Top Picture: A typical Ponds Lipstick Advert from the mid 1950’s. I wonder do Ponds still make lipstick and if not when did they stop making it?
Bottom Picture: A modern kitchen in the late 1950’s!
Firstly we welcome Maureen Todd into our midst, if anyone wishes to get in touch with her, let me know and I will pass on your messages. At one time Maureen was the youngest Landlady in Portsmouth she was just 18 when she took over the Sunshine Inn in Farlington.
Junior School
I am sure you will all remember going to school with, what seemed like, every piece of clothing named either by hand in pen using Indian Ink or with purpose made Cash’s name tapes which had been sewn on. I always thought this was a thing introduced by our schools for easy identification of our coats and hats etc but on further research I have discovered that it has a rather macabre history dating back to the dangerous days of the Second World War. From a war time notice that I read very recently, comes this advice to all parents to name every piece of clothing that each child wears to school. The reason for this was to aid identification and the rather ghoulish reason being that if a school received a direct or close hit and the pupils suffered horrendous injuries and death, the body parts found could be identified by reference to the clothing labels. It is amazing how many wartime measures continued after the war and we did not realise it and this was just one of them.
But moving on to far more cheerful things. In those days when we were in our Junior Schools we all had named shoe bags to carry our plimsolls in and if we were very lucky we had plimsolls with the elasticised fronts so we did not have to tie the laces. Definitely no sports trainers for us! They were not even invented when we were young. No track suits, shell suits or sports socks, only normal shorts and vests. We had no special sports clothing, only what we had at home and what was called our PE kit.
The sports equipment at school was also very basic, rubber gym mats, bean bags, skipping ropes, rubber quoits, long wooden benches, netballs, rounders bats and airflow balls. Things were so much simpler then!!! If we did not make it into a school sports team it did not matter we dealt with the disappointment we did not have to have a consolation prize for not making it.
I seem to remember that when I was at Solent Road Junior School we were all expected to keep the tops of our desks clean and tidy and to polish them. To this end it was very lucky that the Betterwear door to door salesman would give away tiny tins of furniture polish as free samples and we took these to school, along with a duster to polish the desk tops. From conversations with modern parents recently I understand that pupils do not even have their own desks at school any more, so that is something else that has gone into history and we won’t even mention making up the dried ink powder being the ink monitor and filling the ink wells!!!!
Junior school was a breeding ground for strange habits, my mother always sent me off to school in the morning with two or three biscuits wrapped in greaseproof paper to eat during morning playtime. But when I went back after lunch I was not given another parcel of biscuits for afternoon break, maybe a substantial lunch was deemed enough? I suspect we all remember visits from the School Nurse and the fear and curiosity that generated in most of us plus the terror generated by standing in a queue waiting to receive an inoculation.
But there were always the happier things, class parties and friends birthday parties, school concerts and visits, playing with your mates in the playground and what seems like the twenty three a side football matches which raged right across the playground. At Solent Road Junior School the playground was tarmac, we had no grass or wooded area so if we wanted to play on grass we had to walk along to the Recreation Ground in Farlington Avenue near the Portsmouth Waterworks property. As we got older and more independent journeys further afield became possible and then the whole of Portsdown Hill and beyond, the Farlington Marshes, Hilsea Moat and the Railway Triangle became our play grounds.
Now one thing that has always puzzled me is who decided on the seasons for games and toys especially with us boys? All of a sudden racing Dinky cars was out and something else, maybe Yo Yo’s were in, who decided when the fashion changed? It just seemed to happen. I know things like conkers are obvious but the timing of a lot of our other seasonal playthings is still a mystery to me even after all these years.
Take Care and keep in touch
Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com
You Write:
This from an old Manorcourtonian:-
Sitting at my PC at home in Chesterfield I could not believe that the Teachers that Peter Keat was writing about were still in my mind, as an Ex Manor Court lad I can recall these teachers. some were ?? Monsters and other I loved to be taught by, but then those were where I believe happy days
News and Views:
There is an action group called Hilsea Lido Pool for the People who are trying desperately to re furbish and re-open the lido to provide an all year round premier venue for the people of Portsmouth. They want to make the Lido so much more than just swimming. They were formed when the Lido faced the decision by the City Council to close the Lido for good. Good luck to them I say you can read all about it on their web site WWW.hilsea-lido.org.uk after all many of us learnt to swim there, sunbathed there and met our girlfriends and boyfriends in the grounds there. Long may it remain.
On this day 5th May 1960-1965
On 05/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 05/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was US minimum wage rises to $1.15.
On 05/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions
On 05/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 05/05/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was First office fax machine.
On 05/05/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
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