Flash From The Past

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Could get a Scholar’s Return” bus ticket (up to 4:00 pm. – To the annoyance of some bus conductors, dashing to the library in town to change books after school) for 1 1/2 OLD pence.

In bad winters, with heavy snow (1947, 12″ overnight vehicles using snow chains. Invaluable, (I’ve done hill starts in 6″ of virgin snow)

Trolley buses were reckoned to be safer than motor buses because they accelerated from rest so quickly that no one tried chasing them to get on board once they stated moving.

Did anyone wear helmets on motorcycles, other than to keep warm?

Yes, milk and bread carts pulled by horses who got to know where the next stop was.

Still got my Staedler Log Log Slide rule from tech days. Simple electronic calulators came much later, long fter the days when a Mullard OC71 transistor was cutting edge technology

So that makes me OLD!

Howard

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Howard I remember trolley buses well when I was courting my wife I caught the last bus from near where she lived into town it was known as the ‘white knuckle’ the majority of the journey was down hill. Very few on the bus mainly youths like myself and with the drive wanting to get the bus back to the garage it was a white knuckle ride hanging onto the bar across the top of the seat for dear life for most of the ride.

H

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The last X49 from Hereford to Shrewsbury (8 pm) then returned to the garage, at about midnight. Since it was a double decker it could not take the short route through town and had go round the outskirts. Being in a hurry to book off, the drivers did not hang about. Felt like being driven flat out, probably about 40 mph, but suspensions weren’t as good as today, so it felt fast in the darkness.

The earlier departure from Hereford terminated in Ludlow, and you had an hour, on a winter evening, to kill before a boarding stone cold single decker to Shrewsbury.

My first car was a pre war Singer 9. The two bearing crank flexed, letting oil onto the clutch.

Heading south out of Ludlow, the road speed was the same whether in second or top gear.  The difference was the size of the cloud of oil smoke through the floorboards after the top of the hill!

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

How about the coalman delivering sacks of coal from a horse-drawn cart?

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

Why is some of the font on this new site so insignificant, I checked this thread just now and thought I had lost my reply, it was only when I scoured the page that I saw the tiny page numbers, or is it my laptop although not changed since the old site.

Bill D.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, it’s funny how you come across things that you couldn’t find weeks ago, and since not looking for them now, ref. Last sentence in my post of the 29 Feb 24, bottom of page 1.

Regards Nick.

[Martin Dilly 2Participant @martindilly2]

How about Zixt? That was a rather useful block of soap combined witn something like Vim; cleaned your hands in a flash and probably took off a layer of skin as well.

Opening the front door in winter to find that the milk in the milk bottle had frozen, lifting the cardboard cap up, sitting on top of a column of frozen cream and probably pecked by bluetits.

Making Christmas decoration chains out of strips of Window, dropped by aircraft to confuse radar.

Being able to go to Boots at the age of 12 and buy a pint of ether and 4 ounces of amyl nitrate to make the fuel for your Mills diesel; nobody died. We knew you had to be careful, so we were. How did it all go wrong, so we now have a population that thinks everything must be 100% safe (impossible, of course) and when it isn’t they look for someone to sue?

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