CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

[Wendyf]

I loved bread & dripping! Yummy.

[Stanley]

So do I! I once had it for Xmas dinner, by choice. I'd roasted a piece of beef but preferred the dripping.

[PanBiker]

Me also, loved it on toast.

[Tripps]

Can anyone remember listening to Valentine Dyall, the 'Man in Black'

Yes - I can. I also remembered a quote which I thought was in a book I have. Tales from the Turf by Jeffrey Bernard. I spent quite a while going through it from cover to cover (no index), , but failed to find it. Obsessive - moi? not at all.

I picked it up again tonight, to repeat the process,because I was sure it was there somewhere, and there it was in the back dust jacket cover.

That reminds me. Just about the most honest thing that could ever have bee uttered in a bankruptcy court was the classic remark made by the actor Valentine Dyall, radio's 'The Man in Black'.

The Recorder asked him , 'To what do you attribute your downfall/.' Mr Dyall replied 'Two and a half mile handicap hurdles'

Was it worth the effort? I'm not sure now. . . .

[Stanley]

Oh but it was David! Those LKFs are the leaven that keep life interesting!
It's reminded me of the Crazy Gang, another radio memory from those days. They often cracked jokes about slow horses.

[Cathy]

Remember when we were really young and participated in the Sack Race and Egg and Spoon Race, then when we were a bit older we progressed to School Sports Days. I once did the longest Long Jump of my class-team (The Greens), can't remember how far I jumped. I hated playing all sports, especially Hockey and Hurdles.

[Marilyn]

And the Three Legged Race.
I was hopeless at team sports. Didn't mind long distance running and orienteering...oh...and loved swimming.
I detested sports where they chose a position for you, like Goal Defence or "goalie". Far out! I hate being put on the spot like that. Most games I didn't understand the rules anyway, so I was just an embarrassment to those who were serious about the game. I didn't understand football for years! At least now I can say "he can't do that" with some credibility...

[Stanley]

I was useless at team sports (always have been a loner). They only picked me for cricket once and I hit a decent score and took 3 wickets. They never asked me again! The idea a 'speccy four eyes' doing well was too much for them. But eventually I found my metier, cycling and was extremely good at that!

[Stanley]

Times tables?

[Marilyn]

In Primary School we always started the day with a quick "mental arithmetic" test, and a 20 word on-the-spot spelling test.
My favourite thing was during the last 40 mins of the day, the teacher would say "we have done enough work today - lets do some art or craft". Always fun. Out came the glue and scissors, or the paint pots...she also taught us macrame, weaving, rug hooking, knitting and mosaics.

[Stanley]

That's how I was taught Maz. Times tables and mental arithmetic first, playtime after!

[Stanley]

Double Summer Time. Two hours instead of one as we have now. Going to bed in broad daylight!

[Stanley]

Thinking about the Beano being 80 years old..... Thursday was the day the comics arrived in the local newsagents and I was one of the first down there!

[Tizer]

I don't know which days they were published but I had three comics delivered with the newspaper each week, on separate days - I think Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It was a little luxury but my parents realised I loved reading so I got Wizard, Eagle and Beano each week.

[PanBiker]

Beano, Topper and TV21 for me.

[Big Kev]

Dandy and Beezer on a Tuesday, Topper and Beano on a Thursday.

[Stanley]

Did any of you have Rover and the other two all text comics as you grew up?

[Tripps]

Did any of you have Rover and the other two all text comics as you grew up?

Yes - me. I had the Rover, Hotspur, Adventure and Wizard . Text comics
Never heard of the Skipper.

I always thought the Dandy and Beano were a bit childish.

The game changer was the Eagle with Dan Dare, the Treens and and the Mekon. Eagle.

[Wendyf]

I think I got comics called Playhour and Jack & Jill when I was very young and then graduated to Bunty from the first issue in 1958. My brother's Beano and Eagle were always more interesting if I was allowed to read them!

[Tizer]

I can remember sometimes reading Rover and Hotspur and it may be that I tried them out and settled on Wizard. I'm sure their text stories got me interested in language because we didn't have any books in the house at first other than a bible and that somehow didn't compete with the comics! Later, my parents acquired a set of encyclopaedias, the Book of Knowledge sort of thing, and that kept me occupied. I can still remember the section on digestion which had a picture that made the gut look like a factory. Food was coming down a chute into a tank and being stirred by men with paddles etc!

[Wendyf]

I remember that diagram Tiz! I think our set was called The Complete Book of Knowledge, or something similar, and it had dark blue covers. The volume that covered FLO to ISIS always sticks in my mind.

[Stanley]

Hotspur and Wizard were the other two..... I've always said that one of the reasons my spelling and grammar were good is because of reading them each week. Very good standard of writing. I was growing out of them when the Eagle appeared on the scene.....

[Stanley]

Slightly later in my reading career I discovered Reader's Digest. Usually in the barbers or waiting rooms. I can still remember articles like 'Improve your word power' and interesting descriptions like what happens when you sneeze!

[Stanley]

Saturday morning children's matinee at the Savoy Cinema. Never missed it. There was also Sunday School on Sunday afternoon and I was told later that one theory about why this was so popular was that parents liked the idea of getting kids out of sometimes crowded accommodation to give them privacy. Sex springs to mind...... So not necessarily support for religion!

[Tizer]

I read Reader's Digest for a time because one of the lady's my mother cleaned for subscribed and passed on copies to her. A lot of interesting things in it but I was too young then to realise some of it had to be treated with circumspection (and kids don't have a lot of that!). One example was that articles about Israel had me feeling supportive of them because they were put over as the goodies holding off those arab hordes next door - that fitted in neatly with the kind of stuff I'd been brought up on in comics. Only later did I begin to get a more nuanced view of the Arab-Israeli situation and understand how much the US was supporting the Israelis. Also I got to know lots of Jews and learnt that Jew wasn't a synonym for Israeli and vice versa.