Childhood Revisited

I'm going to put in my 'a'ppence worth. Firstly, I remember Cremona Foam and I was from down Sarf, but does anyone else remember playing 'dabs'? I'm beginning to wonder if I imagined them. Five little square blocks of different colours, you had to throw one up in the air whilst performing wonderous deeds with the other four left on the ground. Jacks were new fangled, orrid spikey little fings things wot I couldn't cope with

Oh Roses....I love treacle toffee and still eat far too much of it.

I've never heard of jacks or dabs bo

My best friend and I played Jacks obsessively in the mid-1950s. We played on the wooden floorboards surrounding the carpet in the living room. The floorboards were really rough and I ended up with what Mum called 'segs' all down the edge of my right hand plus the occasional splinter. Not very nice, but didnt stop us playing. Aaaah, we knew how to enjoy ourselves in those days.

didn't

I haven't heard of dabs either but I did play jacks and could catch quite a few on the back of my hand!

Anyone remember French skipping? Either two friends or, if playing on your own - two dining chairs - with long lengths of elastic wound round the legs of either willing helpers; the object was to put your feet under the elastic and jump over the other side but taking the first elastic with you. You could stand in the middle creating a diamond shape in the elastic and then jump out again without getting tangled up!

Did any of you make paper pictures? We had a piece of glass painted black and would chalk the back of a simple picture which we placed on the painted side and traced round to transfer the picture to the paint. We would then spend hours scraping the paint away before we stuck coloured papers to the back. Anything that was a bit glittery was pounced upon, or fought over with my sister. It kept us amused for a very long time and was framed with passe partout. My father also made kaleidoscopes with glass and passe partout as described earlier. One year all the children in the street had one for Christmas plus a train made out of dried milk tins made by another father in the street.

We called 'dabs' or 'jacks' five stones.

All the doors were left unlocked in the forties. If anybody did lock theirs the key was on a bit of string hanging inside the letter box. Never have worked that one out! At school pencils were few and far between, often cut in half so most of our letters were learned by writing them in a sand tray with your finger. This was often done, as was the chanting of the times tables, whilst in the shelter under the playground!

It's surprising how these stories differ according to the age of the writer.

Liberty bodices. That's all I'll say....

We made those pictures out of sweet wrappers and the foil wrappers of cigarettes and chocolates. Easter eggs had particularly good patterns. We did it a bit differently - we laid the glass over the picture and outlined it on the glass with black paint and a fine brush, then filled in the background.

The foil was stuck over the foreground clear parts with Cow gum in one of those little bottles that had a rubber top with a slit in it. You had to start with the finer detail and stick the bigger shapes over them, as you were working from the back. Then a piece of paper was pasted over the back to protect the foil, and it was sealed up with a cardboard backing and the uniquitous passepartout.

It was mostly on visits to my youngest aunt that we did things like these pictures - she was good at all the craft things, still is at 94, when her hands let her. She was also good at finding daft songs to sing while we worked -

I'm Dan, Dan the Waterworks Man
The man what brings your water.
I aint the bloke what brings the coke
I aint the railway porter
I'm Dan, Dan the Waterworks man
The man what brings your water.

That was on.

The Woodpeckers hole was another. (Lyrics of that by request)

My DF made pictures like that when he was away at sea. I wish I knew what happened to them.

Beer at home means 'Davenports'. (for DF not us of course.)

Just reread my last post, and I meant "That was one" not "that was on".

Oh, Eligran liberty bodices! All those little rubber buttons down the front.

Now to see how back you go. Do you remember thermogene? A remedy for coughs, it was wrapped around your chest and gave off heat and a smell. We were also told to go out and follow the tar cart and breathe in the fumes. Later it was Wrights Coal Tar vapourisers. We also had a raw onion tied round our neck in an old sock. Strangely enough there was an email circulating recently advising you not to store a peeled onion to use, unless you cook it well, as it absorbs bacteria, so these old wives tales have some truth in them.

My aunt used to feed me Virol and rub my chest with goose fat. Yuk.

I loved playing French skipping HollyDaze
And Cat's Cradle, I saw this book in the toy dept of John Lewis yesterday.
www.amazon.co.uk/Cats-Cradle-String-Figures-Klutz/dp/1878257536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404201170&sr=1-1&keywords=cats+cradle

Experigran Not Thermogene, no. Our family standbys were Vick for chesty colds and Germolene (the oily kind) for anything external. We must have smelt like a chemist's shop.

I hated Virol which the doctor prescribed after I'd had a bad bout of pneumonia at the age of six. I well remember Thermogene which was wrapped over my chest when I had a cold. I found it rather comforting. We had Vick (when did it become Vicks?) as well. I still use it if I have a cough and it works every time! I must confess that I liked being kept off school when I was unwell because I could listen to the BBC schools broadcasts of which my favourite was the programme in which 'Uncle Jim' took two kids into the past where they met dinosaurs and sabre tooth tigers and various historical characters.

I loved playing French skipping

I am so pleased to hear you say that penguinpaperback, you are the only other person that's ever heard of it let alone played it, I was beginning to think I'd imagined it

When we had colds, blocked up noses and coughs, my mum would put Vicks in some hot water in a bowl, lean us over the bowl, towel over our heads and told to breathe it all in. Not sure if I liked that.

I used to be slathered in a kaolin poultice when I had one of my frequent bad chests (learnt later that it was actually asthma but always referred to as being chesty). Very hot when it went on then it went cold and hard and very unpleasant after a while.

I also remember being dunked in a bath full of bright yellow water - mustard powder mixed in - to "bring out the rash". Think it was measles?

Then there was Fennings Fever Cure - my teeth shudder at the memory!

When did Calamine lotion turn from the pink I remember as a child to white?

penguinpaperback I remember French skipping and French knitting (four nails banged in the top of a wooden cotton reel, wool wound round them and pulled through the hole, which eventually would come out through the hole in the bottom of the reel as a wool cord, which was then what? Ah, the mysterious past times those French give to us. Dabs/jacks/fivestones. To me, Dabs were five small ridged blocks in five solid colours, you picked a colour then used that Dab to throw up whilst moving the other four Dabs around. I think five stones was the same game but used picked up stones/pebbles, which were difficult when it came to balancing. Jacks were 5 metal spiky things, supplied with a little red rubber ball which involved being bounced! it never quite caught on in my school.

French knitting (four nails banged in the top of a wooden cotton reel, wool wound round them and pulled through the hole, which eventually would come out through the hole in the bottom of the reel as a wool cord

I'd forgotten that!

which was then what?

Yes, one of the great unanswered questions of the universe

Holly - sorry not very well put. I was speculating as to what I did with the bootlace sort of thing the French knitting produced. I have a feeling I just went on going until the trail become several yards long, got bored with it and went back to my roller skates

French knitting or 'corking' we called it - when it was long enough, we used to curl it into rounds or make into squares, stitch it secure for pot-handle/kettle holders and teapot mats.