Apologies for a longer than usual break between posts. Perhaps I had bloggers’ block or maybe it’s becoming harder to think of topics I haven’t already covered. Over the past few weeks things have occasionally popped into my head and I’ve realised that they aren’t around any more. So this is a random collection of items. The only thing they have in common is that we don’t see them any more.

Motorbikes and Sidecars

My dad used to ride a motorcycle. When he married my mum he added a sidecar. My mum finally dug her heels in when she was pregnant with me and, as she described it, was being squished into the small space, hurtling along feeling too close to the road and unable to communicate with my dad. So he bought his first car! I have no idea of the make or model of either his motorbike or the sidecar so this is a stock image of something I imagine to be similar to what they had in 1951.

TV Westerns

We acquired our first TV when I was ten in 1961. It was so exciting! We three children enjoyed many programmes such as Sketch Club, Tales of the Riverbank, Zoo Quest and David Nixon’s magic show – which led me to want to be a magician when I grew up. For a while, anyway! Adventure programmes like Whirlybirds and RCMP we also loved. But right at the top of the list were the cowboy serials. We absolutely loved The Lone Ranger and The Range Rider. I also recall Laramie and Bronco. There is no cowboy history here in Britain so we devoured those Westerns as they were a totally new genre of story-telling for us and their adventures and heroic deeds were like nothing we’d ever come across before. My brother and I even got cowboy outfits for Christmas one year.

Enid Blyton

Oh, how we loved the Enid Blyton books! When I was enjoying the ripping yarns of the Famous Five and the Secret Seven my sister, who was younger than me, was enchanted by Tales of Green Hedges and The Magic Faraway Tree. The Five and the Seven had the most amazing adventures such as catching robbers and smugglers and yet always seemed to get home in time for tea.                Although disapproved of nowadays by some, Enid Blyton was a prolific and hugely successful children’s author. At her peak she was writing fifty books a year. She usually began writing soon after breakfast, with her portable typewriter on her knee and, stopping only for a short lunch break, she continued writing until five o’clock, by which time she would usually have produced 6,000–10,000 words. Rumours that Blyton operated “a company of ghost writers” persisted, as some found it difficult to believe that one woman working alone could produce such a volume of work.

Rompers

When I was little, girl babies and toddlers wore dresses and little boys wore rompers. There were no unisex clothes, no Babygro’s, no tiny denim jeans and sweatpants and no tights, just socks.

Above is one of our family photographs of a brother and sister (they will know who they are!). The boy is in rompers and the girl in a dress.

45’s and 78’s

Music was played on discs. The very first ones were wax, then shellac and later they were made of vinyl. They were identified by their speed. When I was small the gramophone records (as they were known then) my mum and dad had were LPs (albums) which were played at 33 rpm and singles known as 78’s. Both were 12″ wide. Then, by the time I was old enough to be buying my first pop records, the singles were known as 45’s and were much smaller (7″) .

This is a potted history of the vinyl record. From 1939, Columbia Records were developing vinyl technology and in 1948, introduced the 12” Long Play (LP) 33 1/3 rpm record. The rivalry between RCA Victor and Columbia led to the introduction of another competing format by RCA, the 7”/45 rpm EP. The period where both of these formats fought for dominance from 1948-1950 was known as the “War of the Speeds.” After a few years, the 12”/33 rpm LP became the predominant format for albums, and the 7”/ 45 rpm record became the format of choice for singles. They always had paper sleeves and great care had to be taken with them as they scratched very easily. Or they could be kept in a wallet like the one below.

This is a handy little holder for 45’s which my brother gave me for as a birthday present when I was in my teens. It’s still full of my old singles. It has enough plastic wallets for 20 singles but I’ve got two in each so it’s quite a collection! There are no scratches on any of them, I was very careful with my records! The folder was really useful for taking records to parties or to friends’ houses.

Talcum Powder, Milk of Magnesia and Calamine Lotion

No bathroom was complete without a tin or two of talcum powder and a bottle each of Milk of Magnesia (for indigestion) and calamine lotion (for skin problems like sunburn, rashes and insect stings). Iodine was also popular and it’s what the teachers used to put on a cut if you fell and hurt yourself at playtime. How it stung!!!

There were everyday talcs like Johnson’s Baby Powder and, one of my mum’s favourites, Cuticura. You could also by talcum powder to go with a favourite perfume, sometimes they came in gift sets. A scented talcum powder was always a much appreciated gift for a mum, aunt or grandmother.

Credit to Google Images and Wikipedia. If anyone objects to my use of a particular image please contact me and it will be removed.