Web Page  No 2150

19^th April 2015                                 

Top Picture: Rationing poster

Middle Picture: A Golden Treasury of Bilk LP

Bottom Picture: Washing Boiler

Baby Boomers

We are of that post war era that is affectionately called the Baby Boomers, I myself was not born during the war, but in February 1946 however growing up in those times I still have strong memories of of the events and daily life. How about you?

This was the time of the Ration Book (I have still got mine) and Identity Cards (and I’ve still got that as well!). It must seem very strange to the young mums of today to realise that their mum’s were only be able to shop in the shops they were registered not just anywhere as it is today. I can still remember accompanying my mother to the shops on her daily trip to do the shopping. She had her ration book registered Frank Vine the Butcher and Parry the grocer on the south side of the Havant Road in Farlington and Bannisters the corner shop in Lealand Road. Later on when rationed eased a little she ventured to GA Cooper the pork butcher and Pinks in Drayton and Sidney Slape the fishmonger. I remember Slapes fish shop for three reasons, one buying a pint of cooked shrimps for Sunday tea, two, this is where my mother bought the Whale Meat! I always thought it very strange that she would go to a fishmonger to buy meat. I don’t think we had it very often but I definitely remember her buying and cooking it. The third thing was going in to buy some Rock salmon which she would cook when she got home to feed the cat with. How that fish stunk the house out when it was on the stove. However whatever you ate the most important thing was the ration book this was guarded at home like the crown jewels.

Having a grandmother who lived in central London until 1952 and with my father away with the War Department in Ceylon, every holiday we took the coach from Cosham to London Victoria Coach station, stopping at Hindhead on the way. It is from these visits that I have some vivid memories of bomb sites and all the piles of rubble that went with them along with them, the building sites and hordes of workman all trying very hard to rebuild the capital. That is not to say that I do not remember the bomb sites in Portsmouth and Southsea especially those around Buckland and Commercial Road, I most certainly do.

At home we were fed what was called filling food such as bacon pudding, braized liver and casseroles often followed by jam roly poly or semolina pudding, this meal had to keep us going from lunch to tea time with its bread and butter, Shipham’s Paste and tinned fruit topped with Ideal Milk. Breakfast at the start of the day was always cereals or porridge and very often prunes and/or a  boiled or poached egg but in our house a full fried breakfast was only ever served at weekends.

It appears to me that at that time the average person did not expect as much as the folks do today. Like many of you I remember that things at home were normally very basic. Fitted Carpets and central heating were luxuries as were washing machines (mother always boiled the ‘whites’ in a galvanized bucket she put on the ring on the gas stove and she would never wash woollens in anything other than Dreft!) and dish washers were out of the question as were cars for a long time. To get about we all travelled by train, bus and coach and oh how I hated that terrible roadside café at Hindhead. Does anyone else remember it I wonder? 

When things got a little easier my mother started to buy things from a couple of mail order catalogues which a friend of hers ran. For some reason these catalogues became known as ‘club books’. The whole family would look through the books and I remember that the first LP I ever bought came from the Kay’s of Worcester catalogue and was ‘A Golden Treasury of Bilk’ by the late Acker Bilk, it cost me 21/- and I had to pay 1/- a week to pay it off. This must have been in 1961. So long ago!

There we go again memories mainly from the 1950’s this time

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Jonathon Writes:

A most interesting episode on your Blog. The comments from Griff are particularly revealing. I know my wife Carol was extremely disappointed that she "failed" the 11 plus. She didn't fail anything. She actually ended up going to an excellent school. If as Griff says there were not enough grammar school places and they were being super selective it explains a lot. Also those new Solent Road photographs are very indicative of the skewed demographic of boys and girls. In the one class photo it is 75 % girls. So opening the Southern Grammar School for Boys didn't help them very much did it?? My first car was a Ford Anglia 100, the one before the sloped back window 105. It was a three gear side valved engine with a deadly windscreen wiper system. It was run off the engine vacuum and the faster you went in the rain the slower the wipers went.......who thought that one up. It was such a bad system it failed when I took my first driving test.....unluckily in the rain. Visibility through the screen became so bad that my driving tester pulled on the handbrake and failed me on the spot. 

News and Views:

Ronnie Carroll, a former UK Eurovision contestant who was due to stand in the 2015 general election, has died at the age of 80.

Born in Belfast in 1934, his biggest hit was Roses are Red.

He represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 and 1963 with Ring-A-Ding Girl and Say Wonderful Things, finishing fourth both times.

Mr Carroll was due to stand as an independent in the election in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.

He had previously stood unsuccessfully in elections under the banner of parties such as Make Politicians History.

In the Haltemprice and Howden by-election in 2008, he failed in his mission to get no votes, gaining an almost respectable 29.

Born Ronald Cleghorn, he was married at one stage to That Was The Week That Was star Millicent Martin.

Ronnie Carroll died last Monday following a short illness.

On this day 19^th April 1960-1965

On 19/04/1960 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 Armchair Theatre (ABC) 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. The big news story of the day was Brasilia becomes Brazil's new capital.

On 19/04/1961 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 The Budget (All Channels) 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 19/04/1962 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 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

 On 19/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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.

On 19/04/1964 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 Liberal 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 BBC2 goes on air but is soon blacked out.

On 19/04/1965 the number one single was The Minute You're Gone - Cliff Richard and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.