Web Page 1136
7th 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 14th 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
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.
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 7th 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.
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