General Chat

Don,t think there will be many still alive who danced in the war.

I was 7 when it started. We did three things. Pictures twice a week.(will you take me in , mister? for an "A" film.) Listen to the wireless. Most of all "play out".
It was great fun in the black-out. We played every game under the sun? in and around the street. Leavo. Usty crusty; British bulldog. Tin can lurky.
In winter we used to pour water on the road and make slides about forty yards long. There was no traffic so no-one minded.
Money was extremely tight ;no youth clubs; so you made your own fun.

One last anecdote to illustrate what a small world we lived in. One DAY a gas lamp was lit. When it went dark we all trekked to see if it was still lit (in the black-out). Sadly for we urchins it wasn,t.

Happy days

Those games in the street Harry,

Most played game in our street was Rounders, but there were several others we played, like Double Skipping, On our estate we had alleyways between and along the back gardens and we played It and Cowboys & Indians, goodies & baddies

One thing I used to do was punch a couple of pin holes in the bottom of a treacle tin, put some Carbide Crystals in, spit on them, ram the lid on, stand it up against a brick and put a lighted match to the pin holes and "BANG" the lid flew about 50-60ft up the road.
Carbide Crystals were still widely available in Chemists shops to power the old carriage lamps on the horses and carts as were all the ingredients to make Gunpowder
I was always experimenting and making bombs as a small boy, I used to lay a black powder or Cordite trail down the garden to a Matchbox or small tin and blow my toys up, great fun,
One day I blew the skin and a piece of flesh off my knee with a home made Banger, I just pressed it back in place and stuck a bit of tape over it, I still have the scar
I also still have flash burn scars on my forearms from a "device" I was dismantling, my passion for things that go fizz-bang followed me later into the Navy.

Well Toys were very short !!!!!!!1

What toys we had tended to be home made out of wood

Very happy days

Mac

I am never around long enough to keep up with this lovely thread, but I love it so much.

I remember the radio programmes and loved them so much.
It was always a family thing sitting around the room listening to the comedies, the plays, the music hall....

In 1955 my mum & dad bought a big black and white television.

I cried all night long!! I hated it.

We had a huge radio, which sat on and was connected to a record player. I could not just pick it up and nip into the bedroom with it, so I was forced to get to like the TV....

The plays were never the same on TV when you could see all that was going on.
On the radio, we had to use our imaginations.... such great memories.

Deanna X

Deanna,
You are right about having to use your imagination.
Children these days have too much entertainment provided for them,that I think they are losing out on.

It's the same with reading a good book,you are in it with them.
We played rounders,and cowboys and indians as we had a sort of ravine between two rows of houses,and we called it the woods.It did seem big to us then,but we made dens, there was a sort of concrete small building in this dried up ravine,and we used to line up tins on top,and try to see how many we could knock down.
We also rigged up "telephones" with a tin can each end of a long length of string,and tried to pass messages.I was always wanting to play out till teatime,and you HAD to be in for your tea,and always sit at the table!That has never left me,can't do with having a tray on my knee!
Mealtimes were always when families got together and conversed,even a late supper was the norm,very often things that they would tell you today would keep you awake,like bread and butter with cheese(when available)and pickles!
After tea I would have to do my piano practice,and as I got better my dad would ask for his favourite pieces,and Mum always wanted songs from the shows,like Showboat,Lilac Time,Perchance to
Dream.
When we had visitors my dad would say,give us a tune Brenda,and sometimes I didn't feel like it,especially when his brother came,who was a pianist and I thought he was being critical.
My job was to wash up after tea,and when dad came in to the room and I was sitting in his chair,I immediately got up to let him sit down,as I knew he would say"Pots Brenda"

As you say Harry...Happy Days

Being in the depths of the country we did not play in the non existent street!. My brother and I would sometimes go along to the nearest farm , half a mile away, to play with the children there. Hide and seek round the buildings, seing who was brave enough to get nearest to the bull pen, sliding down sloping shed roofs. I wince, thinking of the splinters! At home we listened to childrens hr, Itma, Wilfred Pickles, and InTown Tonight. We did jigsaw puzzles , the same ones over and over until we knew them by heart. we played Ludo, draughts, cards such as snap and Happy Families. We also read everything we could get our hands on(I still do) and queued at the childrens library in town regularly. Mum knitted and sewed, I learned to knit and have many garments I have made myself. She made me a coat and beret in dogtooth check which was an old coat someone had given her, I doubt whether I have had anything so smart since! We were free to roam the fields and woods during daylight hours and no one worried . I suppose the few men who were about were well known to us all. There used to be Socials at the village Hall but we only went to the 1st hour as we were too young to stay up later. They went on to the early hours,some dancing and one corner of the hall was reserved for the whist players. Bedtime was strictly observed and no child was allowed up late. Jean

Oh thank you, you lot!

We are going to play beetle drive tomorrow i have decided! and if I can remember how, gin rummy cards Brenda.

And I am going to dig out some CDs that i have of old songs.

we will be having a roast dinner with "proper" fat on the potatoes.

It's going to be a real day off.

Thninking about it. I don't think that the children in this close know any proper games.

Right another thread i think,

Please pop over and leave me the instructions to your favourites.

Now wouldn't THAT be a good book!

Games...

5 Stones, (called something different now)
Tops with a whip
Cigarette cards up against a fence and if your card covered any of the others you won them
Marbles in the gutter (no cars in those days)
Skipping flat stones across the water
Hopscotch
Bows and Arrows
Hot air balloons with tissue paper, a home made little wire basket, a Balsa wood frame, cotton wool and meths, (they sometimes reached 400-500ft)
Snap
Fish
Rummy
Snakes and Ladders
Model flying aircraft
Freeze, where one person had his back to the rest and when he quickly turned round everyone froze, anyone who was caught moving was out
Rock, paper, scissors
Making paper boats and having races down the local river
And finally the slightly dangerous stuff like Air Guns and catapults at targets

To get marbles, we went to the tip where the gulley cleaning vehicles drain and tipped, then we would dig out all the marbles in the muck

We used to have competitions amongst the kids paddling and catching fish with your hands, fish included Dace, Gudgeon, Catfish, Sticklebacks and
other small fish, and you got extra points for catching Leeches

Mac

Fur and Feather Whist Drives - the prize would be a rabbit/hare for Men and pheasant/hen etc for ladies.

OH recalls he and his father used to go to these and as he was about 11-14 yrs he had to play as a lady and one year in a village a couple of miles away at Christmas they walked off with both prizes and were not very popular. Think they were banned! Reading of the telephone from tins and string - brings to mind stilts - 2 large syrup tins with their lids and a length of string and hey presto you were taller.

The cigarette card game. Great fun. I attribute half my education to those cards. Sea life; garden plants; cricketers, etc etc.

Did anyone thread milk bottle paper tops onto string? We used to do it but i,ve forgotten why.

Happy days

Think it was for the war effort - they were made of cardboard.

Five boys chocolate. It started off tasting horrible and gradually tasted better as it dissolved in the mouth. I don't think it's made anymore.

Michael

Just have to mention a programme I watched last night on television about Al Bowlly - "the first pop idol" - a man with a gorgeous voice who sadly died during WW2.

Remember his songs being played during the Dennis Potter plays, not many years ago?

There will be a new CD of Al Bowlly's songs in April.

Speaking of horrible chocolate - worm cakes - they were foul - I can see me in the corner of the kitchen on my knees - mouth shut as tight as I could - Mum saying here is a chocolate sweetie and trying to force her finger in the corner of my mouth to oepn up - as we were only allowed 2 squares of choc on a Sunday did she think I was mental?. She tried melting them in cocoa and then she got hold of some which had hundreds and thousands sprinkled on them -Yuck can taste them still.

I was born during the war so don't recall much about it, but do remember a few things like my mum giving me cod liver oil yukkkkk.
Some things must have been after the war but i can well remember the Americans thowing a street party for the kids.
My dad could'nt go to war as he was blind in one eye so he used to be an air raid wardon in London during the blitz.
Val

Brenda I remember those games too, and the ton cans on a string.
We thought they were amazing..even if we could hardly a thing.... we thought we could.

I read such a lot as a child too, and used to read to my sister when we went to bed.

Meal times were *MEALTIMES* no argument about it. we were there and sat around the table.
My dad was very strict at the table, but we had mummy to 'sort' him out... ;-0)

A tea in the living room in front of the fire was such a treat, and even then standards were maintained!!
Sometimes.... like on the night of a *blue moon* my mother would allow it, and we would sit listening to a play on the radio.
Isn't funny how the radio brought families together , but the TV often separates?

Wouldn't be without my TV though... not now.

Happy mothers day to all you mums.
Deanna X

Harry.
Yes we used to thread the cardboard milk bottle tops on a string,as they had a hole in the middle that you punched out to put your straw in.

We put two on,and then you wound it up,over and over,and then you could make it spin and go round and round as you kept it going by pulling on the ends.

Brenda x x

To everyone who has added to theis thread, thank you, it is a piece of living history.

getting a wooden cotton reel, hammering four nails in the top and then winding wool around somehow or other until it came down through the hole and got longer and longer!!

Using old style pegs - dolly pegs - and dressing them up as dolls with bits of material.

Whip and top - I likes the ones shaped like a toadstool - whip with a leather strap on it and use classroom chalks to colour the tops

Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories books and comics such as Chicks Own, Radio Fun, Dandy, Beano

I just love this thread.

My Mum & Dad were both just into their teens when the war broke out, so I hear lots of stories from them.
But please keep adding, this is fantastic reading.

K

And then Ann when you had a really long length you wound it around in a circle sewing to attach it as you went - made two of these, attached another chain handle, lined it and you had a handbag! All for scrap wool! I think it was called french knitting and I have seen kits for sale. You wound the wool around each nail and next time around you had a crochet hook or cable needle and looped the new wool through and around the nail. If you get me a spool, 4 nails and some wool I will show you! At 10 years of age I was in charge of darning my own socks!