Nostalgia, Trivia & Ephemera

(Random bits with nowhere else to go)

Development blight and bomb site
Space Invaders
'The Electric'    
Meet my cats
Letters from a soldier
A Child's war story
The 'Clippies'

Two photographs that seem to make a natural pair:  I was amused by the grafitti accurately reflecting  real life in Amsterdam in 1980 and the soldier's casual treatment of a 2000 lb unexploded World War 2 German bomb German bomb found in south-east London in the 1970s.     Both photos © Arthur Loosley.

ABOVE: 'Your turn next'.    BELOW:  'Gently does it!'

Early Arcade Games - Space Invaders Remember the early video games?  The first I remember was a table-tennis game - a little square ball bouncing slowly across the screen, controlled by two primitive bats.  The bulky coin operated 'arcade' machine with a black and white low definition television screen was in a pub, and customers queued to use it.   The first major improvement was 'Space Invaders' as far as I remember.  This was the forerunner of many other 'shoot-em-up' games and I wasted many an hour (and coin) a London railway terminus, trying to shoot down the aliens before they got me, and before my train departed!   These games and others were later available to play at home on the Atari games console - a bulky brute by  modern standards, with each game supplied (at a price!) on a plug-in cartridge about the size of a 20-pack of cigarettes.   You can refresh your memories of the classic Space Invaders at http://www.escape-to-the-seventies.com/flashgames/invaders.htm  where an on-line version can be played.   I have to admit that after the initial delight at seeing the return of 'an old friend' it  got a bit boring.  I am sure that the younger generation today would find it even more so.   Have a go., and enjoy!  There's nothing to lose, and it will take you back 30 years or so and make you feel younger . . . or perhaps make you even more aware of your age!   TOP of PAGE

There was little public awareness of the dangers of 'The Electric' - as it was popularly called in my childhood.

It had not reached every home by the early 40s, and many of those who had the benefit of this
modern marvel had only one outlet - a single bulb-holder hanging from the living room ceiling.

My brother Paul, prompted by my mention of 'The Electric' in my story, 'Walnut Wisdom' waved the magic wand he keeps in his treasure chest and conjured up this picture, which he sent to me by the even more modern marvel of email. 

This may have been taken a little later than mentioned in the story because the wires appear to be of the later plastic-covered type, which replaced the silk-wrapped twisted pairs common in the early war years, but the plugs and adapters are certainly of the era and provide a frightening reminder of the times.

All the household electrical appliances shared this one socket, and blown fuses were a frequent occurrence, which led many people to replace the 5-amp fuse wire with something more substantial, such as a paper-clip, with the inevitable consequence that the household wiring overheated and many a house burnt down!

As Paul says in his email: 'Thankfully we all survived….we were all probably in more danger from "The Electric" than the bombs! But of course Dad would never have recognised the danger….'  Nor, sadly, did many other Dads in those days of enlightenment!

FOOTNOTE: Re AC/DC

Until the late 1950s or early 1960s many electrical items (Radio, TV, etc) were made to operate on both AC (alternating current) and DC (Direct Current) because the safer and more manageable AC was not available in all areas.  To reduce DC mains voltage to the lower level required for safe operation, the current was passed though a coil of resistance wire - similar to the element of the open bar electric fires that were common at that time, whereas AC used a transformer which was totally sealed and ran at a very much lower temperature. Wires carrying DC current were red for positive and black for negative, whereas AC colouring went though several minor changed before being standardised as brown (live) and blue (return) as we see them today.

Read the letters

I spent some time on a farm during the war, for temporary refuge from the bombing of London.
 
This story is fictitious but some of the characters are based on composites of people I knew and most of the action is based on actual events.

Read the story

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REMEMBER THE 'CLIPPIES'?

 

I remember, as a child, collecting bus tickets.  Well, 'collecting' was perhaps too
grand a term: what I actually did was to gather as many as I could find and
accumulate them, but my hoard never seemed to grow any bigger and I suspect
that my mother culled them periodically to make room in the house for other things.

 

I do remember though that I once received a 'bus conductor set' consisting of a
badge, a bundle of tickets and a tinplate punch on a neck strap, as a birthday
present. It made a satisfying 'ting' if the lever was pulled hard enough, sounding 
'just like the real thing' to this small child's mind.

 

Did anyone else here collect or accumulate bus tickets, or chew them up into nice
squidgy balls of coloured pulp and 'fire' them from the end of a springy wooden
ruler to splatter the school ceilings?

 

Those were the days, and these images bring back plenty of memories, so enjoy!

 

© 1943 London Transport Museum WOMEN took over many essential roles during WW2, temporarily replacing men who were serving with the armed forces. The 'clippie', or female bus conductor, was a common sight on the buses in London and elsewhere in the UK, and many remained in the job until the introduction of one-'man' buses with tickets issued by the drivers who of course include women among their number. Photos (right) © http://www.skylineaviation.co.uk

ABOVE: Some old Brighton bus tickets.  I remember them well. The one on the left was issued from a clip board holding tickets of different values and each ticket was punched by the conductor to prevent re-use. The smaller tickets, introduced later, were on a roll and dispensed from a machine which printed the route and boarding point.  BELOW: Some London Transport tickets.

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