Web Page No 2592

22^nd June 2019

1st Picture. Postal Order

2nd Picture. Exchange and Mart

3^rd Picture. Milk delivery

4^th Picture. Corona Lorry

TOP  THINGS WE DON'T DO ANY MORE

As I fairly recently turned 73 I thought it would be a good idea to look back and list 73 things we don’t see or do anymore. Can you add to the list?

1. Ring the local cinema to find out the times of the films

2. Going into the High Street travel agents to research a holiday

3. Record things using VHS or Betamax

4. Dial directory enquiries

5. Use public telephones (if you can find one)

6. Book tickets for events over the phone

7.Take films to the chemists to be processed.

8. Put a classified ad or card in the shop window

9. Ring TIM the speaking clock

10. Carry portable CD players

11. Write handwritten letters especially Thank You letters after Christmas or birthdays

12. Buy disposable cameras

13. Take plenty of change for pay to use the phone

14. Have a party telephone line in your house

15. Pay bills at the post office

16. Use an address book

17. Check a map before or during car journey

18. Reverse charges in payphones

19. Go into the bank or building society to conduct your business

20. Buy TV listings magazines

21. Own an encyclopaedia

22. Queue to get car tax in Post Office

23. Develop and send off for photographs

24. Read a hard copy of the Yellow Pages

25. Look up something in a dictionary or encyclopedia

26. Remember phone numbers/ Have a phone book

27. Watch videos

28. Have pen friends

29. Use a telephone directory

30. Use pagers

31. Fax things

32. Buy CD's/ Have a CD collection

33. Pay by cheque

34. Make photo albums

35. Watch programmes at the time they are shown

36. Dial 1471 when you get home

37. Warm milk or other hot drinks on stove

38. Try on lots of pairs of shoes in a high street shop

39. Hand wash clothes

40. Advertise in trading papers such as Exchange and Mart

41. Send love letters

42. Hand-write essays / school work

43. Buy flowers from a florist

44. Work out how to spell something yourself

45. Keep a personal diary

46. Send post cards

47. Buy newspapers

48. Hang washing out in the winter

49. Keep printed bills or bank statements

50. Visit car boot sales 

51. Have milk delivered to your door  

52.Take slides or transparency’s  

53. Buy Five Boys Chocolate bars     

54. Drink Cremola Foam 

55. Buy home made ice lollies from the corner shop 

56 Use Trugel Hair gel or Brylcreme

57. Use Charlie or Tweed perfume 

  58. Buy Postal Orders and pay for goods with them 

 59. Have conductors on buses

 60 Have a Rag and Bone man come to the door

  61. Peasouper fogs 62. Go out and leave the door unlocked  

 63. Put up with Izal toilet rolls 

 64. Trainspotting   

 65. Listen to radio serials such as Journey into Space  

 66. I-Spy books and Big Chief I-Spy  

 67. Home made bacon pudding  

 68. Plying Five Stones and Conkers  

 69. Open fires and coal deliveries 

 70. It seemed that everyone smoked and collected coupons 

 71. Airfix Spitfires, sold by Woolworths for 2/-     

 72. The playing of card or board games 

 73. Lastly my favourite deliver man the visit of the Corona lorry 

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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You Write:

Biff Writes:

What we did when we were Kids Hi all, Roger, Stephen, the twins Peter and David and I would play for hours at the redoubt and the dell at the back of Portsdown Hill. Making dens and catching grass snakes Every now and then we (Roger and me) would have a day travelling. Walk down Rectory Road to catch the bus to Cosham from Farlington, 3 pence return. Walk to the railway station and get a 6 pence return to the docks, getting off at Commercial Road and getting the next train. At the docks a 3 penny returns to Gosport on the ferry. Play around and then back home all for 1 shilling. Weekend camps on Horsea Island with the scouts, swimming in the torpedo lake and playing on the mini submarines leftover from the war. Collecting lead shrapnel from the piles left over from the disassembly of large diameter cannon rounds. (I still have a couple I use for fishing 61 years later.) Down to the marshes and first kiss with girlfriend on the grass tops of the Bomb shelters Swimming in the Lido Throwing sticks to get conkers at the bottom of Rectory Road Scrumping. Playing on the cart rail tracks at the disused sewage works next to the Zetland Road and the Eastern Road. Making our own fireworks and blowing things up. Making dens out of hay bales on Mr. Wares(?) farm and smoking Gipsy tobacco (this was a dried leaf from some weed found at the bottom of the bomb crater at the recreation ground) Walking home from school to save the bus fare to buy Black Jacks. Apologies to Roger Dawkins Stephen Carter, Peter and David Martin and I forgot Bobby Cummings. All the best Biff

News and Views:

On this day 22nd June 1960-1965

On 22/06/1960 the number one single was Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran 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 Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 22/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley 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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/06/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/06/1964 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 22/06/1964 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.

Web Page No 2590

15^th June 2019

1st Picture. A spoonful of Malt Extract was the normal medication

2nd Picture. Frost appearing on the inside of the window pane

 3^rd Picture. The dreaded knitted bathing costume

 4^th Picture. Tony Curtis hair style

14 fabulous memories of a post war childhood

Do you remember Children’s Hour and bread ’n’ dripping?

We might not all remember the war years, but all of us who were born in the 1940s will recall the deep scars it left and the incredible wartime spirit that lived on long after the VE Day celebrations. We remember some of the shortages, especially sweets and chocolate and bomb sites, we always passed several as we travelled from Drayton to Commercial Road on the bus.

The war also brought about huge social change – women became vital to the workforce, the National Health Service gave us free healthcare and secondary education was a must for all children over 11. All things we take for granted today.

In the early 1950s life remained tough and rationing continued. but the glamour of technicolour of the big Hollywood films and the birth of rock’n’roll kept our spirits high. There’s no doubt that we sometimes grew up with very little but we always managed to create our own fun. Here’s just a few of my most cherished memories of precious times and I am sure you will share some of them and be able to add other highlights to the list.

Chip and PIN was not heard of, the hardest thing was remembering your mum’s Co-op divi number when we were sent to the shop on an errand.

Food supplements and additives were unheard of although some of the flavours of the time are hard to forget. The taste of malt and cod liver oil all washed down with welfare orange juice to this day I think I can still taste it!

However, not even rationing could keep us from our favourite treat and the only take away choice we had- fish and chips - wrapped in newspaper of course and in our case coming from Mr Francis chip shop in Drayton.

When it was cold outside we just put another jumper on and in the morning, ice on the inside of the windows got us out of bed and off to school sharpish.

We always seemed to play outside and invented our own games with whatever we could find. playgrounds win our case were the Marshes, Portsdown Hill and the Recreation ground in Farlington Avenue. This had a spectacular bomb hole we could play in. When the Naval Estate began to be built at the top of Farlington Avenue this provided another play area at the weekends when the builders were not working.

Nothing could beat the pictures on a Saturday morning at the Odeon in Cosham. Cheering the goodies, booing the baddies and gripping our seats whilst watching Zorro, Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger, before standing up for the national anthem at the end.

Nothing much happened on a Sunday… unless we went to visit relatives or went for a family walk but whatever it was Dad would never  take his jacket off and was never seen in shorts!.

And who can forget the droop of a soggy knitted swimming costume? But it didn’t dampen our spirits!

We never answered back, and we always got a good telling off if we misbehaved and failed to keep our elbows off the table…

There was always someone at the door – delivery boys, the coal man, the milkman, the rag and bone man… the list was endless. We grew up listening to Children’s Hour, Vera Lynn and the American big band sound on the wireless (that’s a radio in a wooden box, kids!).

Then rock’n’roll was upon us. We shaked, we rattled and we rolled. The girls swooned, the boys practiced that lip curl and sported DA or Tony Curtis haircuts the teenager was born. We were free, independent and doing our own thing. We may not have had much when we were kids but we made the most of it and got so much pleasure from the little things and blowing 6d at the sweet shop was the richest of pickings! If this trip back to the post war years has got you feeling nostalgic for simpler times, I would love you to share your memories.

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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You Write:

Mary writes:-

I`ve meant to write to you for ages ever since you did the bit on Wilfred Pickles and his relatives. My parents and even my grandparents loved Wilfred and Mabel. I remember Violet Carson playing the piano. Later she was Ena Sharples in Coronation St. When I was living in South Devon a Canadian friend stayed with me. She asked if we could all watch a play on the TV as the girlfriend of her nursing pal`s stepson was in it. The play was about agricultural life in the late 18th century. Caroline Pickles was playing the part of a farm labourer`s wife. She was about to have a baby, and along came a woman from the village to help. During the birth there was rather a lot of nudity. Then when the play ended our Canadian friend phoned her nursing pal and said "Tonight we`ve seen rather more of your Caroline than we expected". I found this rather funny but I was reassured that it wasn`t Caroline but a body double was used! Incidentally it was a very good play, which highlighted the poverty and how hard the men worked for a very low wage. Since then Caroline has gone on to appear in lots of programmes. I think she`s great and I like her.

News and Views:

On this day 15th 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 15/06/1962 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.

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 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 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 Long Live Love - Sandie Shaw 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.

Web Page No 2588

8^th June 2019

1st Picture. Workers Playtime CD

2nd Picture. Elsie and Doris Waters

3^rd Picture. Workers Playtime Cartoon

4^th Picture. Workers Playtime at Huntley and Palmers

Workers Playtime

After Last weeks page the logical follow up is Workers Playtime. On May 31st. 1941 a new show had been meticulously planned and organised but no-one knew where it was to be based and no-one knew who was appearing in it. It was a secret and it was happening live. It was Workers Playtime

This simple comedy and music programme became part of the national fabric, serving Britain from the Blitz to the Beatles. It was one of the very first touring variety shows on the BBC and was scheduled to run for 6 weeks but went on broadcasting for a staggering 23 years. It was one of the longest running radio shows in history.

The programme started out on the BBC Home Service and was broadcast live from a factory canteen "Somewhere in Britain". The programme had the total support of the Government because the shows were needed to support the war effort on the Home Front. Worker's Playtime was a touring show, with the Ministry of Labour choosing which factory canteens the show would visit.

Throughout the War, Ernest Bevin the Minister of Labour and National Service, would appear on these shows from time to time to congratulate the workers and exhort them to greater efforts. When the War ended it was realised that the show had worked, and that meant that Ernest Bevin wanted Worker's Playtime to continue to raise the morale of the workers, whilst the Government rebuilt Britain and the British economy. Little did anyone know at the time that the programme would continue until 1964.

The BBC, for their part, were happy to continue with a show which had proved a national success even if it did mean transporting crew, cable, microphones, two pianos, a producer, two pianists and a bunch of variety artists up and down the country three times a week. On 1st. October 1957 the programme switched to the Light Programme and for all 23 years of its existence, the producer was Bill Gates and he would always finish each programme by wishing "Good Luck All Workers!".

Many famous variety, vocal and comedy artists appeared over the years such as Charlie Chester, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Ann Shelton, Betty Driver, Eve Boswell, Dorothy Squires, Julie Andrews, Morecambe and Wise, Peter Cavanagh, Janet Brown, Bob Monkhouse, Peter Goodwright, Percy Edwards, Ken Dodd, Ken Platt, Elsie and Doris Waters, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock,  Terry-Thomas, Anne Shelton, Eve Boswell, Dorothy Squires, Arthur English, comedian George Martin,  Roy Hudd, harmonica player Paul Templar, The Stargazers and many, many more including the ‘Odd Odes’ of Cyril Fletcher.

In November 1940 a predecessor programme called 'Works Wonders' took to the air. It was a series of mid-day programmes staged in factory canteens, and was described as 'A lunch-time concert presented to their fellow workers by members of the staff of a large munition works "Somewhere in England". Arranged by Victor Smythe.' The compere was a very young Bob Monkhouse.

Even today it is popular enough for a selection of original recordings from the show can be heard on the audiobook CD Workers' Playtime published by CD41 in 2008.

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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You Write:

Re last weeks page and the composer Eric Coates, Paul emailed me to tell me that he also wrote the music for the Dam Busters film.

News and Views:

On this day 8th June 1960-1965

On 08/06/1960 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 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 08/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 08/06/1962 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.

On 08/06/1963 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 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 08/06/1963 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 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 08/06/1965 the number one single was Long Live Love - Sandie Shaw and the number one album was Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan. 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.