Web Page No 2688

22^nd May 2020

1st Picture. Eastern Road Bridge

  

2nd Picture. Flick Knife

3rd Picture. Bait Digging

4th Picture. Sheath Knife

Would not be allowed today.

This is a page aimed at the lads, I do not think that the majority of the items in this article applies to the girls.

What to us as boys was regarded as being normal today would be described as ‘carrying offensive weapons’. So, let’s start with knives. Most of us carried a small pocket or pen knife in our pockets wherever we went. They were handy for cutting string, peeling scrumped apples, drilling holes in things and a thousand and one other vital uses for the young boy. As we grew older, and especially if we joined the Boy Scouts movement our view of knives changed. Every self-respecting scout would proudly wear a Swiss Army Knife or a large British army knife (complete with spike for removing stones from horses hooves) on his belt. One we got a little older we would then attach a six-inch blade sheath knife in its sheath to our belts. It was all part of the uniform of the day but in this modern world they would be classed as offensive weapons. Luckily we were never stopped by the law for wearing or carrying such blades. However, this did not apply to a couple of other knives that I managed to acquire during my teenage years.

One evening in the early 1960’s when the gang rivalry between the Paulsgrove Gang and the Leigh Park Gang was at its height in Portsmouth a massive grudge fight was arranged to take place along the Eastern Road on the road bridge across the creek. The road was much quieter in those days. I am told that the gangs lined up opposite each other with most gang members armed to the teeth and intent on doing damage to the opposing gang members. The fight began and apparently lasted only a few minutes as the police arrived to sort the situation out. Now, all these gang members, not wanting to be caught with their weapons on them threw all manor of things over the side into the creek.

I was unaware of this when I and a friend went down to the creek the following day to go bait digging ready for a fishing trip the following day. After wading out through the sticky mud to our favourite bait digging area, we plunged our forks into the mud and were absolutely amazed to discover what we found.

Firstly, out of the mud appeared a couple of bicycle chains, then a set of brass knuckle dusters, two or three rubber coshes and the items kept coming. By the end of the afternoon we had no fishing bait but a great haul of weapons, the most impressive were the mother of pearl handled flick knives (I think there were five of them) and three black handled lock knives.

As you can imagine we were dumbfounded and did not have a clue what to do with this booty so we made our way carefully back to the shoreline where we were met by the long arm of the law someone must have seen what we were doing and reported us. Eventually the police relieved us of our lethal collection and we were sent on our way.

But I had the last laugh because little did they know that I had slipped a lock knife that I fancied into my pocket and successfully took it home and hid it among my Scout things. I still have that knife to this day, it lives in my shed, is in bad need of sharpening but I keep it as it is a link with my past and how for the only time in my life I managed to outwit the Law!

Stay in touch

Peter

grseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

Some of the things my parents used to say to us:

If we said our food was hot........"Well its come out of a hot place".....sic the oven

Where are you going Dad......."I'm going to see a man about a dog".......in other words my business

If we were driving out and we passed a Learner Driver we were encouraged by Father to sing in unison...."Learner Learner Hahaha"

Again in the car if someone passed a secret fart the retort from Father was loudly and crossly...."Who wants to go to the toilet"

Going to bed was always...."Up the wooden hill"

One of Carol's was a put down......."You're Not the only pebble on the beach you know!!!"

When Carol asked her mum for something....."ask your Father" ....his response "ask your Mother".....very helpful.

We were encouraged every night to recite the Lord's Prayer and afterwards had to intone....."God Bless Mummy and Daddy, Christopher, Jonathan and Julian, Grandma and Grandad, all of our Uncles and Aunties, al of our cousins and all the children in the World....Amen"

Jonathan

News and Views:

On this day 22nd  May 1960-1965

On 22/05/1960 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 Royal Variety Performance (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 22/05/1961 the number one single was On the Rebound - Floyd Cramer 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 22/05/1962 the number one single was Nut Rocker - B Bumble & the Stingers 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 22/05/1963 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 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.

On 22/05/1964 the number one single was Juliet - Four Pennies 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 22/05/1965 the number one single was Where Are You Now (My Love) - Jackie Trent 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.