Web Page 2828

1ST PICTURE: Glasses with patch

2nd PICTURE; Mourning arm bands

3RD PICTURE; Timothy White Portsea store

4TH PICTURE: Timothy White tooth powder

Odds and Ends Today I am looking at two or three non-related items that were common when we were younger and no longer see today. The first item is the condition called A Lazy Eye. This was an optical problem that affected very many young children. The clue to the fact that a child was suffering from this problem was the fact that they wore a pair of spectacles with the one of the lenses blanked off with plaster. I understand that my sister-in-law suffered from this problem when young. The condition was corrected by an operation that corrected the problem. Today there is now a different way of treating the problem. I cannot remember the last time I saw anyone with a blanked-out lens. The second item deals with the way that death was dealt with by the adults in the 1950’s. When a friend or relative or neighbour died, as a matter of respect all the curtains in the house were drawn. I understand the reason for this was to allow the bereaved to move the deceased person out of the house in relative privacy. If the death was within the family the relatives of the deceased wore a black armband for at least three weeks. Also if the person who had died was a senior member of the royalty arm bands were worn on service uniforms. As children we were instructed not to play or go near the house during the mourning period. One other thing that appears to have disappeared is the physical respect shown by the general public to a coffin in a hearse. During our childhood when a funeral procession drove by people stopped and bowed their heads and the men removed their hats. Today with pedestrian precincts funeral corteges rarely pass along a shopping street and men today very rare wear hats today. I was recently amazed to discover the origins of the chemists Timothy White and Taylors. I though that it was a national company but their origins was as a ships' chandlers and general store in Portsmouth, and was started in 1848 by Timothy White. Timothy White himself had qualified as a pharmacist in 1869. By 1890, Whites was one of four British pharmacists with over ten branches. They sold hardware as well as that which was normally found at a retail chemists. In 1904 the company was incorporated as Timothy Whites Ltd. In 1935, Timothy Whites merged with Taylors Drug Co. Ltd. to form Timothy Whites & Taylors; the shops themselves were named either simply "Timothy Whites" or "Timothy Whites & Taylors" The company was taken over by Boots Pure Drug Co. in 1968. Immediately before the takeover, there were 614 Timothy Whites shops, which had had a combined turnover of approximately £33m in the year before the acquisition. As a result of the rationalisation that followed the takeover, Boots rebranded and absorbed the pharmaceutical side of the business, leaving Timothy Whites with just 196 shops that sold only housewares. The Timothy Whites name eventually disappeared completely in 1985.

Marilynn Writes:- ‘I went on that Dunera trip in 1963 (we travelled back from Calais the day President Kennedy was shot) I went with Jill Wakely, Sheila Wilton, Gillian Gale and Sue Finch - those are the names I specifically remember! I think I sent some pictures to Peter some years ago but I will see if I have any more - Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com >