Web Page 1178

31st  August 2013

Top Picture: French Knitting

Bottom Picture: Junior School shoes

Junior School and Things

As I have said so many times before things were very different when we were kids, so much simpler. Take going to school for example; we kept our school books at school in our desks and only took our private stuff to school in our bags. So lets take an imaginary look through a late 1950’s school bag or satchel and

To start with there was always a pencil case either a soft covered one or a hard wooden one with a sliding top and rotating shelf. In here we always carried pencils and pencil sharpener, (remember the large pencil sharpener that the teacher had screwed to her desk at the front of the classroom?), coloured pencils and a pack of Crayola crayons, fountain pens, (no biro’s for us) and a bottle of Stephens, Quink or Waterman’s ink. Some of us would also have had a pair of compasses and a protector along with a standard wooden or plastic school ruler.

Maybe, in the bottom of the bag we would find some pocket money for use at the tuck shop, a three-penny piece or maybe even a tanner (6d) if we were rich. There was often a small paper bag with a couple of biscuits for playtime in it and maybe a couple of half penny chews or a packet of Smiths Crisps with the little bag of salt inside.

It was here you carried your collection of marbles or conkers in the right season or a yoyo, there was always a Dinky or Matchbox car in the bag or if you were a girl some French Knitting or a skipping rope. Both boys and girls carried a ball to school either for a game of catch or for a game of football. Maybe you carried your latest I-Spy book with you so that you could tick off things as you walked to and from school. Or if you were keen in your younger days one of the Janet and John books! We collected the cards given away in chewing gum packets and swapped them, I particularly remember the ‘Quo Vardis’ series

These were the days when we all wore Clark’s or Start-rite shoes or sandals, found Magic Painting Books really wonderful even though we always soaked the books in water and one of the most exciting things at school was growing Mustard and Cress on blotting paper or a runner bean wedged behind more blotting paper in a jam jar.

What else was in the school bag? Notes to and from school, plimsolls (this was before the days of trainers!) in a homemade shoe bag and PE kit (remember those smelly rubber mats we all had to lay on?), there was also savings stamp money and dinner money safely put in a tin so we did not loose it! Now here’s a thought about how the names of meals have changed since then. For us 'Dinner' was the main meal of the day; it was always a cooked meal and was normally eaten sometime between noon and 1.30pm. At weekends when the family was at home, 'afternoon tea', or 'a cup of tea' came around 4.00pm, followed by a light and usually cold evening meal known as 'supper'. On weekdays there was 'high tea', usually just called 'tea', at around 5.30pm. Consequently for school children a weekday's meals would be: breakfast at home, school milk during the mid-morning break, dinner, tea or high tea, supper with a hot drink at bedtime.

For us and for the whole of our school lives the school day started at 8.55 when we lined up in the playground when the bell sounded, marched off and then congregated in our classrooms with our coats hung up in the cloakroom ready for the form teacher to take the register, and then we filed out into the school hall for assembly. This was conducted by the Head Master (not Head Teacher) here we sang a hymn and had prayers. Teachers sat on chairs at the side along the wall. Then came various school notices. Then the day's lessons began. They each lasted 35 minutes, although some were double periods. There were four lessons in the morning until noon with a mid-morning break, and three in the afternoon from 1.30pm with the day ending at 4.00, whereupon everyone had to put their chair on top of their desk to make it easier for the cleaners to get to the floors during the evening.

I look at the school hours my grandchildren put in now and wonder how they get through it all between 9.00am and 3.15pm. I really must be getting old!

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com     

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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News and Views

Marianne Faithfull is resting at her home in Paris after spending four weeks in a hospital with a broken bone at the base of her back. The 66 year-old has been forced to cancel shows the next two months in the U.S. and Lebanon. The injury will delay her next album, as well.

On this day 31st August 1960-1965

On 31/08/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 31/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Blackpool Tower Circus (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 31/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 31/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 31/08/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 31/08/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - 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.

Web Page 1176

 24^th  August 2013

Top Picture: Jim Dale as a pop idol

Middle Picture: Remember the Manor Court Club?

Bottom Picture: 6-5 Special Record Cover

Jim Dale

Jim Dale was born James Smith in 1935 and entered show business at the age of nine and for six years he studied ballet, tap, judo, ballroom, National, tumbling and eccentric dancing.  After all that training at the age of seventeen, he became the youngest professional comedian touring the  British Music Halls. After spending two years National Service in the RAF  he ventured into pop singing and became the first artist under the wing of  legendary "Beatles" recording manager, Sir George Martin, resulting in many Hit Parade entries during Britain's  ‘Swinging Sixties'. He first appeared in, then hosted the two top music shows on British television, “The Six Five Special” and “Thank Your Lucky Stars” He was then invited to join BBC radio as a disc jockey, and for over a year hosted their number one program  for children,”Saturday Morning Children’s Requests”.

He became one of the icons of the "Carry On" team, and made thirteen films for them.

In 1966 he joined director Frank Dunlop's new "Pop Theatre" at the Edinburgh Festival, and was the first actor to star at the new Young Vic Theatre in Moliere's "Scapino."  In 1970, at the request of  Sir Laurence Olivier, he joined the British National Theatre as a leading actor.

Jim has lived in New York for thirty years with his American wife Julie Schafler, he also owns New York’s prestigious “Julie Artisans’ Gallery” on Madison Avenue.  

In 2004 he was awarded  the MBE for his work in promoting children’s literature. To millions of American and Canadian children Jim is the voice of Harry Potter. He has recorded all seven audio books in the series, and created individual voices for over two hundred and fifty characters. For his narration work he became the first inductee into the American Audio Hall of Fame. He has won two Grammy Awards and Seven Grammy Nominations. Plus a record ten Audie Awards , the 'Oscars' of the Audiobook world.

Jim is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records because he created a total of 134 different character voices for one audio book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

Then in 2007 Jim broke  his first record by creating 146 different character voices for” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Not content with that his third record is for occupying the first SIX places in the “Top Ten Audio Books of America and Canada 2005”.

But for us here in England he was a lively young pop singer turned actor appearing in such comedy classics as:-

"Carry On Again Doctor" ………………............ Dr. James Nookey (1969)
"Lock Up Your Daughters!"………………..........Lusty (1969)
"Carry On Doctor"……………………….............Dr Kilmore (1968)
"The Plank" ……………………………….....…..Painter (1967)
"Carry On, Don't Lose Your Head".……........…. Lord Darcy Pue (1967)
"Follow That Camel"…..…………………........…Bertram Oliphant West (1967)
"Carry On Screaming".…………………..............Albert (1966)
"Carry On Cowboy"..……………………............. Marshall P. Knutt (1965)
"The Big Job"……………………………............ Harold (1965)
"Carry On Cleo".... ……………………….......….Horsa (1964)
"Carry On Jack"..………………………….......... Carrier (1964)
"Carry On Spying" ………………………............Carstairs (1964)
"Carry On Cabby"..………………………......…  Expectant father (1963)

He has had a distinguished career in the theatre and on Broadway as well as his singing career he also wrote lyrics and in 1965 he wrote the lyrics to the title song of -"Georgy Girl."  Tom Springfield, brother of Dusty Springfield wrote the music. It was recorded by "The Seekers" and many other vocalists, and went on to sell over 10 million copies.

He has lived in New York since 1980. He was married to Patricia from 1957 until their divorce in 1977. They had four children. The eldest boy, Murray Dale, was briefly a successful actor in the 1970s British children's television series Boy Dominic. Middle son Adam, a successful aerial cameraman, is the winner of the Golden Arrow Award for Best Helicopter Cameraman. His youngest son Toby Dale is, in his father's words, "a brilliant actor". All three sons live in London. He has five grandchildren. His only daughter, Belinda Dale, died of Leukaemia in December 1995. His first wife, Patricia, died in March 1977, after a long battle with cancer. In 1980, he married Julie Schafler, the owner of Madison Avenue's 'Julie: Artisan's Gallery'.

One of Jims favourite stories is told below in his own words:-

A few years ago I walked into an old junk shop and found my first big hit song "Be My Girl" in a collection of ancient 78rpm pop records.  

Me:          "Wow, look at this, how much is it?"  
Owner:   "Four pence, same as all the others"
Me:          "Four pence? For a hit record by Jim Dale?"
Owner :  "Who?"
Me:         "Jim Dale, it's a collectors item this is. You can't sell it for four pence. It's worth a good four Pounds of anybody's money." 
Owner:   "OK, four Pounds then." 
Me:         "That's more like it." (Handing him four crisp one pound notes in exchange for his moth eaten old record).

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com     

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Griff Writes:

I too worked at Gauntlett's Dairy from August 1960 to September 1962 as a schoolboy week-ender and holiday worker. So that is roughly 14-1/2 to 16 -1/2 and then I joined the RAF. I must have just missed Peter B when he worked there but no doubt he knew all the people who worked there when I was there.   My Uncle got me the job as he knew Vic Gauntlett very well and my Uncle had gone to school with Vic's Sister Mary Gauntlett back in the 1930's. I can remember my starting pay and it was 1/3d an hour and when I left Gauntlett's it was 3s.0d an hour.  Laughable when you think about it now but there was a method in my working this way. I had started off as a paper boy at Jarman's Newspaper shop in Drayton and the pay was 10s a week for a morning and evening paper round..... not a lot was it!     So, by working a Saturday I could achieve this princely sum of 10/- pocket money in one fell swoop of just one day's work and stay in bed an hour later in the morning for the rest of the week!  We all know it was no fun delivering papers on a wet and cold Winter's morning 7 days a week.

   

 As it happens with my Father dying during this period there was no money in my family so by working extra days during the holidays it did make me financially independent by not having to ask for any pocket money from my Mum.

There were some great character's working at Gauntletts and you never forget them. They all came from different backgrounds and from all walks of life. The most memorable for me was Ron Rickwood ( Ricky Dean ) who by day was a dairy worker and by night he sung in a Portsmouth rock group "The Rivals" and I use to tag along with him and the group to live gigs at the nightspots of Portsmouth like the Savoy and Kimbell's Ballroom to name but two.  Great times I have to say but looking back I think my school work did suffer a bit from lack of commitment and enthusiasm to scholarly learning but when you watch your Dad die at a young age from cancer your outlook on life changes dramatically.

The work was quite hard as Pete B has said but it toughened you up and toned you up in the muscle department lifting full milk crates and stacking them 7 high to be wheeled into the freezer. This was probably why I was pretty good at the Discus throwing where you need strong upper body strength and I did represent Manor Court for Portsmouth North Schools in the Discus.

I think it was a good start to any working life and it made you appreciate how to earn money and how to get on with others in a working environment. When I left to join the RAF Vic. Gauntlett wanted me stay and go to college to learn the dairy trade but I declined the offer. He gave me a £10 going away present and that was a lot of money to a 16 year old in those far off days.

Vic. Gauntlett  wasn't short of my family member's though because a few short years later my Brother also worked at Gauntlett's and the same faces were still working there as I did go back for a nostalgic visit to see them all.

Regards to everyone

Melvyn ( Griff ) Griffiths  

News and Views:

Eydie Gorme who made her name in the fifties and charted 24 times with and without her husband Steve Lawrence died on 10^th August from an undisclosed illness in a Las Vagas hospital. She was just six days short of her 85^th birthday.

On this day 24^th August 1960-1965

On 24/08/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 24/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. 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 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Burma becomes world's first Buddhist republic.

On 24/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 24/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 24/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/08/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - 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.

Web Page 1174

 17^th  August 2013

Top Picture: Jean Metcalfe and Cliff Michelmore.

Bottom Picture: More icons of the early 1960’s Harry Corbet with Sooty and Sweep.

Everyone must remember Two-Way Family Favourites.

Successor to the wartime show Forces Favourites (which was before our time), Family Favourites (much better remembered by its later name Two-Way, or even Three-Way Family Favourites) was broadcast at Sunday lunchtimes first on the Light Programme, then Radio 2 plus the British Forces Broadcasting Service until 1980. It was a request programme designed to link families at home in the UK with the men and their families of the British Forces who serving in West Germany or elsewhere overseas. Running for well over thirty years it was a big success.

It had the memorable signature tune "With A Song in My Heart" composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Orchestral arrangement by Andre Kostalanetz and played by Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra) and was presented by a variety of well-known radio personalities including Cliff Michelmore, Jean Metcalfe, Bill Crozier in Cologne, Michael Aspel, Judith Chalmers and Sarah Kennedy. Its final presenter was Jean Challis.

When it expanded it encompassed far flung corners of the Commonwealth with, amongst others, Bill Paull being the memorable link man in Toronto, June Armstrong-Wright from Hong Kong, Ross Symonds from Australia and Marama Martin from New Zealand.

The time in Britain is twelve noon, in Germany it's one o'clock, but home and away it's time for "Two-Way Family Favourites"

That was probably one of the most famous announcements on radio during the 1950s and '60s. At its peak it had an audience of 16 million in Britain alone. The programme started during the war as Forces Favourites. Jean Metcalfe along with Marjorie Anderson , Joan Griffiths and Barbara McFadyean presenting.

After the war, the BBC determined to raise the moral tone of Family Favourites, as the programme had now become. Mention of fiancées and girl friends was declared taboo; there was to be no banter; and noisy jazz was forbidden on Sundays.

A special edition, Two-Way Family Favourites, linked service personnel in occupied Germany with their families at home, and from 1947 Jean Metcalfe (b1923 - d2000) was the announcer at the London end. One morning early in 1949, she noted that the name "Michelmore" had been inked in as the replacement for Derek Jones, the usual presenter in Hamburg.

Their conversations on the telephone link before going on the air soon took a flirtatious tone. That April, Cliff Michelmore came to London to meet her; and soon "the agreeable young man connected with our local church", to whom Jean Metcalfe had once been engaged, was wholly forgotten.

But no hint of the romance was allowed to appear in Two-Way Family Favourites until after Cliff Michelmore had left the programme. They married in March 1950.

On Two-Way Family Favourites, Jean Metcalfe came to command a weekly audience of 12 million. One of them even left her £3,000, which the Michelmores put towards the purchase of The White House, Reigate, in 1958.

Some of the '50s British Forces presenters were: John Jacobs, Hedley Chambers, Don Douglas, Bob Boyle, Dennis Scuse, Bill Crozier and Derek Jones.

The programme was originally a half - hour Tuesday evening show but was expanded in 1960 to a longer 90-minute Sunday show. Each presenter took turn to read a dedication and introduce the next record.

In the 1950's and early 1960's Family Favourites was one of the few BBC radio programmes devoted exclusively to records, so its audience in consequence was huge, going far beyond the audience at which it was aimed. It offered the 'real thing', the popular records themselves which by the late 1950’s were what people wanted to hear, as against versions of the songs being played live in a studio in London.

With the launch of the new BBC radio networks in 1967, the show was listed by Radio Times as a Radio 1 show, however it was relayed on Radio 2. Two - Way Family Favourites became exclusive to Radio 2 in 1970 until it was axed in 1984.

In our family Two-Way Family Favourites was essential listening in Farlington and Pam tells me it was also essential listening for her and her family in Munchen Gladbach. It was the heralded the Billy Cotton Bandshow, the Comedy Half Hour, Sounds of the 60’s and Movie Go Round with Peter Haig.

That was Sundays in the 1960’s.   Take care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com 

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Anida Writes:-

Ah Wash Day!  I have two distinct memories of this, one of wash day at my Nan's house in North End and the other at our house in Cosham.

My Nan lived in a house built in the early years after the first World War, she had indoor toilet only by virtue of the fact that they had built a sort of lean to/conservatory at the back enclosing the toilet and where the gas cooker lived along with the wash 'copper' and the mangle.  The bath complete with terrifying geyser lived in the kitchen next to the butler sink (very chic nowadays!), it was covered with a wooden board which was the only work surface available. 

My Nan had a morning 'uniform' as the first job of the day was to clean the grate and lay the fire ready for lighting in the afternoon and this was a dirty job.  She wore a cross over cotton pinny and a black beret to protect her clothes and hair.  On wash day, which was as you say on a Monday, my Grandfather would light the fire under the 'copper' before he went to work in the Dockyard so that the water would be hot when Nan was ready to do the washing. Bearing in mind there was no polyester and all the sheets would be made of heavy cotton it was a tough job to wring the water out, first the wash water and then the rinse. My Grandmother had a life long love affair with bleach, if any stains dared to appear on her white sheets or towels then there would be a rigorous application of bleach before washing began. There was one other process that had to take place before the mangling could begin, starching. Out with the Reckitts Blue and everything that could hold starch went in. This was a much more fearsome concoction than your pathetic spray starches of today. Handkerchiefs would threaten to slice your nose in half, bolster covers and pillow cases that had to be broken in before a good night's sleep was achieved. When all was bleached, washed and starched mangling could finally begin.  As a child I loved to turn the big green mangle, even on non wash days, but it was hard physical work.  Nan's garden was very tiny but nevertheless sported a pulley washing line courtesy of HM Dockyard, and the washing would be heaved up to blow in the breeze and woe betide if there were smuts from the coal fires when it was finally dry.  I say dry, but there was a certain critical degree of dryness that had to be achieved, if you have ever tried to iron bone dry starched cotton you will know it is almost impossible to get the creases out, therefore it had to be "dry enough for ironing".

At home in Cosham, we had a somewhat more sophisticated system in the 1950's a wash boiler with a hand mangle on the top.  Monday was still traditionally wash day, lunch (or dinner) was generally an 'easy' meal usually the left over Sunday roast beef minced and turned into a Shepherds pie.  Although there was sometimes a beef stew and if this co-incided with a wet wash day then all the washing had a slightly beefy aroma as it had been dried on the 'airer' over the stove in the kitchen.  My mother also used starch but not so liberally as her mother, I can remember one famous occasion when my friend Patsy and I were instructed to wash our hands and faces before tea, seeing water already in the bowl in the kitchen sink, we duly obliged only to find that we had starched ourselves much to my mother's horror!  We also had a pulley washing line but because it was a much bigger garden ours was a double line, there is a certain satisfaction seeing the results of your labours blowing in the breeze high above the garden.  However, a little mis-pegging and your washing could end up several gardens down on a very windy day.  I was always encouraged to iron, and I have a photograph of myself with my own little ironing board and wooden airer, happily ironing my doll clothes.  I still like ironing to this day and yes, I do starch which all my friends and family find absolutely hilarious - ah well old traditions die hard.

 News and Views

An exhibit of 12 previously-unseen pastel sketches by Bob Dylan will open August 24 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The show will run through January 5. A spokesman described the works as, "an amalgamation of features the musician has collected from life, memory and his imagination and fashioned into people, some real and some fictitious."

On this day 17^th August 1960-1965

On 17/08/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 17/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 17/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 17/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 17/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was Liverpool. 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 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. Watts race riots in US and the big news story of the day was Riviera Police (AR)

Web Page 1172

 10^th  August 2013

Top Picture: Me at den building age. This photo must have been taken with the cameraman having his back almost at our back fence.

Middle Picture: 1950’s toy pistols

Bottom Picture: Rose arch made from gas piping see article below.

Dens

As a kid I was very lucky we had a long garden, the top of which was wild and eventually backed onto Solent Road Junior School. Oh! How I sometimes wished, especially on wet days, that I could just climb over the high fence at the end of the garden and get into school and save a long wet walk around the roads!

The garden was well populated with trees and bushes. We had apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, damson and cherry trees plus hazel nut trees and gooseberry, black, red and white currant bushes and a vegetable patch. This was all a wonderful playground for a young boy and his friends and we spent many happy hours climbing the trees, building tree houses, cracking the nuts with our teeth and picking the fruit off the trees and bushes. But the best bit was when we decided to dig an underground den!

I can remember at least three different sights that we excavated in the garden, all well out of the gaze of my parents of course. The den had to be a secret place! The first thing to do was to find a suitable sight, one where my father would not be digging or gardening and then we would creep into the shed and borrow the forks, pick axes and shovels we needed to complete the job. 

Having decided on the plot we then had to decide where the doorway would be, private enough for us to conduct our secret meetings but also easily accessible, Mum did not like filthy dirty clothes being brought into the house after I had slid in and out through the soil covered entrance several times! Having decided on where the entrance was to be we set to work digging a long deep trench to form the main room of the den. Scattered in one part of the garden were several sheets of flat corrugated iron which I assumed came from our old air raid shelter, these were quickly collected to be used as a roof, there were also several odd paving stone distributed around the garden, there were collected as were lengths of old gas pipe. Where you may ask did the gas pipe come from?

My parents bought the house from my Grandfathers second wife, who at one time had a fetish for rose arches so her father obtained, from somewhere, a quantity of gas piping and elbow joints and made up yards and yards of rose arching. When we moved in my father demolished these arches and the old pipes were stacked by the corrugated iron. So all the ingredients for a superb den were to hand.

After having dug the hole the first things we moved were the paving or flag stones and these were laid in the bottom of the hole to form a solid floor and they were also used to line the entrance tunnel. No more filthy clothes for Mum to worry about!

The next move was to take some of the gas pipes and lay them across the hole as rafters to take the weight of the final ingredient the corrugated iron that was laid over the top. Job almost done, all that was left was to cover the roof with the soil we had dug out and cover the whole lot with bracken and hey presto a den was built. One problem was that it had no windows so we had to dig out little hollows in the sidewalls to put candles in and once lit all was safe and cosy.  

The trick about putting the slabs on the base of the den was discovered after we had built den one and it had rained so when we entered the den after a downpour we were up to our ankles in mud. One of us had the bright idea of placing the slabs in the bottom so thereafter if it rained we just got wet feet not wet muddy feet!

We had so much space to dig in that we never even considered building a tree house although we did have our favourite climbing trees.

Why we built dens I have no idea but I know that over a period of three or four years that I and many of my friends spent many happy hours playing in them!

Take care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com     

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Griff Writes:-

The Timber yard at Mile End was called  "Lillywhites"    My late Father in Law worked there before  WW2 and he left to join the Navy which ended his time there.. 

I worked at Gauntlett & Walkers Dairy in Purbrook from the age of 14 to 16-1/2 on a Saturday & Sunday and during school holidays. My Uncle was good friends with Mr. Gauntlett himself and it was he who got me this part time job.   Must write an article about that at some point as it was a real education for a youngster.

Peter B Writes:-

I was interested in your piece regarding helping the Gauntlet & Walker milkman.  In 1956 when I was 13 years old. My father John Barlow was friends with Victor Gauntlet who owned Gauntlets Dairy as they were both founder members of Cosham Rotary Club.  This was long before it amalgamated with Walkers Dairy in Guildford Road Portsmouth.  My father asked Victor if I could help either in the dairy which was in Stakes Road, Waterlooville, or on one of the farms during the summer school holidays.  He found me a job potato picking in the fields at Crookhorn long before there were any houses there.  I seem to recall that I was paid 6d  for every cwt sack I filled. It was very backbreaking.  When the potatoes finished, I asked Victor if there was anything else I could do.  There was a massive chicken shed behind the dairy and he said I could help this man called Brian to dig out the chicken muck.  All we had was a couple of wheelbarrows and 2 shovels. It was about 2ft deep and took several days. After that, I worked in the dairy during school holidays and weekends until I left school at 17.  In those days there were very few mechanical aids and most jobs were done using physical strength.  For instance, lifting full churns of milk up on to the lorry by using your knee to help get it up there.  Cleaning the dirty milk churns in those days, was positively archaic.  Each churn had to be washed with hot water through these water jets and then sterilized with steam by standing them upside down on a metal plinth and turning on and off water taps and then steam taps.  Full metal crates of milk which were very heavy, had to be stacked up about 7 high and wheeled on a big sack truck on to the lorry to go to the various satellite depots.  Gauntlets eventually amalgamated with Walkers dairy in Guildford Road, Portsmouth.  Initially the milk production moved to there while Stakes Road was extended and new machinery installed.  The whole outfit then moved back to Stakes Road.  To get to work, I either cycled or walked from Cosham High Street to Stakes Road Waterlooville, and I also worked mornings and evenings at Dodd & Reads paper shop at the top of Cosham High Street, where I did a morning and evening paper round.  As a youngster growing up, there was no sitting on a computer or game station. They hadn't been invented then.  We had no Television at home, just a radio.  When I look back on those days, I often think what a fantastic start to life and what experience for the future.  Do the kids today get a good initiation into the real world or is all that very much the world of the past.

News and Views

On this day 10^th  August 1960-1965

On 10/08/1960 the number one single was Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 10/08/1961 the number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Top Secret (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 10/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 10/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the week was Derby Day doping riddle.

On 10/08/1964 the number one single was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles 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.

On 10/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) 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.