'Stolen' from FaceBook, but fun....

[AliasAggers]

I remember when we had a breakfast cereal called FORCE. Whatever happened to it?
There was a picture of a leaping energetic youth on the box, with the words:-

Over the fence jumps Sunny Jim
FORCE is the power that raises him.

Anyone remember that?

[TheOstrich]

Jo, my S. has done quite a lot of genealogical research and there is certainly one branch of the family, on my Mother's side, IIRC, who were Cannock coalfield miners.

No recollection here at all of FORCE, Aggers ... although I can just about remember ration cards, although it's a very vague memory now.

Do you remember when National Insurance contributions were weekly stamps to be stuck on a card?

[cromwell]

Cromwell, I was telling John and the lads on NYE about how, years ago, we'd all go out of the houses at Midnight as the pit buzzers would be sounded to signify the start of the new year.

Jo, I was reading somewhere that people who live near the river Clyde open their windows on NYE to let the old year out and the new year in, and to listen to the sound of the tug boats hooting to welcome the new year. Very similar!

I was just thinking, rolling up newspapers to make paper sticks for the coal fire? But I suppose some people will still have open fires if they don't live in smoke free zones.

[JoM]

I remember rolling the newspapers Cromwell! We'd open them out fully and roll diagonally so that they 'roll' was long and then fold in the middle and sort of cross one side over the other until there was a kind of plait.

Not sure if this was something that was just common to around here but everyone used to come to the back door when coming in or going out or even visiting, it was very rare for the front door to be opened. The bread man, the milk man, the rent woman, they all came through the side gate and into the back garden. Even now I rarely use our front door, I always come in through the back door and into the kitchen. A neighbour even asked me once why I do that and don't use the front

[TheOstrich]

My Father spent part of his childhood fostered out with a family in a village near Petersfield. When I was a youngster, we'd often go to visit that foster family. It was, from what I recall, a 2 up, 2 down terraced cottage.
Yes, all deliveries were to the back door, that's where the kitchen was. The front door, and more importantly the front room, which was otherwise never used and kept immaculate, were only used for very posh visitors. We were not included!

Allotments! Who else had an allotment? My Father did in Birmingham, and I have a memory as a youngster being told to shut up, get weaving, and pick the blackcurrants for the jam-making!

[Kaz]

My brother in law still has an allotment

[Kaz]

My dad's grandad, and his dad, and his dad going back all the way for several hundred years were all coal miners Jo

I remember Vesta curries And coal bunkers, and my great grandparents ( the one who used to be a miner before he moved the family south, in the '30s) had an Anderson shelter in their back garden.

[Workingman]

Aggers, I vaguely remember FORCE but could not tell you what sort of cereal it was.

Now, the front door/back door thing. The front door was only ever used by special visitors, usually the doctor or the priest, everyone else used the back. It was never locked and nobody knocked, it would be pushed ajar with the call "Anybody home?". And same as Ossie, the front room was for 'occasions' and not regular use.

Could anyone explain the necessity of pirate radio ships to today's youth? Caroline was the first and biggest, but 270 was local to Yorkshire. However, being on medium wave (that would need explaining as well) they were subject to atmospheric interference, so backup was needed. I had Mi Amigo, Veronica and Noordzee International.

[Ally]

How about this Aggers.




https://goo.gl/images/khS0bD

[Kaz]

I was still making firelighters like that until a few years ago They worked a treat in the log burners we had in our old houses