recollections of a magical childhood
Bournemouth drive 1980.mp4(Left) A drive through Bournemouth, Charminster, Boscombe & Southbourne filmed on an early home video camera in 1980.
A charming choice of eclectic music, including audio breaks! Comical moments where tripod falls over on right-hand bends.
Nice to see the cars from the era plus a few old A40s and Hillman Imps! The old bus station appears around 5m 45s!
Not quite the period we were there as kids but it looks more like it did then in this video than it does today. It is, after all, 40 years ago!!!
..surely must have been a Sunday as the traffic is surprisingly light. I was most amused (nay concerned even) that the driver obviously didn't use the rearview mirror much.
For the whole 20 minute drive, it is abandoned at a weird angle throughout!
Linda: Getting weighed on the beach (those scales with the chair and the heavy weights).
Yes! On West beach to the right of the pier (looking towards the sea). The scales were a sit-on type with a chair and the framework had barley twist chrome legs. I can't find anything about it on the internet and I'd love to find a photo!
I remember them being called "Jockey Scales" now I've seen this
The one above this shot must be a later version as the price had risen to 3d!
Hours spent making sandcastles (decorated with shells) with moats and water from sea (either brought in by sandcastle buckets or by a long channel dug to the sea's edge! Deep holes dug until water appeared at the bottom (can you feel the wet gritty sand getting under your nails?)........
I expect the rings would have been useful for anchoring military equipment or hauling in equipment from landing craft
What a terrific picture/discovery! I would never have thought of that as their purpose but how blindingly obvious it is when you see that picture!
..... making a track down the sand hill for a tennis ball to roll down, making tunnels for cars/ball to go through, paper flags stuck on top (not all Union Jacks - remember dark blue and red ones as well with some symbols on them). Burying adults up to their necks in sand!
Good to have a picture of the Paddle Steamer,reminiscent in style of the TITANIC I thought!
Two images of the 264 ton "SWANAGE QUEEN" taken in the summer of 1961 whilst she was based at Poole. Primarily operating on the Poole to Swanage service she was also employed on cheap day excursions to Yarmouth, Isle Of Wight.
On one famous occasion, with 90 passengers aboard, in September she had to drop anchor overnight in Swanage Bay owing to dense fog. She survived only one season based at Poole and was put up for sale. Mr Stuart Townsend of Sandbanks purchased the ship with a view to putting her back into passenger service.
Unfortunately projected refit costs made the plan impractical and she was sold on to ship-breakers in Ghent, Belgium.
Embassy Paddle Steamer edited.mp4A short film on Embassy paddle steamer that ran between Poole, Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight for Meridian TV
Punch and Judy - stolen sausages, crocodile, slapstick and disturbing hangings - see Page 20
Miscellanea
Toy with a pull-string that made a circular blade contraption spin and then lift off up to the ceiling.
Pop's zip-up slippers.
Cuttlefish in Budgie cage.
Tony snapping when Pop stood on him then Pop blaming him - "Bast you dog" - Tony would respond by showing his fangs and snarling - plenty of froth!
If Tony had been a nuisance, Nanna would call him a "Sewerkerbudger" (it sounded like), which she told us meant Pig.
I don't get much time for reading generally, so two pages a day in the loo is about as much as I manage! I happen to be reading a book about the Opium trade between India and China in the days of the East India Company at the moment. It's full of Indian words for people and things; the meanings of many of which I can only guess at. Then suddenly, today I came across 'Soor-ka-bacha' which the writer explained meant 'Son of a Pig'.
I remember that but not the "language it came from. Was it Swahili? My Dad used to say "Kit 'n a budgie eye" for "What is the time?". Pretty sure now that this is Hindi, having done a bit of research - kitna budgie or, possibly, kitana bajee.
... and she would threaten.."I'll cut your tail off behind your ears!"...to the sound of Tony hurriedly lapping water from his bowl and snorting angrily.
Can you remember the look and smell of Bonio dog biscuits - more drooling and saliva!
White extension speaker in kitchen on top of dresser with independent volume control - not just for the Archers but also the dreaded Football results whilst Pop marked up his coupon (Littlewoods or Vernons?)
Spending-money kept in a jar in the dresser cabinet
Circus fantasies when we slept in Nanna & Pop's double bed - don't go there!
Yes, I remember all those things....
Pop Pop
Pity we can't recall any of Pop's war stories seeing as he told them to us so often.... (see Page 7) all I can remember is Bully(ied) Beef...which the army apparently lived on and some reference to Turkey Bob...a general term for any untrustworthy olive-skinned bloke with a rifle (and in my imagination) wearing a Fez!
I'm sure that if we could sit together and reminisce over a few pints we'd be able to drag something back from our memories. Then again, maybe not! Could Marion or Linda help? Maybe we should send them the document when completed and see what they can add?
My friend John has made this comment..."- something Pop used to say - a person he often mentioned, someone called 'Lackerry' (a soldier)- not sure how to spell it. Often this bloke Lackerry was the butt of a joke or the focus of a story, I seem to remember..."
Oh and whereas we would use the phrase/word "anyway", Pop would say "anyroad" which we thought amusing....
Was it true that when they first moved down to Bournemouth he used to commute to Farnborough where he still held some position in the army stores?
Possibly. I only recall the Post Office job and that ended pretty much as far as back as I can remember.
Do you think it was like "It ain't 'alf hot mum" when they were in India?
I think it was all very proper and regimented. Didn't they also go to Ireland - that must have been to quell the Irish uprising? I dread to think what was done in the name of the Empire!
Whose old stocking was the Spotted Dick cooked in.....or was it one of Auntie Helen's old bandages?.....? Just kidding!
Cooked Breakfasts...mushrooms and huge evening meals....can't leave the table until you've eaten that bit of gristle!! Wide necked milk bottles. Yellow patterned small milk jug.
The bottles had red (or green?) words printed on I think? (See Page 2)
Lumpy creamy yellow custard, bread & butter pudding, bread pudding with Demerara sugar on, compulsory number of slices of white bread and butter - another "must finish before you get down rule"! Boiled eggs with bread "soldiers" (I have an inkling of special egg cups??).
Wood carving picture in the front room between the bookcase and window.
I have the two wooden panels made from the ends of ammunition boxes - each one has a carved cartoon originally drawn by Bruce Bairnsfather who was "...the creator of 'Old Bill', the cartoon character who perhaps best illustrated the practical philosophy of the British private soldier during World War One...." They are hidden away somewhere.
Later... found them since and shown below.
Bird spotting phase.......Sand Martins in cliffs at Bournemouth.....Observer's Book of Birds......We only used to see Black-headed Gulls at Bournemouth in those days, but now there are many. Herring Gulls as well. We once saw an Owl during the daytime sitting in a fork in a tree in Parley Woods....Kingfisher over the Stour near The Horns Inn. Can you remember any unusual sightings?
Remember that craze, especially the Sand Martins really well (distinguishable from House Martins because they lacked the white rump of the House Martins)
Yellow buses climbing the hill from Boscombe Pier....did the driver have to press very hard on the pedal to get up the hill!!!??? Flat out 3mph with plenty of blue exhaust smoke!
Engines in the sheds at Bournemouth Central would sometimes blow a smoke ring....I think this was when they turned the blower on to draw the fire.
Was there a model shop somewhere in London (Southgate?) where we went to gawp at stuff?..and Hamleys?
The only one I remember was Gamages Department Store in Holborn - was that it do you think?
Really scratching about in the old brain now.....
Me too!
Later... Little did we know that we would add a further fifteen pages after this one!!
Models
Here's a link to the models and their history
Keil Kraft model kits, Britfix tubes of glue and Humbrol paint, Mamod Steam Engine fuelled by meth's - authentic sounds and chuffing but limited use! Plenty of opportunities to set fire to things - those were the days before the Nanny State of today!
Meccano sets - we never did progress far with those. Red and green metal plates and bars with proper nuts and bolts and a cranked spanner set (Right).
Boeing 707 model from Kellogg's after eating my way through 20 packets of Corn Flakes!
