Web Page  No 2254

15th April 2016

Top Picture: Peter Pan in Hyde Park

 Second Picture: Bluebell Dell

Third Picture: John Bull Magazine

Forth Picture: Duradio Paint Poster

The Second Part of Drayton Revisited 'Drayton Memories' is now available. Same price as the last one £3.00 + £1.25pp

Those were the Days

In our house my Grandmother was the Matriarch as my father was away from 1951 until 1954 and when he returned she had moved in and was really set in her ways. She smoked socially, normally only at home or at Whist Drives, drank Guinness but only at home and did most of the cooking. She had taken over the second largest bedroom in the house and had moved in with some of her furniture from London, she lived in the Lodge on Hyde Park Corner. She brought with her an Aspidistra stand and no plant, an enormous wardrobe and bed and a very chunky dressing table. On the walls were pictures she had in the Lodge, the Peter Pan statue and a Bluebell dell. She had a collection of hats, some for shopping, some for going to the Whist Drives and some for going out, but that was not all, she also brought with here a couple of fox fir stoles and these hung in her wardrobe and their false eyes peered at you whenever she opened the door. 

When she moved in life changed, to start with there was always a smell of Lily of the Valley when she passed, there always had to be an ashtray in every room and noisy play was banned as ‘nice children always played quietly’. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Gran but when she arrived things certainly changed.

This got me to thinking about other things that had changed in that period of time and the things that have disappeared.  When was the last time you saw Bluebell metal polish, Cardinal Red for the grate and Blacking for the kitchen stove and bedroom fireplaces or Sunlight and Fairy bars of soap or soap flakes for the delicate washing or even dubbin for your football boots. My first pair of boots were the old fashioned heavy brown ones which had to be broken in, a very uncomfortable business. But then in came the black and white continental, low cut boot which every boy wanted, but I had to wait until my birthday before we marched along to Mr Smith’s shoe shop in Drayton and bought me a pair.

I also desperately wanted a pair of roller skates, these I had one Christmas while my father was away but I think my mother did not know what she was buying because I ended up being the only lad in our group with roller skates with metal wheels, everyone else had rubber ones which were quiet, me you could hear coming from miles away!

I mentioned bedroom fireplaces my parents room and my grandmothers room both had small open fireplaces but I never ever remember them being lit. I had the smallest bedroom and there was only just room for a bed and wardrobe, no room anywhere for a fire place. None of the rooms had fitted carpets, they were things of the future, but all rooms had either a square carpet of large rugs on the floor and around the edge lino was laid and sometimes even that was painted with lino paint. Now there is something else you never see any more, lino paint.

Home DIY had just started to become popular as my father came home and he manfully tackled painting the ceilings with distemper, I seem to remember that it went everywhere. Long disappeared brands of glass paint were used, brands such as Brolac, Household and Duradio, I assume that they were all absorbed into the Dulux brand. The other thing was to paint the door thresholds with Darkaline which was advertises as being so easy to use that ‘even a woman could use it’, I cannot see that phrase going down today!!!

There were so many other things Mansion Floor Polish, Iron on Patches for the elbows of Dads jacket, the Chimney Imp which you were supposed to place up the chimney set fire to it and it would blow down all the soot, we never used it we always had the sweep come in. Dabit off spot remover, Airwick air fresheners, Vim and Ajax all of which had a distinctive smell of their own.

Finally if you wished to stay up to date and read about what the best families in England were doing, you settled down with the latest edition of the magazine John Bull.

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Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

 A poem by Bett

Hey, Mr Dopson,

I wanted to say, thanks

You taught me clause analysis

Before, I'd had paralysis

When subdividing sentences

And analysing clauses

With parentheses and pauses

And meaningful construction

For which I had no deduction

Of the reason for the phrasing

My eyes would oft start glazing

Then a miracle occurred

You used your coloured chalk

To underline your talk

And I followed every word

So thanks.

Bett

News and Views:

On this day 15^th April 1960-1965

On 15/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan 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 15/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) 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 Bay of Pigs landings in Cuba.

On 15/04/1962 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 15/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) 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 15/04/1964 the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Budget (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 Shea Stadium opens in New York.

On 15/04/1965 the number one single was The Minute You're Gone - Cliff Richard and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 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.