Web Page 3081 1st December 2023 First Picture: Lyons Corner House Leicester Square

Web Page 3079 24rd November 2023 First Picture: Rationing Advert

Second Picture: Heinz Salad Cream

Fourth Picture: High Tea

Food in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s Ask any American in their 60s or 70s who is the best cook he or she knows, and they will almost certainly reply, “My mom”. Ask any English person of a similar age and they will almost certainly name anyone BUT their mother. You could be kind and blame this lack of British culinary skill on rationing. Rationing continued even after the end of World War II; indeed, when the Queen came to the throne in 1952, sugar, butter, cheese, margarine, cooking fat, bacon, meat and tea were all still rationed. Rationing did not actually finish until 1954, with sugar rationing ending in 1953 and meat rationing in 1954. Rationing and the meagre choice of ingredients and flavourings, whilst concentrating our mums minds on creating filling and satisfying meals, would preclude the best cook from creating cordon bleu dishes. Food was seasonal (no tomatoes in winter for example); there were no supermarkets, no frozen food or freezers to store it in and the only takeaway was from the fish and chip shop. The 1950s were the age of spam fritters (now making a comeback!), salmon sandwiches, tinned fruit with evaporated milk, fish on Fridays and ham salad for high tea every Sunday. The only way to add flavour to this bland plain cooking was with tomato ketchup, Daddies Sauce or brown sauce. There were no salad dressings as we know them today. Olive oil was only sold in very small bottles from the chemist, to be warmed and placed in the ear to loosen ear wax! Salad in the summer consisted of round lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, and the only dressing available was Heinz Salad Cream. In the winter, salad was often thinly sliced white cabbage, onions and carrots, again served with Salad Cream. Heinz also did a range of tinned salads: Potato Salad, Vegetable Salad and Coleslaw. ‘Meat and two veg’ was the staple diet for most families in the 1950s and 1960s. The average family rarely if ever ate out. In the pub you could get potato crisps (three flavours only – potato, plain or salted – until Golden Wonder launched ‘cheese and onion’ in 1962), a pickled egg to go on top, and perhaps a pasty or some cockles, winkles and whelks from the seafood man on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening. Things started to change when the UK’s answer to the burger bars in America arrived in the 1950s to cater for that new group of consumers, the ‘teenagers’. The first Wimpy Bars opened in 1954 selling hamburgers and milkshakes and proved extremely popular. Although the first Chinese restaurant in London was opened in 1908, the real spread of Chinese restaurants began in the late 1950s and 1960s with the influx of migrants from Hong Kong. These proved very popular; indeed in 1958 Billy Butlin introduced chop suey and chips into his holiday camps! The 1960s also saw a dramatic rise in the number and spread of Indian restaurants in Britain, During rationing it had been very difficult if not near impossible, to obtain the spices required for Indian cooking but with the rise in immigration and the end of rationing, this was no longer a problem and the restaurants flourished. So much so that in the late 1960s, the famous Vesta curries and Vesta Chow Mein, the first taste for many Britons of ‘foreign food’ became available in the shops.. The late 1960s saw a boom in the British economy and a rise in the standard of living. The first package holidays to Europe started in the late 60s and made overseas travel affordable to all. This too played its part in tempting the British palate with tasty new foods and ingredients. The decades between 1954 and 1974 saw a dramatic turning point in British eating habits. From a nation still dealing with rationing in 1954 and whose staple diet was plain home cooking, by 1975 not only were we eating out on a regular basis, we were becoming addicted to the new spicy foods available and the nation’s love affair with Chicken Tikka Masala had well and truly begun. Stay in Touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3077 16th November 2023 First Picture: Blind Mans Buff

Second Picture Musical Chairs

Third Picture: Pin the tail on the donkey

Fourth Picture: The Farmers in his den

Birthday Party Games When I was a child birthday parties were fairly small affairs and were always held in the birthday child’s home with a handful of their schoolmates and young relatives invited. We always had a birthday tea and a cake with candles on it and the rest of the time was filled with party games. It’s interesting that some games we are very familiar with from childhood, appear in similar forms all over the world. Are there reasons why we play them which are common to all people? A lot of these games have a different appearance due to the culture they’re from, but are constructed in the same fashion Blind Man’s Buff A version of the game was played in Ancient Greece where it was called “copper mosquito.” The game is played by children in Bangladesh where it is known as Kamanchi meaning blind fly. One individual is blind-folded in order to catch or touch one of the others who run around repeating, “The blind flies are hovering fast! Catch whichever you can!” The game was played in the Tudor period, as there are references to its recreation by Henry VIII’s courtiers. It was also a popular parlour game in the Victorian Era. I have recently learned that the name of the game is now considered offensive by some and that the blindfolding of a child can be looked on as dangerous. Musical Chairs The origins of the game’s name as “Trip to Jerusalem” is disputed. However, it is known to come from its German name Reise Nach Jerusalem (“The Journey to Jerusalem”). One theory suggests that the name was inspired by The Crusades wherein several heavy losses were incurred. Pin the Tail on the Donkey Pin the tail on the donkey is a game played by groups of children. The earliest version listed in a catalogue of American games compiled by the American Game Collectors Association in 1998, is dated 1899, and attributed to Charles Zimmerling. My parents bought a a commercial set complete with a picture of a donkey and a fabric tail and then we all had a go at pinning the tail on the donkey. Pass the Parcel Research tells us that this is of British origin unlike Blind Man’s Buff which crops up in many cultures. Back in the 1950s the music was either played on a gramophone or on a piano. The parent operating the stop-start music kept a careful eye on the passing of the parcel to make sure everyone had a turn and to ensure that the birthday child was not the one to open the last layer which contained the prize. Back then it was something small like a chocolate bar. Musical Statues It seems that this game appears in various countries and has quite a long history. Some countries know it was Freeze Dance or Frozen Statues. Some homes had a parent who played the piano and some had a gramophone with a parent lifting the stylus – just like Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs. Spin the Bottle/ Plate On a personal note, I absolutely hated forfeit games! At some of the bigger parties like village parties there was the dreaded spin the plate/ bottle game. If the bottle finished its spin pointing to you or if you spun the plate and didn’t get back to your seat in the circle you had to do a forfeit. This usually involved having to sing a song, recite a poem or do something like hop around the room. My worst nightmare!! The Farmers I his den A version of tag where the children all stand in a circle and one is designated the farmer and he has to walk round the outside of the circle and then taps one child on the shoulder, a race around the ring then ensues to see who can get back to the space first. These were the days of innocence! Stay in touch Peter GSSeditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3075 9th November 2023 First Picture: Ronson Lighter Fuel

Second Picture Elbow patches

Third Picture: Rolls Razor

Fourth Picture: Bay Rum

Memories of my father The first things that come to mind are white collar stubs. Until the advent of the attached collar my father always used collar studs. One, a larger one, went into the back of the collar and the shirt. There was also a smaller stud which fixed the front of the collar. In fact, my father, for the rest of his life had a mark near his Adams apple caused by this particular stud. My father always wet shaved so there was always lingering small of Old Spice about him; and talking of perfumes after had been to the barbers in the back of Jarmans tobacconists, in Drayton, run by Mr and Mrs Keyes, he always smelt of Bay Rum. I also remember that he also owned a compact Rolls Strop razor in its own silver coloured box. I remember him standing in the bathroom running the razor up and down the red and black strop to sharpen the blade. My father also smoked and collected the coupons out of the Kensitas packs so his clothes always smelt of smoke which was also permeated with the delicate smell of Ronson Liger Fuel. He also smoked Manakin small cigars but only at Christmas, He always kept a small Ronson petrol lighter in a small brown leather pouch in his pocket; to fill the lighter Ronson petrol was poured into the base through a screw and he always kept a silver threepenny bit in the pouch to unscrew the filler. Another thing that I remember was the way my mother sewed on leather patches onto the elbows of his jackets when they got a bit worn, she also sewed leather linings around the cuffs of his jackets for the same reason. My father was no cobbler but when it came to putting stick on soles or heels onto won out shoes he would take himself off to Woolworths in Cosham High Street and buy the required items, which he would bring home and take into the shed where he would hammer and glue the soles etc onto the offending shoes using a metal last. I still have that last stored away in my own shed. If the repair was beyond him the shoes would be taken to the cobbler on the south side of the Havant Road in Farlington. One part of my father’s life that I never knew much about until after he had died was his life as a Masonic Mason. After his death I came across a small brief case which contained all his regalia. It appears he joined the Masons whilst he was working in Ceylon for two years in the 1950’s and looking at the regalia once he moved back to the UK he became a member of two different Lodges. In the brief case were two different aprons and collars, several Masonic medals and a pair of white cotton gloves. My father never asked me to join and a lot of the things in the case where strange to me. The problem was what to do with all this stuff after he died, luckily, I managed to contact another Mason who took the regalia back to the Lodge and I believe it was then recycled to new members. His masonic membership also explained why in the wardroom he kept an evening suit and black bow tie. Stay in touch, maybe you have some memories of your parents that you would like to share. Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3073 2nd November 2023 First Picture: Tony Hart

Second Picture Vision On

Third Picture: Tony Harts daughter

Fourth Picture: With Morph

Norman Antony Hart was born on 15th October 1925 He initially served as an officer in a Gurkha regiment until the start of Indian independence. After this he became involved in children's television from the 1950s, working on the BBC's Blue Peter for a few years before fronting a series of children's art programmes, including Vision On, Take Hart and Hartbeat. His contributions to children's television include the of the ship logo used by Blue Peter and the show's badges, and the animated character of Morph, who appeared beside him on his programmes following his introduction in the 1970s. He was born in Hastings Road, Maidstone and was interested in drawing from an early age. He attended All Saints, Margaret Street Resident Choir School and then Clayesmore School in Iwerne Minster, Dorset, where art was his best subject. Tony Hart left school in 1943 and wanted to join the Royal Air Force, but as he would have been unable to fly owing to slightly deficient eyesight, he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the British Indian Army instead where he gained an officers' commission in the 1st Gurkha Rifles. However, when he was told that lower-ranked British officers would be replaced by Indian officers following Indian independence, he decided to return to civilian life. The outbreak of the Korean War (25 June 1950) saw him being re-commissioned in the Territorial Army, attached to the Royal Artillery, from 23 November 1948 to 1 July 1950. After being demobilised, he decided to become a professional artist and studied at Maidstone College of Art, He graduated in 1950 and, after working as a display artist in a London store, became a freelance artist His break into broadcast television came in 1952, after his brother persuaded him to attend a party where he met a BBC children's television producer. After an interview in which he drew a fish on a napkin while the producer was looking for paper, He became resident artist on the Saturday Special programme. Subsequent television shows included Playbox (1954–59), Tich and Quackers (1963-), Vision On (1964–76), Take Hart (1977–83), Hartbeat (1984–93), Artbox Bunch (1995–96) and Smart Hart (1999–2000 From the 1970s, he often appeared alongside the animated Plasticine stop-motion character Morph, created by Peter Lord of Aardman Animations. Tony Hart was a regular face on the BBC children's programme Blue Peter in the 1950s and presented a number of programmes in 1959. As well as demonstrating small-scale projects (the type that viewers might be able to do) he also created large-scale artworks on the television studio floor, and even used beaches and other open spaces as 'canvases'. A regular feature of his programmes was The Gallery, which displayed artworks sent in by young viewers. Hart also created the original design for the Blue Peter badge, also used as the programme's logo. He originally asked for his fee to be paid as a royalty of 1d for each badge made, but was offered a flat fee of £100. The badges are famous throughout the United Kingdom and have been coveted by successive generations of Blue Peter viewers. The ink and watercolour galleon, believed to be the inspiration for the Blue Peter logo and badge, was originally drawn by Tony Hart for "Hooray for Humpty-Dumpty" on Saturday Special, in 1952. He received two BAFTA awards. His first, for Best Children's Educational Programme, came in 1984 for Take Hart, and he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. He retired from regular TV work in 2001.[3] He met his wife, Jean Skingle, while working in television; they married in 1953[ They were married for fifty years until she died in 2003. They had a daughter, Carolyn, and two grandchildren. On 28th December 2006, it was announced during the reunion programme It Started with Swap Shop that Tony Hart was in poor health, though this was not elaborated upon until an interview with The Times published on 30 September 2008, revealing that two strokes had robbed him of the use of his hands and left him unable to draw. He peacefully on 18 January 2009 at the age of 83. His funeral took place in the village of Shamley Green, where he had lived for more than forty years and he was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church. Stay in Touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com