Web Page No 2682

1^st May 2020

1st Picture. Place setting

 2nd Picture. Fish knife

3rd Picture. Pickle fork

4th Picture. Kensitas Cigarettes

Eating at home.

One thing that my family always set great store by was good table manners. Come a main meal we all sat around the dining room table and ate together. The table would be set with a table cloth (with matching napkins on Sundays) decorative place mats, cutlery, condiments and sauces, tomato and/or HP or Daddies along with Colemans mustard. If the meal was to be cold meat, this was often on a Monday when mother used up the remainder of the Sunday Roast Joint, there would always be a dish of home cooked beetroot, a jar of Pan Yan Pickle or assorted pickles with pickle forks on the table as well. We all had our regular set places to sit with fathers being at the head.

First of all came the call by my mother from the kitchen ‘Have you washed your hands and face?’ so it was a journey upstairs to the bathroom to undertake the obligatory wash and brush up before eating. Having done so I came down and sat in my appointed place and waited for my meal to be served. Eating with one’s fingers was certainly a real no no in our house that’s what the cutlery was for, we even had fish knives and forks for any sea-based dish, which was normally just once a week. I think these were family heirlooms from some distant relative. I do not remember glasses on the table even water glasses but they may have been there. We never said Grace at the table before or after a meal in our house but it was clearly understood that no one started eating until every diner had all sat down and was ready to eat.

Once I had completed my first course, I always had to place my knife and fork together on the plate to indicate that I had finished. Then came the pudding or afters, apple crumble and custard, fruit pie or maybe rice or macaroni pudding or even a milk jelly and again the rule of placing the cutlery neatly on the plate when I had finished applied. I then had to wait until everyone at the table had finished eating before I could ask if I could leave the table. This I was told was just good manners.

Conversation was always very stilted at these meals as we understood that you did not talk with food in your mouth so conversation was somewhat limited. Although, after the meal was finished and tea or coffee served in the sitting room and where my father and grandmother lit their cigarettes, my father Kensitas (as he collected the coupons) and my grandmother Senior Service, my mother did not smoke, and the world would be put to rights.

All the food was home cooked by either my mother or grandmother. One of my abiding memories is of my grandmothers homemade Cornish Pasty’s. They were cooked from chopped raw meat and vegetables and were enormous but tasted wonderful. Mind you she did have an advantage; she was actually Cornish being born in the west country! My grandmother, my mother’s mother, came down from her home in central London and lived with us from 1952 whilst my father was posted to Ceylon for two years. That was the original plan but she stayed until her death in 1974. Another memory that now comes to mind is her steamed bacon and onion suet pudding.  Delicious!   

One of the other things that my parents would insist on was never to put your elbows on the table. I am sure most households had the same rule, never bolt your food or stuff your mouth full of food and never chew with your mouth open.

All this was good practice for eating out but I really cannot remember ever going to a café, let alone a restaurant with my parents. But I suppose that it was training for later life!

Stay in touch

Peter

grseditor@gmail.com


Now take a look at Hancock and an Egg:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM5eaf49MI8

You Write:

Jonathon Writes:-

Hi Peter

I was ruminating on our childhood days at Solent Road Primary School here are some of my thoughts.

We used to walk to school from Rectory Ave along Woodfield Avenue over Gillman Lane and on  through the Recreation Ground left down Farlington Ave and right into Solent Road wind, rain or shine.....even snow. No shutting down of schools if it gets a bit too cold for somebody's liking!!!!!

The school playground had houses backing onto it and one of the owners was Arthur Pelley. He was a WW1 veteran I seem to remember and a TocH buddy of both our Fathers'. I remember there used to be very occasional fights between boys in that playground and everyone would surround the pair baying"fight fight fight". One memorable fight took place between my elder brother Christopher and someone who was shoving me around. I think that was the first and only time as young boys that he ever stood up for me. Later he was good to me in the Sixth Form when he helped me become a Senator or Prefect just before he went up to Leicester University and died in a tragic accident.

I remember the little "tuck" shop across the road from the school, wasn't it Shaw's. I vividly remember the wide range of inexpensive sweets and lollies on offer. One of my favourites was the big block of rough honeycomb on a stick and chocolate dipped. Only a penny. Also the penny flat slabs of bubble gum with a "space card" in the wrapped offering. I collected everyone of those cards and saved them for several years until our move to Ethiopia in 1958 when my Father gave all my toys and possessions away. Not much a ten year old can do about that is there!!!! My most grievous loss was a superb set six Meccano that I had won in a competition in my Mum's weekly magazine as a six year old. It was that Meccano set that started me on my eventual Engineering career.

Our teachers were strict and I have written about that before. But caning for very trivial offences was extremely common. Now most of those teachers would be imprisoned, the code of behaviour has changed beyond recognition.

Mary Writes:-

I loved my record player which was a Bush, a present on my 14th birthday from my parents. There were also a few records. One was Shirley Bassey & she sang "Kiss me Honey, Honey" which was considered quite racy at the time. My father & I spent many a happy time in Weston Harts choosing records, which became the gift to buy when you were given money for birthdays & Christmas. I wish I still had my record player as Griff has. I can understand how he treasures it. Whilst I was living away my mother gave it to a young lad who lived near us. Apparently he took it apart to see how it was made!!! I wasn`t best pleased. Take care everyone, Mary

Griff writes:

Dansette Part 2

The very first Dansette model available in 1950/51 was the Plus~a~Gram and the Senior, these were very expensive and many teens and adults could not afford record players until later. It retailed at 33 guineas which today would be approximately £800. Imagine that!   

In 1962 a Dansette Popular 4 speed record player would be sold for 11 guineas in Curry's and Weston Harts in Portsmouth and for another 2 guineas you could opt for the Bermuda with a 4 speed autochanger with legs. (see picture) 

 Despite this, many teenagers acquired one, taking them to parties, and purchasing the latest singles (45s). Did we ever !  

 Many Dansettes were sold in December as Christmas presents, or as in my case a 16th Birthday present but the majority would be purchased with the then readily available "hire purchase". I know for a fact Curry's Hire Purchase was 33% down and the rest paid in weekly or monthly instalments because my Mum did exactly that back in 1962. 

 In 1958, Dansette started producing the Dansette Junior and later the De Luxe designed to appeal to the teenagers who would take them to and from parties.

By the late 1960s, recording techniques were becoming more sophisticated. Stereo had been virtually ignored until then and there was a change of direction from the 45's to the LP. Customers began to seek more modern Hi-Fi systems. 

 Inevitably the market dried up for record players. Imports from Japan took over the market with cut-throat competition and the company went into liquidation. Dansette production ended in December 1969, following the introduction of relatively cheap and efficient Japanese and other Far Eastern imported Hi-Fi equipment.

During the years 1950-1969/70 over one million Dansettes were sold.

Many of these record players still remain in use but have been refurbished, there are now many firms in the UK who restore these players as well as independent engineers who restore the players as a hobby. There is nothing you cannot buy to refurbish a Dansette and other record players but the companies who do the professional restoration will charge well over the £100 mark for a basic refurbished working model and up to £400+ for a totally guaranteed restored to a new one and the selling/buying market is very strong as well. The most sought after Dansette model is the red and white record player.  Wishing that you kept your Dansette record player now?  lol

I hope you enjoyed my look into the past of how we enjoyed our music as teenagers but I can assure you I am no dinosaur as I have Spotify and Alexa around the house but it's just not the same as hearing the comforting clunk of the record auto changer spindle dropping another 45 onto the playing deck and the hiss of the stylus needle as it rested gently onto the record before you heard the music play is it.

Take Care......And Regards to Everyone  Melvyn (Griff) Griffiths.  

News and Views:

  On 1^st May 1960-1965

On 01/01/1960 the number one single was Do you Mind - Anthony Newley 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. The big news story of the week was Soviet Union shoots down American U2 spy plane flown by pilot CG Powers

On 01/01/1961 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 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. The big news story of the week was Castro makes Cuba Socialist.

On 01/01/1962 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 01/01/1963 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 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 Churchill retired.

On 01/01/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon and the number one album was With the Beatles - The 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 01/01/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles 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.