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My Father in Law used to live just round the corner from Belle Vue. One year whilst holidaying in Blackpool he opted for one of the many coach trips you could get from there. This one was advertised as 'A Mystery Tour' and you would normally expect to end up in North Wales or the Lake District. Imagine his surprise when he fetched up at Belle Vue. He went home, checked the house out and brewed up before getting back on the coach back to Blackpool. Bob KIRK, Dukinfield, Cheshire * * * * * * * * * * Not only do I remember 'ha'penny liquorices' (they were a farthing each when I used to buy them) but I have some in my possession at this moment! My
friend who lives in Warrington brought me a whole box last year and I ration myself to one a week. Every time I eat one I remember
my childhood. Yes, she brought me a big jar of Kali, too! Lemon. I remember my older brother talking me into going 'scrumping' with him, I was about 8 years old.
He climbed up the apple tree and threw down the apples to me, which I dutifully stuffed in my jumper
(the apples were very small and you could not have eaten them) only to be caught by
the farmer. He told our local police constable 'Bobby Amos' who lived on the same
street as me. Bobby Amos gave us the option of getting a clip 'round the ear, or
telling my dad. Of I also remember fun 'picnics' which consisted of a bottle of
'Corporation Pop' and a jam butty (Corporation pop was a pop bottle filled with water!)
My mum used to make home made Ginger beer, which we drank at room temperature as we had no fridge. We drank warm milk in
the summer and cold in the winter. If my mum sent me to the butcher for sausages, I
used to squeeze out the (raw) sausage meat from the casings and eat it! Eeeewwww! I never got sick from it, either! Who remembers those long buns (about 6 inches long) with icing on them? I think
those of us who grew up in the 40's and 50's had the best childhood. I remember
making 'stilts' from Golden Syrup cans and string. Roller skates that you wore on
your shoes with metal wheels - never did break my ankle! We got one toy at Christmas,
a package of assorted liquorice and an apple and an orange. We never felt deprived,
although today we would have been considered poor. Oh! Happy Days! Chris,
on Orcas Island. * * * * * * * * * * I remember liquorish root and kali, a sort of sherbet which was bright yellow and so was your mouth and fingers when you ate it. And then there was something called locust bean, do you remember that? I had a quarter of sweets a week which you had to have coupons for as they were still rationed long after the war. I also remember painting on newspaper at school because paper was so precious and the teacher made jigsaws out of postcards. Lots of skipping rhymes come to mind we had a skipping rope made from old washing line right across the street as there was so little traffic, petrol was rationed too. We had rhymes for "two balls" which was played throwing 2 balls up at the wall and catching them and saying the rhymes sometimes with actions. Lots of ring games with rhymes either said or sung. What a rich heritage of oral tradition we had, now alas in danger of being lost. Margaret Holmes * * * * * * * * * * Walking to primary school for 2 hours through the snow when the bus couldn't get through - an adventure! The Italian ice-cream man who drove around the streets on a motorbike with a sidecar selling his ices. The French onion sellers that came around. Gypsies selling wooden pegs - fish and chips with newspaper around - Dandelion and Burdock. The school smell of plimsolls and shoe bags, Comics, the Beano, socks that fell down. Sandals with the toes cut out, bows on frocks and in hair and on shoes. Cardigans and spencers suspenders ouch! Ice cream for Saturday lunch, pudding being stored on the kitchen window-ledge after Saturday morning shopping. Standing at Macclesfield bus stops in force eight gales - and then the bus sails past full up. And being terrified of the rhubarb pickers at Heswall who I had been told definitely not to talk to! (still not sure quite why!) Mary, New Zealand * * * * * * * * * * I remember a flu epidemic in the winter of either 58/9 or 59/60, when we actually had a fire in the bedroom - mmm, luxury! It was great fun I thought (in between the miseries of aching bones, sneezing and barking), in fact I actually managed to knit a complete garment - OK it was a dressing-gown for my teddy-bear, but since every other piece of knitting I started was finished off by my mother, I think that was a great achievement. I then stopped trying to force the wool to move along the needles and took up crochet instead - much easier!! Lord, and roasting chestnuts! We had a proper toasting fork for the bread - posh! Lovely roaring fires in a kitchen range, rice puddings with the skin all crispy, custard pies the same – funnily enough, the pastry only ever rose to the top when one particular friend of the parents came!! The cat used to sit on the shelf in front of the oven, that was OK till he got fish eczema and had a cardboard collar on, which he set on fire! Singed his whiskers, he did, poor lad! We never had a telly until my father was ill in 1964 and he had to give up a lot of activities, so I missed the start of Dr. Who, which was very annoying 'cos everyone was talking about it at school!! I worked at Affleck's just after I left school in '65, it wasn't that posh once you got behind the scenes! It also reminded me - do you remember Lewis's used to have the big central staircase going round the hole in the middle? And how they used to decorate it at Christmas? I mentioned to a friend who worked there that it had gone and she said "Yes, about three years ago!" I'm not terribly observant, as you may guess. Wasn't the passage between Kendals and Kendal Milnes fun? On Whit Friday, we used to go up to the fields off Yew Tree Lane and have races and games and a picnic, while the band practised in Sunday School for the Band Contest at night - if it rained, they practised in the morning as well! Singing rude words to 'Colonel Bogie' as we paraded off the Town Hall front [we started walking on to 'Onward Christian Soldiers' after one of the Anglican vicars accused us of being heathens, just because we're Unitarians]. We also had a day trip from Sunday School to Great Hucklow (in Derbyshire) every year; games, walks up to the gliding field - then on to the "Barrel" for a drink - lemonade for the kids, something stronger for the parents! Singing all sorts of songs in S.H.M.D. buses on the way home - coming down through Sparrowpits and Peak Forest was a bit hairy then - especially if you were upstairs!! which I usually was, because I tended to get travel sick on buses (I still do, sometimes!). Nell, Tameside Local Studies. * * * * * * * * * * As a kid (1941-52) I lived in Denton. One day I spotted a block of dates (you don't seem to see them now) in a shop window. I went in the shop and asked the lady shopkeeper how much they were. "Sixpence" she says, which happened to be the exact amount I had in my pocket. So I asked her if I could buy them, proffering my nice new tanner. "Where are you Coupons" asked the lady. "I don't have any" I replied. Well the lady must have been in a generous mood and she let me have the dates without coupons. Needless to say that I ate the dates before I got home. When I told my mother what had happened she went mad. Not because I had spent all my money on the dates but because I had managed to beat the system and she had nothing to show the neighbours to prove it. Did you know that rationing didn't start until the war had finished. I always find that curious. Bob KIRK, Dukinfield, Cheshire. * * * * * * * * * * I remember the ration books, my
mother still has hers somewhere. Also the Co-op All the bunting we used to put
out for something important. I remember the Phyllis Pearson, New Zealand * * * * * * * * * * School Uniform List from 1942 The School outfit consists of: - 1. A pair of indoor shoes with leather soles and low heels 2. A pair of black shoes with rubber soles for gymnastics 3. A bag with two compartments to hold shoes. This may be purchased at the school for 2s. 0d. 4. A hat of black or navy blue felt or velour for winter, and of white or cream straw for summer. 5. School hat band (2/6) to be obtained at the school. 6. Navy blue tunic and knickers, white blouses and long black stockings. 7. A cotton overall for gymnastics. 8. A dark blue outdoor coat. 9. A navy blue woollen pull-over edged with the school colours, and a school blazer may be obtained through the school, but their purchase is optional. 10. Simple cotton frocks of figured material may be worn on warm days during the summer months. Attention is drawn to the following rules: - 1. Hair ribbons must be dark, and hair slides non-inflammable. 2. A spare pair of black stockings should be kept in school for changing after games and in wet weather. 3. Girls are expected to wear gloves on their way to and from school. 4. No jewellery may be worn in school. 5. All property brought to the school must be marked with the owner's name (not initials). 6. All children must have a pocket in their tunic or knickers. Fees were £3.3s a term (£3 for siblings) Extra fees for dancing, piano or violin lessons or speech training. Our
mothers and grandmothers were very nimble fingered. Little girls in our area had Susie dolls. These were about 9 inches tall,
home-made from the good bits of outworn stockings, with embroidered faces & mending wool hair. One of mine had bright red
curly hair from an unravelled jumper. Clothes were made from fabric scraps & some even had tiny felt or leather shoes. We
accumulated large wardrobes for the dolls, made teasets from acorn cups, and beds from cardboard boxes. I don't think any Barbie
doll ever gave quite so much pleasure. Elizabeth Atherton * * * * * * * * * * I was living in Stockport in the early 1970's and can still remember popping tar bubbles in between the cobbles of Clwyd Avenue, during the summer, getting covered in the stuff and not daring to go home with it all over our clothes. I used to look forward to the ice cream man coming on a saturday afternoon (the only day he ever came) as me and my sister would sing silly little rhymes for him to get a free ice cream. When we moved to the Egerton Arms in Brinksway, we used to go to Maggie's Caves and try to make our way under the Mersey but often got too scared to go more than 5 feet into the darkness. If my mum and dad ever found out we would have been throttled. What about the huge carnival procession through the town where it seemed everyone came out to watch, and I vaguely remember seeing a bed race through the town. Does anyone remember taking pop bottles back to the shop and being allowed to buy some sweets with the returned deposit? I was quite crafty because I lived in a pub so I could sneak a couple of bottles every now and then to get sweets from the shop. When we went to my grandad's in Ireland he still didn't have electricity, and the beds were huge with little bowls attached to the headboard so you could put holy water in them, so there was no excuse not to say your prayers before bed. Jannet Creer * * * * * * * * * * I can remember my Mother in the 40's making my brother's kindergarten sleeping bag from sugarbags and lining with an old rug. Our fancy dress customs were also made from the bags,eg rabbit suit. My grandmother's washday apron was made from sugar bags and trimmed with left over dress fabric.Oven cloths were made from them. Flour bags made linings for small boys trousers, they were used for bread bags- there was not much bread left if Mother had only ordered 1/2 loaf. It was lovely picking the fresh bread from the non crust end! Empty tea packets were cut in half and decorated with crepe paper to make sweet baskets for the Sunday School concerts in the 1950's. We freely made tree huts in the willows above the creek, ran around in bare feet, cycled safely to school.They were glorious days for us young ones but a struggle for our parents following the war and depression. My early footwear was boots and our father mended them as required. I can remember our aunt coming home from a working trip to England in 1953 and bringing us home bubble gum,she also bought me a walkie talkie doll, not then available here. Interested in the 9pm teas, so English, we were all tucked up in bed and asleep by then. Our evening dinner meals were at 6pm for some 5pm. Ann, New Zealand * * * * * * * * * * I don't remember rationing - was this because we lived next door to a sweet-shop until I was two and a half? I know it was still in force until about 1952 (?), but I was in school by then - hated it, there were so many other things to do!! Read, play out, anything but sit in a stuffy room with a lot of ratty old (!) teachers. I remember the kali though - we had lemon and raspberry which you could turn into a drink (wasted!), although if you just ate it as sherbet, you had to be careful - too much made the tongue very sore. Halfpenny liquorice sticks which you could suck till they came into a point - very nice with the kali (pronounced Kay-lie if you don't remember it!), then there was the American Cream Soda kali as well - very fine, pale pink powder, scrumptious with the penny liquorice sticks. These were longer (naturally!) than the ha'penny ones and they were bendy too, with a flattened part at one end - very handy for scooping out the kali. Cherry lips and floral gums - although those are still available at the little sweet-shop in the Trafford Centre, they don't seem as tasty, somehow (age!). I remember too, playing up on the cricket field behind our house – we never touched the wicket (my father told me it was sacred) - going up the hill near the clubhouse, through the fence up to the reservoir, seeing how low it had sunk during the drought of 1959; picking daffodils (lovely pale yellow trumpets they had!) from the bottom of the hill. I think there was a flagpole up there too - we stood by it and watched when the Queen Mill in Dukinfield went up in flames. My husband lived on Parliament Street then, which was just up from there, and he said it was great fun - all the kids (and the parents who had come home from work) out in the street, watching! Radcliffe's Rope Works went up in flames too, round about the same time (give-or-take a year or two) although I think that was either during the night or at weekend, because it was a mess when we went to school the following day - no rope across the path to jump over!! Nell, Tameside Local Studies * * * * * * * * * * My most favouritest sweets! When I lived in the Lake District I discovered Giant
Flyers - liquorice tubes filled with kali - bliss! Now whenever I have visitors from the UK I ask them to bring some over. All the
shops that sold Flyers reported that their biggest customers were adults. I lived in a posh house, though, as we had a proper bathroom and separate toilet.
No central heating, no phone but we were the first in the avenue to have a tele. Guess where all the inhabitants were on
Coronation Day! We had butties and tea while watching. All the neighbours brought something and we had a mini party. I lived close enough to school to go home for dinner but on 11+ day I had school
dinners. I thought that was so exotic, but was violently sick after lunch. Was it school dinner or nerves? In my teens I often
walked from Chester to home on a Sat night after the dance. Sometimes alone but there was never a worry about being attacked. Ah,
happy days! Barbara, a Cestrian exiled in Brittany *
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* * * Here is one of my memories with a real spooky ending. During the Blitz I lived in
Birkenhead, and used to be dumped in the Air Raid shelter while my Dad and Mum did their thing making tea and putting out
incendiary bombs. I spent a lot of time playing with the warm wax from the solitary candle. Quite often a face would peer in to
see how I was getting on - a Policeman, an Air Raid Warden or a "Special". One of my favourite visitors was Roy Stevens.
He lived opposite to us with his Mum and two sisters, but he was also a Bomber Pilot! His tales of bombing missions kept me in
rapt attention every time he came to visit. Roy was a quite an artist and he used to decorate wedding cakes in civvy street. I was
grateful for his company in many ways. I lost track of Roy as I grew up and moved down South to London. Eventually, I moved back
up North and lived in West Lancashire. One day I was admiring a picture in a neighbours house, and was told that it was painted by
the Liverpool Echo cartoonist - Roy Stevens. Unfortunately, Roy died before I could get in touch with him again. He was very
special. Ricky Cooper * * * * * * * * * * How blissfully unaware we were in those days, swimming in the canals full of junk,
eating apples with worms in them, never washing any fruit we picked, playing conkers with string, and sometimes getting black
eyes. Putting ropes around the lamp posts to make swings, no playgrounds during the war, sailing paper boats along rain soaked
gutters. I could go on forever. Haven't told my grandchildren what an accomplished little thief I was stealing coal from the
railways in 1947, coldest winter in England on record I think. Amazing what I could get in an old broken down pram. Margaret in California. * * * * * * * * * * My Dad made me a wooden dolls pram during World War 2 and I always The teacher who hit me had red hair and after this I thought that people who had
red hair had violent tempers. The teacher left later on and was supposed to have gone
to Canada. I ran home at the break time and told my mother what had happened and she came back with me and had a word with the
headmistress, I was then placed in the nursery. I remember going to the Brownies, and at the time my mother worked, so my friends mother did my plaits and put
brown ribbons on. We put a concert on and I was boy blue, when the elastic went in
the trousers, so I had to hold them up when we did a dance. Ann
Harris * * * * * * * * *
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