i remember when,......

[Alfred]

As a young boy helping the milkman on a Saturday morning to deliver milk to many houses , delivering what he told me to, how many white tops, blue tops even gold topped milk (now no longer around )and collect the empty milk bottles,

recycling then was very far advanced against todays recycling,

Q; what do you remember from all those years ago, and will youshare your memories with us,.

[Sheila]

Unpicking knitted garments (made out of wool, nothing synthetic), winding it into skeins, washing it to get the kinks out and then using the good bits to make something new.
Who had a knitted swimsuit?  A generation was traumatised by them as they drooped to your knees when they became wet.

Another memory - party lines on the phone.

[Diasi]

Who had a knitted swimsuit?  A generation was traumatised by them as they drooped to your knees when they became wet.

Did the swimsuits droop to the knees as well? 

[Flying bomb]

Making a wooden scooter with ball races....made an awful noise scooting along
the pavement flagstones.
Playing whips and tops in the street without any cars about !!
Knock your neighbour out of doors...…
….tying string to a knocker and pulling it at a distance.
Bows and arrows...arrows made from privit pinched from gardens in street.
Playing marbles along the pavement gutters.
Hanging on the back of the coalman's horse and cart.
Bunking in the Cinema, when someone came out an exit door

[Michael Rolls]

Watching some boys fising until one of them overbalanced and fell in the river - took about four of us to pull him out to safety - we would have been 11 or 12 at the time. Making a soap box derby device with bits of wood, a crate of some sort and pram wheels scavenged from a tip - it steered and I somehow tore my trousers on it - to the dismay of my very hard up mother. Sheltering from the air raids
Mike

[Raven]

My happiest childhood memories are it being safe to go off with my sisters for the day on our bikes. We had to make our own sandwiches to go in our saddlebags along with  cartons of juice. We used to pretend we were Enid Blytons Famous Five (but we were four) off on an adventure. We explored everywhere and everything, watched people to see what they were doing, always came home in the evening dirty, tired but happy..
Childhood is so different now.

[crabbyob]

remembering that i had moved from town to country everything was new
we lived on a [new] estate bordered by fields in which a milk herd grazed.then two fields away was the farm house, but in the field beside the farmhouse was a wonderful pear-tree, we used to check the farmer was working in a distant field then one would climb the tree and shake it causing the riper pears to fall, then we collected what we could and be off before he could catch us,, he chased us often he wasnt an old guy, but old to us... one day it was my turn to climb the tree, and i always said the others didnt shake the tree hard enough, so i gave it a proper shaking, then i asked 'is that enough' and the farmer answered 'aye theres plenty here' the farmer was stood eating a pear with his dog by his side 'you can come down now and get what coming to you' he might have meant a sack of pears, but i thought not...'no i'm ok up here' he shrugged 'suit yerself i'm in no hurry' i waited five mins an he was still there, so i pulled a few pears and dropped them on him, he ducked and stepped way from the tree 'get down here now, i'm going to put my boot' i chucked a pear at him 'go away an i will go away and never come back' he shook his head 'get down here now' i threw another pear 'right i will go an get my gun, that'll get you down' i laughed 'yes , but try not to be too long my diners about ready, but i will wait for you to come back before i come down' he nodded 'clever we bugger intchu' he pointed to me and said to his dog "watch him' the dog wagged its tail and crouched down watching me and the farmer set off towards his house, when he was about a hundred yards away he was joined by his dog, it didnt like pears thrown at it either.... it was always my intention to buy that guy a pint, but the opportunity never presented its self... but fair play to him i think he enjoyed the chase more than we enjoyed the pears

[Alfred]

well that was very enjoyable and I could easily imagine that , almost as it I had been there seeing the event as it happened , there has been some very good memories and I hope there will be more,

[Flying bomb]

Watching the London docks burnings red glow reflected on a barrage balloon.

Listening to the bomb doors opening on German bombers as they flew overhead.

Sleeping down the London Underground during the blitz,
on those hard platforms!

[Alfred]

children could play in the park almost all day long and mothers didn't have to worry, as then there were park keepers ,and lots more policemen around,

[crabbyob]

funnily enough when i was about six on my way home from school, i decided i had to pee, so visited a public toilet i was passing.... now there was this weird guy who seemed to have a weird big head hang about the area, when i re-buttoning my trousers he came in and made a grab for me, i ducked under his arm and ran all the way home, i was well out of breath when i got in, my grandfather laughed and asked if i was being chased by the devil, so i told him , the smile slid off his face and he put his boots on and went out, i dont know what happened, but the weird guy was never seen again...

[Johned]

As a young lad early in the war coming home from Sunday School in my best clobber and standing by the river looking at the fish in the water and suddenly falling in with them!  Fortunately I managed to get back up onto the bank and trailed home dripping wet and received the expected backhander for getting my clothes wet.  Perhaps it was my mother's relief that I had survived; I like to think so!

[Scrumpy]

Going down the coal yard with an old pram.. A group of kids giving each other a ride in the the pram . The wheels were wonky and full of coal dust from the last trip .

[Michael Rolls]

In the winter of 47 mum and I had to take the pram to the shunting yard to collect coal
Mike

[crabbyob]

i remember queues of folks with old prams or wheel barrows waiting at the gas works for coke
i doubt it was free but it must have been very cheap... i think perhaps coal was rationed..