Food for thought, Oldie memories.

[Grinding One]

Games? Tag your it ,Kick the Can,Ole Ocean Free,Baseball....
Had a two wheel cart 4 ft tall to load Vegtables on to haul up to the house,I remember it had two handles as well like a wheelbarrow,big brother on one me and other brother on other side.Wagon wheels on that thing,steel rims....
We got indoor plumbing when I was 7,still remember the Sears catalog hanging in there...(Outhouse)
Cistern for water to wash with,rain water....
I passed 3 different newspapers to make 1.20 a week (110 subscribers on each route)some didn`t pay at all but I still had to give them a paper....
Best thing was nothing canned, all food made fresh from raw material,which is probably why we lived so long.
No one made bunches of money but everyone enjoyed everyone.At school all differences were settled with fist.No guns or knifes...No drugs,except when you went to hospital...Never locked doors,and more kids never got into trouble with all moms looking out for everyone else`s kids...neigborhood watch program.At school never thought to talk back to teachers,we new when to speak....You drop something you pick it up.No trash anywhere,nope not even on the streets.Not like today....

 

[Ironballs]

Thank christ I grew up in the 70s and 80s and didn't have to live with all that. People often have selective memories as well, everyone seems to be convinced that the country is awash with peadophiles and abductors, most people you speak to will remember some odd or slightly creepy that used to be floating about and everyone avoided, they just weren't branded the same way then.

Where I grew up Whittles coaches were a big local firm and the guy that owned it had his daughter abducted and a ransom demanded, I seem to recall that at the very least she was tortured and mutilated and may even have been killed.

Things may not be ideal now, but it's better in most ways than when all of us were growing up - my old BBC micro and an xbox 360 are not even on the same planet, but then neither were the Beeb micro and a Scrabble board...

 

[Woodmagnet]

Licking the frozen cream off the top of the
milk bottle.

 

[Night Train]

My younger friend asked me this today. We were working on his studio and he asked me about living in London in the 80's. he wanted to know about the music and the riots.
I told him what I could remember but then told him that when I think of growing up in London I remember:

Pre decimal money
Taking a jug to the diary at the end of the road for milk before the days of electric milk floats
Side streets with wooden, end grain cobbles
Rag and bone men
Coal deliveries
Outside toilets
Bathing in a tin tub
Hot water from a big kettle on the stove
Talking to strange men in the street who would see you safely home when you were lost
My first bike with solid tyres and rod brakes
Pink Parrafin and Esso Blue for the portable heater
Gas lights alongside the electric lights
Slum housing
No yellow lines or zigzags on the road
Dad opening the first Chinese takeaway in the borough, and then the first ethnic grocery store outside of Soho
The three day week and power cuts

 

[Gower]

Centre throttle pedals.
Offering ladies a lift when it was raining and they didn't back away shouting rape.
Walking down the garden to the air raid shelter or sheltering under the stairs.
Riding between 75 and a 100 miles on a Sunday riding a modified 3 speed Hercules.
Helping the milkman on deliveries so as to get a ride on his van.
Delivering groceries using an incredibly heavy, single speed bike with a basket rack over the front wheel.
Listening to Dick Barton at 6.45 (if homework had been done).
Starting work as an apprentice. £2.7.6 for 5 1/2 day week.
Hell, who started this thread!
Jim

 

[Tom K]

In the U.K
Thrashing around on the cold cotton sheets so the friction warmed them up. School caps and satchels. Grandads enormous jar of rank brilliantine.
Manual workers who wore suits and ties. The Working Mans Club Beano.

In W.A
Hosing the house down to cool it. Not putting your hand in the mailbox without looking. Roller blinds on the E.K and the water bag hanging on the front. Xmas dinner on the beach. Racehorse Goanna's running over the car.

 

[Tony Spear]

Nostalgia is a thing of the past!

Misquote!

"Nostalgia ain't what it used to be"

AND to add to the conversation, when I was a child we weren't allowed to read a book, magazine etc.at the dining table, so by the time I was 6 I could recite the HP Sauce label (in English and French) from memory!

"Cette sauce de haut qualite est a melange ......"

 

[tekno.mage]

Walking the 20 minutes to & from school with a friend from down the road from the age of 8 onwards (before that one of our Mums walked with us.)
Gloves on a length of elastic down the sleeves of your coat so you wouldn't lose them.
Milk delivered in glass bottles before 7am in the morning - and in the winter frozen milk and blue-tit pecked bottle tops.
Rag & bone man with his horse & cart.
Coalman carrying huge sacks of coal on his back from his truck then emptying the coal into the coal bunker round the back of the house. Mother always brought him a mug of tea afterwards.
Cleaning out the ashes from the coal fire in the living room.
Picking & preparing home grown fruit & veg. Stealing & eating the raspberries, strawberries and young carrots when I thought my parents weren't watching.
Listening to the Home Service on a vast old valve radio in a walnut case.
Waking up in an unheated bedroom to see what patterns Jack Frost had left on the inside of the windows on winter mornings. Breathing on the cold glass to watch it freeze.
No telephone in the house until I was about 16. Used to use the phone box down the end of the road to phone friends in other phone boxes - used to plan a time to phone, then call the other box. If someone else answered you would ask for your friend and whoever had answered the phone would look to see if they were coming down the road and either tell you to hang on or to call again later!
Answering the phone in the empty call box - then going to fetch the neighbour the call was for, or taking a message to them (which often resulted in a cake or sweets from the neighbour concerned)
Visiting the strange old widow in the next street so she wouldn't be lonely. This at the suggestion of my Mum after I came home from the Brownies wanting "good turns" to do! The widow concerned had once lived in India and was happy to have someone to sit and listen to her stories. I also used to read to her from the classics as her sight was very poor. The first time I went round there I was terrified as the house was very dark and smelt quite bad, but she turned out to be a kind soul and I'm sure it improved my reading skills!
Doing the shopping for the old couple at the end of the street (another "good turn") and pulling it home in an old go-cart made of an orange box & pram wheels (made by a lad down the road and his Dad).

tekno.mage

 

[Grinding One]

My younger friend asked me this today. We were working on his studio and he asked me about living in London in the 80's. he wanted to know about the music and the riots.
I told him what I could remember but then told him that when I think of growing up in London I remember:

Pre decimal money
Taking a jug to the diary at the end of the road for milk before the days of electric milk floats
Side streets with wooden, end grain cobbles
Rag and bone men
Coal deliveries
Outside toilets
Bathing in a tin tub
Hot water from a big kettle on the stove
Talking to strange men in the street who would see you safely home when you were lost
My first bike with solid tyres and rod brakes
Pink Parrafin and Esso Blue for the portable heater
Gas lights alongside the electric lights
Slum housing
No yellow lines or zigzags on the road
Dad opening the first Chinese takeaway in the borough, and then the first ethnic grocery store outside of Soho
The three day week and power cuts

This was the 80`s???
Sounds like way before that to me....or did you mean the 1880`s

 

[Digit]

Centre throttle pedals.

Crikey! You must be as old as me! I learnt to drive on a WW1 army ambulance and didn't get very far the first time I got behind the wheel of a 'modern' car!

Roy.

 

[Night Train]

My younger friend asked me this today. We were working on his studio and he asked me about living in London in the 80's. he wanted to know about the music and the riots.
I told him what I could remember but then told him that when I think of growing up in London I remember:

Pre decimal money
Taking a jug to the diary at the end of the road for milk before the days of electric milk floats
Side streets with wooden, end grain cobbles
Rag and bone men
Coal deliveries
Outside toilets
Bathing in a tin tub
Hot water from a big kettle on the stove
Talking to strange men in the street who would see you safely home when you were lost
My first bike with solid tyres and rod brakes
Pink Parrafin and Esso Blue for the portable heater
Gas lights alongside the electric lights
Slum housing
No yellow lines or zigzags on the road
Dad opening the first Chinese takeaway in the borough, and then the first ethnic grocery store outside of Soho
The three day week and power cuts

This was the 80`s???
Sounds like way before that to me....or did you mean the 1880`s

No, my friend asked me about the 80's but I also told him what I really remembered about living in London. This was late 60s early 70's

 

[Tom K]

Many reading this wouldn't know how backwards some parts of London remained.
Although an oddity now there were still many propertys without bathrooms
and still retaining the old gas lamp fittings etc up until the 80's
Don't remember ever collecting milk in a jug but I remember some of the old fashioned shops that would split a loaf or a block of butter and as slightly delinquent kids we also knew which shops would sell "singles" too :roll:

 

[Digit]

And being told to whistle whilst 'shucking' peas!

Roy.

 

[Tom K]

:lol: While discussing with my 7 year old Grand Daughter what we will grow on our proposed veg patch she said " Oh yes and we must grow Pop Up Peas" and then added "Nanny Sheila always complains we don't leave any to cook" I think the description was because with her little sis she pops the pod then pops them into her mouth :lol:

 

[Night Train]

Many reading this wouldn't know how backwards some parts of London remained.
Although an oddity now there were still many propertys without bathrooms
and still retaining the old gas lamp fittings etc up until the 80's
Don't remember ever collecting milk in a jug but I remember some of the old fashioned shops that would split a loaf or a block of butter and as slightly delinquent kids we also knew which shops would sell "singles" too :roll:

The gas lamps were useful during the powercuts, as was having a street light outside the window that was on a different phase so it was always on when the house was in the dark.
I remember when I was really young seeing the milk churns being delivered to the dairy. I used to love looking in the dairy shop window as it had agricultural models to do with dairy farming. It was a bit like a modern Deli with a chiller counter full of cheese and butter and another with eggs.

I also remember when the Unigate milk float started doing its rounds and gradually more milk bottles landed on door steps and the dairy closed.

 

[Digit]

And the horse drawn milk float. If the horse could have put the bottles on the door step they could have done without the man, the horse knew the round as well as the driver!
Then there was the rent man and the man from the Pru of course.

Roy.

 

[Chris By The River]

I think we should start a new band and have thought up a great name for it -

Alzheimers And The ...... er...... damn it, why does that keep happening? It'll come back to me later.