I seem to remember hot summer holidays on the beach, building sandcastles with my father. I had a tin bucket with a painting of a ship, crabs and jellyfish all round it. I think I had to have a new one each year because the salt water rusted them out.
We used to go to Southport a few times in the summer, you could drive the car onto the beach.
The Ice cream man came round with a bicycle with the fridge on the front of it. there were no soft ices in those days.
Saturday 14 July 2012
Home Life - Clive Dann
Household goods
A fully automatic top loading washing machine arrived at home one day. Bendix by name. Our house had cellars, so a staging was erected under the kitchen floor to cope with the spinning barrel in the machine. It stopped the washer travelling along the kitchen floor when spinning out the wet clothes. Mother used a Prestige Pressure Cooker for vegetables etc, it had weights horizontally fixed on the lid. They had a habit of flying off at pressure and hitting the kitchen door.
Shopping
Mother would shop for food at John Williams a chain of Provision Merchants centred around Mid Wales and the borders. Mother would sit on a chair and the manager would dance attendance; samples of cheese, sweet biscuits, bacon etc, were offered for approval. I would be given a chocolate biscuit to eat. The bacon was sliced on a large red slicer with a shinny round blade, turned by hand; sugar was ladled into blue bags; butter sliced into greaseproof paper, and wrapped on the long Mahogany counter, all along one side of the counter, on the floor were 7lb biscuit tins with glass lids enabling the customer to see the variety available.
Mother would tender the money which was placed in a round mental container; above her head; it was sat on a wire; the cord was pulled and the money fled across the ceiling to a cashier somewhere in the distance. Change would arrive back in seconds.
Food coupons exchanged hands; they were ripped out of a buff coloured book. Part of the wartime rationing which perpetuated until the mid 50s
A fully automatic top loading washing machine arrived at home one day. Bendix by name. Our house had cellars, so a staging was erected under the kitchen floor to cope with the spinning barrel in the machine. It stopped the washer travelling along the kitchen floor when spinning out the wet clothes. Mother used a Prestige Pressure Cooker for vegetables etc, it had weights horizontally fixed on the lid. They had a habit of flying off at pressure and hitting the kitchen door.
Shopping
Mother would shop for food at John Williams a chain of Provision Merchants centred around Mid Wales and the borders. Mother would sit on a chair and the manager would dance attendance; samples of cheese, sweet biscuits, bacon etc, were offered for approval. I would be given a chocolate biscuit to eat. The bacon was sliced on a large red slicer with a shinny round blade, turned by hand; sugar was ladled into blue bags; butter sliced into greaseproof paper, and wrapped on the long Mahogany counter, all along one side of the counter, on the floor were 7lb biscuit tins with glass lids enabling the customer to see the variety available.
Mother would tender the money which was placed in a round mental container; above her head; it was sat on a wire; the cord was pulled and the money fled across the ceiling to a cashier somewhere in the distance. Change would arrive back in seconds.
Food coupons exchanged hands; they were ripped out of a buff coloured book. Part of the wartime rationing which perpetuated until the mid 50s
Entertainment - Clive Dann
Television
Televisions were only in black and white until the later years of the 50s. There was only one channel for many years; BBC, programmes started early afternoon with Children's Television. Andy Pandy, Muffin the Mule, the adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Roy Rogers, Skippy the Kangaroo and Lassie. I remember a test card featured before transmission started, there was a young girl's face in the centre. Colour and Independent television with advertisements came along in the late 50s
Toys
I had a Hornby Double O electric train set, Dinky toy scale model cars and a meccano set, these were my favourites, they were beautifully made. I had a peddle car that I rode round the garden in, it was a replica of a Wartime American Army Jeep.
Music and Pop Stars
Elvis Presley hit the scene, he was featured in films and on television. he apparently was reluctant to come to Britain
Bert Weedon published books on how to learn the guitar. he actually died only this year
Books and Comics
Enid Blyton wrote 'The Famous Five' series of which there were many. I still had the 'Noddy' books, and the 'Eagle' comic arrived every week. I was a member of the 'Eagle' club; I wore a smart enamel Eagle badge on my school blazer
Televisions were only in black and white until the later years of the 50s. There was only one channel for many years; BBC, programmes started early afternoon with Children's Television. Andy Pandy, Muffin the Mule, the adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Roy Rogers, Skippy the Kangaroo and Lassie. I remember a test card featured before transmission started, there was a young girl's face in the centre. Colour and Independent television with advertisements came along in the late 50s
Toys
I had a Hornby Double O electric train set, Dinky toy scale model cars and a meccano set, these were my favourites, they were beautifully made. I had a peddle car that I rode round the garden in, it was a replica of a Wartime American Army Jeep.
Music and Pop Stars
Elvis Presley hit the scene, he was featured in films and on television. he apparently was reluctant to come to Britain
Bert Weedon published books on how to learn the guitar. he actually died only this year
Books and Comics
Enid Blyton wrote 'The Famous Five' series of which there were many. I still had the 'Noddy' books, and the 'Eagle' comic arrived every week. I was a member of the 'Eagle' club; I wore a smart enamel Eagle badge on my school blazer
Fabulous 50s memories - Clive Dann
Motor cars
Father brought a Standard Vanguard, a beetle shaped car; the first British made car to incorporate the headlights within the front wing, and the wings to be an integral part of the bodywork.
Trolley buses
Trolley buses used overhead electric cables like the tramcar principle. They seemed huge double decker's with twin at the back
Aircraft
The world first passenger jet powered aircraft, the De Havilland Comet flew trans-Atlantic flights in record time in the colours of the BOAC. It looked magnificent. Regrettably, there were some terrible air disasters involving these aircraft
Trains
The departure from steam railway engines was heralded by the introduction of diesel electric trains. father took me to a field near Lytham St Anne's to watch 2 black Locos with the numbers 10000 and 10001 on the side in white, flash past each other at enormous speed.
Sport
Roger Bannister was the first man ever to run the 4 minute mile
World events
I remember the Hydrogen Bomb, being tested on Christmas Island, and the demonstration surrounding it
The first space flight; Russia put a dog into orbit
The Suez Canal Crisis. Colonel Nassa, President of Egypt closed the Suez Canal to all shipping, causing the long journey round the Cape of Good Hope. Instead of the short cut from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.
The Korean War
I remember newspaper photographs of the Korean war between Communist North Korea and non-Communist south Korea. Britain became involved with the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces (I think)
Father brought a Standard Vanguard, a beetle shaped car; the first British made car to incorporate the headlights within the front wing, and the wings to be an integral part of the bodywork.
Trolley buses
Trolley buses used overhead electric cables like the tramcar principle. They seemed huge double decker's with twin at the back
Aircraft
The world first passenger jet powered aircraft, the De Havilland Comet flew trans-Atlantic flights in record time in the colours of the BOAC. It looked magnificent. Regrettably, there were some terrible air disasters involving these aircraft
Trains
The departure from steam railway engines was heralded by the introduction of diesel electric trains. father took me to a field near Lytham St Anne's to watch 2 black Locos with the numbers 10000 and 10001 on the side in white, flash past each other at enormous speed.
Sport
Roger Bannister was the first man ever to run the 4 minute mile
World events
I remember the Hydrogen Bomb, being tested on Christmas Island, and the demonstration surrounding it
The first space flight; Russia put a dog into orbit
The Suez Canal Crisis. Colonel Nassa, President of Egypt closed the Suez Canal to all shipping, causing the long journey round the Cape of Good Hope. Instead of the short cut from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.
The Korean War
I remember newspaper photographs of the Korean war between Communist North Korea and non-Communist south Korea. Britain became involved with the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces (I think)
Coronation - Clive Dann
My parents had the only television our side of the village, so 16 of us sat around a 9" television screen with a magnifying glass on the front.
As a child I sat on the floor, at an angle to the screen; consequently, everything looked very long to me
Festival of Britain - Clive Dann
1951 saw the staging of The Festival of Britain intended to Kick start the economy following World War II
The exhibition was centred mainly on the south bank of the Themes though many other venues exhibited various aspects of science, technology, manufacturing, transport etc
The south bank site featured some memorable structures including The Dome of Discovery and the Skylon, a tall slender structure rather like a television transmitter mast
The death of the King - Clive Dann
I remember arriving at school and being taken to the local Church for a service to honour the late King who died in the night
Newspaper pictures were of the new Queen leaving an Airport in South Africa where she had been on holiday with her husband Prince Philip, and arriving back on British soil as Queen Elizabeth II
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