Pease puddun on the pier and sticky pink candy floss
a tired and scruffy teddy with one brown eye alone on Southend beach
What a treasure for a child of six or seven.
passes on to younger cousin before teddy goes to heaven.
no....I amnot going mad...oh just a little...but that is the way it was back then.
Did you live down our road? All so true and no mention of playing football in the road!
It was about looking forward to simple things like getting together with family for celebrations, long walks
in the countryside with a picnic just outside Farnbourogh church yard and eating our goodies before they
got too warm.
And it was about dancing to Tamla mowtown at clubs all over London and hoping to be able to afford a new outfit. Sometimes a visit to Biba to look at and dream of buying everything....and eventually a job
and an insurance number.
Then the dreams got bigger not just for me but for the world.
How nice it was being a child.
what a brilliant post, and how true it is. Just turned 61and reading it has brought back many happy memories. Thank you
I seem to remember that it's called 'life' Chris! They really haven't a clue, but then I suppose our parents thought we hadn't either.
50 years ago this week I was running free around Bournemouth chasing after the Beatles as my parents had rented a beach shack in Sandbanks for a fortnight. Sanbanks was the cheap end in those days! I was 12...
Lot of youngsters on here, I have kids older than some! Born 1931. Had to wear short pants until I was 12 or 13 and what an embarrassment hearing the wizened old gent in the outfitters referring to them as 'knickers' when I went for a new pair. War time and one had to use ones clothing coupons to buy shoes, so my mum made me wear clogs that were not on ‘coupons‘, hated them, not the ones with irons on that one could 'spark' either, yes, it was Lowry country.
Had a paper round both morning and evening, enjoyed that as always got together with the other boys and girls at the railway station (never heard it called a train station) to collect the newspapers to take to the shop for sorting.
No TV of course and we had no radio either as my Dad was a night worker and needed his sleep. Used to go to an aunties on Saturdays to listen to the football, always seemed to be England v Scotland.
For entertainment, we used to build dens in the fields nearby and after an air raid would often dig up unexploded incendiary bombs, take an axe to hack at them, chucking the bits on a fire where, being phosphorous, they would flare up nicely, . Another ‘harmless’ pastime was to fill the old screw top pop bottles with water, add some carbide, screw the top on tight, throw the bottle as far away as possible and quickly scarper out of range of flying glass, the result of the bottle exploding with a bang. I am sure some of my pals would have been very happy being in bomb disposal in the army.
My younger sister and I had to cross two busy roads to get to school, no Zebra or Pelican crossing those days, although some crossing points were marked with things called Bellisha beacons, rather like large lollipops. It was a case of look right, look left, look right again then, if the road was clear, cross ASAP. Not that there was a lot of traffic, not civilian anyway but do remember having often to wait whilst long convoys of American army vehicles went by, a common sight in those days.
I don’t envy the youngsters the electronic gizmos and gadgets of today, that’s progress I guess but I do feel they are missing out on something.
I can remember I took my baby brother down a hill to our Aunt's house, he was in the pram, and I was on rollerskates!
I go hot and cold when I think of it.
40's kid. Milk train from Torquay to Plymouth with my mates to mess around on the bomb sites. A bit later, steam train to London on my own to stay with relatives for xmas hols. New years eve, tube to at Trafalgar Square, cavorting with the drunks in the fountain. Camping in a seaside quarry with my mates all the summer hols & diving for crabs to sell or exchange for food at the nearby pub. Coming home from school. picking up sandwiches & disappearing to local billiard hall. Hardly saw my parents. Never felt threatened. Halcyon days.
Nanny State hasn't helped ... and too much Health and Safety ...
It's true, we managed with what we had and made what we hadn't.
But hang on, why has it all changed into this over-caring and downright cruel nightmare? Isn't it our age group that has spawned these people that run the countries now?
Was it something we did, or didn't do?
Good stuff Bruce but I am not going to provide any information on my own childhood as I found that any posting here immediately rebounds round the world!
My Mum didn't smoke or drink - in fact she did very little - she was a martyr to being a Mum and her life ended apparently when I was born. She did however take aspirin, Disprin, nearly every day as she said "I could very easily have a headache". She was a difficult person to live with and my father didn't spend much time at home if he could help it.
Born in 1947, I lived within Gloucester City boundary, opposite the County Cricket ground, and I too spent very little time in the house. I left home on my bike practically every day of the holidays. In my saddle bag, plastic mac, book, torch, bottle of water, a couple of shillings and - if I'd managed to take one from the larder without being seen - a bag of Smith's Potato Crisps with the little blue bag of salt inside. I would live on my bike, cycling down the canal path to sit and chat to random fisherman who would sometimes share their sandwiches with me, lie in fields by the river reading and making daisy chains and blowing o blades of grass held between my thumbs, watching the eights go by in their boats practising for races, parked up and chatting to road gangs repairing potholes and resurfacing roads, calling in at unknown cottages to refill my water bottle, chatting to the lock keepers as they worked in their gardens or tended the locks. I had long public school holidays so often had to spend days on end on my own when local schools had taken my friends back to start terms earlier than mine started. I never worried about anything nor did my parents as far as I know. They just warned me about going out on the main road. I didn't tell them when I cycled from Gloucester to Bristol along the A38 one evening, until it got dark and I had to phone them and come back by train, going back by train the next day to collect my bike which I'd chained up at Temple Meads station - I was 14. I can remember a man in the cinema exposing himself to me and I just moved seats without saying anything to anyone. I can't remember ever being afraid of anything or being warned about anything which might happen. Those were the days ....
So So True....................... 60 on Saturday 7th September..........................memories!!! :) x
Apart from the car safety aspects, that is how I'm trying to bring up my boys. We are lucky to live in a place where they can roam outside from dawn to dusk safely, but they also have mobile phones (often flat) and an XBox which is connected to the internet so they play with their friends and chat to them whilst playing online. :)
I remember travelling to Guide camp in the 1970s - all kit and a whole company of Guides in the back of a furniture delivery van. I shudder to think about it happening nowadays!
How true! Here I am a 40s babe with young now. If either gets near the door they have to check: laptop, ds, mobile, mp3. That's just to take a bag of rubbish out...