It wasn’t 20 miles, but I walked to and from infants school in bare feet - just about everybody did at the time. I must add that this was in Brisbane, Australia and it was through choice rather than poverty - virtually every street had a grass verge (the pavement would probably burn your feet), and it was actually very nice on the tootsies. I didn’t carry on when we moved back to Bexleyheath needless to say.
Nits, school uniform from a jumble sale. Plastic sandals, elastics snake belts. plimsols in brown. Pie and Mash at Manzes in Woolwich New Rd. Film bus on Plumstead Common in the summer. Gat guns And bunking into the Valley... i loved my childhood!
I always wanted a snake belt, but never got one. What stuff did other people want but never get as kids?
The main ones I can remember was Buckaroo which my mum (probably quite rightly) derided as rubbish and said all the bits would be missing or broken in an hour. I also wanted the Crossfire game and had to pretend to be happy when I was given Rebound. Also, and this is a strange one, I wanted our milk to be delivered by Unigate rather than the COOP, it seemed cooler for some bizarre reason.
I did get Crossfire after months of wheedling, and found that because the triggers were so badly moulded with a seam right where you press your finger, you'd get painful blisters within about five minutes of frantic firing. You didn't miss out.
Nits, school uniform from a jumble sale. Plastic sandals, elastics snake belts. plimsols in brown. Pie and Mash at Manzes in Woolwich New Rd. Film bus on Plumstead Common in the summer. Gat guns And bunking into the Valley... i loved my childhood!
I always wanted a snake belt, but never got one. What stuff did other people want but never get as kids?
The main ones I can remember was Buckaroo which my mum (probably quite rightly) derided as rubbish and said all the bits would be missing or broken in an hour. I also wanted the Crossfire game and had to pretend to be happy when I was given Rebound. Also, and this is a strange one, I wanted our milk to be delivered by Unigate rather than the COOP, it seemed cooler for some bizarre reason.
Nits, school uniform from a jumble sale. Plastic sandals, elastics snake belts. plimsols in brown. Pie and Mash at Manzes in Woolwich New Rd. Film bus on Plumstead Common in the summer. Gat guns And bunking into the Valley... i loved my childhood!
I always wanted a snake belt, but never got one. What stuff did other people want but never get as kids?
A Red Triang scooter. Quite a few kids down our road had one but I had to be content with an old 2nd hand bike that only had a front brake (yes, I did go over the handle bars a few times).
There was a door opposite my front door at the end of the passage. Most modern folk would now refer to this as the cupboard under the stairs. However, people of a certain age would know it better to be the coal bunker. Behind the coal bunker door were a series of slatted boards which kept the coal in place. As the coal went down, slats were removed to give easier access to the coal.
Anyway, when only one or two slats remained I used to like to balance my toy soldiers on them and then retreat to the front door, lie flat on my front and shoot them down with my high velocity spud gun. It was a great game that I spent many hours doing. I got quite good at it. (I was a lonely child).
One might think that my calling was to join the SAS. The big problem being my utter lack of courage. I was absolutely terrified of the coal men. These scary figures, smothered head to toe in soot, carting hulking great sacks of coal on their backs and slamming the contents into the bunker to the sound of thunder was too much for me. I invariably made a tactical withdrawal to hide under the kitchen table until they were gone. Furthermore, future missions had to be abandoned as a full bunker meant I could hardly reach the top slat and I definitely couldn't retrieve the soldiers that were shot down into the abyss.
The good old days. When people respected each other.
Oh, it was also when women dressed like women and men dressed like men...
Yeah! Back when we had respect, but no respect for women dressed like men and men dressed like women.
That's also when we only got snowflakes in winter.
Quite the opposite, if people back in the good ole days were the ones concerned with how men or women dressed then that suggests that they are generation snowflake.
They weren't concerned in those days. They were normal...
You miss the days of respect, but also preferred it when people dressed how you think they should.
You weren’t concerned with the way people dressed, because people were all normal back then.
So for us millennials in case this comes up in a pub quiz, which year did men/women stop being normal and start dressing like the opposite sex?
Why don't you ask your parents
Modern life must be so confusing for you. My comiserations.
I manage mate, but thanks for your concern. Also, if you use long words, learn how to spell them. It's commiserations..
I'm not your 'mate'. I choose my friends a bit more wisely.
In the good old days, I had to wear short trousers to school, Even in the winter. And I had to walk 3 miles to school and back. It used to be so cold, the insides of the windows used to freeze over. You youngsters never had it so good
You had windows in your shorts ? Blimey that's posh
I did get Crossfire after months of wheedling, and found that because the triggers were so badly moulded with a seam right where you press your finger, you'd get painful blisters within about five minutes of frantic firing. You didn't miss out.
Then you discovered masturbation and got blisters in a different way.
The good old days. When people respected each other.
Oh, it was also when women dressed like women and men dressed like men...
Yeah! Back when we had respect, but no respect for women dressed like men and men dressed like women.
That's also when we only got snowflakes in winter.
Quite the opposite, if people back in the good ole days were the ones concerned with how men or women dressed then that suggests that they are generation snowflake.
They weren't concerned in those days. They were normal...
You miss the days of respect, but also preferred it when people dressed how you think they should.
You weren’t concerned with the way people dressed, because people were all normal back then.
So for us millennials in case this comes up in a pub quiz, which year did men/women stop being normal and start dressing like the opposite sex?
Why don't you ask your parents
Modern life must be so confusing for you. My comiserations.
I manage mate, but thanks for your concern. Also, if you use long words, learn how to spell them. It's commiserations..
I'm not your 'mate'. I choose my friends a bit more wisely.
The good old days. When people respected each other.
Oh, it was also when women dressed like women and men dressed like men...
Yeah! Back when we had respect, but no respect for women dressed like men and men dressed like women.
That's also when we only got snowflakes in winter.
Quite the opposite, if people back in the good ole days were the ones concerned with how men or women dressed then that suggests that they are generation snowflake.
They weren't concerned in those days. They were normal...
You miss the days of respect, but also preferred it when people dressed how you think they should.
You weren’t concerned with the way people dressed, because people were all normal back then.
So for us millennials in case this comes up in a pub quiz, which year did men/women stop being normal and start dressing like the opposite sex?
Why don't you ask your parents
Modern life must be so confusing for you. My comiserations.
I manage mate, but thanks for your concern. Also, if you use long words, learn how to spell them. It's commiserations..
I'm not your 'mate'. I choose my friends a bit more wisely.
Thank fuck for that...
Funny way of pining for the good old days of respecting each other...
I agree with the suggestion that nostalgia will often make it seem as though years gone by were better than the present, but I think it comes down to individual personality traits and taste in many respects.
I was born in 1987, but have always had the feeling that I’d have had a lot of fun if I’d been born younger and lived my adult years through the 80s/90s when music was much more exciting, and people interacted in a more natural way.
I use and enjoy social media, but do find it frustrating that a lot of people of a similar age or slightly younger seem less adventurous, as they can get their thrills through gaming, Netflix etc instead.
When I hear my parents talking about the things they got up to - it does make me a bit envious. The idea of going down the local pub, having a bloody good laugh and making friends. Such simple concepts but seemingly lost in a world of technology.
I appreciate that such advancements mean that we’ve also gained a lot in return, but there’s always been part of me that was curious to have experienced what life would have been like - even just 10-15 years before I became an adult. There is a part of me that thinks my personality would have been more suited to that way of life.
I was fortunate to grow up in a relatively OK income wise working class household. My dad was a painter and decorator so was in work most of the time. We didn't have a car, never went abroad on holiday but we had food on the table everyday and clothes and shoes to wear and I had loving parents which is most important. And the music in the 70s was the best ever.
Good ol' Freddie.
And Abba too
Fortunately we had good music to drown out Queen who were considered a joke band at the time.
Yeah.Or a guilty pleasure band at best. My guilty pleasure was Seven Seas Of Rye. But then I liked them at Live Aid.
I know I pull your leg about Q*e*n but there were a lot of great guitar bands then and imho better than them but like what you like, it's only rock and roll.
Who remember the winter of ‘62/63 were snow laid on the ground from Boxing Day to early April, we only had an outside toilet (also were the coal was kept) and first the first one up had to tunnel there way out through the freshly fallen snow. The ice was thick on the insides of windows and the water you took to bed at night had 1/2” of ice on it in the morning. You had to light the coal after you had defrosted the coal (leak in roof of the coal bunker the icicle was fall height). Epic snowball fights and an ice slide that went diagonally across the playground must have been a 100 yards with a brick wall to stop you, still known as the broken nose wall. You wandered off from your igloo, sorry house in short trousers (didn’t get long trousers until I was 11) and got to school your legs were blue with cold, and you cried when you started to warm up. Oh school stayed open all and every day as it was warm and hot food was available, the school milk had an inch of frozen cream on top and had to be placed on the radiators to defrost.
We were poor, no very poor, my mum as was traditional cooked a chicken (bought by nan otherwise we wouldn’t had a Christmas dinner) on Christmas Day, and also traditional through it in the pot on Boxing Day, we were still finding chicken bones in April, that chicken stew lasted over 3 months, mind you it had ox tail, wild rabbit with pellets still embedded, and anything else that was found or nicked. Vegetables for the pot become heard to get as they were frozen in the ground. We only had one room with a coal fire, oh and of course the kitchen were we could keep what was laughingly known as warm.
Now those were the good old days!
God I do. I was 11 and remember walking to school in short trousers and the weather was so bloody cold it was unbelievable. My dad wad digging in the garden in April and struck permafrost!
I know I pull your leg about Q*e*n but there were a lot of great guitar bands then and imho better than them but like what you like, it's only rock and roll.
Didn't realise until this week that the line from Sound of Suburbs wasn't
"Youth club band wants to be free, now they want anarchy"
But
"Youth club band wants to be Free"
I really like Free. Ironically enough I got into them about 15 years ago when I went to see Queen who were being fronted by Paul Rodgers at the time. Great voice.
Who remember the winter of ‘62/63 were snow laid on the ground from Boxing Day to early April, we only had an outside toilet (also were the coal was kept) and first the first one up had to tunnel there way out through the freshly fallen snow. The ice was thick on the insides of windows and the water you took to bed at night had 1/2” of ice on it in the morning. You had to light the coal after you had defrosted the coal (leak in roof of the coal bunker the icicle was fall height). Epic snowball fights and an ice slide that went diagonally across the playground must have been a 100 yards with a brick wall to stop you, still known as the broken nose wall. You wandered off from your igloo, sorry house in short trousers (didn’t get long trousers until I was 11) and got to school your legs were blue with cold, and you cried when you started to warm up. Oh school stayed open all and every day as it was warm and hot food was available, the school milk had an inch of frozen cream on top and had to be placed on the radiators to defrost.
We were poor, no very poor, my mum as was traditional cooked a chicken (bought by nan otherwise we wouldn’t had a Christmas dinner) on Christmas Day, and also traditional through it in the pot on Boxing Day, we were still finding chicken bones in April, that chicken stew lasted over 3 months, mind you it had ox tail, wild rabbit with pellets still embedded, and anything else that was found or nicked. Vegetables for the pot become heard to get as they were frozen in the ground. We only had one room with a coal fire, oh and of course the kitchen were we could keep what was laughingly known as warm.
Now those were the good old days!
God I do. I was 11 and remember walking to school in short trousers and the weather was so bloody cold it was unbelievable. My dad wad digging in the garden in April and struck permafrost!
Blimey, I was beginning to think I was the only one still left alive who remembered that winter. Another thing I will never forget is the smell of wet woollen socks and gloves, being dried out on the school radiators, gloves were wet because of the epic snowball fights, socks because the holes in the sole of your shoes and being sandals they weren’t very suitable. My Nan actually brought me some proper shoes in the February.
I know I pull your leg about Q*e*n but there were a lot of great guitar bands then and imho better than them but like what you like, it's only rock and roll.
Didn't realise until this week that the line from Sound of Suburbs wasn't
"Youth club band wants to be free, now they want anarchy"
But
"Youth club band wants to be Free"
I really like Free. Ironically enough I got into them about 15 years ago when I went to see Queen who were being fronted by Paul Rodgers at the time. Great voice.
Never used to like Free but I think they're All right now.
God I do. I was 11 and remember walking to school in short trousers and the weather was so bloody cold it was unbelievable. My dad wad digging in the garden in April and struck permafrost!
Blimey, I was beginning to think I was the only one still left alive who remembered that winter. Another thing I will never forget is the smell of wet woollen socks and gloves, being dried out on the school radiators, gloves were wet because of the epic snowball fights, socks because the holes in the sole of your shoes and being sandals they weren’t very suitable. My Nan actually brought me some proper shoes in the February.
I don’t really remember 62-63, although I’ve seen some photos of me on the doorstep looking out on a snowdrift where a front garden used to be. When I was at school the compensation for an icy day was that the school milk turned up frozen which made it like a milk flavoured lolly, highly recommended.
Comments
The main ones I can remember was Buckaroo which my mum (probably quite rightly) derided as rubbish and said all the bits would be missing or broken in an hour. I also wanted the Crossfire game and had to pretend to be happy when I was given Rebound. Also, and this is a strange one, I wanted our milk to be delivered by Unigate rather than the COOP, it seemed cooler for some bizarre reason.
You didn't miss out.
Love and attention from my dad but hey ho.
Anyway, when only one or two slats remained I used to like to balance my toy soldiers on them and then retreat to the front door, lie flat on my front and shoot them down with my high velocity spud gun. It was a great game that I spent many hours doing. I got quite good at it. (I was a lonely child).
One might think that my calling was to join the SAS. The big problem being my utter lack of courage. I was absolutely terrified of the coal men. These scary figures, smothered head to toe in soot, carting hulking great sacks of coal on their backs and slamming the contents into the bunker to the sound of thunder was too much for me. I invariably made a tactical withdrawal to hide under the kitchen table until they were gone. Furthermore, future missions had to be abandoned as a full bunker meant I could hardly reach the top slat and I definitely couldn't retrieve the soldiers that were shot down into the abyss.
Aristotle complains about the youth of the day being know-it-alls in the 4th century BC ffs.
Of course generations are different from others, rebellion is a natural thing, who cares.
Youngsters of today eh...🙄
I use and enjoy social media, but do find it frustrating that a lot of people of a similar age or slightly younger seem less adventurous, as they can get their thrills through gaming, Netflix etc instead.
When I hear my parents talking about the things they got up to - it does make me a bit envious. The idea of going down the local pub, having a bloody good laugh and making friends. Such simple concepts but seemingly lost in a world of technology.
I’d give anything just to have any kind of guitar based music back in the charts on a regular basis.
I know I pull your leg about Q*e*n but there were a lot of great guitar bands then and imho better than them but like what you like, it's only rock and roll.
Like this lot for one
One for @stonemuse and @JamesSeed
Didn't realise until this week that the line from Sound of Suburbs wasn't
"Youth club band wants to be free, now they want anarchy"
But
"Youth club band wants to be Free"
Then j give you the sensational Alex Harvey band.
Superb at the valley in support of the Who