pigeons

[Kojak]

I remember collecting rosehips. We took them to a little tailors shop and got 3d. My mother was a National Savings volunteer so my regular job was selling savings stamps around the neighbourhood. The young Prince Charles was featured on the shilling stamp and a very young Princess Anne was shown on the sixpenny one. It says a lot that there was no anxiety about an 8yr old carrying fairly large amounts of money on his own. It was good practise in mental arithmetic as I had to add up the stamps I'd sold and check that the money was correct.

[mr wotsin]

I suppose 5/- would be a lot of in those days, in Bridgehill [ nobody knows where that is KK ]

[Colette]

As recently as 1960 ?? Dear Macduff you are a star

[MacDuff]

Well Colette if being "a star" means being light years away from today's world (but not in every respect), I have to accept the compliment. However, I thought that Gracie Fields was a star in the real meaning!

Mr. Wotsin, if my memory is correct those 6d stamps were green. However, I have to report that I still retain an uncashed 15/- war savings certificate - cashable value 20/6d. I guess it might be worth more on one of the web sites?

AS for the 1d bus fare, I wonder what happened to those hand wound bus ticket machines that the Clippies used

[John H]

I never realised there was a cash value to rosehips. And there was me just splitting them and putting the seeds down other people's shirts!

[snoopy2]

MacDuff i have now and again seen a clippie's machine on E Bay and i still have a lovely crisp 10/- note that i saved when i was sooo much younger - a lot to save and even managed not to spend it. If we ever go into the euro it will leap in value and pay for a trip to Symi - i wish! Being an eco eater i frequently turn rosehips into syrup - warming in the winter and lovely over ice cream. As the recession bites i come across people in the woods doing the same as me - foraging. Now is great for wild garlic and nettle tops for tea and soup. Never has there been such a demand for allotments so MacDuff, Kojak and many other on this forum are coming back into fashion, Frugality rules ok

[Colette]

Well McDuff, we have a tenouous link in our thinking, my mum was a clipper during the war ( because grandad wouldn't let her join the Wrens) and I live in Rochdale. And you know very well that by "star" I meant one of the good guys

[Kojak]

[quote="mr wotsin"]

Think I've found the Fair Isle jumper 1946 version[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4639914378_0f18ffa6b8.jpg[/img]
Me with my mother.[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4639308409_9e218071c9.jpg[/img]and me with my mother and aunt Olive
[/quote]
Did you perchance also have a bathing suit made of the same material - the kind that balooned and dragged you down water filled and left you naked and shamed then itchy and scratchy as it dried - i did but i am not - even for a million squids - posting a picture!

[mr wotsin]

May be best if you say nothing, Macduff

[MacDuff]

MMMMMmmmmmmm? Sorry, can't resist commenting upon what big eyes those squids have The pre 2nd World War costumes were I recall
made of wool, with a shoulder strap. When they got saltwater on them they itched as they dried out in the sun (In those days the sun was actually known to shine in Aberdeen).

[Olga]

Hi MacDuff, They would probably have been blue, to match the colour you became after bathing in the North Sea, the experience was no better further south, Tynemouth was freezing even when the sun shone.

[MacDuff]

Well Olga, my maternal grandfather would swim at the beach in Aberdeen in January, but I think I am correct in saying that at that time of year the water was actually "warmer" than in May/June If I am incorrect, no doubt somebody with greater knowledge than I will correct me It reminds me of a story about a baby polar bear. He kept bugging his Mum asking her if he really was a baby polar bear, "not a black bear, a kodiak bear, a koala bear etc. She wouls reassure the little guy, but he persisted. So eventually she sent him to question his Dad. "Dad, am I really a baby polar bear, not a black bear ora kodiak bear etc." Response: "Now look here son, your Mum is a polar bear, I am a polar bear and you are a baby polar bear, so what is it that's bothering you?"

"Well Dad if I really am a baby polar bear, why is it that I am bloody freezing?"

In that respect, I am not the heroic grandson!

[mr wotsin]

Squids eyes Macduff. you've lost me.

[Colette]

Mr W, those photos are brilliant, a lovely memory for you and thanks for sharing them with us

[MacDuff]

Yes Mr. Wotsin: "naked and shamed then itchy and scratchy as it dried - i did but i am not - even for a million squids - posting a picture " Having prepared quite a lot of them in making calamari, I have observed their BIG eyes Just occurred to me that a million of them may have been gogling (maybe even googling) at the sight of Wotsin in his semi naked and itchy state ops:

[mr wotsin]

You are just one itch too much for me, Macduff

[Kojak]

I can remember having one of those knitted costumes too. The least said the better....

[Olga]

Question? Did mums who knitted Fair Isle pullovers also knit Fair Isle swimming costumes?

[snoopy2]

Not all mothers knitted swimming costumes. That is the saddest part of the whole era - you could BUY wool swimming costumes!!!!!! Oh boy am i glad we have come so far along the evolutionary and civilised time scale since then! I suppose the only up side of the wool swimmer was you didn't have to have a bandy net - just caught them as you rose from the deep.

[Olga]

Oh lor, the picture that conjured up is beyond discription, and had me lol for about ten minutes.