CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

[Stanley]

"Sitting out on the flat roof of the coal place/outside toilet and writing down the registration number of every car that passed by on the road. "
Funny isn't it how popular collecting numbers was. In my case it was locomotive numbers on the railway. We took it very seriously and amassed a lot of knowledge about the railway and how it worked. Today 'Train spotter' is used as a pejorative term and I often think how unfair this is, we learned a lot more from that exercise and our Ian Allan handbooks in which we underlined each loco as we 'collected' it than modern kids do on their Playstation. We were out in the open air as well!

[SPR676]

Just thinking back to the rhymes we used to say or sing when we were wee. Some were hysterically funny, some just plain and simple and some on the border line which, if we said or sang them today, would land us in trouble with the Politically Correct Police and maybe law suits. It’s funny when we look back and think about the things we said or sang about. The thing is they were just words and didn’t influence our feelings about people.

[Cathy]

How many of you still have your school reports. I still have my grade 7 report and my high school years report s.
I haven't looked at them for decades and was surprised to read that some teachers thought I was bright, cheery and well-mannered. Haha.

[Marilyn]

You ARE bright, cheery and well mannered!

I thought of you yesterday, Cazza. I was wandering Target ( Febby ducked into the barber for an impromptu hair cut). I spotted these two women who looked like sisters. They kept putting their heads together and whispering and then cackling with laughter. This went on every few steps...they seemed to really be enjoying themselves.
All I could think of was it has been a while since we last got together and had a good cackle...

But no, I don't have any school reports. I have a couple of references (somewhere!) from Year 12.

[Stanley]

I kept all the drawings etc that the kids brought home over the years and when they were about 40 I gave them all back to them.... They were delighted!

[Marilyn]

Most of my reports said I was "quiet and thoughtful" from memory. ( what a crock!)

[Marilyn]

We were just watching a movie and several of the men had those checked woollen dressing gowns on, with the twisted cord tie at the waist. We recalled a time when most men and boys wore this type of dressing gown ( hubby still remembers having one aged 15 when he had an operation).
Where did all those dressing gowns go to die, I wonder? There must be a massive pile of them rotting somewhere!
( very well made to, and built to last. They wouldn't rot overnight!)

[Stanley]

You're right Maz, I had one as well. Like many other things it vanished when I left home for the farm and the army and the family moved....... (I had the biggest Meccano set in the world......... )

[Stanley]

A memory came back to me yesterday, funny how they pop up. At one time father's firm, GGA, made grass dryers and on a trip to one in Sussex he took me with him. The farmer lent us a couple of shotguns and father and I went for a walk. First time I had ever carried a gun. A big fat pigeon got up in front of me and I shot it with one barrel, must have been a fluke but I remember how everyone thought it was wonderful and the farmer's wife cooked it for us for supper. Never shot a pigeon since! I can still see the scene in my mind's eye and the pigeon labouring to get going.......

[Cathy]

Sorry about your Meccano set Stanley...

Growing up I often had dreams about getting back to England. I would be on Colne Rd and each dream I would get a little closer to Grandma's place (Back Colne Rd). On the night, Australian time, of the 12 Oct '72 I dreamt that I got all the way to Grandma's sitting room window. I peered in and saw that she was asleep in a rocking chair. I woke up knowing she had died, but then had to wait to be told.
October 14 is my birthday and my 'mother' sent me a card with a scrap of paper in it saying 'Grandma Moss died 12 Oct 72.
I'm so grateful to have Grandma's last letter to me, dated and posted 11 Oct 72.

[Stanley]

That's nice Cathy, a lovely memory......

[chinatyke]

Crisps made from slices of real potato, not this reconstituted muck used nowadays, with blue packets of salt.

When I first came to China I went with my family to see a film at a cinema house. I bought a packet of crisps and was delighted to find an individual packet in them, just like the old days. In the darkness I tore it open and emptied it on my crisps. Afterwards I complained to my daughter that the crisps were gritty and she burst out laughing and told me I'd eaten the packet of dessicant used in such products in the tropics.

[Stanley]

I would have made exactly the same mistake China!
I once lived off crisps for three days waiting to offload at the Golden Wonder factory at Widnes I think it was. They were made from Egyptian Golden Wonder potatoes, hence the name.

[PanBiker]

The sealed blue flat packs of salt were a later addition from my memory. A twisted square of blue paper for the salt was the norm when I was a lad, you occasionally got two in some packets.

[Tizer]

...and none in others!

[SPR676]

... you occasionally got two in some packets.

That was great

...and none in others!

but that was rotten.

[Stanley]

If I remember correctly there used to be a firm in Nelson who made the blue paper salt twists for crisps......

[Cathy]

Are your apples still wrapped in paper?

[plaques]

Watch it Cathy this site is censored.

[Marilyn]

A lot of their veg are wrapped in plastic, Cazza...unlike ours which tend to be sold loose.
And they don't tend to take cloth bags to shop for groceries. (Except some stores like Lidl).
(Where we live, we either take our own bags, or some people just pack the groceries back in trolley, then empty the trolley into containers in the boot of their car. We take bags, and have been using the same ones for 15 years. They go through the wash occasionally.)
We were at the supermarket earlier in the week and they now have a collection bin for specific plastics, such as the plastic your bread or pasta is sold in. I intend to save mine now and put them in the collection bin. It all helps. ( I need to collect a list of the specific plastics they require though, as I can't remember them all)

[Cathy]

I couldn't imagine putting my fruit and veg straight into the supermarket trolley (or even one of the smaller hand-held baskets that they provide.) That's because my buggy on wheels goes into the trolley while I wander around the shop. The wheels have been dragged over car parks, footpath s etc. I even empty it at my front door when I get home then pick it up and pop it away, instead of wheeling it thru my place.

[Stanley]

Most supermarket fruit and veg is pre-wrapped but Chaudrie's is loose. In my youth everything was unwrapped even the bread. 5lb of spuds complete with soil and a loaf dropped on top. We survived! I can remember at about 5 years old that bag was heavy!

[Stanley]

There were two very large spinning mills at the bottom of Huntsman's Brow where Hope Memorial was. Bukta (famous for sports wear and camping equipment) and The Ring Mill. We were used to seeing them in full work every day and many women worked there. This had an effect on the school in that it stayed open during the holidays to provide day care for the kids because their mothers were on war work. This included school milk and meals and operated in the normal school hours. Us better off kids attended as well because it was fun! Me and my mate Dennis Robinson had the longest piece of French Knitting in the world in progress. I think in the end his mother made it into a large bath mat.

[Cathy]

French Knitting - is that the same as Thumb Knitting? I remember 4 nails I think on a piece of wood. The wool would go round and round the nails and come out circular.

[Wendyf]

We would use an empty wooden cotton reel with 4 nails in the top Cathy, or you could use a specially made one - mine was brightly painted like a wooden doll with a hole in her head.