester or Malvern hills,
Mum would pack a sandwich lunch and sometimes tea as well . we kids would go exploring and family would play a ball game passing in a circle.

If at home newspapers in the morning sunday lunch (dinner ) at midday,ish.Sleep on the settee after lunch . radio on with the Navy lark , Clitheroe kid,Round the horn or whichever.

Sunday tea was salady and peaches and cream (condensed milk) and bath. I never liked the peaches etc and I could never eat beetroot either.

i think it was genetic when dad was a lad his dad would take family out to various pubs around the midlands in his car . I think he had an Alvis .

I have some on line photos of my grandad and family out on sundays .I can give access to them if anyone is interested . Send email address to my private mail adddress and i can set u up . They are in 1920s to 1903,s
 
In the 50's and 60's Sunday afternoons were deadly. After lunch we were not allowed out, but we were treated to an ice cream from The Williams's corner shop - I still find it amazing that the shop was even open on Sunday.
Spent all afternoon putting off my homework and dreading "Sing something simple" on the radio and the clean scratchy wooly vest I would have to wear on Monday morning
 
Chris, how I agree my childhood was in the 40s/50s and I can always remember the house would be so quiet you could hear the clock ticking. Most of
my childhood i went to Sunday School to Christchurch, Six Ways, Aston, whilst my parents went for a "nap"!!!! when I got back it was as I said so quiet, Dad liked to listen to Semprini, and Max Jaffa and his Palm Court Trio? so boring. When I got older but still at school I used to go to the Orient after Sunday School, we always tried to look older than we were, as we queued at the side to get in, it was sometimes like a bear pit inside with us girls walking round trying to attract attention and the boys being noisy and catcalling - but such happy times.

In the summer my parents would often take me - I was the youngest and the last at home - to either Sutton, Canon Hill, or Perry Barr park where Dad liked to watch the cricket. I used to moan sometimes, but now I look back with so much affection to those happy days, and must say I hate the way life has changed so Sunday is just another noisy, traffic filled shopping day.
 
We had to be quiet on a Sunday afternoon too. We went out with our stilts, made from an old Clotheshorse, and the neighbours complained about the noise! (They should hear MY neighbours now!).

If Nan & Grandad came we had tinned mandarin oranges and evaporated milk for tea. We listened to the radiogram which Dad made from an old one, his favourite record was "White Horse Inn".

When the next-door-neighbours died, we were given loads of "78" records and the ones we didn't like were made into flowerpots!
 
Two way family favourites, Ken Dodd Show (what's the weather like today Judith (Chalmers)) the strains of Carousel heralding the film program as I headed off to Swanhurst Park, listen to Top of the Pops with Fluff on one of the new Trannie Radios,
evensong at Holy Cross Church the down to then down to the Valley for a pint and to round it off, a hot dog from van by the 18a bus terminus. Those were the days
 
Wow...I can just feel the times. It all arouses the senses...aromas ...and tastes. Strange the way it does that. Memory is more than just pictures. I had better stop before...a plate of whelks comes to mind....Darn.
 
Dad would do the washing up after dinner and I would dry the dishes. Often dad would go to bed for a couple of hours and I was sent to Sunday school but often stayed at Aunt Nells who would cover for me until I was found out. I was never allowed to play out either on a Sunday it was every ones day of rest after lunch and peace and quiet. Jean.
 
Ah, the sound of leather on willow and 'whites' and the sometimes interjection of HOW's TTHATTTT!!!....and instant silence at rejection of such entreaties...no quibling. Sometimes outrageous jubilation at the raised finger...'merely quiet applause' and dejected walk to the clubhouse. The raised finger meant something quite different then...devastation to one but not rage...possibly relief of no longer having to face a fast bowler...with a run up from close to the boundary. Determined to take your head off. Those were the day's...er...I think.
 
We had to go to Wretham Road Church for our Sunday School afternoon, while our parents 'had a nap'. I hope they slept well.....
 
Haaa, Sunday afternoons, after dinner it would washed and scrubbed up for Sunday School at the Tin Tabernacle as Dad called it, or the

The Corrugated Church It was a corrugated steel structure on the corner of Rocky Lane and Dorrington Road. Then home to tinned pears

and evaporated milk if Gran and Uncle Jack were there. If they weren't it was bread and butter !!

 
Yeah...evaporated milk. I still like it especially with apricot halves and with a slice of bread and butter it's heaven.
 
Sunday school in the morning and back in time for Two Way Family Favorites whilst we sat down to Sunday lunch, then around 3pm we'd all sit down to watch the afternoon film which would be either a war film or a comedy on the very tiny television. Then teatime was jam sandwiches, fruit and cream, with cake if mom had had time to bake one at lunchtime whilst the oven was on. We loved Sundays because there were nothing to distract us like shops etc. A true family day I remember.
 
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