The Farm by the Loch #Nostalgia

 A while ago I reminisced about my childhood holidays on my grandfather and my uncles' farms in Scotland. Here are some more photos of times passed. They were taken in the late 1940s before I was born, but I remember the stooks of corn made at harvest time.

After the corn had been cut  a bundle of sheaves were tied with a strand of corn and propped up with the ear upwards to keep it off the ground until all was collected for threshing.

Haystacks were thatched to keep the rain out. 

A new lamb is always valued.

My grandmother with Dick and Dora.

You will find some more photos of the farm including cute lambs here

Home Entertainment in the 1950s: "I love to go a wandering" #Nostalgia

 

For the first 10 years of my life we lived in a terraced house in a long cul-de-sac in a part of Surrey which now seems to be called south London. It was a quiet road where you could play on your scooter or your roller skates on the pavement and nobody owned a car. Downstairs we had a Front Room, nicely furnished for use at Christmas or occasional Saturdays when my grandparents arrived in a taxi for tea.

At the end of the hall was the Living Room where we spent most of our time. There was a coal fire with three comfy chairs, a utility dining table with 4 chairs and a sideboard on which the very important Wireless sat. That’s a radio if you are unsure.

My early memories include Listen with Mother where I heard songs such as “One, two, three, four, five; Once I caught a fish alive” and I could march up and down the hill with "The Grand Old Duke of York". Rhymes like "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" growing neat rows of silver bells and cockleshells and the King of Spain's Daughter with her "Little Nut Tree" which only grew a silver nutmeg and a golden pear were also shared. "Polly Put the Kettle On, We'll All Have Tea”, Seemed to end most of the programmes!

On Saturday Children’s Favourites was presented by Uncle Mac, playing such songs as, The happy Wanderer, Arthur Askey's Bee Song, Nellie the Elephant, The Runaway Train and How much is that doggy in the window? My real favourite was a song often played on the adult part of The Light Programme. I called it My Scots Blue Bell, but apparently it was really called “I Love a Lassie” by Harry Lauder. I also enjoyed hearing “I love to go a Wandering” The only programme I can remember from Children’s Hour on weekday afternoons was the wonderful Larry the Lamb who lived in Toytown.

Sometimes at lunchtime my mother and I would listen to Workers' Playtime which was a variety programme started during World War II. It was broadcast at lunchtime, three times a week, live from a factory canteen "somewhere in Britain". It included singers and comedians like Ken Dodd and Julie Andrews. Later my mother listened to Woman’s Hour which apparently included items on, “keeping house, health, children, beauty care and home furnishing and interviews with women of note such as Vera Lynn.”

There had to be a daily dose of The Archers, “an every day story of country folk,” and I can still hear the voice of Mrs Dale from Mrs Dale’s Diary telling us in her catchphrase, "I'm rather worried about Jim..." 

There were some great comedy programmes including The Navy Lark including actors still well remembered today, Ronnie Barker, Jon Pertwee and Leslie Phillips. My particular favourite was The Clitheroe Kid because he was so naughty. But when Dad was at home he often tuned off the Light programme onto the Home Service for the news and weather.

We also spent hours as a family playing Cribbage, Canasta, Snakes and Ladders  or Monopoly but as I was an only child, I usually won.

And then the television arrived. In 1957 only two children in my class no longer had a TV at home, a boy called Paul and me! But my parents succumbed. Now I could watch the wonderful cartoon about Popeye the sailor man, his girlfriend Olive Oyl and the miraculous cans of spinach which made him strong. I also enjoyed westerns like Rawhide and Bonanza, but Bonanza went on till 9 o'clock and i was supposed to go to bed at 8.30. Luckily my mother started to go to an Evening class that night and Dad let me stay up to see the end of the programme!  There was usually a children's serial on Sunday afternoon on BBC like The Silver Sword or Great Expectations but then I was told we had to turn the TV off to let it cool down before Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Bruce Forsythe so I wasn't allowed to see Adam Faith or Cliff Richard in the Oh Boy! programme.

Those were the days!

Time Travel in Sussex #WordlessWednesday

 

All photos taken at the Weald and Downland Museum

Wartime Postcards #Humour

During the second world war my mother was constantly being separated from her friends in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) as they were each given different postings or went on leave so they kept in touch by sending postcards.

Mabel Lucie Atwell

Valentine cards

The postcards were sent from Dundee and Lowestoft and were received by my mother at home in Scotland or at her army billet in Oxted, Surrey or at HQ 21st Army Group in Belgium.

To read my mother's story of life in the ATS during World War Two 

Using Paper Patterns #MondayBlogs #Fashions #Nostalgia

My mother made nearly all my clothes when I was a child and she often chose a style which could be used for similar dresses for the two of us.

I don’t have the patterns my mother used during the 1950s but this pattern she bought in 1968 was perfect for the psychedelic fabric she bought in Arab Street in Singapore to make me some fashionable culottes.

I loved the bolero top I made with this pattern to match my flares.  I used chocolate brown Thai cotton with a pattern including pink. It sounds awful but it worked.

Returning to a cold English winter in the early 1970s a maxi coat was a must-have.

In 1975 everyone wanted a flared skirt with a frill and this pattern adapted to winter weight cord or soft cotton for the summer.

Woman and Woman’s Realm magazines offered patterns to purchase which my mother loved.

In the early 90s I faced the challenge of making two bridesmaids' dressers for my children but this helpful pattern made it possible.

And we were all pleased with the result.

1966 and all that: Music and films

1966 was a year of great change for me. In January I was living in the middle of nowhere in the Yorkshire Dales. By August I was in Singapore having the time of my life.

When you are 15 and all your friends are miles away, you depend on TV and radio. On the radio it was Radio Caroline, on TV, Top of The Pops and best of all, Ready Steady Go.

I don't remember hearing them sing together but I certainly bought records by both acts.

The Rolling Stones were frequently on Ready Steady Go presented by Cathy McGowan but my best memory of the Hollies was when they all gave me their autographs after their concert in Weymouth.

Even today "These Boots were made for walking" is played.

I'm not sure this skirt did anything for Lulu.

In Singapore we didn't have a TV but we went to the British Army cinema 3 times a week. 

Elvis was singing in his 22nd film, California Holiday.

Robert Vaughn and David McCallum had taken my favourite TV programme "The Man from Uncle" into the film studio.  I wonder if Ducky from NCIS looks back fondly on those days.

Robert Redford was amazing as the fugitive in "The Chase" also starring Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda but he had yet to appear with Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".

Paul Newman fresh from his success in "Hud" had just completed "The Moving Target" in which he appeared as a Private Investigator.

And the unforgettable film was to be "Dr Zhivago" starring Omar Shariff, Julie Christie, Tom Courtney and Geraldine Chaplain.