Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Do you remember.

Anyone remember the drink Fling?
They sold it at our school tuck shop but I never saw it anywhere else, ever......

And the miniature plastic Watneys Red Barrel keyring. Still got mine. Also the chewing gum machines on the wall outside corner shops. When the arrow on the turn-knob was pointing in a certain direction you inserted your money turned the knob and you received TWO packets of Beechnut chewing gum. That, in turn, reminds me of the old Button A & B telephone boxes. Take the phone off the hook and hit the receiver rest the number of times to correspond with the number you were calling (local only) - for tel no. 224, 2 taps pause, 2 taps pause, 4 taps - and you were connected free!

Grew up west coast of Scotland and that was pints of McEwans Export mid to late 60’s

Students bar in the late 60s ..... pint was 11 old pence .... so yep, seven pints was 6s 5d ...plenty left for fish and chips! .... remember the rag and bone man's horse too ....and United Dairies in London still delivering milk in their orange horse drawn covered carts (with rubber tyred artillery wheels and the horse shoes with rubber inserts so as not to disturb their sleeping customers) .... collecting bottles for the deposit and hauling my box-cart loaded with collected newspapers down to the salvage yard for a few coppers ... I feel positively historic now ....thanks a lot!!



K

PS ... used to pass a parked UK Ford Pilot V8 on the way to the salvage yard .... loved it then, love them now (in principle as, in spite of the coveted V8, they're as slow as a very slow thing!)

Oh! ...and bloody gas lights in the street with the two little arms sticking out at the top for the ladder to sit against for maintenance .... been around far too long!!

St Eve’s post takes me back a bit. Dead right about tapping the receiver rest.

I worked for the GPO telecommunications for a couple of years on leaving school as a “Yuf in training” and learnt that if you rang the operator from a phone box and said that you were a field engineer testing a number then you were put through for free....very useful.

I also well remember the “party line. You had to rely on neighbourliness in those times. Then we had the new innovation of the Trim phone

Back to sleep now,

Your gas light post reminded me of the time I was marched to the police station! The incident, shimmy up the gas light, open window and blow out the pilot. Pull back clock arm to maximum gas and jamb it open with a broken lollipop stick, close window and hide waiting for gas light man with his long stick to arrive on his check round.

His long stick had a hook on one side and a wick in the other, he lit the wick and opened the window with the hook and rotated it 180 degrees and inserted the lit wick to light the pilot.

You could hear the bang 3 streets away, and the glass from the explosion spread yards...... i was only 7 and had no idea how long he would be or that the gas would fill the lamp or indeed how effective it would be as an older boy had told me how to do it.

I was spotted and frog marched to the Police Station for a bollocking and to await my parents arrival. One of the old Sergeants made me a jam sandwich as he could see I was terrified and he couldn’t stop laughing.......

My mother was not amused and I got a right walloping!

BR
Colin

My memories go back to about 1956.
Parents bought a 3 bed semi built in 1938.

Electricity: upstairs, only lighting.
Heating: Coal fire in the lounge.
Cooking: gas.
Insulation: what was that?
Car: some time in the future.
Grocer: weekly delivery.
Fruit and Veg: weekly visit by a man with a lorry.
Baker: Mum made bread.
Butcher: Animals hanging from hooks.
Sainsburys: big marble slabs, served by people.
Supermarket: Not yet
Radio: One, valve set,
TV: not for afew years
School: Milk in 1/3 pint bottles
Work: Dad caught the 7:58 to Waterloo, Waked to the station, 25 mins. Mum? Ladies didn't work....


I could go on, would I go back? No chance.

I remember when I was earning $5,000 a year and could afford to take my girlfriend out to an top class Japanese restaurant without worrying abut the bill.

Memories related to vehicles take me back to standing on the running board of one of my grandfather's cars ready to open the gates at various points in the Yorkshire Dales. Probably why I like the running boards - and yes, the treads - on the Morgan. Mid fifties memories are also of joining our milkman on his round in the electric 'float'. We used to jump off, collect the milk and orange juice in the galvanised crates on the back and delivery it to doorsteps whilst he stayed in the cab. Another memory is of a bobby on the beat telling me that my bicycle wheels were more than 14 inches in diameter and that I should therefore be on the road and not on the pavement. And those were the days where you turned right on a main road by positioning yourself in the middle of the road with your right arm out. I still shudder at the thought!

Neither would I. Outside lavvy on dark nights - no thanks!

Colin's remark reminds me of the time a mate and I at night lit a Jetex pellet in a phone box, Never seen so much smoke - filled the box immediately and started pouring out of the four vents at the top, all attractively lit by the street light above. Had to run home past the police house (every village had one then) as the constable was coming out putting on his jacket. I guess someone had phoned him and we had interrupted his Saturday night telly.