OneGuyFromBarlick

Sue wrote:My dance exercise class does the slosh as well.

Thats good to Know Sue, the Slosh lives on.

I'm going into Scrooge made. Can you remember when a stocking with an orange in the toe and if you were lucky a small bag of boiled sweets was a Xmas treat? Can you imagine the reaction of a modern child confronted with that on Xmas morning?

Surely you're a generation put with that recollection? Thats the sort of story my mother told me, and I'm only a few years behind you. We had little money in the 1940s but did better than that.

We usually got a pressie as well David but the stocking was a Xmas treat. I doubt if it would be seen as that now.

In the early fifties, I can remember finding a piece of soap in my my stocking in the shape of a rabbit, at the time I thought it was the best present. Then a roast chicken for dinner, it really was special then. Now I could very easily sleep through Christmas and not miss it. Some where along the line it has been spoiled.

Making paper chains each year from short strips bought at the newsagents and using Gloy to stick them together. (Much better than mother's flour and water paste!)

Commercialism! Shops starting Christmas the first week in November. I rest my case about Barlicks and everyone else's early decorations. Adults are bored with the whole event after seven weeks of shopping etc and kids are hyperactive and anxious. It's supposed to be a religious festival!

I too used to love Christmas but commercialism has killed it for me


HOWEVER I am looking forward to taking my eldest grandaughter, Eve to the panto at the Gracie Fields theatre in Rochdale but that is on Christmas Eve

We went to the Christmas market in Manchester yesterday, this was at my partners request, massive crowds spoiled the outing, and due to the number of traders this year, and them being spread over a number of sites, I found the whole occasion tedious. The only saving grace I now have several salami's with a green pepper coating.

I'm still looking for a Seebackroscope and possibly a Zonk.... Now that is definitely trawling the depths of memory!

Have a look at this LINK. No batteries or electronics to go wrong. I wonder how many are still out there floating about in the bottoms of drawers.
I looked up 'Zonk' on the web but no mention of the fact it was the trade name for a galvanised clip that clamped on a sweeping brush head and allowed a new stail to be inserted and held in a clamp. Used when the hole in the head had been damaged and the stail couldn't be fixed in tightly. I hope the bots pick that up and educate the world!

New Year's Eve. When I was a lad, even during the war, we used to stay up till midnight to listen to all the mill steam whistles and loco whistles blowing at midnight.

It's going to be full wet weather gear for our walk this morning. I shall come back dry as a bone. I think back to the days when the best we had was either an ex-army gas cape or a very heavy coat to soak up the water before it got through to you. We forget these days that cheap effective waterproof clothing was unknown 70 years ago.

My mind is tending towards sewage disposal. Such an interesting subject. Anyone remember San Izal toilet paper?

Anybody remember back-pedalling brakes on cycles?

Yes, one of my early cobble together out of bits bikes had back peddle, fantastic for skidding tricks.

Just after the war, good god do I go that far back, I had an Elswick with a back peddle brake. One day the police organized a "safety cycle day" at the school. After vetting the bike they condemned it for not having a rear break. There were some red faces when a nine year old kid pointed out how it worked. I suppose the same thing happens now with computers.

I think we should mention fixed gear bikes as well with no free running or back peddle, they were good for tricks a well.

Fixed gears were de rigeur for the CTC and when dérailleur gears came in after WW2 they threw a blue fit and this led to the foundation of the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC). Me and my mates joined the revolution in about 1950, Sturmey Archer hubs went out and we wouldn't have been seen dead with a Dynohub. We went onto 1 1/4" Michelin tyres and 27" rims with butted spokes, 531 butted frame tubing and eventually Campagnola hubs. Heady days and we did thousands of miles. I've always said that the aerobic exercise I did then has had a major effect on my subsequent health.

Don't forget Mafac brakes. The best.

mafac brakes

Never came across them and we were all on limited budgets! I paid for my dérailleur gear (I think it was a Cyclo?) by doing work in the shed at the local bike shop where I got to the stage where I could lace my own rims up. We used to get through a lot of brake blocks, were they Fibrax?
Just as an aside,



I bought an old shed up and amongst the loot was this complete set of cycle taps and dies retailed by Brown Brothers of Manchester in the 1930s. I've often thought that anyone who refurbishes old cycles would give their eye teeth for it. If you know anyone, tip them off! Brown Brothers catalogue was my bedtime reading for years, they sold everything for garages and cycle shops from their big store in Manchester. Aladdin’s Cave!

Did anyone ever make better saddles than Brooks?

Lycett made a good range of standard saddles plus the more comfortable sprung saddles. I have one on my vintage New Imperial motorcycle.

I always remember the remedy used by Tour de France riders for saddle soreness. A piece of steak in your undercarriage!

Stanley wrote:I always remember the remedy used by Tour de France riders for saddle soreness. A piece of steak in your undercarriage!

Would it be rump steak........

Every morning when I make my coffee I clean my pint pot with bleach and boiling water which then goes into the plug hole and is left to soak for a minute or two. This ensures that I always have a clean efficient drain from the sink. As I was doing it this morning I thought about the old waste pipes which were always lead pipes, if you were lucky 1" bore! One of the things about lead is that it attracts fat for some reason and it was common in those days for the pipe to gradually get blocked. I can remember my mother using bleach and boiling water to keep ours clean when I was a lad and no doubt that's why I still do it.
A little known fact for you. At one time the sewage works used to use filters made of lead plates which collected fat. In war-time this was used in Margarine making. In the heavy Woollen Districts these plates collected (and still perhaps do) Lanolin from the waste water from wool scouring plants. This was used to make lipstick and anything else needing Lanolin. I suspect this is still the main source, how else would you harvest Lanolin from sheep?