recollections of a magical childhood
I understand it was actually called The Absent-Minded Professor and was made in 1961 so we were 11 and 12 years old!! Not into women then obviously!
We also went to see "101 Dalmatians"..Cruella De Vil......I think she's on Dragons' Den now!
Cruella's voice was done, in the original animated film, by Betty Lou Gerson who died in '99.
Often wonder why there was so much attention paid to Westerns in the 50s and 60s. There must have been a different one on the TV every night...Rawhide, (Rollin', rollin', rollin'), Wagon Train....High Chaparral......erm Matt Dillon et al. The bloke with the gammy leg who used to stride about saying, "Where's Mr Dillon?" Gil Favours, Rawhide I think.
I've just checked and Gil Favour was the name of the character in Rawhide (played by Eric Fleming). The guy with the limp was in Gunsmoke. He was Dennis Weaver playing “Chester”. See this for all the information
There’s a video of all the intro’s below! Some I’ve never seen but others I had forgotten like, “The Cisco Kid”, “Gunsmoke”, “Wagon Train”, “Maverick”, “Laramie” and more recently “Alias, Smith and Jones”!
Strangely nowadays it's nearly all crime stories. A bit more variety would be nice, eh?
Card Games
We sometimes got forced to play cards with Nanna and our Mums from time to time. Nanna with her lips constantly on the move! Apparently, Marion & John’s daughter, Maria, has the same trait whenever she is concentrating on doing something. How weird is that?
There was:-
Whist (we didn't play that I don't think but Nanna used to go to her Whist Drives in the Village Hall!)
Rummy
Sevens
Pelmanism
Fish
Beggar My Neighbour (also known as Beat Your Neighbour Out of Doors)
Snap
Chase the Ace (a Christmas special!)
Can you remember any more?
"Sevens" was a favourite I thought, but I've just remembered...w a i t for it..... "Donkey!" Each player had to try to add to the suits building up or just keep them face up in a pile but I can't remember the rest of the gameplay. The loser was the Donkey who was left with the most cards I suppose.
Good one! I'd forgotten that game. There must be others. Marion might remember as I think she enjoyed playing cards at the time.
Blind Man's Buff
Happy Families
Old Maid ....and, one she remembered and I immediately recalled was a card game called - Stations.
The cards were fairly small and rectangular and each had a name of a town or city (presumably with a station) on it. I distinctly remember Kettering and Marion remembered Goole!
Yes, I remember all of those...especially that travel game with the Stations! Did she not also have a Horse racing game where you turned a wooden handle to make little lead cast horses move along a material racetrack between little wooden dowels?
Like this (below)?
Horse Racing Game.mp4That's definitely the horse racing game I remembered ...clever bit of kit for its day.
I also remember having the BBC outside broadcast camera van
On the Beach!
As we always seemed to find the weather more reliably warm in the late 50's early 60's, I thought we might see if it's true compared to today. What reckons you?
Yeah, I think that's worth investigating. I'll see what I can find.
I've managed to find some data from a Met Office website (now no longer available) that shows that Hurn, rather conveniently, is (now - was!) one of just three weather stations on the South Coast. I've learnt (by following their instructions) how to convert a block of data into an excel spreadsheet which was impressive. I just haven't worked out how best to display it! I guess it will have to be converted into charts but there is a lot of data and it needs to be done in such a way that provides info that is meaningful. Plus - this
I just made one chart of the max temperatures in August over that period but not sure what it demonstrates!
Nor me apart from 1986 being damned chilly!
I recall we used to go in the sea whether it was raining or not, apparently according to those figures, even when the temperature didn't reach 20C!
Yes, me too! I remember it being a bit painful getting in when it became deep enough for the waves to lap around your valuables! Plenty of walking on tiptoes with your arms spread out! (see image on Page 14)
Maybe we must put it down to Nanna's huge meals making us particularly tough and hardy (including Spotted Dick cooked in the 30 denier old stocking).
I’d forgotten that but I can smell the heavy pud’ right now!
That used to warm us up when we got out! Remember those towels?
Also, note the wire rubbish baskets - they would just get nicked today! Sadly
As for using suntan lotion; if we used any it was Ambré Solaire of the cooking oil genre!
I think we only got plastered when our Mums were around. Some sort of Boots cream comes to mind.
I well recall having red peeling shoulders from hours of digging holes in the sandy cliff all afternoon in the baking sun.
Remember the sand up the nails which could be quite painful!
(Left) When Nanna came with us to the beach she'd often have an afternoon nap.
Why she would want to we couldn't understand as young nippers.
Do you remember this shopping bag (above)?
The wet days seemed to be less intrusive. Is that just because we only remember the good bits? I just don't recall being stuck indoors because of the weather.
Me either. I know when it rained at the beach it was quite a weird sensation and we quite often went in the sea just to experience it. I think the weather plays quite a large part of my memories, especially at Parley Cross. Especially the snowy winters.
I don't know about you but I'm not convinced about climate change per se, I don't think the science is comprehensive enough yet....too many variables to calculate, although we must be affecting the balance. I can't see how you can have perpetual industrial and population growth without ruining our environment anyway; no one dares talk of enforced birth control but, well .......
Agreed. I read somewhere the other day that whilst the ice is melting in the Arctic it is getting much thicker and colder in the Antarctic (might be rubbish though!) I must admit I find it all a bit depressing – and don’t get me started on the rain forests or elephant poachers!
Other Memories of Random Things
Just thought of some more stuff! Do you remember painting your Dinky toys after you had scratched them to buggery by racing them along the pavement? I distinctly remember one episode of painting stuff with turquoise Valspar. To my eye at the time I did a very professional job but in reality, it was probably a right mess!
I think I often thought of painting my cars but don't recall doing so. I did have a bash at painting Airfix kits though rather inaccurately I'm afraid. The glue smelled good though!
The one on the left sells for more than £1,000 at the moment. I distinctly remember racing my red Alfa Romeo and red Maserati but I think my favourite was the blue and yellow Ferrari. As for the "Sports Cars" set, I think I had the Austin Healey and the red Sunbeam Alpine (both of which soon lost their perspex screens!).
I remember having the Light Green one and being envious of the boy with the dark Blue/Yellow one at school. They were always raced across the playground with a hefty flick until, after much paintwork had been chipped, the driver's head had been severed....but he could still run a good race in a decapitated condition!
Blimey! I don't remember any of my drivers losing their heads!
How about the smell inside Pop Mitchell's Austin Ten? A mixture of leather, wood and petrol that I can still conjure up and in fact it is present in most old cars - try sticking your head in one if you're at a car show and it all comes flooding back.
I don't particularly remember whiffing Mr Mitchell's Austin Ten but often got that smell even from my own cars (excluding the leather) in the late sixties..Ford Pop.. or more often the Morris Minor in which the float in the float chamber got stuck once late at night. I eventually hit the carburettor with a hammer which seemed to do the trick except that the fuel pump (electric) unbeknown to me, then started pumping petrol like mad....I drove the three miles home on 5 gallons of petrol! (But it went like stink!).
Talking of smells, how about mothballs in bedrooms, newspaper on wardrobe shelves and drawer bases, lavender furniture polish and bath salts in the bathroom. In fact, that sensation of waiting to get into the bath at Mimosa after a day at the beach is a strong one - steam and the noise of gushing water. I think we always shared it and screeched with laughter when one or other of us created farty bubbles!
I remember watching my Mum (and occasionally helping her) do the weekly wash when we got a state-of-the-art Hoovermatic Twin-Tub washing machine. I seem to remember having to put the rubber disc thing on top of the wet washing before doing the spin to stop them getting mangled up in the mechanism and having to put the grey tube into the sink. Looking at this photo I can recall setting the thing away using that grey recessed knob in the top that used to be tough to turn.
Goodness, we didn't get one of those until we got married...1978! Funnily enough, it took as long to do the washing with it as it did to go down the Launderette and have two pints in the pub while it was washing...but in the long run it was cheaper I suppose.
HOOVERMATIC TWIN TUB VINTAGE TV COMMERCIAL(1).mp4
How about your home phone - the big Bakelite job with the silver dial which took an eternity to dial a number and the brown fabric-coated cord at the back that would forever get tangled? Our number was Silverthorn 2003! There's a photo of the exchange here.
Still got one of those...not connected though.
Then there was the red phone box. Imagine you are about to open the door. I bet you can already smell the interior? I can. A mixture of dust, that chrome metal and paper from the telephone books (if they hadn't been nicked) and the Bakelite handset.
Yes, I always felt very intimidated by phone boxes when I was 10. The smell was sort of cigarette ash + cement and maybe a dab of paint or polish if it had been recently done out. In later days it was more urine (can't think why)!
Remember having to press button A and button B in some complicated sequence to get connected or get your money back? What was the phrase we used when calling someone from a box and you wanted the Operator to ask that person if they would pay for the call?
Reverse the charges?
That's it!
Click on this image (right) to see the "Exchanges you can Dial"!
phone box.mp4
I don't think there was such a thing as wall-to-wall carpeting. It was a large carpet/rug with Linoleum (known to us as Lino') as the standard surround.
One more - we often had to sleep on Camp beds when we came to the bed shortage situation on Christmas Eve! I remember they had a scissor-like construction and had a tendency to collapse and devour you!
Yep!
Fish & Fishing
I remember us initially using the fishing nets, previously mentioned (see Page 7 and Page 8), to go fishing in the sea and the stream that ran through the gardens in Bournemouth but then we progressed to the world of river fishing.
I recall us being rather in awe of Pop-Pop's angling gear in the shed - numerous fishing rods in canvas bags, reels, floats, hooks and keep nets - but I don't remember him ever going fishing.
Nor me. Though I believe the big fat carp in the pond (with a stern end like HMS Victory) was one of his conquests; there were two I think; plus some kind of water beetle which used to pop up for air every now and then and scare the boots off us!
(see image right)
The "Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing" book was in the old bookcase. I have a copy somewhere but can't find it at the moment. It was a bit of an inspiration for us!
I found it later and it wasn't the original book like Pop's but a 1963 edition of a series of booklets subsequently published
Yes, I remember that book.
We eventually started fishing in the Stour but can't remember what rods and reels we had, if any.
At some point you proudly owned a split cane rod I thought that was the crème de la crème
Oh yes! It was a Chapman 500 - see here. I recall Nanna and Pop telling us that if we were ever challenged by the River Warden (visions of an angry man in a Gabardine overcoat and hat rowing up the river) we just had to tell him that Nanna helped clean the Church (not sure why that would weaken the Warden's resolve!)
There are a few photos here and apparently........"Old Saints' Church - This is the best known historical building in the village and though the nave has mid C12th origins, it is thought to have replaced a Saxon church, which may well have replaced an even earlier church. The porch is 15/16th century, the steeple was built about 1792. The door hinges are C12. Much of the church was rebuilt in 1896 but many of the original window frames reused. The building is listed. Look at the sundial on the approach path to Church. It was part of the post from the gibbet that used to be on East Parley Common. This was the last gibbet in use in the south of England. Also, look at the recess in the east wall. It contains a C14 earthenware vase found in the graveyard in 1895. The lane to the right of the church continues along the edge of the Stour to a former ferry crossing at Riddles Ford that took locals into Bournemouth via Redhill."
I do remember being chased by a farmer or somebody or thinking we were being chased on one occasion. I think that that led to us fishing in the grounds of a bungalow on the other side near the New Road Bridge. We also went fishing once in the field area on the other side of New Road...possibly with Brian? We caught eels which Mrs Mitchell cooked for Mr Mitchell. That’s what gave him that permanent look of distaste on his face methinks. "Bah! Jellied eels, erm, oooh, lovely Mrs M. I'll just go and check if the car's still in the garage."
I also recall fishing in the River Lea and one of us getting the line tangled in a swan's legs. I distinctly remember catching a 1/4 lb Perch on that occasion using only a stick and a piece of line much to your disgust with your expensive kit and all!
(Right) A map from 1811 that shows the location, at that time, of the gibbet, mentioned above, placed on Parley Common
I always thought the Gibbet was at the Christchurch Road end of Church Lane but now I realise that The Stocks (as the bungalow there is named) were located there.
According to the 1811 map I now note The Gibbet was along Barrack Road probably somewhere near where there is a Reclamation Yard now. We often take a walk along that way....not seen anybody hanging about though!
I started messing about with that old maps website and found this map (left) of Parley Cross from 1955. Observations:-
Mimosa with greenhouse and garage/shed is clearly shown
The only properties there are the big house" next door to one side (i.e. before the Mitchells' bungalow was built) and the "cob house" to the other
Parley Parade (of shops) is set out but not yet built
No properties in the field behind Mimosa (where I can recall a lone tree in the middle of it)
A handy footpath from near your current house to those shops!
Over to you..............
That handy footpath you mention is no longer there though there is an unused gate along New Road in about that location. There's no gate visible on the Church Lane side which is now a thick bramble hedge.
I notice the letterbox outside our bungalow is recorded (see "L.B." on map).