Web Page 1196

2^nd November 2013

Top Picture: Mods and Rockers at Brighton

Bottom Picture: The First edition of The Sun.

Firstly welcome to a new school friend Anne Fido.

The Summer of 1964

The summer of 1964 was a strange time. Most of us had left school and started work or college and were beginning to make our way in the World. But what a diverse World it was. Here are two stories about the summer of 1964 that I am sure you will remember.

The place was Brighton sea front, the date was the Easter Monday Bank Holiday and it was the day that all hell was let loose between the Mods and the Rockers. These well-documented battles between the two adolescent groups puzzled many people. For the average person looking in the only point of difference between the two groups appeared to be their dress and modes of transport. The ensuing violence scared hundreds of holidaymakers while gaining the attention of hundreds more on lookers. In fact the watching crowds obstructed police in their efforts to restore order.

Fifty-nine teenagers were arrested for throwing stones, for carrying offensive weapons (including a starting pistol, a leather belt with brass buckle, a cricket bat, a golf club, chains and stones), for obstructing the police, for damaging deck chairs, for using threatening behaviour and for using obscene language. A stone was thrown through the window of a police van, slightly injuring a policeman inside; five girls were taken to hospital after one skirmish.

The magistrates' court sat throughout the whole of the day, hearing 35 cases and passing the maximum sentences of three months' imprisonment on defendants whose ages ranged from 16 to 21. Several were fined £5 for obstructing the police.

All weekend the two rival groups started to arrive in Brighton. The Mods and Rockers had their main battle during the Bank Holiday morning. After sleeping on the beach, the teenagers were being forced eastwards by the police when some hundreds of them broke away and reached the Aquarium Sun Terrace. Here a fight took place with deck chairs as weapons, until some 20 Rockers jumped clear. They continued to be the targets for litter, and some heavy looking litter baskets were thrown from above before the police took control.

In a crowd as dense as this police control could not be easily maintained, and fights and rowdiness continued sporadically. Amid the masses of teenagers, however, there was no difficulty talking to individuals, most of whom shared the desire to keep away from physical violence. The only boy who said he regretted that he had not yet been involved in a fight was speaking in front of several girls.

A statement was widely believed, that any youth in a leather jacket would be in danger on the Brighton front was nonsense. Many wearing the Rocker outfit went unmolested. But any group of Rockers became a challenge, which the Mods could not resist - particularly if there was a large crowd near by to watch.

By the evening a corner of the beach, overlooked by the promenade and by the Palace Pier, had become a kind of battle field. After several fights, the police surrounded the area and moved ce into the crowd on the beach. They thus stopped the fighting but did not remove the tension, nor the feeling that here, as in medieval tournaments, some young people liked to fight publicly for a cause and some older people liked to watch them.

The number of teenagers in Brighton that day was variously estimated at between 2,000 and 3,000. Of those in court in the afternoon, nine lived in London, seven in Surrey, five in Brighton and Hove, one in another part of Sussex, two in Essex, one in Kent, and one in Warwickshire.

Brighton policemen were reinforced by nearly 40 officers from Eastbourne. Mobile patrols were strengthened by mobilising civil defence vehicles. Returning teenagers crowded trains back to London, but the railways reported no serious rowdyism.

On a totally different subject

The first editions of the "Sun," newspaper, the successor of the "Daily Herald," and the first new mass sale daily newspaper to be published in Britain for 34 years, rolled off the presses in Covent Garden at 10 40 p.m. on 15^th September 1964.

The front page gave prominence to a policy statement which claims that the "Sun" was politically independent, informative and gay - "a paper for those with a zest for living." The statement continues with statistics of increased affluence - cars, refrigerators, holidays abroad - intended primarily, it may be thought, for the advertising agents seeking a wealthier market than the traditional readership of its predecessor.

After seeing the first edition of the new newspaper - the initial print run was 3,500,000 - Mr Hugh Cudlipp, its chief architect, said he believed the first issue of a newspaper, like a bride, was never perfect. "But I think this is an excellent start," he added.

But it is not the first edition that we need to get hold of it is the second. Why? Because it featured a photograph of the whole of the school. I have never seen the picture and on application to the Sun, they claim the do not have copies of the first weeks editions. Does anyone out there have a copy they could scan in? I will hasten to add that the photo was somewhere inside the paper and not on page 3! 

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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News and Views:

Noel Harrison, son of actor Rex Harrison, who also starred as Stephanie Powers' sidekick Mark Slate in the "Girl from UNCLE" and who charted twice in the '60s with "A Young Girl" (No 51-1966 but No 5 in Canada) and "Suzanne" (No 56-1967), died Sunday October 20 at his home in Devon at the age of 79. He performed in Devon on Saturday but suffered a heart attack afterwards. In England, his recording of "The Windmills Of Your Mind" from the movie, "The Thomas Crown Affair" was a No 8 hit in 1969. He represented Great Britain as a skier in two Winter Olympics.

On this day 2^nd November 1960-1965

On 2/11/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (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 2/11/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 2/11/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 2/11/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes 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 2/11/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 2/11/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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 1194

26^th October 2013

Top Picture: Lloyds original shop in Lake Road

Bottom Picture: Lloyds pregnancy testing laboratory 1960.

 

 

Something for the Weekend ,Sir?

 

One of the places we lads always knew about in Portsmouth was the Lloyds Family Planning Clinic. But very few of us were brave enough to go into the shops!

The history of contraception and pregnancy testing in Portsmouth is and odd thing to look at but for many historians it was an area that was ‘not quite nice’ and so overlooked. However the company Lloyds of Portsmouth were one of the front runners in the development of the service for more than 100 years. 

The business was established in the 1890s by Walter Henry Lloyd - a Master Herbalist who qualified in America back in the days when the "medicine men" toured the Wild West in covered wagons selling various potions, pills and cure-alls. As a crowd puller he would extract teeth for free to the accompaniment of drum rolls from his assistant and then sell "Lloyd's Pink Pills" at a dollar a box which were supposedly good for a remarkable number of complaints.

 

On returning to Portsmouth Walter opened a shop at 23 Lake Road as a Herbal Cash Drug Store very much on the American model. It offered advice free on all diseases and all the medicines that were sold were purely herbal. There was also a Dental Surgery attached to the shop and the business advertised itself as a Temple of Health. Walter married and had three sons. 

 

At the turn of the century the perfection of the vulcanisation process for rubber goods made possible the manufacture of reliable condoms, which, together with Dutch Caps and pessaries, formed the basis of contraception at that time. The work of Marie Stopes did much to overcome the considerable public ignorance and prejudice about contraception with the publication of her book "Married Love" in 1918. To Walter Lloyd the provision of rubber goods was a natural avenue for his business to take and he was in correspondence with Marie and her Family Planning Association about sources of supply. He was one of the first to market contraceptive goods freely over the counter at a time when it was very difficult to obtain such things. Portsmouth serviced the Royal Naval Fleet at that time with all the consequences to be expected and so the sales of sexual products and remedies were good. 

By the 1930's Walter had established further Lloyds branches in other towns such as Bristol and Manchester each run by one of his sons. He moved to Manchester and died there in 1936 by which time his youngest son Ralph Edward Victor Lloyd who was born in 1897 ran the original Portsmouth shop. He had five children and they lived above the shop. Then came the War and Portsmouth as the home of the Royal Navy was particularly targeted by German bombs. The Lake Road shop was flattened by a direct hit in 1941 and Ralph, having seen his livelihood reduced to a pile of rubble, died the same year aged only 45. 

The business limped along for the duration of the War in rented premises run by Ralph's wife Hilda. It was taken over by her eldest son Bertie in 1947. He was 20 years old and a man of enterprise. He established a repair of dentures service by post as a profitable sideline. By this time Lloyds Hygienic and Surgical Stores were selling mostly contraceptive and other sexual products with the addition of a few of Walter's original herbal remedies including Vital Tonic tablets. ("They impart youthful vigour and power"). Bertie was in the right place at the right time when he had the revolutionary idea of selling contraceptives by mail order. In 1948 such things were only obtainable from barbers shops ("Something for the weekend Sir?") and there were still many taboos about sexual products being available on open sale.

The problem was that it was almost impossible to advertise for no magazine or newspaper would accept adverts for contraceptives for fear of offending their readers. Bertie solved this problem by offering "Free Family Planning Advice" in the form of a handy booklet written by himself which contained a price list at the back. Even so only two magazines would accept his advert. The response was huge. He offered a confidential and discreet service by return of post in plain brown paper packaging and was the first to do so on any scale. In the 1950's the business entered its most prosperous phase becoming Lloyd's Surgical Department Limited in 1957. 

By the time of the "Permissive Sixties" Bertie no longer had the field to himself and advertising restrictions were no longer as tight. Even though the market place was becoming more competitive Lloyds was still the first to introduce pregnancy testing by post.

       Bertie died in 1994 but the business continued true to his principles of service to customers in the hands of his son Ralph. The next revolution, the internet, posed a far greater problem to Lloyds as companies around the world joined in the race to sell condoms to a world-wide audience. Seeing that he could not afford to be left behind, Ralph ventured into the realms of online sales but sadly the competition was just too fierce and Lloyds was forced out of business in 2007 so ending more than a 100 years trade. 

 

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Gloria Writes:- 

Does anyone remember Verrichi 's icecream vans coming round the streets and you could take out a basin and get as much as you wanted. We did this when I lived in South Street, Southsea. I have never tasted ice cream like it.

Griff writes:-

Peter was talking about gas fired boilers over baths a short while ago which brought back memories for me of our very similar 1930's gas powered geyser water heater we had over the bath in our 1930's built house in Station Rd.

                      It was a huge copper monstrosity that would fetch a huge amount of money these days in copper scrap money to go on holiday with and powerful enough in kilowatt power output to power a small boat I reckon.

                        Peter is right you didn't stay in the bathroom when this thing was ceremonially lit on a Friday night as there was an art in applying the long taper lit spill match to the dark innards of this boiler to light the gas ring which would go off with a might "Whoosh" of gas ( and fumes ! ) flaring up.  The hot tap would be turned on to fill the bath with uncontrollably hot water at total 100 degrees boiling point and once the bath was filled Mum would let you back into the bathroom having cooled the steaming hot water with a long burst of cold water from the cold tap and declaring it was safe to jump into the bath having closed this contraption down by shutting off the gas and opening the window to clear the steam ( and fumes! ).

                    This too was our only source of hot water in the house and water was heated on the gas stove with the whistling kettle. 

                    My Son, who owns and runs his own Heating & Plumbing company has just installed for me the very latest all singing, all dancing, gas condensing boiler with multi directional heating & hot water zone valves and electronic heating trickery controls that would not look out of place on an advanced Apollo rocket flight deck with it's flashing lights and operating computing codes appearing in the casing screen 

                 When you think back it never ceases to amaze me with what  we had to put up with back in those far off days where it was warmer outside of the house rather than inside especially when you were scraping ice of the inside of your bedroom window to look out of it. Was your house insulated?  I know for a fact our house wasn't. Not a scrap of loft insulation for a start.

Take Care Everyone.... Melvyn ( Griff  ) Griffiths.

News and Views:

On this day 27^th October 1960-1965

On 27/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (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 27/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 week was Stalin removed from Lenin's tomb.

On 27/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 27/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes 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 27/10/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 27/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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 1192

19^th October 2013

Top Picture: Knickerbocker Glory

Middle Picture: Verrecchia’s Guildhall Square

Lower Picture:  Inside Verrecchia’s

Bottom Picture: Verrecchia’s Guildhall Square

Ice Cream Sundae

One of those things that have totally disappeared from the social scene since the days of our youth, are the once prolific ice cream parlours. They were really popular in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in fact there was even one in Cosham High Street and that first went under the name of Mary’s Milk Bar and then it progressed to the Palm Court. It was situated just across the car park entrance to the Essoldo (Classic) cinema.

These ice cream parlours, which also served tea and coffee, were places that catered for the children like us, our parents, the newly invented teenagers and also the older cliental. To go into one of these places and have an ice cream sundae was a real treat as it came with waitress service with the actual sundae being served in a tall glass with a long metal spoon to eat it with. To eat one of these sundaes was a real adventure. These dishes came in various combinations and flavours but as I remember it I was only ever allowed a basic one flavour ice cream sundae. Now talking about long spoons immediately leads me on to thinking about the Knickerbocker Glory. Who remembers them? I certainly do but I was never ever allowed to have one when I visited with my parents and by the time I was old enough to go in and buy my own the Ice Cream Parlour had gone. There was no set recipe for this dish as far as I know. It was a typical British 'ice cream parlour' dessert, first made popular in the 1930’s. Served in a tall ice cream glass, it was a mixture of fresh fruit in the base with optional liquer for adults, 3 scoops of ice cream (usually vanilla and strawberry), peach melba sauce, whipped cream and a cherry (glace or fresh) on top. Variations could include variously flavoured jellies in the layers, different fruits, a different sauce or extra toppings such as flaked almonds or crushed nuts; a wafer was also optional. 

The term of Knickerbocker Glory fascinates a lot of people, particularly since JK Rowling wrote about one in the first of her Harry Potter novels "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" when Harry's spoiled, overfed cousin, Dudley, throws a tantrum when he complains his Knickerbocker Glory isn't big enough.

No one quite knows the origins of the words and why they became associated with an ice cream sundae.

All sorts of goodies were sold in these shops ice cream fudge, ice cream with hot chocolate sauce, ice cream sandwiches as well as the usual wafers and cones. One of the other very popular dishes was a banana split with lots of cream and raspberry sauce and a fan shaped wafer.

Now here is an interesting less well known fact about ice cream Margaret Thatcher was part of a 1950's research team working for a British ice cream manufacturer looking into ways in which ice cream manufacture could be improved and be made more profitable. The team came up with the idea of adding more air into the ice cream, which meant that manufacturers would use fewer ingredients to produce the same amount of ice cream thus increasing profitability. It wasn't just the ice cream makers that benefited though because the ice cream produced became really popular - a soft serve ice cream which the public loved the texture of and is still popular today.

The one name, which was synonymous with Ice Cream Parlours in Portsmouth, was Verrecchia, I am sure we all remember the one in the Guildhall Square but how about the one that was opened in North End? However I have spoken about these places on previous postings so will now move on. 

The other thing that I remember very well about the Parlour in Cosham is that it had the first Italian Espresso Coffee machine in the area. From memory it was a genuine imported Gaggia complete with coloured panels and chromium plating with the tall compressing handles on the top. My parents took me in one day so that they could try this new coffee experience, by this time the place had changed its name to The Palm Court and was decorated in a tasteful(?) pink. After much steaming and hissing they were presented with two glass cups and saucers with ‘frothy coffee’ in them. They were not impressed especially as they could not get their fingers through the small holes in the cup handles. As far as I know they never went in there for coffee again and if they wanted a cup of coffee it was drunk at home using the bottle of concentrated Camp coffee, at least until Nescafe could be found on the shelves in the corner shop!

  Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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On this day 19^th October 1960-1965

On 19/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance 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 19/10/1961 the number one single was Michael - The Highwaymen and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) 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 19/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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. The big news story of the day was Hyde Park Underpass opens.

On 19/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes 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 Harold Macmillan resigns as Prime Minister.

On 19/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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 week was that Brezhnev replaced Krushchev.

On 19/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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. The big news story of the week was Lesley Ann Downey's body found on Pennines.

Web Page 1190

12^th October 2013

Top Picture: Election Van

Bottom Picture: Remember I spy Books?

Looking Back Again

So often when I sit down to write a page I think ‘what ever happened to  …………… and today’s page is no exception. It all started off several months ago when there was a round of local and county elections. Nothing unusual you may say but do you remember when we were kids at election time the various candidates would send vans with large horn speakers on the top from which an election agent broadcast to the general public  ‘ Today is voting day, have you voted yet?’ And this seemed to go on all day, things certainly have changed this last round of elections we did not even receive leaflets from all the candidates that were standing. Back in the 1950’s the election agents sought the elderly out and if they had not voted they were taken to the Polling Station by car. Quite an experience for some and I know my Grandmother had friends who would always wait to be taken because that was the only time in the year that they had the chance to ride in a car!

Something else that I remember is that we had an ancient gas geyser over the bath, it must have been put in when the house was built in the early 1930’s. This was lit by the means of a pilot light on the side that once alight was carefully swivelled into the boiler over the gas ring. The action of turning the pilot light opened the gas supply and after a loud bang and some rumblings, the boiler started to produce hot water. It was always a nervous time when this was lit and the noise it made when it was working sounded frightful, in fact I remember that I was not allowed into the bathroom until the bath was ready and the geyser had been turned off. It seemed such an old fashioned thing considering that the bathroom suite was a very modern Avocado Green! It is strange to think that this was the only hot water on tap that we had in the house, my mother only had a cold water tap over the kitchen sink, if she wanted hot water she had to boil a kettle on the gas stove, a real chore on washing day. Whilst talking about the kitchen area of the house in the 1950’s we, and I am sure most of you, not only had a dustbin but another smaller bucket sized bin with an attached lid foe waste food which was destined to become pig’s swill, although despite the fact that it must have happened I cannot remember anyone every emptying the bucket!

What else has disappeared? How about Spud Guns? When did they disappear from the toyshops? Although I did notice today that even skipping has been updated as you can now buy a relatively cheap skipping rope with a digital counter on it so you do not even have to keep score any more. Jacks and Five Stones have disappeared but I have noticed that Yo-yo’s have seemed to make a come back in the last few years, as have marbles. Now there is a puzzle, how did we as kids know when one season ended and another began? Who said marbles are out this month, yo-yo’s are in or hula-hoops are out but skipping ropes or hop scotch are in. Although I can categorically state that Mother Nature always determined when the Conker season began and ended.

What prompted us to change comics or magazines? Was it the free gifts that came with them and what ever happened to the Children’s Mirror or the Children’s Newspaper, sunk without trace? But the Beano and Dandy, the Eagle and the Girl all at least lasted through our entire childhood before they too fell by the wayside.

At home mother spent a lot of time bottling fruit in Kilner Jars or pickling eggs and these were placed in large jars on the floor of our larder next to my Ginger Beer Plant (we all had one of those). Whenever he had to do any painting my Dad had to strain his old gloss paint through one of Mothers old stockings to get the lumps out! Ceilings were distempered or white washed, not emulsioned and the paintwork on the wooden surfaces was burnt off with a rather vicious sounding blowlamp.

The air raid siren behind the New Inn was tested every Monday morning at 10.00am as regular as clockwork and we got used to the sound of the siren sounding all around the area. This was to be our warning for a nuclear attack and I suppose they ceased to be tested after the Cold War ended but I do wonder when the last civilian was tested regularly, although I do know that those in military bases are still tested on a regular basis.

This was the period of sales mascots. Tigers were popular, Tony the tiger told us they were ‘Grrrrrrrrrrreat’, Esso wanted us to put a tiger in our tanks, Rice Krispies had Snap, Crackle and Pop and Puffed Wheat was shot from a gun! Cornflakes gave away free cut out masks on the back of their packets, I am sure you can remember many others. Saxa Salt had Sifta Sam, Bisto had Katie and the Bisto Kids, anything to make our Mums and Dads buy a particular product.

There we go again another wander down memory lane, this mus be getting a very well worn lane by now and it really does amaze me how much comes back to mind once I get thinking. 

 Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Griff Writes:

I have still got my 3 flying ducks all wrapped-up in tissue paper. I inherited these from an Aunt who died many years ago. Do I want to put them up on my wall?  Nah! ..... but on second thoughts everything 50's style is coming back into fashion isn't it? 

Mary Writes:

I did enjoy reading todays article on food and how true it is. We did actually eat curry in the late fifties and my mother made it far too hot. She didn`t like savoury rice so we may have had it with mashed potatoes.  Our dog ate leftovers and we rarely seemed to buy dog food. It was years before we had a turkey for Christmas and we usually had a capon which my father plucked and drew.  I hated cabbage but we always had meat, potatoes, cabbage and carrots. You had to eat it all up too or you would hear dire tales of children starving in Africa or China. Ah happy days

News and Views:

The Revd. Little Richard revealed on Sunday September 29 that he recently suffered a heart attack at home and his doctors say taking a low-dose aspirin after feeling numbness in his arm probably saved his life. The 80 year-old Richard commented, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through."

On this Day 12/10/1960-65

On 12/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 No Hiding Place (AR).

On 12/10/1961 the number one single was Kon-Tiki - The Shadows and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) 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 12/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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 12/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes 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 12/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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 XVIIIth Olympics in Tokyo.

On 12/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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 1188

5^th October 2013

Top Picture: Hands up all of you whose parents had a flight of  ducks on the wall. We did, my Dad made them!

Bottom Picture: The look of the ‘50’s

Steve has sent me these observations on eating in the 1950’s

EATING IN IN THE FIFTIES

Pasta had not been invented.

Curry was just a surname.

Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet

Spices came from the Middle East where they were used for embalming

Herbs were used to make rather dodgy medicine.

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.

Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.

The only vegetables known to us were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage.

All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.

Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and brown or tomato sauce if we were lucky.

Soft drinks were called pop.

Coke was something that we put on the fire.

A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter.

Rice was a milk pudding and never part of our dinner.

A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

A microwave was something out of a science fiction movie.

Brown bread was something only poor people ate.

Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking

Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and was never green.

Coffee was Camp, and came in a bottle.

Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.

Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them.

Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town.

Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist

Only Heinz made beans.

Leftovers went in the dog.

Special food for dogs and cats was unheard of except ‘lights’.

Fish was only eaten on Fridays.

Fish didn't have fingers in those days.

Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.

Ready meals only came from the fish and chip shop.

For the best taste fish and chips had to be eaten out of old newspapers.

Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one.

Ice cream only came in one colour and one flavour.

None of us had ever heard of yoghurt but we had heard of junket.

Jelly and blancmange was only eaten at parties.

Indian restaurants were only found in India .

If we had eaten bacon lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified

Eating outside was a picnic. Cooking outside was called camping.

Seaweed was not a recognised food.

Pancakes were only eaten on Shrove Tuesday

"Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.

Hot dogs were a type of sausage that only the Americans ate.

The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond comprehension.

The idea of "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all to us.

The world had not heard of Pot Noodles, Instant Mash and Pop Tarts.

Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.

Prunes were purely medicinal.

Turkeys were definitely seasonal.

We never heard of Croissants we certainly couldn't pronounce it.

Garlic was used to ward off vampires, but never used to flavour food.

Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it they would have become a laughing stock.

Food hygiene was all about washing your hands before meals.

The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties …. elbows.

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Joan Regan, who had hits with Ricochet and if I gave My Heart to You in the late 1950’s  died on 12 September 2013, aged 85

On this day 5^th October 1960-1965.

On 05/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. 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 05/10/1961 the number one single was Kon-Tiki - The Shadows. 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 05/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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. The big news story of the day was Beatles release first single titled Love Me Do.

On 05/10/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles 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 05/10/1964 the number one single was I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits 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 05/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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.