was you a kid in the 50sand 60s in brum

[Edmund Fifield]

  Only time I ever got in trouble with the police was when SGT Trafeny fought us climbing over the sewage farm gates in Colehall Lane with gherkins full of pears.He made us sit down on the grass and eat every one.I was 12 at the time,didn't eat another pear for months

[Bev K]

Gerald! I think you hit the nail on the head ... while I believe corporal punishment is archaic it sure did do the job!! My bro (not the one who taught me poker) got caned at Marsh Hill boys' school... he was black & blue from it. I don't know what his offence was but he sure as hell kept the caning from our parents and swore me to secrecy never to tell them!! They both died without knowing about it. I got a slap on the legs once from Mrs. Bowyer at Gunter Road - can't remember what it was for but I was only about 9 at the time. Ahh... the good old days!! There'd be a lawsuit if that happened today - immediate suspension of the teacher etc. It's hard to get respect from today's kids. They know no one can touch them - not even their parents. I can't imagine being a teacher nowadays!

[Bev K]

Hey Edmund ... the story about the pears was great ... that was a punishment to fit the crime if ever there was one!!

[roy one]

g/g/


you have hit on to some thing that works i/e pain if  pain is inflected on a youth they do not come back for more and there more ways of skinning a cat inflecting pain


the was a brick was out side a house garden wall just about the right height to sit on each night French exchange students would sit on this wall and play up till late if they was asked to get off the wall and stop playing up they would do it all the more


so the owner of the wall decided to do some thing about it


so one night after they had gone he made a mix of jam sugar and water  and he painted it on the inside of the wall he gave it a good covering  now it was the time of the year when the wasps was about and it did not take the wasps long to find the jam mix on the wall  well the French lot come round and sat on the wall before to long on or two of them got stung the next night they did the same and one or two more got stung word got about. about getting stung need less to say they kept away from that wall and did not come back the peace was restored


and i think it was the same with us kids we would get a slap off your mom or dad or if you played up at school you got the stick and it was the same with a police man give him some lip and you got a back hander and you would get a slap for getting a back hander

[Bev K]

Good story Roy; and yes, quite right. My poker-teaching brother did something awesome when our neighbors at the back let their little brats out at 6 am every day & those little [censored] would scream & yell. Their mum bunged them in bed at night at about 6 so she could get some peace and would come out and insult us (we were about 12-13 at the time) and tell us top shut up if we were out back playing. So one morning my bro recorded (on his old Grundig tape recorder) her kids yelling & screaming. Then when they were in bed at 6 or 7 pm he played the recording back via a giant PA speaker right at the end of the yard! Never heard another complaint from that bitch again!

[roy one]

the 40s and 50s child made things out of need we put our minds to work on making things and how we could make a few bob


well I found a shop that sold army surpluses goods cheep  and in the window of this shop was a full kit including head phones for making crystal set  and a plane on how to put it together if I remember right it cost four shillings four bob for the kit well it took me a time but I got 4bob together and I went to the shop and got me one it took me most of Saturday night in bed with the gas light on to make me a crystal set and I found some wire 60foot of it that went over the roof  and on to a screw on the back of the crystal set low and behold I had got it working  I was the lad I was the only one in our road that had got one soon word had got about and the other kids soon wanted one  so I decided to make them and sell them for 10 bob I was selling two or three a week at home and at school  my mom had never had much having no dad and her being the only bread winner well I gave mom most of the money and that meant that we both could have a cooked dinner each night of the week and I still had a few bob to spend

[roy one]

did any one ever make a cotton reel tank like this photo

[Edmund Fifield]

  Used to do a lot of corkin with a cotton reel and 4 nails

[frederick]

Yes made Noe or two cotton real tanks.   

[countrylad]

Good Day to all. I am so glad I found the Forum and found you guys too!! I have had a good laugh as well as a good ol' stroll down memory lane reading your comments. I think the Brummie mentality is so unique (at least early post-war). I could resonate with so much you guys talked about like  running through the bombed out buildings and playing there (we'd be horrified to see out grandkids doing that and probably tell them it was dangerous and that they could get hurt!!)... I remember having a bread & dripping sandwich  for dinner (mum added salt to it for that extra ooophhh) or a bread, butter & banana sandwich. I had to laugh at all the comments about todays kids. I am raising my 14 yr old granddaughter who would expire if she couldn't have a smoothie or a Star Bucks latte. We lived in better times, innocent times ... well who's to say if it was "better" but certainly a lot more laid back!! Thanks everyone for your awesome replies. 

Hello Bev and welcome, born in the mid fifties most of the bomb sites were cleared and what we called waste ground or became building sites of the large post war housing program. We would be climbing the scaffolding, up ladders, lighting fires with diesel. We made our own play but learned so much from it. Your mention of the bread and dripping sandwich brought back a great memory for me, especially with salt as you say.
countrylad

[countrylad]

did any one ever make a cotton reel tank like this photo

I remember these from Blue Peter, never actually made one. Could never get all the stuff at the same time.  As Edmund says, did some calking as finding a bit of wool and a couple of pins wasn't too difficult.