Web Page 2062

15th June 2014

Top Picture:  Postman

 

Middle Picture: Dustman

Bottom Picture: More Coal Delivery

Delivery to Your Door

Way back in February on a bright but cold day I spotted the postman walking up to my front door. There he was in a light blue sleeveless shirt, body warmer and shorts and trainers (in February!!!!) and it got me thinking. When we were young the postman, sometimes very occasionally post women, would arrive in a single-breasted blue serge suit with polished shoes, blue shirt with a navy blue tie and he always wore a peaked cap with a Post Office brass badge on the front. Maybe I am now living in the past or possibly the postmen and women today are made of far sterner stuff than those 60 years ago. I don’t think so. Even when I did Post Office Relief during the Christmas Period in the early 1960’s, despite not being in uniform (we only had an arm badge with Auxiliary Postal Worker written round the out side of a circle with a reporting number in the centre) we still had to abide by the strict dress code laid down by the Post Office.

This got me thinking about the past yet again. When I was a child the dustman arrived punctually on a Monday morning early before I went to school. As we lived in a semi detached house, the dustman would walk up the drive, round to the back of the house, where he would hoist the dustbin onto his shoulders and carry it down to the dustcart standing on the road. Then he would carry the empty bin back again and replace it. None of this once a fortnight collection and the bin having to be wheeled round to the front of the house or it would not be collected. I have a vague recollection of a pig swill bucket with a lid on for all the raw kitchen waste and this also would be collected once a week but I cannot remember who undertook these collections. I think this must have been the residue of the post war food campaign!

Coal deliveries were something else that were delivered to the back of the house. Almost everyone in those days had some form of open fires and to store the coal that would be needed throughout the winter months we all had coal bunkers. Ours doubled as a pirate ship, space rocket, WW2 gun emplacement or anything that the fertile boys mind could conjure up, but we never played inside them that was asking for a clip round the ears and mother having to do a lot of extra washing!  Our coal bunker was round the back of the house and after the knock on the back door, for his cup of tea, the coalman would carry the sacks, on his shoulders, from the road in front of the house, right round to the bunker where he would empty the coal into the bunker and place the folded sacks to one side so that they could be counted. Every coal wagon, by law, had to carry a set of scales capable of weighing a full sack of coal. One of our neighbours must have been very unpopular with the coalman as she always insisted that every fifth sack was weighted in front of her so she could see that she was getting the right weight of coal and not being cheated. Most of our families had coalbunkers which they stocked up to the top throughout the summer because the summer prices of coal were a lot cheaper than the winter ones and this coal would hopefully last us all through the cold winter months.

The only other delivery person that would happily walk round to the back of the house was the paraffin deliveryman. Back in the days before central heating most household had at least a couple of paraffin stoves alight during the winter evenings. I know ours were in the bathroom and in the hall. Our cans for paraffin were stored in the garden shed which was half way down the garden and the deliveryman from Nappers the ironmongers in Drayton would walk into the garden, collect the paraffin cans and fill them up from the large tank in the back of his Bedford van. He would then deliver the cans back to the shed and knock the door for payment. All this was cheerfully done with a lighted cigarette stuck into the corner of his mouth!!!!

As I have said before, ‘It was a different world then’.  

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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Bobby Rydell and Anne Margaret 1963 and 2011

On this Day 15^th June 1960-1965

On 15/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) 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 15/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Probation Officer (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Probation Officer (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Brazil wins World Cup Final.

On 15/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Prince Charles (14) buys cherry brandy.

On 15/06/1964 the number one single was You're My World - Cilla Black and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/06/1965 the number one single was Crying in the Chapel - Elvis Presley 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.