CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

[Stanley]

The nearest I got to that was a home made scooter during the war. It was wooden and had large wheels off a trolley! Hours of fun with it though, it was well made.....

[Cathy]

Oh wow, yes I can remember playing on a billy-cart, must have been homemade, maybe a neighbours? Lots of fun.

[Stanley]

There was a genuine old fashioned herbalist in Prince's Street in Stockport and mother always took us in for a drink. My favourite between Sarsaparilla and Dandelion and Burdock was the latter..... Much more flavour than modern pop and no bubbles.

[Cathy]

I used to love Sarsaparilla (ella, alla ?? Haha)
For the last few decades I only have fizzy drinks if I have had an operation, it really helps to get all the air out after being opened up.

[Stanley]

That and cleaning rust off metal is about the only thing they are fit for. Can't remember the last time I had any pop. We have good water and I love it!

[Stanley]

I remember from being very young that anyone who was 'different' frightened me. There was a bloke who rode round on a tricycle preaching about God and he frightened us to death!

[Stanley]

Can you remember bogey men being used to stop us doing things our parents didn't approve of. "The bogey man will get you!" I never knew exactly what a bogey man was but for a long time it was very effective. There was one in the River Mersey when I was a lad and of course that was to try to make us avoid the river which was dangerous, not only because of the danger of drowning but because it was so polluted in those days. Hard to credit it now but it stank in low water and summer because it was really an open sewer. One of the biggest improvements in the last 100 years has been the quality of the water in our rivers.

[Stanley]

Flypapers hung up in the house with a coating of dead flies......

[Nolic]

Still a fairly common sight in some of the gites we have stayed ay in France. Nolic

[Stanley]

Morning Comrade. I still have some and am thinking of hanging one up. Having the back door open to get some cool air in as letting them get at me!

[Stanley]

The rosy glow of memory suggests that in those days summer was always summer but that's not true. I remember how miserable rainy days were when we couldn't go out and play. remember that we had no modern waterproofs and getting wet was seen as a certain route to illness! So it was reading and listening to the wireless.... Today's kids wouldn't notice it, they would retire to their bedrooms and live online! Perhaps that's why I used to read my mother's Woman's Weekly and father's Practical Engineer! Always a good thing when 'the sun came out'!

[Wendyf]

My mum didn't get Women's Weekly but a neighbour did and would pass on a few weeks worth at once. I would get to read them if I was off school for any reason.

[Stanley]

Do you remember Mrs Maryatt the agony aunt? That column used to fascinate me....

[Wendyf]

Definitely, I can see her face now.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

The freedom you got when you had a bike! My first one was a Royal Enfield, built like a gun and twice as heavy! Even so, I rode it all over the place, even to school each day and that was about seven miles there and seven back. I don't remember any restrictions being placed on me by my parents and used to roam for miles....

[Tizer]

I went from a pedal car (crashed it from the raised lawn into the flower bed) to a tricycle (tried to ride it up steps and learnt about centre of gravity when it fell over backwards) to one of those bicycles with smaller diameter wheels (and handlebars like those on a delivery boy's bike) and finally to a grown-up's bicycle with straight handlebars.

[Tripps]

I quickly skimmed the Daily Mail in the barber's this morning -
Those pesky scientists say that any childhood memory before the age of two is almost definitely false, since the brain at that age is not capable of remembering such stuff.

[Stanley]

I heard that as well Tripps and whilst it might be true of some memories, I checked with my mother about mine from when I was less that a year old and she was surprised I remembered. She confirmed what I told her. The visual element is the strongest, I can still picture both of them in my mind......
That whole subject bore in on me when I was writing my life story for the kids but on the whole I think I was pretty accurate.
Then there was the experience of doing the interviews for the LTP, I soon found that memory was very accurate, so many different accounts tallied with each other.

[Cathy]

I can remember being sat-up in my big black pram when I was very young , probably close to two years old, and looking around.
Childhood Clubs - I was a Brownie at age 9/10. I don't think I stuck at it for very long. I found it boring. What I did enjoy in my early teens was horse-riding. The club had several horses, one was a female called Goldie who was a fine boned slim horse about 14 hands, who I loved to go cantering on. Another was Dancer also about 14 hands, a male who was a bit of a tear-away, of stocky build and aways ready for a gallop. Another was Damascus (who I never rode), he was over 18 hands and towered over all of us, he was very well-built and only the very experienced adults were allowed to ride him.
Every so often I still have an urge to get back on a horse and enjoy a good canter.

[Stanley]

I've only tried that once Cathy and the lady in Australia who was in charge of us said that I had a 'natural seat'! Nice to know.....

[Stanley]

Can you remember your first encounter with donkeys on the beach when you were on holiday? My sister Dorothy had a bad experience on first acquaintance, one of the donkeys pinched it off her and while it didn't bite her hand it frightened her to death and I don't think she has ever liked them since!
I always liked them, they look so sad. I used to deliver tanker milk to Moorside Dairies in Bradford and the farmer always had a donkey grazing with his milking herd, there was a belief that a donkey or a goat with the cattle was a preventative against Brucellosis.
One day when I went there I noticed the donkey laid out in the field, it had died poor thing. Before I left there was another donkey in the field with the cattle!

[Stanley]

Can anyone remember listening to Valentine Dyall, the 'Man in Black' who had a programme on the BBC 'Appointment with Fear' (LINK)?
I used to love listening to ikt before I went to bed!

[Marilyn]

I remember "Bread and Dripping". Nothing else on the plate, Bread and Dripping. That was, apparently, all that was required for a meal.

[chinatyke]

I remember "Bread and Dripping". Nothing else on the plate, Bread and Dripping. That was, apparently, all that was required for a meal.

Me too. It was only later in life that I realised that it was because we had nothing else in the house to eat.

Years later I worked for a small Bradford company called Oils and Soaps Ltd. They arranged a works cricket match with a company from Gloucester and we played one evening in Idle. After the match we went into a pub and our company put on Bread and Dripping as the spread. I was disgusted, the other team had come miles to be given just a few bread and dripping slices, there couldn't have been more than 1 loaf used, and no other food whatsoever. I tried to order some more from the publican but was told they had run out of bread. I hope the other team thought it was Yorkshire humour but I was appalled and knew how stingy our firm really were. They used to pay me in food too - peanuts.