0ld times

[cappy]

remember the man lighting the gas lamps jim ....and the knocker ups early morning ......the man shouting calloherrin with a barrow no ice filled with the silver darlings.....the telegram boys on there red bikes .....my granny if she saw one ain the street would shut the curtains .......dont know what she thought that woud do ......but it was always bad news this after the war even......the ice cream man with the horse and cart....always a drunken seaman somewhere in shields.....often chucking money about ......the delivery boy like JWS with the big carrier on the front of the bike ......standing for god save the queen in the cinema......the drunk on the bus singing away then others joining in ....or laughing out loud .....happy days ...cappy

[Dennis McGuckin]

We often had tramps knocking at the door.My mam would give them something to eat, and whatever else she could afford.
Always claimed that they had a secret sign that they left for other tramps, saying it was a good place to knock at.

[John Albert Evans]

remember the man lighting the gas lamps jim ....and the knocker ups early morning ......the man shouting calloherrin with a barrow no ice filled with the silver darlings.....the telegram boys on there red bikes .....my granny if she saw one ain the street would shut the curtains .......dont know what she thought that woud do ......but it was always bad news this after the war even......the ice cream man with the horse and cart....always a drunken seaman somewhere in shields.....often chucking money about ......the delivery boy like JWS with the big carrier on the front of the bike ......standing for god save the queen in the cinema......the drunk on the bus singing away then others joining in ....or laughing out loud .....happy days ...cappy

Cappy, I'd forgotton till you mentioned it but I used to ride one of those bikes with a large wicker basket on the front delivering groceries fropm th shop were I worked before going to sea but that was in 1956.
John

[cappy]

Cappy, I'd forgotton till you mentioned it but I used to ride one of those bikes with a large wicker basket on the front delivering groceries fropm th shop were I worked before going to sea but that was in 1956.
John

##somehow they were always hard to steer till you got the hang of them .....cappy

[Rodney Mills]

A great thread Cappy:

I must have been about nine years old and living at my Grandparents house at Chingford Hatch, Essex. The Prudential agent used to come on a Saturday afternoon to collect on the life insurance policies (they were paid weekly in cash). The collector had the biggest nose I've ever seen. He collected his payments on a bike. When it rained water ran of his hat onto his conk and dripped onto the front step, missing his raincoat. When it was cold his nose ran, he have dewdrops dripping on the step. Anyway, My Gran called him "Snozzel."

Snozzel would knock on the door and Gran would either give me the half a crown or so to pay him, or tell me to tell him she was out shopping.

Well one Saturday there's a knock on the door, I ran and opened it and it was him. I yelled out down the passage to Gran who was in the kitchen, "Gran... It's Snozzel!" He was stunned and Gran was both embarrassed and pished when she stormed passed me and paid him.

How about Dick Barton special Agent along with Snowy and Jock, and this is your story teller...The man in Black. If you slept-in on Saturday and missed going to the Saturday morning rush you could catch "The omnibus edition of Dick Barton, the whole week in one shot.

Helping to mix the Xmas pudding and somehow, magically, I always had the silver three-penny piece.

The first haircuts, sitting on a plank ( a board across the arms of the barber's chair) told to look at this sloping ramp (were grown-ups rested their feet) and told by the barber to watch for the mouse to come in and out from behind the foot rest...never did see one.

[j.sabourn]

The prudential also was a money lender as could get a clothing cheque for say 2 pounds and pay back at 2 bob a week. That's how we got clothed. The barber shop was the unofficial booky as gambling was then illegal. Also sold the French letters. Treasured items were marbles and conkers. God help todays generation if they ever have to see the likes of the Middle East like we did during the war, and thought it was the natural scheme of things, those undergoing that today will have the same feelings when it is all over. Sport was just that sport and not the big money making industry it is today. Todays generation have no idea of austerity and doubt if they know what it means. JWS

[Ivan Cloherty]

How about Dick Barton special Agent along with Snowy and Jock,
.

and this is your story teller...The man in Black............Valentine Diall

The men at the door,

The man from the Co-op with his funeral plan
The man from the Prudential with his life Insurance
The man from Redifusion so you could watch television
The man from the Xmas club

The warnings, don't you dare go near those curtains, especially when dad's allotment hadn't arrived

These men never knew whether you were in or out, because we didn't have cars parked outside at anytime

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Threads 1# to 6# reading them altogether really brought back 'Old Times'. It looks like all of us remember the same sort of things, but there again that's the way it was in those days . Absolutely nothing like it is nowadays for our grandchildren but I suppose when they get to our ages they will look back and say a similar sort of thing as what is being said on this lovely thread good luck to them all for their futures.
John.

Hi John.
Unfortunate that they will only remember things like walking down the street sending text messages, on the mobile to friends. We are in a small country town with five big schools but seldom see kids out playing, just three or four down the skateboard ramp, as many live on farms I suppose its the way of life.
Cheers Des

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Cappy.
The French onion sellers with a pole with strings of onions hanging off them. Two Scotsmen in kilts one playing the bagpipes and the other a drum, ex soldiers from the first war, no jobs in the depression, they had walked all over the UK. All the village kids picking a field of potatoes for the farmer and ending up getting an ice cream each. Watching the home guard toss small explosives into the river and us kids jumping in to get the stunned fish. Putting a penny on the railway line and picking it up all squashed. But maybe the best memory lying on my back in the grass on the common watching the skylarks go up and up until they disappeared, the watch them come down then shear off flat along the ground to where their nest was, I can still smell that grass.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

We often had tramps knocking at the door.My mam would give them something to eat, and whatever else she could afford.
Always claimed that they had a secret sign that they left for other tramps, saying it was a good place to knock at.

Tramps as we knew them you never see now, only the homeless who in some cases are better cared for than the normal guy.

Obviously the tramps came to your house before Tab Nabs. LOL