Author Topic: Birmingham Mail Boots  (Read 19649 times)

tramp

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #33 on: August 24, 2009, 02:01:04 PM »
rwm,

You may well be right but I've never known them by that name.

tramp

roy one

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #34 on: August 24, 2009, 02:24:41 PM »
one of the most important things that an army needs is good footwear when your doing a 30 mile yomp with full kit and your moving over ruff ground thats when it come in to play wet cold feet can stop you ill fitting boots can be a killer it saps your will to go on and your mind can be put off the job in hand so i say give me a par of docs any day but let me brake them in first and they will be the last thing on your mind so good boots a hot drink and grub makes you feel a lot better roy ho yes and if you get a fall out some where out of the wind and rain your king off the hill
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

tramp

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #35 on: August 24, 2009, 02:56:39 PM »
Yup Roy,

I looked after mine too - did you try those high US para boots - waterproof, almost sandproof (nothing was), good ankle support and not heavy.

roy one

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #36 on: August 24, 2009, 04:07:25 PM »
hi tramp yes i did and i have i have friends in the uk .u.s.a.f and i was with them a few weeks back  (think you know what i do) i was impressed with the gear that they have and the back up they get  but the boots ok but not for me im to short
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

tramp

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #37 on: August 24, 2009, 04:47:47 PM »
Hi Roy,

My US boots were 40 years ago, and they'll have changed them a bit since then.  I didn't use them that much, it was not so much 'horses for courses', because as you know, who ever knew exactly what both the weather and terrain would be like, more a case of what I fancied on the spur after briefing.

I'd like to handle some of the latest gear - it's amazing how long it's taken NATO to wake up to the reality of war today - I think in part that it's taken longer to react as so much was ''apparently'' becoming ''press button'' and so ''depersonalised'' and they were busy trying to forget that the Romans knew you needed infantry to hold ground (as well as usually to take it) - which is why they didn't bother much with cavalry, and 'Ben Hur" & Co were strictly for entertainment. 

The US found out the hard way in Vietnam, but was slow to accept it, and Britain's ''Little Wars" should have focused minds, but the pollies always think it'll never happen again and anyway they want ''something that you can see'', that's why they don't build sewers, they build towers. 

I've been pleased to read all that Gen Dannant said - before and since he left.

Brummiejoy

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Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #38 on: September 02, 2009, 07:55:33 AM »
My Siblings and I got those awful boots and I used to cry my eyes up. Not over the boots but the grey socks that would have been in the fifty's and yes you had to be hard up to get them. My Mom got tickets from school as there was 8 kids at that time in our family. Worst thing though was when I got home My dad took the boots off the girls and flogged them. So I would go to school with cut down wellington boots on and when my feet grew too big the top of the front of the welly would be cut out...No kidding..!
 :-[ Joy

Phil

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #39 on: September 02, 2009, 01:06:45 PM »
I remember by the mid fifties things started to change you could get a choice of boot or shoe and the girls could get a shoe that resembled a girls shoe. The two places I remember collecting them from was The Council Works depot in Crawford St Saltley and the one behind Digbeth Police station in Allison Street.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

tramp

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #40 on: September 14, 2009, 12:35:00 AM »
Yup, got mine in Digbeth, she went on into town shopping and I had to walk home in the new ones the second time.  Bit sore when I got home but alright next day - there is no way I wouldn't have worn them that morning! O0

Phil

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #41 on: December 02, 2013, 09:46:53 AM »
I have been asked to repost this photos on this thread because there seems to be a problem with the original post. I hope this one will be OK.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

sheppy

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #42 on: December 24, 2013, 06:35:50 PM »
My mom used to send round to Dartmouth St school on a Saturday to collect my daily mail boots
before these boots started to issued to people my old  used to cut up old tyres to make soles for our shoes
they were hard times but happy times

4orchard

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Re: Birmingham Mail Boots
« Reply #43 on: December 26, 2013, 03:44:10 PM »
I was offered bham mail boots , and was so excited I couldn't wait to take the note home to my mother I thought I had won the pools I was so looking forward to making lots of sparkes with the tips front and back .Imagine my disappointment to receive a clip round the ear and told to go and clean my shoes which were looking pretty worn and grim ,I was then given a note to take bake to school saying I didn't need them ,at the time I was convinced my mom had lost the plot and was off her trolley ,it was many years later that I understood why she said I didn't need them but of course by that time it was to late to say sort
David R


 

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