Things of little interest

First however before I waffle on. I am thinking of changing my ISP. My friend will be here on Wednesday so will get more information. I am out of contract in less than a fortnight.
Now to useless thing, well not quite so useless to me as it concerned my life.
Where I was born we had no electricity. An outside toilet but we had a bathroom.
Food rationing was on and the last things food wise to be lifted was sweets. This was in 1951. when they first informed us the sweets were no longer on ration. Everyone queued up and tall the shops ran out of sweets. Thus rationing was once more introduced. Only for a few weeks then when they said sweet rationing was abolished. This time all the shops were well stocked and never again was there a shortage.
Milk and meat was always delivered by horse and cart. Pony and trap with the butcher. He called only once a week. The milkman called every day and the horse knew just where to stop. Each house had a privet hedge and the horse would try to nibble a bit of privet although he had a bit in his mouth.
Cars were almost never seen during the war. There was a famous Doctor who had a car, the only other vehicle I can recall was the bakers van. he called twice a week.
I never saw a banana during the war and I guess it was late 1946 before we saw a banana.
I only saw 1 orange during the war. Of course no exotic fruits ever.
The first fruit of any quantity in the late 40s was the pomegranate. I don't know if anyone has tried them but they are so fiddly. You want a pin to get each small segment out and each segment has a pip. Also we didn't really like the taste a lot. Now of course there are so many different fruits available it is unbelievable.
The only tinned fruits were tinned pears. the biggest treat was prunes. They came dried and had to be soaked in boiling water. The juice was nice and the prunes were also very nice.
When we played football at school we had I think a size 4 football. All footballs were heavy and I never saw a new football all the time I was at school.
The same went regarding cricket. We had to use what they called a cork tipped ball. They had no seam, weighed the same as a leather ball and just as hard. The difference was that they never seemed to wear out. It was years later that I saw my first leather cricket ball.
When it came to cars. In the 1950s the factories had bicycle sheds there were plenty and I guess they had room for about 200 cycles. The car park was only large enough for about 6 cars. Plenty because in those days cars were few and far between. I had a van in 1960 and I think there was only 2 other vehicles at that time parked on the railway. I bought a van because it was cheaper than a car.
I learned to ride a bicycle that had solid tyres. I enjoyed it though learning to ride a bike.
I have never had a driving test. All I did was take an officer in Hong Kong on a run that I had done, I guess 50 times. He just told the guy who was with me as my official driver as he had a licence. When I got back he just told me to keep well into the side and that was it. Passed my test
I used to smoke and drink but ceased smoking in 1975 and to be honest, although I may have an occasional drink, ceased heavy drinking in 1968. When I say I have the occasional drink. I guess I will have about 12 alcoholic drinks a year,
The last time I went to the cinema was in about 1973. Have not been to the theatre since school days.
I very rarely read a book, much to my shame. The only reason I would give is that as children, we were so poor that books were not readily available. No excuse really.
If I go out, I always clean my shoes. That is if I am not going to get me pension but going out to see someone.
I have never worn jeans. When they were first introduced in this country, I think towards the end of the 1940s. They were sold as cheap hard working clothes and my Mother would never allow us to wear them.
I never wear trainers or sneakers. I only wear shoes. As children we would only wear leather shoes or sandals. Leather shoes were generally the only shoes available. Crepe soled shoes were available but quite often they would spread on the soles after a few weeks wear making the shoes look awful.
I never have had long hair, now it is getting thin and very very grey.
Now I never wear a tie. The last time I wore a tie was to my Mother's funeral.
I only wear casual clothes, not branded clothes.
I hardly ever use my car. I have had the car since end of February. It had about 190 miles on the clock. It has less than 1500 miles now. Enough for now. More soon.