Finally decided

At long last I have decided to order a new Washing Machine, the old one was well over 22 years old and although it worked well it was becoming uneconomical. The maximum load was just 10lb. and what I am replacing it with is a 8 kilo capacity, also it is a triple A rated washer.
 My mate is calling tomorrow to disconnect the old washer and on thursday the new Washer will be delivered. My mate suggested that I order it the same day as he would call but I did tell him that it was sod's law that by the time he arrived at mine in all probability the delivery men would have called but the washer was not disconnected so they would leave without the old washer therefore costing me the £15 disposal. I am happier at the arrangement I have made because I will not worry about the old washer being removed, anyway I will be alright for a few days without a washing machine.
 I looked out at my block paving where I had put the sand in the joints and I am happy at the results so far. We have had some rain, not an awful lot but sufficient for some of the sand to make it's way into the joints. I now keep my fingers crossed that the salt that I added will do the job so that I will not have to work on the weeding part too much.
 The other day my Postman friend bought me some seed potatoes and a few onion sets. Together with some fliers which I normally just bin them. This small flier was from Sainsbury's. This was an offer that was for new customers who ordered Online. If one spent at least £60 the discount would be £18. There were restrictions such as cigarettes, alcohol etc. I told me mate about it but when I went Online I noticed that not only was it for those with a flier but it was for all who went Online and registered for a first  order. I will certainly  take up the offer. Incidentally it is an offer for all new customers who order and get the goods delivered before  March 11th. For those who have never ordered from Sainsbury's before it is well worth a look. More soon.

Back to school

It was a custom that on the last Friday of each month when at school, they had a Cross Country run. It was well organised because after the afternoon break, the runners were set off in classes. Therefore the first year students were sent off about 5 minutes before the second year and so on. This was done so that approximately most of the students would arrive back more or less the same time. those that were excused or had a medical certificate exempting them had to be as markers. They were strategically placed in certain areas counting the runners as they went by. This was done as to stop ant runner deciding to make a short cut.
 there were no prizes for coming first, incidentally I never came in the top 10 but the prize was that after getting back and reporting to the teacher in charge who ticked the box to confirm you had arrived then you could go home. This meant that the swiftest of runners would leave school some 20 or so minutes early.
 Since I moved to the seaside I did notice that the local Grammar School had some sort of system working because when I went in to Alford, occasionally I would see a few lads making their way back to the School.
 Things passed by and at the age of 14 we had the Careers officer come to see us to find out what we intended to do when we left School. To be honest it would never happen now. The Careers Officer suggested to us that we consider leaving School at 15 to help with the income as most Families were still struggling after the war. I think there was only 2 that decided to stay on for O levels. If one passed then one had to go to the local Grammar School for 2 more years to sit their A levels. This meant one would be 18 before they left School.
 It must be remembered that there was still rationing at that time, sweets wer a main thing that was a bind. I think it was in 1951 that sweets were off ration but there were queus at the sweet shops and most confectioners ran out of sweets. The Government immediately put sweets on ration again. This lasted only for a few weeks. Once it was lifted again there were plenty of sweets to go round.
 I left School at 15 and decided to have a week off before I started work. When my Mother found out she was furious but I didn't mind for I knew that I would be working for many years.
 As soon as I was 16 on the Railway they had a certain dispensation that allowed 16 year olds to work all hours God sent. this meant that I would have to have fresh milk. Prior to that it was the custom especially in the warmer months to finish off the milk last thing at night. The Milkman used to call in early morning. NOt early enough if I was on duty at say 5.00am. so my Mother had to buy a fridge a gas fridge. It turned out to be a great fridge although very small compared to the sizes today. I know it was bought down to the Seaside in 1970, it was bought in early 1953. More soon.

Sand

With the weather being dry but cold I decided to brush the sand together with a little salt into the grooves on my block paving driveway. I did this yesterday and I was worn out which didn't surprise me at all. Today I have just checked and I think I have done a reasonable job.
 I went Online and checked about a sealant but all who was on the forum I visited commented that it was a waste of money. Ond Guy suggested that he had sprinkled salt and so far had no weeds at all. So what I did I mixed a total of 4 kilos of salt with about 800 kilos of sand. Now I will wait to see if it works.
 I have just had a phone call from the Surgery. This morning I put my repeat prescription in. I wrote a little note thanking them for issuing me with 2 months of medication of the Christmas period. The Lady who was checking the prescriptions and noticed my little note. She told me it had made her day for most don't even say thank you. She then told me that if I went on Holiday and needed extra medication just let them know. I thought it was nice of her to contact me and told her so.
 Now back to School. As I said at 11 we had to go to school with a uniform which included short trousers. I don't suppose those in charge of uniforms realised that the initiation test was to push all of us 1st year juniors at the first break into a ditch which had a few nettles. Naturally we lads got stung but the next year we joined in with the new intake.
 My first love in sport was cricket but as we were so poor my Mother couldn't afford whiter cricket flannels so I was umpire until the last year of school. A lad told me that I could have a pair of white cricket flannels for 10/- 50p in new money.
 Another thing we had was swimming lessons at the open air pool for all to use. Mind you it cost you money to go but naturally at school it was free. Swimming commenced after Whitsun which fell 6 weeks after Easter. Now it is the last Monday in May but then if Easter fell in middle of March then we would go to swimming in early May. More than once the water temperature was in the 50s fahrenheit. Some of the lads would try to get out of swimming lessons by saying they had forgotten their swimming trunks. The Teacher was wise to this and had the answer  by making the forgetful lads to use their P.T. shorts instead. The swimming lessons finished at the Summer Holidays break. Motre soon

A little more

These photos with the medal, cap badge and button were put in a bag for sale but nobody seemed to want them although the price was ridiculous. I didn't know at the time but the War medal itself is worth over £20 minimum.
 A lot of youngsters would never have seen Bryant and May Scottish Bluebell matches as one can see they are unused and the price was 3d which makes them prior to 1971 which was I think decimalisation. The other set are priced 3p Three Torches and are as one can see unused. The radio Times is even older but it is a poor state but it is dated 1949. The Calendar was sent to me in December 1972 from a Garage where I bought my first new vehicle. It was a Van. While I kept the calendar is that the photo of the vintage car was one of 6. I always hoped to find someone who would be able to make them into place mats. Unfortunately for me I am hopeless at taking photos. I often wish my American friend was close at hand. I am sure he would advise me to leave things alone and he would take the photos without any problem at all.
 Today has been a most dreadful day regarding brightness. It has been dark all day and I have managed to produce ZERO solar power. Mind you, the experts tell you that even on the dullest of days one will produce some electricity. I have proved them wrong on more than one occasion. Still it can only get better. More soon.

Something different.

I must apologise for the poor quality of photos I have published here.
 When I started in Business I was told to look after the couple across the road with their bread order. This was done because I was told the man would sit on the seats on the pullover(a ramp to the beach)and would tell anyone who asked him where to get a good meal. I don't know if it made any difference but I did take their bread. The Man only lasted a year and died. I guess he would have been in his early 70s.
 I continued to take the Lady her bread and eventually got to know her quite well. Although she had come from decent stock she had no money, was on assistance and the property where she lived was a 4 bedroomed house which was very basic. It had just one cold water tap, gas downstairs and candlelight up stairs So you could imagine, no electricity at all and the only way to get any hot water was to boil a kettle.
 I knew the owner of the property and he infromeed me that he had wished to have electricity and a bathroom installed but Miss Witty as she was called refused saying that she was happy as it was. She would be in her early 70s then. I later found that the Man who had lived with her was not her Husband and that when he died wished to be buried next to his wife.
 Over the next few years I got to know her better, she would occasionally ask me to go up stairs and get something for her. To be honest I didn't like going upstairs but I did.
 One day she shows me an album. It was full of nice things such as Christmas cards from the First World War, plenty of postcards and photos.
 Over time she told me a lot more. Her Father had been the Manager of the White Heart Hotel in Spilsby which in those days was a most prestigious position. Her Brother  wasa few years older than her and she told me he was a sickly child. So much so that when he went on his first Foxhunt with the local hunt, normally when they were at the kill the foxes brush was cut of and the blood was smeard over the cheeks. As he was a delicate child, I guess he would be about 12, what the Hunt did was to get the foxes head stuffed and it was presented to him.
 Eventually he was called up to fight in the First World War, they didn't expect him to be enlisted but he had to go.
 Eventually he was discharged on Medical grounds a few years after fighting for King and Country.
 I don't recall how I came to the bits but all I can say is that she gave them to me. To be honest I wasn't interested but I took tham. I remember her saying that her Niece and he Husband would not bother at all with them. Incidentally that was the only relative that remained. All her Family members had passed away years before.
 She did tell me that her Mother told her once that she must never marry a man much older than her as her Mother had done so.
It was the done thing years ago that if the Man died in a Hotel they would have to vacate the property so that a new Male manager could take over.
 She didn't tell me where they moved to but I think it was in Spilsby. Soon after her Brother Arthur was discharged he became wore and did not live long after that. She told me he died of Consumption what we would call now Tuberculosis.
 Anyway here are the  badges that she gave me. I didn't realise that one was silver until I found it after looking for a Mensa certificate of Merit which I thought I had destroyed but eventually found that too.
 On looking at the badges one was black so I immediately suspected it was made of silver but had no markings but I went Online and eventually found it.

The silver badge is called Silver War Badge. More soon.

Rationing

Everything was on ration but years later my Mother told me that although bread and potatoes were on ration they did allow plenty so we didn't go hungry.
 With rationing all had to register with a shop. One could register with a small corner shop and a larger store such as the Co-op Lipton International Store etc. You also had to register with a Butcher, there was no buying from several places.
 Meat was a problem and to supplement one had Tripe. I detested Tripe it was served with onions. It was commonly known as Tripe and Onions. It was boiled in milk and we had it too regular for me.
 In 1946 my Father returned home from the War. Naturally I didn't recognise him as I had been just 3 when he left. To be honest I never got to know my Father that well. My formative years were bereft of a Father. I wonder what they would do now?
 Mothers never went to work as housework was a job in itself. Until we moved in early 1948 we never had electricity. A battery wireless as it was called in those days was the only entertainment, but we made our own entertainment and to be honest seemed contented.
 The new house was a semi detached with 3 bedrooms so I had a bedroom of my own. It faced north and during the winter months it was freezing cold. Often I would get up and have to scrape the ice from inside the bedroom window to see what the weather was like.
 The couple next door were old, well to me they were old. He was a retired Policeman so I guess he would be about 60+. They were a very nice couple and when he found out I was going to the Boys' Central School he gave me a satchel.  It was about a mile and half to school but we didn't live far away enough to qualify for school dinners. It was not free but subsidised. What I used to do with a friend was take sandwiches and eat them in the local park. Someone of importance must have seen us one day for we were summoned to the Headmasters Office and asked to explain why we were eating at the park. On hearing our story both of us were granted a place at the dinner table. Mind you my Mother saved the dinner she had cooked so that I could eat it at teatime.
 We had a school uniform, it was brown blazer with a brown cap, short grey trousers and a grey jumper. It was a rule that ALL those attending school for the first year had to wear short trousers. I, in fact wore short trousers until the last year not because my Mother forced me, in fact it was the reverse she made me wear long trousers the final year at school.
 Even now some things were still on ration, clothing coupons were a bind for the girls going into the Nursing profession but gradually things began to improve.
 I might digress for the next blog as I had my mate here and I was looking for something and found something else too. More soon.

A little more

Before I start I must thank K.E. for his kind comments, he will hopefully appreciate my early years although he is not as old as  me but will perhaps have been told by his peers about the war.
 I will say this, perhaps most didn't know about a couple of things, this was that a man used to go round each night in the Winter months checking to see if there was any chink of light showing and if there was he would hammer on your door and tell you to make sure that the blackout curtain was properly in place.
 As my Mother lived alone with us 3 young children she must have lived in fear. It certainly transferred to me whenever there was an air raid warning which seemed to be regular in the early 40s. After the sirens when the bombers were imminent there were what they called 6 pips. I think that is how many there were. They were short blasts to let you know that bombing was imminent.
 My Mother would usher us to the cubby hole which was a storage place under the stairs. That is of course before we had erected the Morrison Shelter. This shelter was named after the Politician.
 As the years went on the air raid sirens got less so that by the time I went to school they were not so severe.
 As youngsters we were inquisitive and one morning walking to the Infants school there was a Soldier guarding a hole, naturally as a 5 year old I went over to have a look. The Soldier told me to clear off unless I wanted to be blown up. Obviously a bomb had fallen and not gone off.
 My Sister who was 4 years older than me used to go looking for perspex, the glass from aeroplanes and when she found a piece she was thrilled to bits. I was too young to look for bits of was damage.
 I told you that the first day at school the teacher told us that if she told us to go under the desk and she would read a book to us. This actually never happened for real. For the last year at Infants we had to go to the local Church Hall which was a wooden hut and was split into 2 classes by a velvet cloth, no desks only a chair and a canvas satchel to hold you few exercise books.
 So it was at 9 I had to walk about a mile over the main A1 road to the Juniors school. I didn't dislike the school at all. It was a large house that was converted into classes, later becoming the Grantham Police Station. It had lovely grounds too. I don't know what it is being used for now.
In 1947 the Winter was as bad as it could be remember, the snow was very deep. What I could remember was that the guttering of nearly all the houses on the Estate was pulled down due to the weight of snow which fell for most days for several weeks. When I eventually wen to work on the Railway some of the old Drivers would tell us that the snow where it had drifted was still in places in May that year
 Eventually the winter relented so it was back to the normal day of walking to school without having to fight my way through drifts.
 I often think it is a wonder that we had any education at all during the war years. I did mention earlier that the Infants school was from 5 years to 9 years. The Juniors which was all male was from 9 years until 13 years and the new Comprehensive school which was commonly called the Dunces school was again mixed and went from 13 years until you left school at 15.
 Of course everyone had to sit the 11+ which for most including me was taken at the age of 10. If you passed the first half you sat a second and if you passed that too you went to the local Grammar school. Quite often it was not what you knew but if your Parents could afford to pay for you went to School on a Saturday morning as Thursdays were taken up by the Local Army Navy and Air Force cadets. You had no option. Happily my Parents were not well off so I went to the Secondary Modern Boys school. More soon.

The start

The lad came round to show his remote model car, of course I had to see it working, it is obvious he didn't feel the cold as I did because by the time he left I was frozen.
 Now to my tomatoes and apples. I have a few tomatoes but will have used them within a week so keeping up my goal of having my tomatoes into the New Year. As for the apples a lot once more have gone rotten but hopefully I will have enough for the next 2 weeks.
 Now what I have decided to do is write about my early life, this is to give a true account of life as it was in the 40s and 50s.
 I was born in 1937. The house that we lived in was a modern house according to the 30s which was when it was built. It was a private Estate but all the homes were rented. I guess that now it would be classed as a Housing Association but then it was I presume a Company from Nottingham. There were about 200 homes all houses many were terraced. The roads were called after the Isle of White. I can remember the one where I was born was Cowes Road, we later moved to a semi a 3 bedroomed house which was Shanklin Drive, there was Knighton Avenue Ryde Avenue and Kingston Avenue. I am sure there was another name but I forget.
 Anyway the house where I was born, I guess my Parents moved in around 1936, they were still building the rest of the Estate It was a 3 bedroomed property with a bathroom so it was indeed modern. It also had a back boiler. That is a boiler which warmed the water when the fire was lit. Obviously there was no other heating and there was also no electricity  so it was a boon to have a back boiler. We also had an outside toilet, different to where my Parents were prior to moving there. At the old place it was a shared toilet. They were in rows at the courtyard and served several families. We also had a coal house which indeed many had. It was the major way of keeping warm especially as all the houses were single brick built so when sitting in front of a coal fire in the winter the front was very warm but your back was very cold.
 The kitchen floor was red quarry tiles, in fact the only places that were of wood was the upstairs. Of course nobody knew of any difference as we more or less were in  the same boat.
 The start of the War of course I knew nothing of but in 1940 we had to say goodbye to my Father he was then approaching 30 a parent of 3 young children. He had one eye but was given an A1 category and soon went over to fight behind the Japanese lines in Burma. He didn't talk a lot about his experience only to say that Orde Wingate was the best Commanding Officer he had ever served under saying that the men had confidence in him.
 So it was when I began to realise the meaning of War as I was nearing 4 years of age. there were issued Andersen Shelters which I am sure some will have heard of. They were corrugated metal and had to be erected out in the garden to provide shelter when the Air Raid Sirens went off. The more one covered the metal with soil the more protection was afforded. As my Mother was around 26 years of age with 3 young children we had a Morrison Shelter. This was a metal framed contraption that into it was fitted a bed that is where my eldest Sister and I slept for a few years. My Sister was 4 years older than me so she knew more of what was going on.
 Naturally everything was on ration but potatoes and bread was reasonably plentiful although the bread was a dull greyish colour and never kept well at all. We had to register at the maximum of 2 places where you could purchase your rationed goods. One could be a corner shop and the other a major shop such as Co=op, International Stores Liptons and those sorts of shops.
 Those that had a back garden it was used to plant vegetables to supplement one's foodbank.
 So that what is was like for the first few years, it wasn't until I went to school that the Air raids became increasingly rarer. I could remember seeing I presume Lancaster Bombers circling overhead waiting to land at Spittlegate Aerodrome and noticing seval planes had been damaged, the odd one crashed on landing and all we would see was a lot of smoke. School next. More soon.

2017

Another year has gone by and this year I will be 80 if I live long enough.
 Not a lot has happened since I last wrote my blog. I had words with my Sister over Christmas and New Year, the lad came to see me on Christmas Day, mainly to open his christmas presents. I bought him a set of headphones and a small model car. I originally gave him an old set of headphones that i had since the early 80s. They were just like the headphones that are used in noisy places, he liked them so much but he lent them to one of his mates only to find when he got them back they were not as good as they were. The only thing I made him promise was that he would never lend these out which he promised.
 The lad called in yesterday to show me a model car also told me that the headphones were good and he would use them on the bus to work in the mornings. He can't stand the chatter of the schoolchildren on the morning bus.
 My mate rung me up on New Years Day and we passed pleasantries. I asked him if he had made any mince pies for his Partner, he told me he had and that the mincemeat was suitable for vegetarians so at least she could eat them without worrying if the ingredients were suitable. He then told me that a lot of food now has a V on which indicates that it is suitable for vegetarians. I asked him if he had finished his sitting room, he told me he had but wanted some curtain poles so that he could put some heavy duty curtains up. He then said he had found a firm on Ebay so let us hope that all is well.
 As mentioned earlier I had my driveway powerwashed for the first and last time but noticed that there was no sadnd in the joints. I went Online and took notice of  forums and priced some kiln dried sand. The cheapest being fro Homebase. I then sent an e-mail to my mate asking him, if he could pick up a few bags for me. Naturally he is with it, I certainly am not. He told me that the nearest Homebase was at Spalding but he would call at the local Builders Merchants and see what they have. I noticed before I write this that he has been and ordered the sand and it should be delivered today so that is quick, especially as I had told him there is no rush as the driveway must be very dry. I will obviously store them in my garage until the warmer drier weather arrives.
 Finally for those who read this blog may I wish them a Happy and Prosperous New Year with no Health problems at all. More soon.