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[Wetwater]

Great thread this.  Time I chipped in.  Dripping, Nestles condensed milk, sugar sandwiches.  Not all at the same time.  Don't think I would like them now but loved them at the time.  All the neighbours kids running indoors shouting "Mam, Mam, it's the muffin man" when we spotted a certain person carrying a large wicker basket covered with a tea towel coming down the road.  He used to visit every few weeks I think.  Most of us would be treated to a few.  Another treat would be a ride around the streets in an old wooden ships boat mounted on a four wheel cart chassis and pulled by a horse.

Another long term memory was collecting my Eagle comic from the newsagents, then buying some nice fresh rolls from the bakers which would then be toasted and scoffed in front of a nice blazing coal fire while I read my Eagle.  Then it was time for school.

I also lived very near to the beach so had lots of hand picked winkles.  We used to call the little cover (can't think of it's correct name) the Scab as it resembled the dried and blackened blood covering a scrape.  Something we all had lots of.  We caught lots of crabs too.  One of the gangs dad was a fishmonger, so no trouble getting in getting things boiled up.

Other memories are of spending long summer holidays at an uncle's farm with cousin's and neighbouring farmers kids. We were all in the hay field one day when Cynthia, one of the girls I fancied, came over and said "Show me yours and I'll show you mine"  As all the others were giggling in the background I thought I had better play safe and didn't.  Looked too much like a set up and would probably have been one sided.  We were all about 13 at the time.  Never forgotten it though.

Another recollection is of one of the gang in a wheel chair with his foot in plaster.  We managed to tip him out of it, ( speeding ) and he had another trip to hospital with a split head.  His mother went mad at us for some reason. 

As has already been mentioned, broken glass on the tops of walls to stop people climbing over.  Didn't always work though.  If we broke anything, windows etc, it was always accidental.  Nothing was broken on purpose like it is these days.

I could go on but had better stop now as I am running out of breath.    Alan. 1941 vintage.

[craftysod]

Dripping sandwiches YUK !!!

[sheerline]

Alan, Nestels condensed milk, go and buy a tin, I did recently and it still tastes the same! I don't bother with the sandwich, just spoon it out of the tin... great!
Glass on top of walls, it worked round our way but, you would get sent to prison if you did it now.... shame.

I remember we used to run to the railway bridge if we heard a steam engine comming just so we could watch and stand in the smoke as it thundered underneath. I remember once, an engine stopped just below that bridge when we were on our way home from school, we could see straight down the chimney so we decided to drop pebbles down it. The fireman took exception to this and told us to clear off. We took exception to that so all three of us decided to pee on the smokebox and watch the steam as it boiled off. He went raving mad and started lobbing lumps of coal at us! All great fun and fairly harmless at that. Most of the pranks we pulled were harmless and although somewhat disrespectful, were never intended to harm or damage anyone or anything.... just silly kids stuff really.

I remember falling out with the new lad who had just joined our school. We ended up on that same bridge on the way home and had a fight on top of it. He walloped me so hard at one point, I saw stars so when I recovered I threw his bike down the stairs. We slogged it out with no clear winner and became best pals from that moment on. We were virtually joined at the hip, Johnny and I and got up to all sorts of crazy things which, having survived near death experiences made us inseperable.
He carried me for two miles one day, I had an attack of appedicitis and couldnt move. We were out on a walk across the fields at the time, and when we got home, Mum called the doctor who had me rushed to hospital for an emegency operation. The doc said that had I not made it home when I did, it could have burst and i could have been in serious trouble. I don't know what became of Johnny, I moved away 40 years ago and we lost touch. If your out there feller... thanks Pal!









 in the middle of nowhere

[ashgarth]

I think a sandwich filled with condensed milk was called a coni oni sandwich in liverpool excuse the spelling I have only heard the word never seen it spelt perhaps somebody from mersey side might fill us in on it John.

[Wetwater]

Tried Nestles condensed milk again a few years ago Sheerline.  Far too sweet for me now though.  Done the standing on railway bridge
bit too.  Covered in steam, smoke etc.  Good fun.  Not tried the pebbles or peeing bit though. I'll keep that in mind next time I see a  steam engine.   

Another thing we did while at my uncles farm was to sit on the tractor mudguards.  Sometimes two kids each side, feet inwards with hands holding the rim just above the wheels and another one or two standing on the drawbar holding onto the hydraulic lift arms.  Saved walking while going from field A to B to C - - - - -

My uncle, who was usually driving, never seemed to worry that any of us could have been badly injured, or worse.  As kids, the thought never even entered our heads.  Health and safety inspectors would have had a fit if they had been around in those days.  Wouldn't be allowed now, just as well too.  We had plenty of knocks and scrapes but always came up smiling.  I had my first driving lesson !    on a tractor when I was about 14.  My instructor was a cousin who lived on the farm, aged about 11 at the time.     I remember him hanging on while we shot off across a plowed and sloping field.  We survived again though and uncle was none the wiser.

Happy days.

[White Ensign]

... had told my boy (age 15) recently, when I was age 13,14 our Mayors office wrote out a reward for each pair of craw-feet, as they had been a real plague at these days. Now- how to get them? We made up a little camp due the holidays down in the valley and hunted them with bows and arrows, tuned up airguns and slingshots. A pair of craw-feet was 50 Pfennig worth, when cought a shrew or a mole it was 30 Pfennig worth. We told our parents we are down in the valley for camping and they had been o.k. with it. What we needed to eat we took from fields: potatoes, corn-cobs, apples. Down that valley was a fountain, so water enough. Still can smell the hot potatoes, roasted on a rod over the open fire...- and hear the craws when been hit...
Don`t ask how we smelled after 4 days out, as we had done no washing (of course).
Had been very different times either if you had been born and raised in the province....