Memories - early or general

"Wrigley's chewing gum, There was a machine which accepted 1d" Hi Harrier Would that have been the little square pack that was green & yellow with 4 small pieces in?

When I was a kid living on Branksome Road, Coundon, my dad would send me up the road to get him a newspaper and I was allowed to spend the small amount of change, selecting from the mind boggling assortment of penny stuff in the glass case at kid's eye level. I spent ages deciding how to choose less than a thruppenybits worth of heaven. Sherbert dabs, flying saucers, liquorice wood, black jacks. All the food groups were covered. 20 odd years later he would do the same to my children and they still reminisce about their visits to the same shop.

Yes Mick, they are the ones. And do you remember the packets of gum, each with a small piece of what we as kids assumed to be a small frame from a real reel of a film? I cannot recall any information except the bit of free film. And if it was colour then that was special because they were mostly from black and white films, and they were far too small to recognise any actor. Others must have been from 'stereoscopic' type films because all the figures looked squashed up.

Just remembered.... we were told that if we ever swallowed any gum, it would get wrapped round your kidneys and you would die. On one occasion as we were saying our prayers at the end of school, I actually did swallow the piece of gum I was chewing and it scared the living daylights out of me! I was about 6 years old. I haven't been as scared since.

And if you swallowed a pip from a lemon, a lemon tree would grow in your "tummy"

I have used toothpaste in the past to polish out the scratches on my watch glass.

OMG, so it was true after all. Only in my case it was a plum stone!

Recalling a memory from 1968. I was in my second year of an apprenticeship at Wickman Ltd, when I was one of two apprentices chosen to go on an "Outward Bound Course" (Chris Hallard was the other). The "school" where we spent the month of July 68 was in Elgin and classed as a mountain / sailing school. While there we scaled Ben Macdui and Cairn Toul (both 4000 ft peaks), wild camped and sailed on the Moray Firth in a 14ft clipper, landing at Nairn harbour. A great experience with lasting memories.

What a marvellous opportunity, Mick. It sounds like a real character building experience. I wonder how many young people get this sort of opportunity these days.

I also went on a long weekend "Outward Bound Course", a little later than you Mick! It was based in Aberdovey and I went with a few friends from Coventry in September 1980. It was a great course, mainly high ropes and climbing on the coastline with a little canoeing thrown in. I received a phone call some time later from one of the organisers with an unexpected request. The "Outward Bound" organisation was providing some of the security for the "Miss World Contest". Unsurprising I immediately volunteered for the fortnight leading up to the contest and the contest itself in November 1980. Our team spent the fortnight in the "The Tower Hotel", together with all the contestants, on two floors that were not accessible to the general public and other guests. There was 24 hour security provided by the professional security team. My activities were mainly to interface between the contestants and members of the press with back up always provided by the professionals, in case things got too heated. The highlights of the fortnight were accompanying several contestants around the London attractions. The two I remember most vividly was taking Miss Turkey shopping in Selfridges and walking with Miss Jamaica along Oxford Street, getting a lot of attention as I recall. We also had a night out at the newly established "Stringfellows" venue with most of the contestants. The contest was held at "The Royal Albert Hall" and we were poised to rush onto the stage and form a cordon around the three finalists before the members of the press could get to them. The timing was critical due to the live tv broadcast and we rehearsed our formation before the show to not trip over each other on the way. Another issue was that I was working with the BBC at the time and had to apply for leave to attend the ITV production. I decided to come clean to my boss and his reaction was very positive. What a great experience!

Just got back from buying a new battery for my wife's car and dropped it off to be fitted. (Not as easy as it used to be) Got me thinking, I can never remember my dad ever buying a new car battery, but can remember buying a bottle of distilled water to top up the cells while the battery was on charge. Un-screw the 6 plastic caps and top up the level over the plates!!

Dad certainly had a bottle with distilled water for something, but he kept old batteries for things other than his car. During power cuts we had small lights connected to them. So effective was it that a neighbour accused him of having scab electricity thinking that we were still on mains power

Thank you all for the information. During August 1953 I would have been in hospital recovering from polio, (fortunately mild but I did not recover full strength until adolescence). I have been writing up my experiences and the commencement of the no. 4 adds a mystery as to why I was allowed to move from Richard Lee school to Stoke Council, Briton Road in autumn 1953 on the grounds that there was no bus route from Hocking Road along Hipswell Highway. I suppose it was because the climb up The Drive would have been too steep for me! I don't recall the moving of the city terminus in 1962 but I preferred the no 6 because it was the more frequent service. Post copied from topic Bus routes on 19th Dec 2023 1:13 pm

Choirboy, thanks for talking about your polio. Excuse me for being personal but it's important that experiences like yours are heard by current and future generations to remind them what those diseases were like. I had a friend who was half deaf and severely pock marked by measles. Some parents of today don't know what the alternative to vaccination was like.