THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Tizer]

In the 1930s, when grandad died young, my dad lost his job as a trainee in the drawing office of Kirks shuttle works. Grandad was a master shuttlemaker there which is why they took on his son but as soon as he died they no longer wanted his son. Dad had to find another job to bring in money for the family and he got a job at a big grocer's shop opposite the market in the centre of Blackburn. He worked in the cold basement where they kept and sold the cheese and cold meats. He had to do all the slicing and also the bagging of other food products. The business also had a shop in Blackpool and sometimes he was sent to help out there in the summer. He did it for a few years until the family got itself more secure and then joined the RAF in 1938 to get more training and education (and, unfortunately, war).

[Whyperion]

Re corned beef why can' I only find two sizes of fairly small tins or a few plastic wrapped sheets. The tins are all from Brazil cannot find Argentina ones something to with the Falklands?

[Stanley]

Because you haven't looked hard enough! LINK.
Tiz, he would be well acquainted with the blue bags then, two sizes, one for 1lb and the other for 2lbs of sugar.
Also the cheese cutter, a marble slab with a slit down the centre and a piano wire cutter with a wooden handle.
Black treacle in barrels. The tap was a gate with a sharp edge that sheared off the flow like a knife stopping dribbles.....

[Tizer]

When I worked at Boots in the 1960s I had to learn to wrap prescription bottles and boxes in that lovely, thick high quality white paper, then use red sealing wax to fix the wrapping. It all had to be done exactly to the Boots specification. Mrs Tiz always makes me wrap the Christmas presents!

[Stanley]

Printers always made nice neat parcels as well. I picked one up off the road at a roundabout in Doncaster one morning thinking I had hit the jackpot. The van that had dropped it turned up and it proved to be business cards and not folding money!
Amazing what you found over the years, tools, sacks of spuds and once a complete set of drain rods that I used at Hey Farm for years. Lay-bys were the place where you found risqué top shelf magazines. The theory was that bored salesmen bought them, had a good peruse then dumped them because they daren't take them home.
There was one lay by in particular on the old road between Penrith and Carlisle that was very popular with picnickers in summer, it had a good view. I always smiled when I saw them and wondered what their reaction would be if they knew how many drivers had stopped there for a pee at night....
One of my defences against boredom on long trips was observing what I was passing. On that same road there used to be a small facility where 'gentlemen of the road' could call in for a good meal, medical examination, a bath and a bed for the night. They also had a stock of donated clothing. I don't know who ran it but when it closed I would often see tramps in the area and wondered how many had been disappointed to find it was no more.

[Tizer]

There's uPVC mouldings lying on a grass verge on a main road in town here. They must have dropped off the back of a lorry or van and have been there at least a week and nobody has moved them.

[Stanley]

Some strange things ended up on roads. I remember in the early days of the M6 an ICI tanker overturned and it's load of Oleum covered the road. A woman in a car pulled up in the pool and got out. Oleum is a super corrosive mixture of Conc. H2SO4 and sulphur compounds. Her shoes and feet were attacked and she fell down in the fluid and died a horrible death. On of my mates saw it happen and he said that it was never reported fully in the papers. Just recorded as a road death.

[Stanley]

My theme this morning is a bit amorphous. Something I have noted over the years is the tendency our leaders, both local and national, fall foul of time and time again. They tend to confuse fashion, trends and problems. Over the years this has resulted in some very ill thought out legislation, often coming under the general heading of 'Knee Jerk'. Can you remember the Dangerous Dogs Act and the problems it caused? At local by-law level there are some strange survivors. One that springs to mind is the prohibition of washing on lines on Sundays. In London I think I am correct in saying that the regulations on taxis still included the requirement to carry sufficient 'hard food' for the horse until relatively recently.
Locally. Lady Harriet Nelson enforced a rule of her own which prohibited hanging any washing outside to dry. Legend has it that as she drove through the village in her Rolls she would stop if she saw washing outside and order that it be taken in.
My mind went to this as I considered perhaps the greatest modern example, Brexit. It fulfils all the criteria, ill thought out, knee jerk and totally misjudged. Historians in the future will put it in the same category as carrying a nosebag of oats in a modern taxicab.

[Stanley]

I have commented in the past how the hairdressing trade has changed over the years, singeing the back hairs to stop hair 'bleeding' has gone the way of short back and sides. I can remember my first female hairdresser in Padiham. My earliest memory of hair cutting is the annual shaving of my head that Father used to treat me to. Evidently when he was a lad in Australia Grandad Alex used to shave the boy's heads at the same time the horses were sheared for the hot summer weather. I remember my mother used to cry and went out shopping while he did it. I had no say in it.... So once a year I got a Kojak and I can't remember ever having nits. Looking back it did me no harm and I still like it sheared off to the wood! (My sister Dorothy was spared for some reason!)
The 'Nit Nurse' was a regular visitor to schools and they were very common. In later years it was found that the reservoir of infection that kept nits going was adult's heads, if they had been treated at the same time as the kids and the dose repeated a fortnight later to get the hatching eggs nits could have been eradicated. Do they still occur?

[Big Kev]

The 'Nit Nurse' was a regular visitor to schools and they were very common. In later years it was found that the reservoir of infection that kept nits going was adult's heads, if they had been treated at the same time as the kids and the dose repeated a fortnight later to get the hatching eggs nits could have been eradicated. Do they still occur?

No more 'nit nurse' but head lice are still around...

[Wendyf]

My Dad started out in life as a gent's hairdresser and after the war worked in Brown Muffs in Bradford until one of his customers (Arnold Laver) offered him a job as a salesman. He kept the equipment and always cut our hair when we were young. He spoke of singeing and hot towels and bay rum.
Turkish barbers are popping up all over the place, there are at least three in Colne and I believe singeing is part of the process.

[Whyperion]

Cannot remember where i was (been on holiday around North Yorkshire and South Durham for 3 days and one town merges into another ) but i noticed a Kurdish Barber down one road i was walking along. Don't know what the difference is, have avoided a hair cut for 3 years now, I intend having it cut for charity at some time but want a photo in the same style as my great grandfather first and have not got round to the photo studio yet.

[Stanley]

In days gone by all barbers did superb hot water shaves with an open razor. I remember going through a small town in I think it was Leicestershire early one morning, I had been on the road all night, and I saw a barber opening up for the early morning trade. I stopped, went in and had a wonderful hot shave. He charged me 6d for it and I told him he was on a worse wage than I was. He told me he had a good trade early in the morning for shaves, railway drivers and firemen who were away from home and in lodgings. Nothing like a shave to waken you up!
I once had to wait 3 hours at Ringway for a Polar flight to LA and that was in the days when they were still in the old waiting hall with the concrete flags of the airlines on the wall. Everyone was complaining but I went in the barbers and asked him to give me the lot, Shave, haircut, shampoo and face massage. He said it was the first time in his career anyone had had the cooloo. I went out of their about an hour afterwards feeling like a king!
(That was the flight I was on on the return that only had 40 passengers on it and a big jet stream wind. They took advantage and cut over two hours off the time and got their slot back. The pilot told me it would be a record but nobody would be shouting about it.)

[PanBiker]

(That was the flight I was on on the return that only had 40 passengers on it and a big jet stream wind. They took advantage and cut over two hours off the time and got their slot back. The pilot told me it would be a record but nobody would be shouting about it.)

Did they shuffle you all to the front for take off and landing? Happened to us when we returned from Crete with only a third full aircraft which normally held 350 or so. With only 40 onboard you would be running a high risk of stalling if the loadings on the aircraft were not correctly distributed.

[Tripps]

I think that Nigel Short the British chess Grand Master must surely hold the record.

Just Nigel

[PanBiker]

Its fine and dandy when the aircraft is empty as it is aerodynamically balanced by design. When you start to shove a few more but not the full design load onboard things can get a bit askew. It's only relevant for take off and landing as the weight needs to be up front to stop the wing stalling under high lift conditions. We got to use business class up front and the seats immediately behind up to the leading edge of the wing or thereabouts. The cockpits of modern aircraft have a head up display to show the weight distribution.

[Tizer]

Things have changed since 1940 when Hurricanes of 46 Squadron had sandbags put in their tails and became the first high-performance monoplanes without tailhooks to be landed on an aircraft carrier. They were being evacuated from Norway by HMS Glorious and had a much higher landing speed than the biplane Gladiators. The pilots found that a 7kg sandbag carried in the rear of the Hurricane allowed full brakes to be applied immediately on landing. The story of Glorious from WW1 to WW2 is worth reading: Wikipedia

[plaques]

To the question... what is the first thing you should do as the pilot when you see that your rear passenger has fallen out of the plane when flying upside down??? Answer..Trim the craft.

[Stanley]

No, we were not moved. It was a 747 so I suppose it counted as empty!
Smoothest and quietest flight I ever had was in a Lockheed Tristar, to NY I think. They say it was never commercially successful but it was lovely to fly in.
I once flew in a DC10 of Canadair to Montreal, one of the last flights out of Prestwick. I was sat right at the back with an RAF helicopter pilot and he told me that he didn't know why he was on it as most of their time was spent flying out on their incoming route to escort them in case there was a problem. He said the one we were in was the oldest in the fleet. I did notice graffiti on the fuselage as we were boarding. The plane landed at Mirabel, the new airport that had been built for the Olympic Games and it was eery, we were the only people in a huge new airport, I see it never succeeded and is now a cargo airport, Duval was the one that was developed eventually.

[Stanley]

One of the changes I have noted over the years is the change in the practice of dentistry. As most of you will know I solved my dental problems over 60 years ago by having all my teeth pulled and joining the wonderful pain and expense free world of Pot Gobbler users but before that I had some dodgy experiences.
First, the school dentist. In those far off days our teeth were routinely inspected at school and if treatment was needed we were sent to 'The School Dentist' which was free. I remember having to go for fillings and he pedalled away to power the drill which of course was slow speed and ground its way slowly into your tooth. Nobody who had that experience ever forgets it!
Things improved a bit under NHS because I could have a high class dentist free and I was taken there regularly. If anything needed doing I was given cocaine injections and I suppose that was an improvement but I still hated it.
I had a bad tooth ache one day. It had got to the stage where I had bursts of red light behind my eyes so I gave in and went into Atkinson’s who at that time practised in Croft House on Station Road where my accountants is now. I went in and there was nobody else there. I told him what the trouble was and he had a look in my mouth and said it was rotten and wanted to come out. I asked him how much it was and he said five shillings or two and six. I asked him what the difference was and he said that for five shillings he would inject me with cocaine, wait for the gum to go numb and then pull it, for two and six he would just pull it. I only had four and six so I went for the half dollar treatment. I sat in the chair and his wife cupped her hands over my head and forced me down with my head back. I’d never noticed until then that an old-fashioned dentist’s chair has a depression it the seat up against the back and if someone forces you down into it you are immobile. Atkinson went straight in and grasping my tooth, first pushed it down, then screwed it round each way to loosen it and then pulled it and threw it into the corner of the room. I supposed that he had done this so I couldn’t see it in case any roots had broken. That was it, one fraction of a second of violent pain and then blessed relief. As I swilled out he went in the back and I heard a bottle neck clink on a glass. When he came in I gave him the four and six and he asked me what the extra two bob was for, “Give me some of whatever it is you have in that bottle in the back!” He came back with a glass of rum and told me to wash my mouth out with it and spit it out. I washed my mouth out all right but I didn’t spit!
One day I had a load to take to Nestles at Ashbourne. No big sweat but I had had all my bottom teeth taken out the day before. Now my Mercury was the best motor in the world but it had the worst heater, it was virtually useless. On a hard frosty morning like it was that day the inside of the cab window used to freeze up as your breath hit it. My dad had warned me not to get frost in my jaw and by the time I got to Ashbourne I realised he had been right, I was in agony. The pain had gone right round the back of my neck and it was like an iron band so when I got to the tipping point I had a word with the lads and they said they’d tip me and wash out while I was with the Nurse, because Nestles were a big firm they had a nurse on duty in the ambulance room day and night. She took one look inside my mouth, got four aspirins down me and a hot drink and then she spent half an hour massaging my gums with oil of cloves. I was still in pain when she’d finished but nowhere near what I had felt when I arrived. One of the lads found me a scarf and I wrapped that round my head, I must have looked like the invisible man! It wore off a bit on the way home but I told father about it, he had been quite right.
You might be wondering why I had had all my bottom teeth extracted. I had gone to Mr Pinder the dentist in Park Avenue with a very bad bout of toothache and he told me they all needed to come out, they were rotten. This doesn’t seem to happen nowadays, probably due to better food and health care but in those days it was quite common to have all your teeth pulled. I’ve heard of young women being given money to go to the dentist and have all their teeth out as a wedding present. This sounds crazy now but in those days it was a passport to a pain-free future, this was certainly how I saw it. Once my bottom jaw had settled down a bit I went back to Mr Pinder and he pulled all the teeth in my top jaw and temporarily fitted my teeth, all done under cocaine injections. The idea was to wait until the gums had totally healed and then go back for the final fitting. At this visit he made me pick the colour of teeth I wanted and told me that he was going to make my new ones slightly bigger than my own teeth because he thought large teeth were manly. I’ve never quite worked that one out but I thought I’d better let him have his way! After putting up with the temporary teeth floating round in my mouth for about three months I went back and got the final set.
I remember that the waiting room was full and Mr Pinder asked me why I was fidgeting in the chair. I told him that I was bothered about the fact that we were holding up the other patients. Mr Pinder said that these teeth would be with me for at least 45 years and it was worth spending 45 minutes to get them right. He also told me that if there was such a thing as a prize for having a good mouth for false teeth I would stand a good chance of winning it, whether this was true or just something he said to all his patients I don’t know. All I can report is that forty years later (sixty at the time of editing) I am still using the same set of teeth and apart from the bottom set cracking and needing an emergency repair once, I’ve had no problem with them and haven’t had any pain either in my mouth or my wallet. There is much to be said for well-fitting pot gobblers!

[Tripps]

That was a tough read Stanley. Took two attempts.
Did they not offer you 'gas'. That was horrible too, and made you feel sick for the rest of the day.
I'll spare you my dental memoirs, but the fact that my teeth were shot by a young age is something we have in common. I put it down to sweets - the ration was quite generous I think, and seen as a target rather than a limit.

[PanBiker]

I only have two missing teeth both upper molars. Lost those in my late 20's one extraction of which ended with a double dose anaesthetic having run out and Mr Imrie on the cusp of calling an ambulance for the hospital to complete the job. He managed in the end (45 minutes later) but had to break the tooth up and extract the roots separately. I had the same quadruple rooted tooth as he remembered my mother having 30 odd years earlier, (in the same place as well). He only made the link at the tail end of the treatment. He said that if he had realised who I was he would have sent me to hospital to get sorted. Mums tooth which he extracted in one piece is an exhibit in Leeds dental teaching hospital. I have no fear of the dentist now as I reckon nothing could actually be as bad as that experience.

[plaques]

In one of my visits to Mr Imrie on Wellhouse Rd, he had just got a new air turbine drill that he was itching to use. At that time he was still using the old belt driven grinders and couldn't convince anybody to let him try his new toy out. He said to me would you mind if I used it on you nobody else will let me use it. He had quite a mischievous grin when he wanted to. Of course I agreed, I mean; once you're in that chair what else can you do only get up and walk out. Right up to his retirement I always got a good reception from him.

[Stanley]

Never had gas even for full extraction. It left you groggy for far too long. Just remembered, I tell a lie. I had an impacted molar during army training and that was done in the military hospital at Colchester under full anaesthetic. Took three days to recover from the anaesthetic! Today's gases are much better.
I think those turbine drills cooled the tooth with the exhaust which was a great improvement.

[PanBiker]

I think those turbine drills cooled the tooth with the exhaust which was a great improvement.

It's a water spray now with a dental nurse using a suction wand to stop you drowning.