CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

[Stanley]

Very important point Tiz, especially in these troubled times. It took me a long time to realise that much of the history and geography we were taught as children was widely accepted propaganda. Remember that map of the world on the classroom wall mainly coloured in red? 'The empire on which the sun never sets'. As some wag once put it, this was because God wanted to keep an eye on what was going on...... We were taught to sing patriotic songs as well......

[chinatyke]

We were taught to sing patriotic songs as well......

Nothing wrong with patriotism, but Christian hymns and prayers forced down children's throats every morning, instilling religious dogma into innocent children, that should never happen. Pure brainwashing and mumbo jumbo stone age ideas.

[Marilyn]

We must be soul mates, China! ( re religion ). I don't have a problem with other's beliefs...but I would like them to accept I do not have any. And more importantly, to accept I do not want any!

[Tizer]

I agree with both of you although I think that some singing and quiet time for thought is good for schoolchildren and it would be a shame to lose that. What's needed is the non-religious equivalent and it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[Stanley]

Needless to say I have my own reservations about formal religion but I don't burden others with them and expect them to return the favour! Jack can identify a Jehova's Witness at 50 yards! So there must be something wrong with them.
I always enjoyed the singing and as long as you take no heed of the words there are some rattling good tunes! I think I eventually got clear of the brainwashing.......

[Stanley]

During the blackout everyone carried a torch. In those days they all used the old type of battery and they didn't last long. I favoured a bicycle lamp which took a larger two cell battery (3 volts) and as well as lasting longer gave a more powerful beam. We got expert at adjusting the relationship of the bulb to the reflector to get a narrow more concentrated beam. I can't remember batteries ever being scarce or unobtainable. I suppose, like essential food items, they were a priority of government. The strange thing is that while all other light sources were extinguished, or as in the case of motor vehicle's headlamps, masked by black louvres to cut down on the light, I can't remember any restrictions on the use of torches......

[Stanley]

It's very common for children to be afraid of the dark. What strikes me is that neither I or my sister were ever bothered by it and it may be because we were so used to darkness. (And we had other things to worry about!)
Unless you have experienced it you can't imagine what the blackout was like. Funny thing is that unless you were in the shelter of a building it was never dark, there was always some light and your eyes got used to it. The only total blackness I have ever experienced is underground in a mine and that is a totally different darkness, it's absolute!

[Stanley]

Warm Vimto in winter......?

[PanBiker]

Hot Vimto was the drink of choice in my early teens. We used to visit the cafe on Albert Road (now Cafe on the Square) every day after school for our hit.

[Tizer]

Tizer for me!

[Julie in Norfolk]

Sarsaparilla from Nelson. Cafe in the centre within another market type building.

[PanBiker]

Dandelion and Burdock off the pop van.

[Tripps]

Ex Libris

VIMTO.jpg

[Stanley]

funnily enough I was not a fan. Perhaps because Stockport water came off Red Sandstone and was so good.....

[Stanley]

I used to dread new clothes when I was growing quickly. Raincoats especially! My mother always worked on the principle of 'having room to grow into'!



On holiday at Cleveleys in 1943. See what I mean?

[Marilyn]

Is your sister still alive, Stanley?

[Stanley]

Yes Maz but I don't hear a lot from her. We were never close and over the years have gradually got further apart. Sad in a way but then no complications or angst......

[Tizer]

Those raincoats would have had the added advantage of protecting you from shrapnel!

[Stanley]

Mother swore by the Burberry Coat! I don't think they ever wore out..... I remember we used to get them at a shop called Lekerman's in Underbank in Stockport and what fascinated me was that there was a system of containers on elevated wires and the money could be fired directly into the cashier's box set high up in the corner where the correct change was dispensed and fired back. An earlier version of the vacuum systems you used to see in large department stores.

[Stanley]

There was no brand competition in those days, we wore what we were given for a week and changed into clean clothes after our Friday night bath. This all seemed perfectly normal and there was never any competition.

[Stanley]

Sherbet powder sucked up with a liquorice tube......

[Bodger]

Was this played in the Barlic area ?, in the Holmfirth area we knew it as piggy






Peggy
Apparently a once-popular children's game in Northern regions and especially Yorkshire involved a small rectangular block with tapered ends and a stick. The peggy was placed within a chalked square and hit down on the pointed end, then, when it flew up, you tried to hit it with the stick, which was often an old cut-down broom handle. A player had three attempts to hit the peggy and any sort of hit meant the end of the turn, even a snick that only goes a few feet.

So far this is pretty similar to Nipsy of course, but the stick was somewhat smaller. Arthur Taylor, the pub games historian reports that there was a Peggy league in Castleford in 1969 but Peggy was also a children's game

The children's game features a game-changing additional rule. Once the player has made a successful strike, the player's team can offer the opposing team a number of strides to reach the peggy from the brick. The opponents have to take up this challenge and they pick their best 'strider' who attempts to get to the peggy in the set number of paces or less - if successful, then the reward is to nullify the score for that round. Otherwise the score (which is the number of yards to the peggy) is added to the team's total.

In laying down the challenge the captain requires a fine judgement - he wants to make the offer such that his opponents will think they can make it but... to be just that bit too difficult that in fact they won't be able to!

[PanBiker]

Not known to me, Barlick born and bred. Similar in a way to Knurr & Spell but without the mechanical launching mechanism.

[plaques]

Not many people know that we have a Knurr and Spell World Champion in Len Kershaw from Colne. Link. A longish YouTube film all about the 'Sport' with Len doing a lot of the talking. No BBC accents here.

[Big Kev]

We had similar down near 'that there London', it was popular in the gardens of some of the pubs in Gravesend (Kent) when I was younger https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_and_trap