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.