Magpie #79 - Once More unto the Time Machine, Dear Friends

unidentified photo, found in a Missouri antique shop

Well, this took me zooming back to the 50s!

When I was growing up cars were few and far between among the people I knew.  In fact, the only person who had a car on the street was Mr Edwards. He was a traveller in confectionery so needed a car for his work.  For all I know the car possibly belonged to his employer.  It was a black Ford Prefect and the license plate number was NAL 64. . . It's funny the things your brain chooses to retain.  

All cars back then were black.  No big decisions to be made about the colour.  Mr and Mrs Edwards (Dolly and Eric) and their two kids June and . . . . Eric had a telly too, which were also thin on the ground back then.  We were allowed to go and watch Children's Hour (yes, just one single hour per day!) on their telly.  Mr Edwards arrived home as it was finishing and he always sang the Andy Pandy song 'Time to go Home' to us.  That was our cue to leave.  He would bring in the big glass sweet jars and sometimes there would be some of the sticky contents left in the bottom which he would let us have.

At some later stage our family shared a car - an Austin Ruby with a Klaxon horn - with Uncle Ray and his family.  Both my father and Uncle Ray worked for my grandfather and their jobs also included sales, which is why they got the car (I think).  It could ,of course have belonged to my grandfather. I really don't know who it belonged to, just that they would take turns on alternate weeks to use it.

When it was our turn to have it we would all - well three of us anyway - pile into the back and head out to Derbyshire on Sundays with mum and dad.  A cardboard carton with the fixings for tea was put in the boot and mum would pack a picnic and a grand time was had by all. We would sing songs, that were popular at the time, at the top of our voices and the most exciting part was going over hump-back bridges, which made your tummy turn, and splashing through fords.

There were a couple of trucks (lorries) on the street.  One belonged to my best friend Mal's dad.  He was a haulier and took stuff all over the place.  The other was driven by Jim, my godfather and next door neighbour.  Jim worked for the colliery and his job was to pick the miners up and take them to whichever pit head they were working from and pick them up again, when the shifts finished, and drive them home.  

Several of the neighbours had pushbikes and I think it was the Matthews and also dad's friend Edgar who had a motorbike and sidecar, which we all thought was an exciting way to travel.  The rest of us walked or caught the bus. . . . . but mostly walked as it was hard to get bus fare from parents.

Of course, we had our own forms of transport too.  Roller skates, scooters and tricycles got us all around quite well.  I remember one time being sent to the local shops for half-a-dozen eggs, with strict instructions to make sure I didn't drop them.  The butcher gave me the six eggs in a brown paper bag (no egg cartons back then), which I carefully placed in the small basket on the front of my blue Raleigh Winkie tricycle and then cycled home. . . . . bumping up and down every kerb on the way!  Mum was less than pleased, but I was ever so surprised that they were broken as I hadn't dropped them.  I was very young.  Probably about five.

I think we had one set of roller skates between us (family), and you could never find the skate key to adjust them when you wanted to use them.  They were the sort with a telescopic piece between the front and back wheels and straps for over your shoes and around your ankles.  If the skate key couldn't be found we would stick a Beano annual on the top and sit on them, going down the hill like the clappers, which was actually much more fun as two of you could race.

I often wonder if my kids would've liked life back then, and I think they would.

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Do click on this link for some old photos of what it was like back in the 50s in England. The one with the 'dinner ladies' is just how I remember it. We never had slates and chalk though.

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Thanks go once more to Tess Kincaid (Willow) of Magpie Tales for providing the visual prompt.