Memories of younger days

Following on from 'Memories of idyllic summer days' it has started me regressing to the middle of the last century

Short scenes of younger days have been popping into my head. Not necessarily in chronological order. Of course, even yesterday is a younger day so I shall restrict it to 1940's-1960's .

Anyone who was around for the Coronation could not fail to remember things about it. Before the event there was all the hype and sale of memorabilia - yes, they even had it in those days but not as pushy. I can still see the picture of the Queen in a purple/blue flowing robe on the front of the large biscuit tin we had. There was a lot of publicity and pictures of all the royal family that we collected and put in scrap books but I don't know where the scrap books are now - possibly somewhere in the loft.

Then there were the street parties. Lots of the houses had very big flags flying from upstairs windows. We didn't only have the Union Flag but a variety of them including the Royal Standard which was very colourful.

Our street party was very similar to the one in the link below and I can't remember anything about the rain they said we had.

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/TheCoronation1953.htm

More memories later - if I remember

 

Hi Alice,

That reminds me about TV.

Only one house in the street had a TV and that was a 9" one with a magnifier on the front. I used to go there (a friend's house) to watch 'The Quatermass Experiment' in 1953.

One other good friend also used to go there. He became the youngest British male pop singer at the age of 14. His name was Laurie London and his first big hit was 'He's Got The Whole World In His Hands'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymeyO68whZ8

Not quite the same as Mahalia Jackson

It was a few years later that another friend/acquaintance of mine became the youngest British female pop singer also at the age of 14. Helen Shapiro released her latest album in 2002, 50 years after her first recording!
Before she started in pop she was already singing jazz and blues and had a number of hit jazz albums in the 80's. She just does gospel now. She had, and still has, a powerful voice with a good range.


I have just found out that we can't post more than one video per post so shall add Helen Shapiro in a moment.

 

Alice,

Laurie became very big in Germany for a few years but then left the pop business. The last I heard he was running a pub - Ithink it was on the south coast

Here is the Helen Shapiro clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuQlpFnlIBE

 

I remember when they decided to make a new road surface at the big crossroads near us. The old surface was made of wooden tar blocks that had been down for donkeys years. When they started pulling them up a lot of us went up there with wheelbarrows to take the blocks for our fires :thumb:

It was just by this crossroads that they opened the first bowling alley in Britain. Henry Cooper and Edmund Hillary did the opening ceremony and a friend of mine and myself bunked in the back door. It used to be the Super Cinema and that's how we saw a lot of the films

On the subject of roads - I remember the lamplighter coming down the road that my school was in to light the gas lights there. I'm not sure but I think it was they were the last gas street lights in London.

During the last week of the London trams (think it was 1952) they ran special rides on the trams and my sister and I went on one of those rides.

 

I used to love the smell of the coal as they tipped it in. :thumb:

 

:WINK1: I am remembering it too... I remember the tins with her robes.. I remember all the books that came out about her & her life after it too.. :WINK1: Had several.... I was a royalist then & still am today... It was wonderful really compared with the hype of today....

Percy Thrower was a breath of fresh air then, total silence when he was on, but as we know things have changed so much... :D