I don't think they would believe it nowadays?

[pidgeonpost]

My mother couldn't stand it when I just dropped the hose and let the water run away until I needed it again.

She used to say, "If you had to carry that water in a can on a bicycle for a half mile from a well, like I had to, you wouldn't waste so much"

In the 60's we had several schoolmasters who had served in WW2. There was one who had been in the 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) and he used to become apoplectic at the sight of water being wasted. He almost had to be tied down when the groundsman was watering the cricket square.

 

[skeetstar]

Remember green shield stamps, ice on the inside of windows in the morning.
Making a parachute out of a bed sheet to jump off the garage roof, never worked. Playing soldiers with air rifles, shooting at each other, sometimes we'd wear a coat for protection. The rich family in the street went to Spain for their holidays, inconceivable wild and exotic inbthose days. They were the only ones who could afford Corona lemonade from the delivery truck. Hiding behind the seteed

 

[skeetstar]

Settee on a sat evening cos Dr Who was so frightening.
Our holidays were at grans farm in Ireland with a tribe of cousins. We has to fetch water everyday from a pump about 500 yards from the house. We had an old wheelchair, and a galv milk churn. I can still remember the taste even now.

 

[Robbo60]

In about 1967 I was 7 and we found a box of discs on a building site (evading the night watchman) and thought they were about the same size as a sixpence piece. Went to the nearest corner shop that had a chocolate dispense machine on the wall outside, 6d a bar. Emptied it. Went about a mile to the next one and emptied that too. Still don't know what they were?

 

[Jonm]

I remember as a child in the fifties going to the shoe shop and viewing how well my shoes fitted with a Pedoscope ( apparently known as a Fluroscope in USA). This was an x-ray machine, you stood with your feet in it and looked through the viewer in the top. I attach a picture.

I loved using it, could see shoe and foot outline and all the bones, if I remember correctly. My mother discouraged me from using it, there were concerns about safety. Apparently they started being used in the 1920’s and in UK began to be removed from late 1950’s through to 1960’s. I cannot recall using one from 1963 onwards. Not sure if they were banned,consumers stopped using them or owners were concerned about their own safety and their staff safety.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

In about 1967 I was 7 and we found a box of discs on a building site (evading the night watchman) and thought they were about the same size as a sixpence piece. Went to the nearest corner shop that had a chocolate dispense machine on the wall outside, 6d a bar. Emptied it. Went about a mile to the next one and emptied that too. Still don't know what they were?

There used to be a machine selling Needler's chocolate at 6d a bar in an arcade in town. I used to be made to go to Sunday school (more I expect to give my parents free time that from their sense of godliness, which was non existent), and was always given 6d for the collection plate. I used to go to my mother's button tin and take a couple to put in the collection so I could spend the 6d on a bar of chocolate. The lime one was wonderful.

 

[Jonm]

There used to be a machine selling Needler's chocolate at 6d a bar in an arcade in town. I used to be made to go to Sunday school (more I expect to give my parents free time that from their sense of godliness, which was non existent), and was always given 6d for the collection plate. I used to go to my mother's button tin and take a couple to put in the collection so I could spend the 6d on a bar of chocolate. The lime one was wonderful.

My father was also given money for the Sunday school collection. One Sunday he spent half the money on sweets. Unfortunately for him, it was his older sister who went round collecting the money and she noticed he did not put the correct amount of money on the plate. She told on him and he got a “good hiding” from his dad.

What upset him though was not that his sister had told on him, but he gave half the sweets to his sister for her to keep quiet, she ate the sweets and then told on him.

 

[Jacob]

There used to be a machine selling Needler's chocolate at 6d a bar in an arcade in town. I used to be made to go to Sunday school (more I expect to give my parents free time that from their sense of godliness, which was non existent), and was always given 6d for the collection plate. I used to go to my mother's button tin and take a couple to put in the collection so I could spend the 6d on a bar of chocolate. The lime one was wonderful.

I went to Sunday school a couple of times because they told me they gave you stamps and I was into stamp collecting. Didn't take me long to work that they weren't real stamps - they had pictures of beardy chaps with haloes, or women with wings etc. Very disappointing.

 

[Mal-110]

I remember the Corona Pop delivery man, you gave him your empties and got money back on a full bottle, recycling is not new. Didn't always have the money for fizzy pop so we were told to have "Corporation Pop"instead. Now you have to buy it in plastic bottles from Harrogate or Malvern (corporation).
Does anyone remember "Beer at Home from Davenports"? You could only get alcohol from the pub or off licence, Davenports was innovative!. Not that I could have any as I was only ten.
Saved 2d bus fare and got two bun's and walked home. The price of bun's went up so we walked in and shouted "have you got any stale buns" we were shooed out, usually with two buns.
Got a "Johnny Seven" for Christmas once, shot my granddad just behind the ear with a plastic grenade. Froze to death waiting for a real telling off, he was an angry man. I then witnessed my dad being given a right Boll**ing for buying it for me.

 

[D_W]

I remember as a child in the fifties going to the shoe shop and viewing how well my shoes fitted with a Pedoscope ( apparently known as a Fluroscope in USA). This was an x-ray machine, you stood with your feet in it and looked through the viewer in the top. I attach a picture.

I loved using it, could see shoe and foot outline and all the bones, if I remember correctly. My mother discouraged me from using it, there were concerns about safety. Apparently they started being used in the 1920’s and in UK began to be removed from late 1950’s through to 1960’s. I cannot recall using one from 1963 onwards. Not sure if they were banned,consumers stopped using them or owners were concerned about their own safety and their staff safety.

Big radiation dose. They were quietly removed here once that was better understood. How quietly they were removed probably has something to do with how well they understood that they were really unhealthful!

 

[jcassidy]

The entire family (6 kids, plus mum) going down to the public phone box once a week with a stack of 50p coins to call my dad who was on a tour of duty in Lebanon.
Buying **** for my mum.
Buying half-**** for myself (at age 6)
Stealing lead off the roof of the army barracks and selling it to German fishermen.

 

[Robbo60]

I went to Sunday school a couple of times because they told me they gave you stamps and I was into stamp collecting. Didn't take me long to work that they weren't real stamps - they had pictures of beardy chaps with haloes, or women with wings etc. Very disappointing.

I gave up Sunday school when I started real school - Apparently I said I wasn't working a six day week!

 

[softtop]

ice on the inside of windows in the morning.

I've had that in my house these past few days!

 

[Danieljw]

Go carts, from old boxes and pram wheels.... weeks of fun and friction burns...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"Dandys" around here.

 

[Cabinetman]

In about 1967 I was 7 and we found a box of discs on a building site (evading the night watchman) and thought they were about the same size as a sixpence piece. Went to the nearest corner shop that had a chocolate dispense machine on the wall outside, 6d a bar. Emptied it. Went about a mile to the next one and emptied that too. Still don't know what they were?

I don’t know if they are the same disks or why they should be in a box unless the Electrician was saving them? but the knockouts from metal pattress‘s were the exact size of a sixpenny bit, or was it a shilling, I forget. Ian

 

[Sandyn]

What upset him though was not that his sister had told on him, but he gave half the sweets to his sister for her to keep quiet, she ate the sweets and then told on him.

That was a good lesson to learn early in life!!!

 

[Jester129]

Quilts? What are they? How about those really itchy coarse blankets we used to have. An eiderdown on top and you were weighed down in bed. It was a fight to get out in a morning, especially with the frost on those metal framed windows! How times change.
I got banned from having a scooter because of wearing one shoe out - now they're electric!

 

[Jonm]

I don’t know if they are the same disks or why they should be in a box unless the Electrician was saving them? but the knockouts from metal pattress‘s were the exact size of a sixpenny bit, or was it a shilling, I forget. Ian

Sixpence 19.41mm which is very close to 3/4 inch (19.05 mm). Perhaps they started out at 3/4 inch and pressing them increased the diameter slightly. Not found thickness of a sixpence yet.
Electrical box knockouts are now mostly 20mm so were probably 3/4 inch then.

Good guess as to what they were. Why was the electrician keeping them, materials were very expensive then, possibly to reuse as packers or drill the centre for washers or perhaps he wanted some free chocolate.

 

[Jonm]

Not found thickness of a sixpence yet.

thickness sixpence, 1.45 mm