I often wonder if young people, with shiny new degrees lecturing us on TV, in dictatorial terms, with such conviction, have really had any experience of the problems they are allegedly solving. I have met a number of those problems head on, at a time when they were not thought to be so. From the… Continue reading Sex and Child Abuse Pre WW2
Author: jp
The Demise of the Corner Shop, and M&S
The thought that in the not too distant future Soph and I will not be driving, and will therefore be forced to take taxis to go shopping, brought to mind the corner shop of old. Like farms where the barns had the most pleasant smell of hay, feed, leather and horse, these shops had the… Continue reading The Demise of the Corner Shop, and M&S
Pre WW2,1930 to ’39, in order,The era of cycle accidents 1
I don’t think I ever met anyone, outside of a professional cyclist, who had more accidents within a year than I did and most of them were not my fault – hand on heart! I was about fourteen when I bought my first bicycle and that I’m sure was mainly to save money on tram… Continue reading Pre WW2,1930 to ’39, in order,The era of cycle accidents 1
Do you quesrion our future?
I’m a belt and braces man, where it comes to serious matters. I don’t fly by the seat of my pants, so when I read that Gordon Brown has sold off our gold reserves for a pittance, alarm bells ring. My problem is that I do not understand high finance. I was brought up in… Continue reading Do you quesrion our future?
Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order, A brush with Religion
To most boys coming from my background, religion was a means to an end rather than an end in itself. It was an entre into the Scouting Movement, which, was church affiliated, offered bun fights and picnics’ in lieu of TV On cold wet winter evenings, apart from the Cubs and Scouts, there was the… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order, A brush with Religion
Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39 im order, Bits and Pieces
Throw art y’moldies! This was the period when people went everywhere in charabancs, those overblown, single-deck buses with their thin tyres and great over-hang at the back. Derby Day, early in June, was a great outing in our part of South London, especially as it was on the route directly to Epsom Downs. There was… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39 im order, Bits and Pieces
Pre WW2, 1930 to 39, in order,Scouting and The bottle Of Almonds
My mother, Willie, was always inventive and resourceful and was consequently a horder. Unfortunately she passed the latter tendency on to me and I own a choked workshop to prove it. It was my first scout camp, I had only left the Cubs and been promoted to the Scouts in the late Autumn and here… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to 39, in order,Scouting and The bottle Of Almonds
Random Thoughts No 3
A problem for the railways in the future? In the piece on transport in the 30s, I wrote of the sounds of the rails when travelling by train before they were all welded, and the trains started to move more silently. After writing it I thought back to the 60s, when I was designing the… Continue reading Random Thoughts No 3
Music Of Another Form
I have never understood why Art afficionados condemn members of the general public when they are standing in front of a picture, saying ‘I know nothing about art but I know what I like’. To me this is a fair enough comment, they don’t need to know that chrome yellow with flake white in years… Continue reading Music Of Another Form
Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order, Schooling In Britain 1930
Returning to a British school in 1930 seemed totally alien from what I had experienced in Africa. The hours were different, I had to walk over a mile each way to school, morning and afternoon and the classes were bigger. When I arrived we worked with rooms lighted by gaslight in winter afternoons and, worst… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order, Schooling In Britain 1930