I remember working from home ( for a pittance) painting toy soldiers paid by the thousand and later as a punch card operator for IBM . I worked at the British Tap And Dye company in Nightingale Road n9 for a couple of years back in the 60s too.

rail technician ref In our house in the 60s my mum threaded string handles into paper carrier bags for a pittance, her efforts were paid for by the thousand as I recall and it was a struggle to get them assembled by collection day.

In ours it was popping together strings of plastic beads ( I remember well the dents in my fingers), and painting plastic toy soldiers, the worst ones were the scots with their kilts. I would have been about six or seven but still had to do my whack.

Denny Rd 46/62

Jackie,

I didn't know that tassles were made at home but I can quite imagine it, homework was definitely popular in the early 1960s. Yes, sore fingers from most homework, methinks, it alwats seemed to be the fiddly stuff that was given out for homework. I guess it was because employers knew that times were hard and people would do almost anything to make ends meet and although jobs were not so difficult to find then they were certainly not friendly for young mums who were usually not available before 0930 and often had to be away at or before 1500. My mum walked us to school until I was 8 or 9, after that I sometimes walked my younger sister to school or mum would walk her separately but mum generally collected my sister in the afternoons until ahe too was old enough to walk home alone or with friends.
It does seem rather ridiculous in this day and age that kids are shepherded so much and to such an age, the school run by car is
completely unnecessary as are so many other measures instigated by the apparent need for everyone to earn a wage and the paranoia created by government about child safety in modern Britain. The logical conclusion of course is for every child to be chipped at birth and tracked until death, to be honest I am surprised that the current namby pamby
establishment has not already seen the benefits and instituted such a system as there would be little or no question about people's locations and habits. Then again I think politicians themselves would have a real problem with the nation being able to follow their every move!

Brian


QT - Jackie wrote:

Brian - yes, my Mum made the tassles, that in those days, Men
had on their dressing gowns (now most people seem to have them
tying their curtains back!)
I remember her fingers being really sore sometimes, and having
to go to Tottenham to collect and deliver the work, all on the
bus and all, as you say, for peanuts.

These days you'd be arrested on sight for having a bomb, real or not!
You know as a railwayman I cannot stand the incorrect term 'train station' which has adulterated the language in recent years. The correct term is 'railway station', a 'train station' could be a number of things including but not limited to a place where wedding dresses are parked (wedding dresses have trains) or a place where pulses are collected (pulses usually form trains as in dial pulses). 'Train station' is yet one more of those awful Americanisms that younger generations have adopted and carried into journalism to be dissemminated nationwide.
Brian



QT - Jackie wrote:

Talking of Guy Fawkes - my friend I were only discussing our
guys the other day. My friend's Mum was talented with a needle,
and made us one who looked just like Guy himself, with a high
hat, and breeches etc. We wrapped a football in black material,
pulled it up at the top, and wrote BOMB on it, in big letters.
Then we sat on the wall of our Sunday School superintendent's
house, on the corner of Victoria Road and Church St, and caught
all the commuters as they walked back home from the train
station!
Don't know whether it was the fact that the guy looked really
good, or we just chose the right time of day, but we always made
enough to pay for our fireworks AND to put some in our Post
Office Savings accounts!

Just got back from a week on the Trent and Mersey canal (on a
narrowboat) - and despite trying lots of local bitters (near
Burton on Trent - home of the breweries) didn't find mild on tap
anywhere!

Will be staying with friends at Waltham Cross for a couple of weeks from 11 Nov. We are going to the Food & Wine Exibition and Counnty life Christmas Show . Also i will be taking a trip to Edmonton to have a look around.Can anybody recommend a place on the Green where you can get a decent sandwich.

Carol

Guy Fawkes night. I well remember the wonderful 'nosh up' the parents of my friend, Nigel Firth, gave for local kids at their house at Ponders End which was followed by a firework party out in their back garden. I also recall the guys we built over the years and standing outside pubs and cinemas asking for the traditional 'penny for the Guy, Mister (or Missus)'. Usually collected enough to buy a few 'bangers', rockets and Catherine Wheels. Shame today's kids don't have the same experience, although I suppose most parents are glad nowadays that their kids don't have the opportunity to blow themselves up! Great days, though.

Brian - yes, my Mum made the tassles, that in those days, Men had on their dressing gowns (now most people seem to have them tying their curtains back!)
I remember her fingers being really sore sometimes, and having to go to Tottenham to collect and deliver the work, all on the bus and all, as you say, for peanuts.

Talking of Guy Fawkes - my friend I were only discussing our guys the other day. My friend's Mum was talented with a needle, and made us one who looked just like Guy himself, with a high hat, and breeches etc. We wrapped a football in black material, pulled it up at the top, and wrote BOMB on it, in big letters.
Then we sat on the wall of our Sunday School superintendent's house, on the corner of Victoria Road and Church St, and caught all the commuters as they walked back home from the train station!
Don't know whether it was the fact that the guy looked really good, or we just chose the right time of day, but we always made enough to pay for our fireworks AND to put some in our Post Office Savings accounts!

Just got back from a week on the Trent and Mersey canal (on a narrowboat) - and despite trying lots of local bitters (near Burton on Trent - home of the breweries) didn't find mild on tap anywhere!

A little off topic perhaps but talking of crepe paper does anyone else recall the homework that some mums did for extra pennies. My mate's mum and her sisters spent all their spare time with crepe paper and wire turning out flowers by the hundred for decorations. I can still recall her cutting out the shapes from the various coloured reams and wiring them into roses and other flowers.

In our house in the 60s my mum threaded string handles into paper carrier bags for a pittance, her efforts were paid for by the thousand as I recall and it was a struggle to get them assembled by collection day. She didn't do it for long and took a part time job as a counter assistant in a sweet shop as an easier way to make extra money.

Brian


QT - Tony wrote:

mark, I'll give you 3 out of 10 for your last effort, Pauline
o.5 out of 100. )only joking) (0.6).

but anyway, Paper chains, lots of this going on at St Edmunds
primary school circa 1968-1975. Probably inspired by Valerie
Singleton and Peter Purves.
Also, I distinctly remeber the posts a while back about the fact
that a crepe paper christmas decoration warehouse existed on the
corner of Brettenham and Baxter road up until the early 70s.

I also recall a fire there, for which us kids where erroniously
blamed.

mark, I'll give you 3 out of 10 for your last effort, Pauline o.5 out of 100. )only joking) (0.6).

but anyway, Paper chains, lots of this going on at St Edmunds primary school circa 1968-1975. Probably inspired by Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves.
Also, I distinctly remeber the posts a while back about the fact that a crepe paper christmas decoration warehouse existed on the corner of Brettenham and Baxter road up until the early 70s.

I also recall a fire there, for which us kids where erroniously blamed.

I remember as a small child making paper chains,with my mum,dad was in the army I met up with him when I was 7 years old.Those early years and memory's
were quite different to the Christmas that the majority go overboard for today.The Christmas we knew was destroyed by the advent of Commercial TV with adverts in September.Today I love Christmas and as a Christian have the words kiss in my bible which means, Keep it simple stupid,just a reminder no big grand plans.And of course why do Christians celebrate Christmas,Well scripture says,In the days of those Kings God will set up a Kingdom that will never be removed,and he as trust me.

I well remember making paper chains and lanterns for Christmas when at Haselbury Road Infants school way back when. We could take them home and I remember walking along the street to Northumberland Gardens, where we lived at the time, with armfuls of these decorations and helping my parents put them up in our living room. We would also add tinsel and a few coloured balloons to add to the festive look. Funnily enough, though, I don't ever recall our having a Christmas tree back then. I do remember writing a note to Santa with my Christmas 'wish list' and sticking it up the chimney for him to read. I loved waking up on Christmas Day and delving through the pillowcase at the foot of my bed to see what he'd brought me - Boys Own Annual, morse code set, kaleidoscope, a 'pop up' paper Post Office shop, xylophone, model Spitfire (that I later found out was made by a relative of mine when he was interred in a POW camp during the war), coloured pencils, a wooden pencil box and a Magic Set, all come to mind as gifts I received. I remember, too, my Dad buying me a second-hand desk and chair one Christmas (1946 I think) at which I used to sit for hours, drawing and painting as well as making paper aeroplanes and ships. Nowadays, I see the grandchildren getting moutain bikes, electric train sets, computer games, etc. and the decorations are all bought from the shops and the Christmas tree is a very elaborate affair with hundreds of lights. By mid-afternoon, they are usually fed up with their new 'toys' and complaining they have nothing to do. How times have changed!

We all made paper chains in the office in 1985, im talking about 1955 AAAAAH.

We used to make our own paper chains, something to keep us occupied instead of being under mum's feet! Actually the last time I made paper chains was not that long ago really, Christmas 1985 at work when I decorated our office using surplus coloured A4 paper in pink, blue, green, yellow and orange. I also made Chinese lanterns and other folded decorations at break and lunch times, a welcome diversion from
unpalatable canteen food!

I do, however, remember the bought paper chains in the newsagents and other local stores. I remember cheap turkeys not only at the Green but elsewhere too, I can only recall visiting the old Green at Christmas time once. I recall chestnut sellers on the streets at Christmas and of course jacket potatoes on November the fifth too. Yes night watchmen on the street guarding roadworks with their braziers glowing deep red in the cold and keeping it warm inside their tents/huts and out.
I was never into carol singing, not my thing at all, me and my pal used to make a guy and collect donations for our fireworks usually the week before Guy Fawkes night. We used to like jumping jacks and rockets, I was never keen on bangers or catherine wheels which I always thought dangerous, of course we held sparklers in our woolly gloves or mittens and we encouraged to do so by our parents unlike today!

Like most things these days I find the whole Guy Fawkes experience, Christmas and other celebrations far too commercial and I don't really bother with any of them, in fact for the most part I have not celebrated any of them for the last 20 years. My one concession to Christmas is that I like to cook a proper Christmas dinner which I have done
virtually every year since living on my own but I have no time for Halloween, Trick or Treat, Easter etc and even though I seldom drink alcohol nowadays I will have a wee dram or two on New Year's Eve just for old times sake.

Brian


QT - carol sample wrote:

Regarding the run up to christmas,does anybody remember buying
paper chains at the door.They were all different colours, you
licked the paper and stuck them together,hence paper chains.What
about buying cheap turkeys on the green christmas eve when they
used to auction them off.As a kid my friends and i
used to go out carol singing, and when we got thirty bob each we
went home.
Another thing what about the night watchman in there tents and
lovely coal fire in the street,used to love watching the fire
and keeping warm. And then st martins church bells ringing
sunday morning and all other festive occasions.

Regarding the run up to christmas,does anybody remember buying paper chains at the door.They were all different colours, you licked the paper and stuck them together,hence paper chains.What about buying cheap turkeys on the green christmas eve when they used to auction them off.As a kid my friends and i
used to go out carol singing, and when we got thirty bob each we went home.
Another thing what about the night watchman in there tents and lovely coal fire in the street,used to love watching the fire and keeping warm. And then st martins church bells ringing sunday morning and all other festive occasions.

Hi all, I noted the mention of Sir Alf Ramsey and it reminded me that a few months ago I visited Chingford Masonic Centre. Hanging in a frame on the wall are Sir Alfs Masonic apron and jewels.