Web Page 1142
28^th April 2013

Top Picture: The Old School Badge

Bottom Picture: Griffs’  Schools swimming certificate

The Last Day.

It is a very strange thing but I really cannot remember my last day at school. You would have thought that such a momentous or significant occasion would have been burned deep into my memory. But no! As far as I remember there was no farewell chat from Reg Davis, the headmaster, no talk about embarking on the threshold of a new life and best wishes for the future, as far as I can remember after my last examinations in the 6^th year I went into school for a final clearing up session and then walked out and never went back.

In my last six months I was only studying three subjects and so did not have many lessons until after I had taken the exams and I do have some recollection of going around the school returning books and equipment to various teachers. But no farewell party, assembly, get together or dance (no School Proms in those days even though I could dance!), not even a pat on the back.

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I seem to remember that I had my school tie signed by all and sundry but even that has gone walkabout over the years. When I was involved in arranging the School Reunion Geraldine sent me a copy of her autograph book and the names in there certainly brought back some memories. I even found my own signature in it, I lost my autograph book years ago but I know it was not full of school names.

After six years at senior school I still think it remarkable that the very last day is so shrouded in mystery.

What last day memories do you have? Would you care to share them with us? Leaving main school, infants or juniors all memories are welcome so come on put pen to paper so we can all share them.   

The First Day

Strangely I can remember my first day at infant school and at Court Lane Senior School. Keith Conlon shared my first day at infant school; we lived fairly close to one another and our mothers knew each other and they must have decided to take their children to school on their first day together. To encourage us to go our mothers let us ride our tricycles to school and I know Keith also remembers this. It must have been an unusual spectacle seeing out mothers towing two tricycles back and forth to school each day.

Being allowed to travel in the bus on my own for the first time marked my first day at Court Lane. I read recently that when we were at school between 60 and 70% of pupils made their way to school unaccompanied using the bus, bike or on foot. Today the figure is totally reversed; a recent survey states that in 2012 less than 1% of today’s pupils make their way to school alone. I really agree with the educationalist, Gervase Phinn, when he says that this is a great shame as walking to school together is a vitally important part of growing up and learning to interact with other people.

But back to my first day at Court Lane, I was packed of in my shiny new uniform, complete with short trousers and school cap and carrying my new school case. As I said before I travelled to school by bus but this was only three stops and I joined the other new comers on the bottom deck of the bus and soon learnt how to get away without paying a fare! On that first day I walked down Court Lane with some older boys who I knew from Scouts and felt very grown up as they were discussing girls! And it is here that my memories end, I wonder why? We must have been shepherded into the hall and sorted out into classes but none of this comes to mind.

Now before any of your start to say, ‘It must be his age, he’s loosing his memory’

 I will say here and now that I have never been able to remember these things, maybe I have always been old before my time!

Stay in Touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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On this day 28^th April 1960-1965

On 28/04/1960 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.

28/04/1961 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 Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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.

On 28/04/1962 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 28/04/1963 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 Labour 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 28/04/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon 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 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.

28/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.

Web Page No 1140                                                                                                       21^st April 2013

 

Top Picture: Aftermath of the flood

 

Bottom Picture: Lynmouth Hydro- electric station

 

Lynmouth Flood Disaster

 

Thirty-four people lost their lives in the Lynmouth/Lynton flood disaster in August 1952. Even now more than half a century later, questions are still being asked about the tragedy.

This event was the worst post-war flooding disaster in Britain and it occurred on 15th August 1952, after over nine inches of rain fell in the space of just 24 hours. The downpour caused a wall of water to surge down from the wilds of Exmoor onto the town of Lynmouth. The East and West Lyn rivers, which drop down from Exmoor, were swollen even before the storm.

At 8pm the hydroelectric power station on the East Lyn River belonging to Lynmouth Electric Light Company flooded and plunged both Lynton at the top of the cliffs, and Lynmouth into pitch darkness. Engineers Reg Freeman and Charlie Postles switched over to the emergency generator staying bravely at their posts until forced to evacuate at 9 o’clock. The power station was never to work again.

Trees and bushes were uprooted and fell awkwardly forming dams behind bridges and in so doing creating walls of water that carried huge boulders into the village. In all thirty four people in Lynmouth and surrounding hamlets were killed, and thirty nine buildings collapsed. Things were so bad that the army had to be drafted in to help with the clearing up.

Speculation over the cause of the flooding has raged ever since the tragedy happened. During August 1952, North Devon had experienced 250 times the normal rainfall for the month, and on the day of the disaster, some 90 million tonnes of water swept down the narrow valley into Lynmouth.

Popular among the theories is that the heavy rain was caused by the secret experiments undertaken to artificially create rain. In 2001, a BBC investigation discovered that classified documents on these secret experiments have somehow gone missing. Survivors of the flood told how the air smelled of sulphur on the afternoon of the floods, and that the rain was so hard, it actually hurt people's faces. The BBC unearthed fresh evidence about the alleged experiments, including several RAF logbooks and a personal testimony. The experiment was called 'Operation Cumulus,' but some people taking part dubbed it as 'Operation Witch Doctor.'

Alan Yates, who was a glider pilot, told how he flew over Bedfordshire as part of Operation Cumulus, spraying salt into the air. He was later told that there was a devastating downpour in Staines, 50 miles away. However, the Ministry of Defence still maintain that it knows nothing of the so-called 'cloud-seeding' experiments during early August 1952.

More than sixty years on from the disaster, the people of Lynmouth are still waiting for the speculation to be put to rest one way or another.

But how did it affect us when we were children?

I remember a Disaster Appeal that was started and went out via our schools. We were asked to take in any spare warm clothing, sleeping bags, hats, gloves and scarves plus as many spare blankets as we could find. I remember struggling to school with brown paper packets containing the various items that were needed.

In our house we were lucky as my grandmother has recently moved in with us and she had brought all her household effects with her from her house in Central London. This meant that we had plenty of extra sheets and blankets that my folks could donate; in fact I think that my mother was glad of an excuse to have a clear out! The one lasting effect in our house was that both my mother and grandmother started knitting woollen squares and sewing them together into blankets to send to the disaster appeal. This was the start of something big because having started knitting these blankets I don’t think they ever stopped until old age curtailed their knitting activities. I remember them knitting blankets for the refugees from the Hungarian uprising in 1956, (in fact we had a refugee (Erno) stay with us for two weeks at the time. Woollen blankets always seemed to be around our house for most of my life at home, in fact we still have two of the blankets here at home.

To alert the outside world to the tragedy that night a local resident, Derek Harper, clambered over the hills towards Porlock to the only phone that was working. For this act of bravery Derek Harper was later awarded the George Medal.

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:

Nothing this week.

News and Views:

Motown the Musical opened in on Broadway this week.

On this day 21^st April 1960-1965

On 21/04/1960 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 Armchair Theatre (ABC) 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. The big news story of the day was Brasilia becomes Brazil's new capital.

On 21/04/1961 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.

On 21/04/1962 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 21/04/1963 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 21/04/1964 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 Liberal 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 BBC2 goes on air but is soon blacked out.

On 21/04/1965 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 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.

Web Page 1138
14^th April 2013

Top Picture : Toasting Crumpets in front of an open fire.

Second Picture: Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier wedding picture.

Those were the Days!

Over the past few months I have had lots of memories sent to me and so here is a small selection.

Do you remember sitting in front of the living room coal fire with a toasting fork in one hand and hand cut slices of bread in the other. Sitting patiently trying not to singe you hair as the toast browned and absorbing that delicious smoky flavour. Then taking it off the fork and smothering it in rich Anchor Butter. But also do you remember the panic when the bread fell off the end of the fork and having to hook it out of the fire and brush off the ash before it could be buttered. There is nothing quite like toast made over an open fire, unless, of course, crumpets!   

Another abiding memory is the need to boil the milk in the summer to keep it a bit longer, because we had no fridge just a slate shelf in the larder. Or keeping the milk in a bucket or stone jar of water in an attempt to keep it fresh.

Our diet was home cooked and limited to what the local shops stocked. We always seemed to have a meat meal every day even though at least two days a week featured offal. In Drayton and Farlington were three local butchers, two bakers, four greengrocers and one fishmonger Sidney Slape, there was a 'Pinks’ store - part deli and part dry and tinned goods. There were no takeaways other than the fish and chip shop. Coal was delivered in heavy sacks by coal encrusted men and if you get lost,” just ask a policeman". 

If I was hungry in between breakfast and dinner (lunch) I was given a jam sandwich or a biscuit from the broken biscuit tin, so called because they were broken biscuits from Woolworth, the Co-op or Liptons. There was never any crisps or chocolate bars. Apples, plums and pears, grown in our own garden were eaten regularly but a banana was a real treat! These did not make an appearance in our house until the late 1950’s. Vegetables such as broccoli and asparagus hadn't been 'invented', so we never heard of it. I was always made to eat everything on my plate and extolled to 'eat my greens up'. The Corona man would come round on a Friday selling bottles of lemonade and I'd save up the empty bottles that were worth tuppence each. 

When we had visitors High Tea was a highlight and it was always the same. Tinned salmon, lettuce, tomato, bread and butter and tinned peaches with ideal milk to follow - we thought we were very grand! 

Although the diet when we were kids would look old-fashioned by modern standards food was slowly becoming varied and plentiful. Novelties such as frozen vegetables appeared along with washing machines and televisions. We had our first television set in 1955, the picture was black and white and we could only receive BBC broadcasts. When Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in 1956 our living room was full of neighbours who came in to watch the broadcast. 

My father had held a driving licence since before the war but for most of my childhood we did not own a car, so every summer he would take a week off work and rent a car from a garage in Southsea. Then we would go to various places during that week or go to Essex to visit my Godmother.

With the end of sweet and chocolate rationing all these sweets which were now available helped to produce tooth decay which meant that visits to dentists were a sheer nightmare of pain and fear, due to the old slow, belt driven drills and no anaesthetics. 

Specialist shops were everywhere and there were no supermarkets just shops... a cake and bread shop, the butchers, the milliners, the haberdashers...all with beautiful ornate gold leaf and glass fascias. In the Co-op shop or Pinks, Lipton’s or Home & Colonial the assistants sliced bacon from whole sides, cut cheese from huge roundels, weighed pounds of sugar from hundred weight sacks. Nothing was pre-packed, wrapped or labelled. It seemed that all staff had a pencil stub stuck behind their ear and some did still wear starched cuffs! No computerised tills, just an amazing set of cables or tubes, depending where you shopped, on the ceiling along which travelled a small metal canister holding the customers tendered money along with the bill. This canister was `fired` by the counter assistant along the cable, or tube, to the cashier who sat aloft at a little illuminated window. The bill, stamped `PAID`, together with any change was then `fired` back down to assistant to give to the customer. These were the days when you could ask a shop assistant their advise on a product and they would cheerfully give it.

Just to finish off a short story about an event which happened to me the other day. I went into a local Post Office to send off some letters overseas. The attractive and well made up young lady started to deal with my letters. Working out the costs of letters to Australia, New Zealand and France but I was a little dumbfounded when she read the address on the last envelope and looked up to me and asked, “What country is Moscow in?”

Well at least we learnt geography at school.

Take Care

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Colin Writes:-

Following up from John.  The Teacher that died in the school towards late 60's was a Mr Capper.  He lived at railway cottages.  Young teacher.  Very sad.  He left a wife and a small child.  I remember the announcement at the school assembly.

News and Views:

On this day 14^th April 1960-1965

14/04/1960 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 14/04/1961 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 Labour Party Political Broadcast (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.

On 14/04/1962 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 The Budget (All Channels) 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 14/04/1963 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 14/04/1964 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 Two footballers suspended over match fixing allegations.

On 14/04/1965 the number one single was Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 Plus 2 and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.

Web Page 1136

7^th April 2013

Top Picture : Liquorice Pipes

Second Picture: Remember cycle clips?

On my computer I have a file marked ‘Odds’ and this contains the odd nostalgia things that I think of, they are mostly totally unrelated and are a jumble. Every so often I have a clear out and here is the latest!

Do you remember?

Liquorice pipes with the red hundreds and thousands stuck to the bowl to represent glowing tobacco or chocolate cigars with the foil band around them just like the real thing or even sweet tobacco, terrible stuff but I never did like coconut. How times have changed can you imagine the Advertising Standards Committee today allowing PC49 sweet cigarettes?

My family never owned a camera when I was a child but for my 14^th birthday my parents bought me a Kodak Brownie 125 which had a built in filter and close up lens. It was great the only thing was that film was so expensive then that I could only afford one or two 12 exposure films a year and that was when we went on holiday so photo’s of my childhood are rare.

Did you have a John Bull Printing Kit? I did one of the smaller ones, they came in various sizes with each one having different components. It was a real game managing all those little rubber letters and wooden holders so we could print smudgy messages or letter headings in thick black ink.

Where did the Diablo come from all of a sudden? Somewhere in the late 1950’s a Diablo was a must have for most kids. I had red one. But why, all of a sudden did , did they become popular?

I am sure my mother must have had shares in Germoline because every cut, graze, scratch and bump was liberally covered with the pink, sticky stuff. But that was not the major problem that was the ghastly smell!

 As we grew older we were allowed to have bicycles that meant we had to have a puncture outfit to repair flat tyres. Why was it that when you came to repair a puncture you never had a patch of the right size or the puncture was in such a place that repair was impossible? What was French Chalk any way?

Now ladies do you remember that eye mascara which came in little pots with a tiny toothbrush to apply it. I am told that the accepted way to apply this was to either gently spit into the black goo to make it malleable or, a bit more delicate this, lick the brush. Anyway whichever method was used I am informed that what ever you did you still ended up with thick globules on your eye lashes! Obviously I have no practical knowledge of this so I rely on you ladies to correct me. Likewise with lipstick, but I can remember on a Saturday morning a group of girls crowded round the Revlon ‘Beauty on a budget tray’ display in the Woolworth’s in Cosham High Street.

Cap bombs are something else that I remember. We used to buy them from Shaws tuck shop in Highlands Road along with a box of specially round shaped caps; if these were not available we had to buy rolls of ordinary caps and tear them up. We soon found that by putting two caps in the bomb made a far bigger bang than one.

Records soon came into our lives and especially for me as I worked in a record shop part time whilst I was still at school. This is probably why; sad although it is, I can still remember the prices we sold records at in 1961. A single cost 6s 3d an EP 10s11d and a Long Player £1 14s 3d unless it was a classical LP when it was £1 18s 3d. These were the days before cheap labels such as Pickwick and Kay-tel but the Pye record company saw a hole in the market and soon their Golden Guinea range were on the shelves costing as the title said one guinea £1 1s. 0d. 

Now lads how many of you remember jumping on your bike and peddling away without putting you cycle clips on and coming to a grinding halt with torn trouser bottoms? Then having to go home to mum and explain what had happened. Apart from tucking your trousers into your socks there were only two types of cycle clips, the round one, which gripped your legs, and the vertical ones that were supposed to keep the material together. I suppose that the female equivalent was the skirt guard on the back wheel. 

Here are a couple of other odd things that were popular in the early 1960’s. Do you remember the leather covers for the Radio Times and the TV Times plus also the ones for the telephone directory. Talking about phones whose parents had little velour covers for the instrument and the handset? Not us we did not even have a phone. The there were those terrible home phone directories for your friends numbers. They had either a dial on the front or a slide at the side and when they got a little old the spring gave out and shot the index cards all over the floor!

Also remember French knitting and the singing duo Mikki and Griff?

Hey life’s like that!

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Colin Writes:-

Following up from John.  The Teacher that died in the school towards late 60's was a Mr Capper.  He lived at railway cottages.  Young teacher.  Very sad.  He left a wife and a small child.  I remember the announcement at the school assembly.

Griff writes:-

Talking of pre-decimal money when myself and Alan Clarkson & Martyn Smith joined the RAF as engineering apprentices in 1962 our weekly RAF pay was paid in Guinea's and this remained so right up until 1965 until the end of our RAF apprenticeships.   Why this RAF military pay should be paid this way I have not a clue!  Weekly Pay rates for RAF Apprentices in 1962:  £2 Guinea's a week at age 16.   £4 Guinea's a week at 17 and then the big one!  £7 Guinea's a week from the age of 17yrs. and 6 months.  

News and Views:

No luck for Bobby Rydell. He had a crown put on an upper back tooth at the end of Jan. then started to get jaw pain and shoulder pain and thought it was related to the crown. He did 4 shows and his wife insisted he see a cardiologist. Went to Dr. Sokil -who ordered a nuclear stress test. The Test came out positive -then the catherization which showed exactly where the blockages were. Next stop was the OR for the 2x by-pass. Stents could not be done because the clogged vessels were too twisted. After all this he does need a root canal but the pain was from his semi blocked heart vessels and not the tooth.

On this day 7^th April 1960-1965

On 7/04/1960 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 The Budget (All Channels) 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 7/04/1961 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 Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmatians. 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.

On 7/04/1962 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 The Budget (All Channels) 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. The big news story of the week was Film director Michael Curtiz and ex Beatle Stu Sutcliffe die.

On 7/04/1963 the number one single was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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. The big news week of the day was Atomic US submarine sinks killing 129.

On 7/04/1964 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 Labour 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 Beatles have 13 records in US chart.

On 7/04/1965 the number one single was Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 Plus 2 and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.