Web Page  No 2158

17th May 2015

Top Picture: Cinema Ice Cream Tray

 Middle picture: Cossack Hair Spray

Bottom Picture: Rubber Exercise Mat.

Something in the Air

I am sure that I have spoken about this before but after getting a whiff of a perfume the other day it sent my mind reeling back to my teenage years and a certain young lady. The sense of smell is certainly a wonderful thing and it really helps send the memory banks into overdrive. So let’s look back again with the help of our noses.

The perfume I mention is an old one Tweed which I did not realise was still production. But scent or perfume always makes me think of my Grandmother. Everything she wore seemed to smell of either Lavender or Lilly’s of the Valley and her dressing table always held a bottle of Ashes of Roses and 4711 Eau de Cologne.

Looking at men’s preparations in the 1960’s us lads had a big choice:- Hi Karate, Imperial Leather, Old Spice or similar and for the hair Brylcreme, Ship Shape, Trugel and Cossack Hair Spray for men, plus many, many more. 

Looking back even further I cannot go into some Charity Shops today without getting that old, stale clothes smell that I associate with Scout Troop Rummage or Jumble Sales and I am back there watching all the Portsmouth dealers digging through the piles of old clothes. Whilst talking about Scouting the smell of tarred rope also takes me back to the days of neckerchiefs, woggles and short trousers!!!

Drinks also had a distinctive smell, now who can remember that delicious smell of roasting coffee beans that used to percolate from the premises of Brewer and Company in Marmion Road. What a shame that the coffee never tasted as good as the smell. Being close to the large Coop Bakery at the bottom of Station Road was always a treat at baking time as the smell of fresh bread, buns, cakes and warm sugar filled the air. Another more pungent smell used to originate from the Brickwoods Brewery in Queens Street, the warm smothering smell of boiling hops used to saturate the area on brewing day.

Thinking about school, especially my Junior School at Solent Road, during the winter the heating was solid fuel boilers and today I cannot smell burning coke or anthracite without thinking of cold winter schooldays. When we were at that school always on a Friday afternoon one teacher, Miss Waters, always made us polish the tops of our desks. For this we would manage to get tiny tins of sample Mansion Polish from the Kleeneze man so now if I visit a stately home or somewhere similar who have polished the woodwork with something like Mansion Polish I am taken straight back to Friday afternoons at school and the dreaded Miss Waters. One other smell that occasionally gets an airing, and it is usually in a shop like Halfords, is rubber. Do you remember those rubber exercise mats we used for PE at school? They all had a terrible smell and believe me the cheaper range of rubber car mats really do smell exactly the same as those school mats. The wood and graphite smell of pencil sharpeners and the rubber and canvas smell of plimsolls, not trainers in those days!

On reaching home at lunchtime on a Monday the whole house would smell of warm soapflakes and boiling water as mother did her washing in a galvanised boiler on the kitchen stove. Another lasting smell memory is the very distinctive smell of the Airwick Air Freshener when the wick was pulled up and filled the room with a pseudo pine fragrance.

Then, come the appropriate time of year, mother would bottle or pickle various items that Dad had grown in the garden and then there would be the smell of hot vinegar and pickling spice which hung around the house for days.

If on a Saturday morning we went to the Cinema the warm smell of a couple of hundred human bodies crammed into an auditorium is something that could never be artificially manufactured, even if you wanted to, you could not even escape it if you wandered down the front for a choc ice of a drink on a stick.

But the best smell of all was the smell of Sunday dinner quietly roasting away in the oven making our mouths water in anticipation of a traditional Sunday Roast.

I’m getting hungry now so must go and have a quick snack!!!

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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All quiet this week

News and Views:

Celebrating 30 tremendous years of the UK’s original and premier sixties show, Solid Silver 60s brings you its most sensational line-up yet.

Headlining, and back in the UK for the first time since 1999, is Billy J Kramer, performing alongside the original voice of the Searchers, Mike Pender. Chris Farlowe a Solid Silver firm favourite is also back. Also  this anniversary bill is UK soul pioneer PP Arnold - one of the original members of The Ikettes. All of these legends are backed by New Amen Corner. Plus, the bill’s not complete without very special guests, the wildly successful Merseybeats - back to round off this 30th birthday bash.

On this day 17th May 1960-1965

On 17/05/1960 the number one single was Cathys Clown by the Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) 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 17/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 17/05/1962 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 17/05/1963 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 Liberal 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.



On 17/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 17/05/1965 the number one single was King of the Road - Roger Miller and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.