THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Cathy]

Maybe their homes are over-heated so they dress down , then get a shock when they just nip out for something.

[Stanley]

Could well be Cathy. But you'd think they would learn!

[plaques]

Its the motorcar that's done for heavy clothing. !0 yards to the car, then under cover parking for your shopping or at the worst another 30 yards. In and out of heated shopping malls all dressed to the nines, (another phrase lost in antiquity). Who needs Russian hats?

[Stanley]

I think you may be right in many cases, 'Wombs with a view' syndrome.
I saw a lad on one of these motorised balance boards yesterday. (I think they call them 'hoverboards'.) It styruck me that apart from carrying it down steps he was doing no exercise at all. Will these kids eventually lose the use of their legs under the iron law of evolution?
My mind went back to setting off with my mates with a jam butty in my pocket and knowing we were free until tea time. We walked miles, climbed, built dams and hides and were always tired out when we eventually got home. I think I know which is better as regards physical development...
I think our world is changing.

[Tripps]

Its the motorcar that's done for heavy clothing

True I'd say - but there was an intermediate stage in the sixties - the shorty overcoat. Didn't get in the way when you were driving , but kept you warm when you arrived.

[Stanley]

Based on the 'British Warm', the bespoke short version of the uniform greatcoat favoured by officers and the coats favoured by Eisenhower during the war. Still known in America as 'Eisenhower length'. I always liked them.
Another wartime item was the 'Gas Cape' issued to all ranks. A rubberised fabric waterproof jobbie that was originally introduced in the Great War as protection against gas but soon developed into a general purpose waterproof covering. It doubled as a groundsheet as well with the consequence that, being square, it had an irregular hem line and always made troops using them look as though they were dressed in a makeshift garment.
Released on to the market as war surplus in 1945 they were the first really waterproof item of clothing available to the public. Before that the only protection was a thick coat that would soak up water before it reached you. Big problem was drying them overnight in badly heated homes and I well remember starting the day with a cold damp thick outer coat! Good riddance! Cheap waterproof plastic top coats are one of the greatest advances of our time and we forget this.

[Stanley]

My mind goes back to roadworks 80 years ago. There must have been some regulation then that any obstruction had not only to be marked but guarded by a watchman day and night. The works were protected at night by burning oil flares



The Wells No. 18 oil flare.

Later these were replaced by red paraffin lamps.



Another essential item was the ubiquitous coke brazier with a large cast iron kettle holding about five gallons constantly boiling day and night. It had a tap on it that projected beyond the fire for brewing tea. This stood in front of an open fronted small hut like a sentry box and the watchman sat there when he wasn't checking his marker lights. The watchmen were invariably older men who were not fit for other work and it was a good berth for them.

[Stanley]

After WW2 in Stockport a lot of tram track repairs that had been neglected during the war were done and the labour force was Italian Prisoners of War. They were a cheerful bunch and we liked them. They were always wanting to talk to us and give us food which was very welcome. We were so inured to war time conditions that this all seemed perfectly natural to us even though we knew they were 'the enemy'. I often think of this when we see complaints about immigrant workers!
Looking back I am always struck by how smoothly us kids made the transition from war to peace. Nothing changed, even rationing was still in place and we hadn't had any serious air raids since about 1943. Our world was school, home and playing out. The only echo of the war was constant warnings not to pick up strange objects, there were still some of the booby trap butterfly bombs about. I only ever saw one and I think it was yellow.



I looked them up and here is one of them.

I remember another warning from the beginning of the war. There was a scare about strangers giving poisoned sweets to children and I can remember being in the pram with my sister outside a boarding house in Rhyl when we were given some. At 5 years old I must have taken notice because we lifted the board up in the bottom of the pram and put them in there. I don't know if mother ever found them, we never said anything! Amazing that at that age I had taken the warning seriously. Perhaps we all 'grew up' quickly under the influence of total war.

[Wendyf]

My mum's diaries show that she and her friends were charmed by a group of Italian POWs in Wyke where she lived. They met up in the local woods and had sing songs around a campfire....

[Stanley]

I can believe it, they seemed a very like a very likeable bunch to me. I think that a lot of it was the fact that they were glad to be out of the war and contrary to other countries, we have a good record of humane treatment of POWs. Also I think they missed their own families and kids and we were a good substitute.
In contrast we had the dreadful stories told by returning freed prisoners after the war. One such lived opposite us on Napier Road and I remember clearly what a wreck he was when he returned. I also knew a man at Summerseat, a farmer I delivered cattle to. He was blind in one eye, partially deaf and badly scarred all dating from his captivity by the Japanese.

[Tripps]

They met up in the local woods and had sing songs around a campfire....

Nice story - my first thought - I like sterotypes

'Ciao bella'
"It is often claimed that Italians are especially active at flirting. For all foreign women, they've taken on the Ciao-bella-strategy, which entails putting the spotlight on a woman, slamming her with "Ciao bella!" and then chatting her up".

[Stanley]

My liking for Italians survived the onslaught of Mussolini and the war.... All the ones I have met were fun to know, I suppose it's the famous Mediterranean outlook on life.
Which reminds me.... In Stockport when I was a lad we used to sing a song. "I like ice creamio, made by Joe Gichero, slides down your bellio just like jellyio..."
I looked up Gichero on tinternetwebthingy but unfortunately found no trace. Pity that!
Proper Ice cream was one of the treats that returned after the war years and was a new world for us kids. I still remember my first proper ice cream of the new era! Walls had a big factory nearby and were one of the major suppliers.
Incidentally, Grossman in Stalingrad give a very believable pen portrait of a meeting between Hitler and Mussolini at Salzburg. Well worth looking up, some interesting insights into his view of the two men.

[Tripps]

Anything you want to know about the Italian ice cream trade in Manchester, and the families that ran it can be found in the rather wonderful website. Lots of the names mentioned rang bells with me either from school or on the street. Granelli, Sivori etc.

Ice cream

[Tizer]

I like the old traditional ice cream that was here before the creamy stuff. There's a little shop in Newlyn, Cornwall, that sells it. They make it at home up the hill then trundle it down in a cart to the shop. But Newlyn's a bit too far to go for an ice cream, even for me!

[Stanley]

Good link David. Fattorinis in Bradford started as ice cream makers, branched out into being general dairymen and same family also became Jewellers, an unusual combination. They did so well they had their own farms out at West Bradford behind Clitheroe and Harrisons picked their milk up. We bottled it at Marton and took the bottles to their main distribution dairy at Moorside Bradford every day. (LINK)
The man who managed the Moorside depot for many years was called 'Cowboy' Bill Denson because he habitually wore a wide brimmed hat. Not many people know that!

[Wendyf]

Arnold Laver who started the Bradford based timber firm my dad worked for bought a farm in the Midlands, I forget where. It must have been the thing for Yorkshire millionaires to do! They produced turkeys, and everyone who worked for the company received one as a Christmas bonus!

[Stanley]

In those days farms were relatively cheap Wendy, they had been in recession for years and were eventually saved by the need for war production. The Co-op took the same path and had some big farms out behind Clitheroe, very modern and well run units, we picked their milk up as well. They sold them when the Co-op Bank got into trouble.
In another post I remembered Uveco which seems to have disappeared today, I can find no mention of it. It was cooked flaked maize and was a favourite supplement in dairy cattle ration, very easily digested. I used to cart a lot of beet pulp in the 1960s for the same reason. Anyone who was near a brewery used Brewers Grains, the residue from the mashing process, again, very easily digested and nutritious.
One of the first things Lionel showed me when I was put in charge of grinding and mixing our home made cattle ration at Harrod's Farm was to look at the cow's muck to see if I was getting the pressure right in the roller mill. We were flaking the grains and the trick was to increase the pressure until you couldn't find undigested flakes in the muck. Obvious really but I had to be taught what to do.
One staple that I encountered when I was evacuated to Great Hucklow in Derbyshire at the age of 5 was the practice of feeding the hens on warm mash made mainly from Linseed cake, I can still remember how lovely the smell was. I used to help every day. Another thing I saw there was the practice of giving the pigs coal, they crunched it up and ate it like toffees. I think the belief was that they got essential minerals from it.
Later, when delivering skim milk to big pig-feeing units I saw pigs being fed the offal from food manufacturers, everything from broken biscuits to waste chocolate and liquorice all sorts! Many a time I brought some home with me, they were perfectly OK to eat but were all either damaged or misshapes.

[Wendyf]

I used to help feed the hens on a farm near Summerbridge where we kept our caravan in the late fifties, that smell of wet mash was wonderful! The hen food we use now is all pelleted for convenience. I am using a mash for the ponies which is largely linseed husks and sugar beet, mixed with hot water it gives off a good smell!

[Stanley]

They wolf it down as well don't they.

[Wendyf]

I mix it with a chopped straw product which slows down the eating time. Sparky can't chew hay anymore so I try to make sure his feed lasts as long as possible.

[Stanley]

That's good stock woman ship!

[Tripps]

That's triggered a few childhood memories. My grandad had a few chickens in the back garden. Must have been an ambition after living in a terrace with just a yard all his life.
Layers' mash - I also can remember the smell - he added boiled potato peelings. Point of lay. Rhode Island Red , the egg book where he kept the daily score.

[Wendyf]

Boiled potato peelings don't smell very good! The hens I have at the moment are a Rhode Island/Light Sussex cross, they are still the lovely rich brown colour but with a touch of black on their tail and neck feathers.

[Tizer]

Being brought up in Blackburn with, at that time, three big breweries I remember well the smell of boiling hopped wort on the breeze and also the smell of spent grain as the wagons passed by on their way to farms, dripping residual dilute wort from the back!

[Stanley]

"British Oil and Cake Mills" ("BOCM Silcock, originally British Oil and Cake Mills Ltd. started in the 19th century and was one of the earliest crushers of oilseeds to produce vegetable oils for human consumption and the manufacturing of soap. The by-product of this process, the oilseed cake, was a good source of protein for animal feed.Pauls Agriculture and BOCM Silcock merged in 1992 to form BOCM Pauls. The company is now branded ForFarmers.
I've always said that driving tramp was a wonderful education because you got entry to businesses that were often very secretive. Here's where it pays off. I once asked Richard Drinkall why he used coarse ration as the concentrate of choice for all his cattle and he told me because you could see what was it it, he said that cakes and pellets were introduced so that nobody could tell what the ingredients used to achieve the mandatory analysis were. He was right, dissolve some overnight in hot water and sort through the mush!
In my time I carted some very strange things into compounders who made the cake and pellets. Dried blood from slaughter houses, protein derivative from the renderers who took rotten offal from the meat processing industries and converted it to dried granules used in dog food and other animal feeds, hoof and horn meal, bone meal and the residue from plants that dealt with diseased meat (That's how BSE got into the food chain). Limestone dust, straw and even deep litter chicken house muck all went into the mills.
Once in the cake and pellets they did their job of adjusting the analysis but were invisible. That's why if you make a mash out of chicken pellets it doesn't smell the same as that made from the original linseed or cotton seed.
We are what we eat! Have all these practices ceased now? I leave you to work that one out!