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CORONATION DAY IN EAST LONDON
Happy London street party June 1953.........
Every tiny house decked from top to bottom in red,white and blue bunting,Garlands of pennants across the road,tables groaning from home made delights magically produced from meagre rations,and the "War Baby" generation dressed in colourful fancy dress..................
Television had just arrived for the lucky few and we all sat in seats like the cinema,we drew the curtains and put out all the lights to watch the Coronation!.............
Pianos were dragged out into the streets afterwards and every song you could think of was sung and every care in the world was forgotten!Not a penny to our names but dressed in our best we shared happiness to last a lifetime.
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Sweets had only just come off ration all these years after the war and because of the rush there were hardly any to be had! The shelves were bare and we bought cough sweets, like little things called "Nippits" just for something sweet.
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We walked for hours in Epping Forest and went fishing for tiddlers which we put into jam jars (to their demise!)....................We collected horse chestnuts and soaked them in vinegar or baked them to make the champion "conkers".................On Saturday mornings we went to the childrens picture club at the local cinema.It was total bedlam! with boys clambering over seats and mock fighting each other while Roy Rogers was trying to sing on his horse Trigger on the screen! No one heard a thing but we all sang "We are the Rialto Rangers" at the tops of our voices at the end...................................................................
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-and Poodle skirts ! I put down £1 DEPOSIT ON ONE OF THESE AND IT COST ME 2/6d a week for 8 weeks - but I got it !
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'50s Teens
As time went by we discovered the newly emerging pop scene...suddenly we were screaming at Dickie Valentine and Dennis Lotis and were wearing crinolines under our skirts! yes,cages which when we sat on the bus we had to hold down before they sprung up over our heads! We actually had tape recorders which were huge reel to reel tapes which we had to rewind.We tried to record all the latest tunes from the radio (holding a microphone to the radio)- the D.J's got wise and talked over most of the songs! Later of course came Billy Fury,Marty Wilde,Tommy Steele,Joe Brown,Cliff Richard and of course -Elvis.and among the girls,Helen Shapiro,Kathy Kirby,Alma Cogan,Lita Roza and who can forget Ruby Murray croaking "Softly,Softly!.....................................
........................................................................AS ADVERTISED ON T.V.
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Then something emerged called "Rock & Roll" mostly from America.Bill Hailey urged us to "Rock Around The Clock" and pop music had arrived.I played it from the start of my sixteenth birthday party until the end,my friends loved it -and my parents loved it - at last the lively music THEY had grown up with ! A magic ending to a regenerating decade...and on to the Sixties.......which we all know about.......................................................Kath Seaton
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news recreated
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Did you know you can buy specially made Commemorative books for Birthdays and Anniversaries, with newspapers recreated from the bithdate or wedding date of recipients? Also sports books, with the actual news coverage of the time (of your chosen sport or team) from the early part of the 20th Century.Choose a birth or anniversary year or decade or even a "This is your Life" book. News Recreated supply beautifully crafted Newspaper Books, reproduced from original Newspapers going back over 100 years, hand made to order.Bound in leatherette hardback covers, these Newspaper Books are personalised with the name of the recipient gold embossed on the front cover.What a superb gift idea!......Click here to see "News Recreated"
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That Gangly Teenager
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Longing to be part of the Fashion trade in the 1957 I got myself a job at a leading fashion shop in Mayfair at the tender age of 16.I was a shy,gangly girl,5ft 9 ins. tall and very aware (as we were in those days)of my working class background.
The clothes were astronomically expensive and in my young mind,astronomically dull.
The dresses were encased in huge "wardrobes"and opened up when the clients came in.Whereupon there seemed to be rows of black dresses with only minor differences in material and detail.
The salesladies were all very "posh" and were asked for by name by their clients.My name was the same as one of the sales ladies -Pauline,so I had to change my name to Lynn to show my inferiority.
I earned the princely sum of £3 per week as a "junior",£1 a week went on fares from Kent,I gave my mum £1 which left me with £1 for myself.
My job entailed packing the clothes into boxes with masses of tissue,picking up all the pins dropped in the fitting rooms by hand and crossing the road to the elite coffee house opposite to buy coffee and pastries which cost 3/6d each for the clients.I vowed one day I would go into that coffee shop and buy one of those pastries for myself.
Once a month there would be fashion shows and I wondered at the tall,elegant models who were engaged to show the clothes.Just think-they earned £20 per DAY!
One day, just before a show,the "Young Set" model failed to turn up.
My boss frantic with worry said " Quick,Lynn will have to do"and bundled me into a taffeta creation.
I modelled it shyly and actually received an ovation from the lady clients.
The next day I was back picking up pins and packing boxes.
No mention of the show or a bonus-not a word.
A week later an editor from THE leading glossy magazine came in the shop and said she was looking for a model for the newly emerging teen fashions and would I consider doing a few pages.
Would I !
At only 17 (rare in the 'fifties) I became one of London's newest,top models. What did I do with my first paycheck?
I went to a certain coffee shop in Mayfair,got a window table and bought a cup of espresso and a 3/6d pastry !!
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When Life was Simpler
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The Over 50's
We were born before television, before penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill. We were born before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ball-point pens; before dishwashers, tumble dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip dry clothes.......
We got married first and then lived together. We thought "fast food" was what you ate in Lent, a "Big Mac" was an oversized raincoat, and "crumpet" was what you had for tea.
We existed before house husbands, computer dating, dual careers, when a "meaningful relationship" meant getting along with your cousins, and "sheltered accommodation" was where you waited for the bus.
We had never heard of FM radio, tape decks, word processors, yogurt, pizzas, or young men wearing earrings. For us a "chip" was piece of wood or a fried potato, "hardware" meant nuts and bolts and "software" wasn't a word.
The term "making out" referred to how you did in exams, "stud" was something that fastened your clothes and "going all the way" meant staying on the double-decker bus to the depot.........
In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable, "grass" was mown, "coke" was kept in the coal shed, and a "joint" was the piece of meat you ate on Sundays. "Rock music" was a lullaby and a "gay person" was the life and soul of the party. No wonder we are so confused. And how old are we?
Just hitting 60!...................................................................
................Thanks to "Greasy" for this - see his fab website on more nostalgia at ."Greasy Spoon Cafe"
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Here are a few more for you: "Latte" was what we called a milky coffee or a "half and half".......... "Quiche" was a cheese and bacon tart.....Spare Ribs and chicken wings are what the butcher threw away......"French fries" were chips............"Porridge" was an oat breakfast............."Wicked" was nasty and cruel..........."Cheers" meant enjoy your drink and not "Thank you".........."Kids" were young goats......."Crimbo" was Christmas.........and "Duff" was a pudding!...........................................................Tom K
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DO YOU REMEMBER?
HOW CLEAN WAS YOUR FRONT STEP?....................................Do you remember DONKEY STONE to clean the white stone on your doorstep?......ZEBO black lead polish to polish the boot scrapers and the range inside ........and CARDINAL POLISH to shine up the red tiles?..........Was it YOUR job to polish the brass stair rods? or pluck the chicken for Sunday lunch?.................On Monday did your mum use a washing dolly to stir the washing in the boiler and add a RECKITTS BLUE bag to make the whites glow?....and scrub the stains with a washboard which you later used in your skiffle group !
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Bread n' Dripping anyone?
I grew up in the 50's when bread and dripping and pork crackling was good for
you. Now, my nutritional therapist daughter in law assures me they are two of
the worst things one can eat...............
A large orange drink was dirt cheap and a wonder of science - the Jubbly in its
cardboard tetrahedron shaped forerunner of the Tetra Pak.
................................Remember 'Are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin' That sowed a seed of
adoration for two things - radio plays which are still a major source of
enjoyment (they have better pictures on the radio) and Daphne Oxenford who was
the main storyteller..................................................
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CORONATION DAY - It rained. At our street party, in Ewell, Surrey, we had to
split into garages. We had a fancy dress comp and I won - aged 7 - as a TV with
a cardboard box around me, a picture of the queen on the front and an aerial
sticking out the top.
...........................................Graham Follett
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" Great To See A Site For The Senior Cits
Its A Great Site Intend To Use It A Lot
I Live In Australia But There Is No Place Like Home".............Michael Davidson
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Orient-Express offer a stylish collection of luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and inward waterway cruises throughout the world, in settings as diverse as Peru, Botswana, Tahiti, Portugal and Australia
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"AFTER THE WAR"
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..Read the delightful reminiscences of a young girl in Hull just post war.click below -
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