Web Page 898

First Picture: A 1950’s living room.






Second Picture: Typical 1960’s advertising promotion, good old shillings and pence!
How we as youngsters spent our Christmas Days

Imagine a world without Computers, Mobile Phones, I-Pod’s and Game Consoles, a world where less than a quarter of the population of this country have a TV Set, about the same applies to Cars, or a Telephone and you're somewhere near the mark of what life was like when we were young in the 1950's .Our mothers were still buying some food which was still on the ration and at school the cane or slipper still held sway. It sounds centuries ago doesn't it? But we all lived through it and this is the way that we grew up.

For families, Christmas time was much the same as it is now, a time for the family, except your visitors arrived by train or bus rather than a car. (Oh yes both those services still ran on Christmas day in the 1950’s). Religious or Victorian Scene Christmas Cards were sent, never funny or rude ones as for many it was the only form of communication with each other for the whole year and often a hand written note would be attached to catch Aunty or Uncle up on all the family news of the last twelve months.

Our living rooms had the aroma of coal fires or maybe the rich smell of an odd log being burnt. Christmas decorations consisted of home made paper chains, natural foliage such as holly, fir and mistletoe and the odd commercial paper decoration
probably bought from Woolworths. Naturally there was a real Christmas tree but I am too young to be able to claim that I remember it being decorated with real candles. But I do remember the presents being piled underneath the tree and the curiosity generated by an unusual shaped parcel. The electric lights for the tree were very simple, normally just a string of twelve glass bells with coloured bulbs inside. And of course the fairy on the top was home made and dressed with white crepe paper by mother. In fact the fairy angel we use in our own home today comes from that era, I know this because Pam can remember it being sat on their own family tree over 60 years ago and it was made by her mother.

On Christmas Eve itself when it was time to venture up to bed I would lie there for quite a while excitedly listening for Sleigh Bells but of course, I always fell asleep before they and Santa arrived!

Christmas morning would come and here starts more of the differences. If we were very lucky, we may get six or seven presents just one each from immediate family. I'd usually get a Rupert Annual, an addition to my Meccano Set etc. and I can recall the one of the biggest present of all during the 50's was a pair of roller skates with steel wheels. It seemed that for weeks after Christmas, when I went to bed I neatly stacked my new things next to the bed, after all there may well be a burglary in the night and they might get stolen, this way I could keep these new things close to me!

Even the Milkman and the Postman called on Christmas morning and sometimes it would be amazing how these two visitors ever saw the end of their Rounds as it was quite normal for them to be offered a tipple at every house.

Although there was TV, it was only in the late 1950's that 'Christmas Specials' started to appear and these being mainly imports from the USA such as the Perry Como Show, Andy Williams etc. From the UK came Tony Hancock and very early Six Five Specials. Much to the enjoyment of my family you would get a Laurel and Hardy slot, maybe Buster Keaton and a Cartoon. But the TV was a minor part of Christmas. Parents were usually busying themselves with domestic duties whilst the Kids immersed themselves in their new toys and books. I wonder how many families now get through a Christmas Day without TV, text messages or some time on the PC!

Another factor was that Christmas Day did actually seem a special day there were no shops open and all the theatres and cinemas were closed. In those days Christmas didn't start in late September as it does now, it started just a few days before the event; the only thing to start early was the baking of the Christmas Cake and making the mince pies usually sometime in November.

Traditional Christmas Day food has remained very much the same as in the 1950’s, turkey with all the trimmings and Christmas Pudding but the big difference being that the vegetables we ate would always come from your own garden and not via Mr Tesco or Mr. Sainsbury! Wine is almost a must these days, whereas a glass of Sherry, a Port and Lemon or a glass of beer were the only forms of alcohol on offer in the 1950’s

Life was very different then but it was also very enjoyable. Mind you today I would not miss my modern Christmas with my family and grandchildren round me.

Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com



You Write:

Griff Writes:Who still admires their swimming achievements at the Guildhall Swimming Baths?




News and Views:
The ABC/Essoldo/Carlton Cinema, High Street, Cosham
Built in 1934, as The Carlton Cinema, the building was badly damaged during a bombing raid in World War II. 4 people died in the explosion but the cinema was renovated and reopened. In 1982 it was renovated and became a 3 screen cinema but closed its doors in 2007. Since then, the future of the building has been uncertain with locals frequently campaigning to stop demolition and conversion to student accommodation or flats.

Since opening as The Carlton in the 30s, this cinema has had many aliases: The Carlton; The Classic; Essoldo; Cannon; ABC and, before closure, was known as Cineplex. But now the contractors have moved in and example of Portsmouth’s Art Deco architecture is now just a pile of dust.


On this day 26th December 1960-1965

On 26/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Arthur Haynes Show (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 26/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - 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. The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

On 26/12/1963 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 26/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - 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 Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 26/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was Rubber Soul - 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

My Christmas Greetings to you all.

Extra Web Page Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and to thank each and everyone of you for all your messages, stories, comments and notes throughout the year. I was beginning to wonder if I should stop writing but by the look of the meter on the site I am receiving almost a hundred hits a day some weeks.

So

A Very Merry Christmas to you all and your families. Oh! Below is a couple of Christmas Card that I think reflects the times!!!!!

Yours Peter & Pam

Plus a Letter from Martin below and after that sad news from Cosham.





Letter from Martin in the USA

Those cold remedies.............Don't forget the immortal Friars Balsam...........That stuff in a pot of boiling water could decimate a vulture on a fertilizer cart at forty paces............In our house the cold cure was lashings of hot water, half a jar of Gales Hony and fresh squeezed lemons........then of course in later years a drop or two of dad's scotch was added...........

That photo of the Old Manor Inn still intrigues me.....after all these years the building looks so clean and new.......must have been a winter photo...........like you had quite a few there in my younger years.........

Big sad day here to commemorate John Lennon's death on Dec 8th...............especially so as Paul McCartney was being honoured by the Kennedy Arts Foundation hosted by Carolin Kennedy and Obama at the Lincoln Centre on Sunday Dec 6th.....




Sad News and Views:

The contractors have moved in to demolish the Essoldo in Cosham High Street.

Web Page 894

First Picture:

Girls fashion from the 1960’s

Second Picture

: The hub of 1960’s fashion Carnaby Street.

Here we go again the annual trivia quiz, hope you enjoy it.

These first few are railway based

.

1. In which city was a brick sculpture called ‘Train’ unveiled in June 1999?

2. About which train did the Reverend W Awdry write?

3. In which classic of 19th Century literature is the heroine killed by a train?

4. With which train was Oliver Postgate associated?

5. In which 1945 film does Celia Johnson meet Trevor Howard?

6. ‘Sitting in a railway station with a ticket for my destination’ is a line from which song?

Now for the Roads

7. The Roman Road Ermine Street ran from London to where?

8. What is the name of the emblem on the front of a Rolls Royce?

9. What is the name of the famous road that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles?

10. In what year was the wearing of Crash Helmets made compulsory?

11. Which is the most expensive road on a British Monopoly board ?

12. In which street would you have found ‘Big Bird’?

Life Like That!

13 What is the colour of the black box in a commercial airplane?

14 How long was the 100 years war?

15 Which country makes Panama hats?

16 From which animal do we get cat gut?

17 In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

18 What is a camel's hair brush made of ?

19 The Canary Islands are named after what animal?

20 What was King George VI's first name?

21 What colour is a purple finch?

22 From which country do Chinese gooseberries come?

We cannot do without the traditional 1960’s trivia

23 Which orchestra-leader, born in Italy but based in Britain, became the first artist to sell a million stereo albums ?

24 She was the best-known female folk-singer of the 1960s but her only British top ten hit that decade was "There But For Fortune" in 1965; who was she ?

25 Lesley Gore had a top 5 US hit in 1963 with "Judy's Turn To Cry"; what number 1 was it the sequel song to?

26 In 1960 the Shadows' reached number 1 with their first release without Cliff, what was its title?

27 Which girl group had a worldwide hit in 1964 with "Chapel of Love"?

28 Who wrote the musical "Oliver" as well as Cliff Richard's hit "Living Doll"??

29 Whose real name was Charles Weedon Westover?

30 Who took “Three Steps to Heaven” to number one in 1960?

Well how did you do? The answers are in the ‘You Write’ section

Pam and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.Keat@ntlworld.com


You Write:

THE QUIZ ANSWERS



1. Darlington
2. Thomas the Tank Engine
3. Anna Karenina
4. Ivor the engine
5. Brief Encounter
6. Homeward Bound
7. York
8. Spirit of Ecstasy
9. Route 66
10. 1973
11. Park Lane £350
12. Sesame Street
13. Orange,
14. 116 years
15. Ecuador
16. Sheep and Horses
17. November
18. Squirrel fur
19. Dogs
20. Albert
21. Crimson
22. New Zealand
23. Mantovani
24. Joan Baez
25. "It's My Party"
26. "Apache"
27. The Dixie-Cups
28. Lionel Bart
29. Del Shannon.
30. Eddie Cochran.

News and Views:

On the 7th December Edmundo Ross, the famous 1950's band leader celebrated his 100th birthday!!!!!


On this day 19th December 1960-1965

On 19/12/1960

the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Knight Errant (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/12/1961

the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/12/1962

the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/12/1963

the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/12/1964

the number one single was I Feel Fine - 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 Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 19/12/1965

the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page 896

First Picture: Mrs Shufflewick (Rex Jameson)



Second Picture: A Hilsea Gas Works locomotive in 1961

Make it better

I don’t know about you but my family seemed to have a plethora of home remedies and potions for all sorts of sickness and ailments, some worked, some seemed to be very odd indeed and having a mother who was at one time an Assistant Matron in a children’s hospital was also a problem; no swelling, cut , graze, spot or pimple went ignored or unsqueezed. I would point out here that these were the days when if a nurse married she had to leave the profession, as married nurses were not allowed, well it was the 1940’s.

Bicarbonate of Soda was the all-embracing panacea for any form of stomach upset. ‘Drink it down it will make you feel better’ was the cry as I was forced to drink it. Did it hell I always made me throw up and so for a time I lived in fear and dread of that cup of bicarb!

Coughs and colds were always treated with Vick Vapour rub. I can remember going to bed with a heavy cold and my mother not only rubbing Vick onto my chest but onto the soles of my feet also, a case of treating both ends at the same time! If things got really bad it was out with the bowl of hot water with Vick dissolved in it, a towel over my head lean over the bowl and inhale and as if this were not bad enough I had to endure the Wrights Coal Tar Vaporiser. Now who remembers them? A round tin contraption the size of a baked bean tin with a night light burning in the bottom and a stone dish at the top into which was dripped a coal tar concentrate and the thing was left burning all night so that the fumes could ‘clear your chest’. Then if things were not as bad as this there was always Owbridges, Zubes, Victory V’s and Fishermans Friends to suck until you got better.

For spots and pimples it was Germoline or Zambuck, for upset stomachs it was Lucozade by the gallon or a glass of warm sweetened milk. Yuk!!!

Some of the stranger and more unusual remedies are still a mystery to me today. How did a hot poultice work especially a bread poultice and why were they used? A friend who lived in Africa as a child tells me that one-day he managed to squirt the juice of a poisonous plant into his eye. He was rushed to the nurse who told his mother that if the poison was not washed out he could go blind. She was told to make a cup of Bovril, let it cool and then bathe his eye in it. She did this and his sight was saved. But how did that work? What was the magic ingredient of Bovril?

For a while my mother always seemed to have a toilet fixation, ‘Have you been?’ she would ask at regular intervals and I soon learnt to always say ‘yes’ otherwise it was out with the bottle of opening medicine, whatever that was.

As children I expect we can all remember being given National Orange Juice to make us grow big and strong however Pam also remember being given desert spoonfuls of Cod Liver Oil and Malt Extract once a week, she was living in Newcastle at the time so maybe it was a northern thing.

There were several remedies for removing warts, my mothers favourite was to rub the wart with a raw potato, then bury the potato in the garden and as the potato rotted so the wart would drop off. I have to tell here and now it did not work! Nor did onion in the ears to cure earache but a clove in the mouth did help to relieve toothache and Colgate toothpaste eases the pain of a burn. One thing that did always work was blue bag on wasp or bee stings, today we have to rely on commercial preparations for relief I’ve not seen a blue bag in years.

Then of course if all else failed there was always ‘Come here and I will kiss it better’ and somehow that always seemed to work!

Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Peter Writes:- Dear Peter You like to take a look at http://www.pompeypop.co.uk/ and http://pompeypop.wordpress.com/

These are run by Dave Allen, former lead singer in Harlem Speakeasy (and other bands), now a Lecturer at Portsmouth University. Dave has complied a comprehensive history of pop in Portsmouth in the sixties - there is an overlap with you interests

Keep up the good work. Best Wishes

News and Views:

Liverpool has included original Beatles drummer Pete Best on a list of names to be considered in naming new streets. Peter-- who was drummed out of the group in favour of Ringo Starr shortly before the group became a success-- was chosen for his "'special contribution' to the city's musical heritage

On this day 9th December 1960-1965.

On 09/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 09/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan. The top rated TV show was "Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV)".

On 09/12/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield and the number one album was On Stage with the Black & White Minstrels - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 09/12/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 09/12/1964 the number one single was Little Red Rooster - Rolling Stones and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Poet Edith Sitwell dies

On 09/12/1965 the number one single was The Carnival is Over - Seekers and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.