My early life in Accy 1946-68

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Barrie Yates

Remember them well - had a summer job on the delivery wagons with them one year, probably '54. Didn't go thirsty that summer

Used to have a couple of jars a week, it wasn't too dear so long as you had a return jar to trade in when reordering

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Doug

I remember the stoneware jars well, we would also get Ginger Beer in them, then they started to come in beer bottle brown glass, but still with stone stoppers. Our's use to arrive on the back of an old open flatbed Bedford.

Ya were fitted with special racks to hold the jars, can remember all the kids dashing in to get the empties when wagon rolled down the street

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Barrie Yates

I worked on that round as well Gordon - the driver was a German ex-POW who had married an Ossy girl. Think his name was Hans, a really nice chap.

I'm not sure if its the same person your talking about Barrie but there was a German living on Campion Court Ossy called Hans he died about 5 years ago he was a ex-POW who married an ossy lass

[susie123]

In post 113 of this thread I mentioned my grandad who served in WW1. Here is a photo of him in uniform with his wife, taken I would think when he was callled up in 1917. There is also a picture of a postcard he sent from the front, transcript below. Thankfully he came safely home eventually.

Transcript of postcard:

France. Oct 5/17. Friday

Dear Sisters,

I am going up the trenches Tomorrow Sat so of course I shall Have to Look out for myself now I am writing to you to tell my mother as easy as you can for I know she will be upset when she gets to know this but tell Her I am alright and well. Florrie look after Bertram [his son, my dad]

Your Loving Brother
Bert XXX

[susie123]

Sorry managed to lose attachments from previous post. Here they are.

[steve2qec]

Great bit of family history, Sue. Didn't people have impeccable handwriting in those days?

[susie123]

Originally Posted by steve2qec

Great bit of family history, Sue. Didn't people have impeccable handwriting in those days?

Thanks Steve, yes when you think of the conditions in which that postcard must have been written... I have of course let Retlaw have the pictures and my grandad's details for his archive.

I have recently acquired quite a few bits of family history, my dad passed things to me before he died, and my 81 year old cousin gave me quite a lot of old photos. I posted the following on the museum thread a few weeks ago.

I have a collection of letters written by my great grandfather to his family in 1930. He owned trotting horses (the ones where the jockey sits in a little cart behind - we did have some cups he won but I think my dad must have sold them). Anyway times were hard and he took some of the horses out to New Zealand to try and sell them. They went on a liner and
I think a couple of other men went too. The letters describe going through the Panama Canal and his unsuccessful travels around NZ trying to sell the horses. They are often written in pencil on whatever paper was to hand. He was not a very literate man (he was a fish merchant) but his love for his family and his longing to go home shine through. Sadly he died suddenly on Christmas Eve 1930 aged only in hie early fifties and was buried in NZ but he was later exhumed and taken home.

My father gave me the letters a few years ago before he died and I was very moved when I read them. I had always understood that he went to NZ to buy horses, not sell them but I think that story must have been put about so it did not seem that the family needed money. I think the story would make a good radio programme or short book but I can't do it. Anyway I think the letters might be of interest to a museum.

Great story and one I have only fully undestood after seeing the letters.

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by susie123

I have recently acquired quite a few bits of family history, my dad passed things to me before he died, and my 81 year old cousin gave me quite a lot of old photos. I posted the following on the museum thread a few weeks ago.

Great story and one I have only fully undestood after seeing the letters.

It's amazing how family history is often lost through wishing to disguise the truth from other members. (Your intuition about him having to sell for money probs but hiding the fact by spreading word that he was buying instead.) Another very typical sin swept under the carpet was the illegitimate pregnancy with disappearence of a family member or a "quick" marriage!

My mum also received 10 journals, letters and documents from a cousin which were written by her grand-father, grand-mother and the younger members of the family. They are full of amazing things - family daily house-hold accounts (item +price), letters about my Great-grandad's mining patents (including one to Lloyd-George with reply) -from these you can see he fell out with his brother who was partner in the patents.
There is a draft copy of the letter my Grandad wrote to Ribble buses in Preston applying for his first job, he eventually worked there for 50 years! Children's games and puzzles, homework and a poignant page where my Great-aunty Lucy was practising her "new" signature before she married -that was to her first husband who turned out to be a "bad'un"!

It's amazing what gets lost from one generation to the other so it's even more important to conserve and maintain these things which document the ordinary lives of our families and how they lived.

[Karolgadge]

Just logged in after a rather long absence from the Accy Web. I couldn't help but feel more than a twinge of nostalgia when I read about Central Prep School. I was a pupil there from 1956 to 1963 and after taking the dreaded 'Scholarship' (11 plus) went to St Mary's College, Blackburn.
The teachers' names ring very loud bells: Miss Caulfield, followed by Mrs Kilshaw; Miss Backhouse (my favourite); Miss Hackwood (the terror of many).

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Karolgadge

Just logged in after a rather long absence from the Accy Web. I couldn't help but feel more than a twinge of nostalgia when I read about Central Prep School. I was a pupil there from 1956 to 1963 and after taking the dreaded 'Scholarship' (11 plus) went to St Mary's College, Blackburn.
The teachers' names ring very loud bells: Miss Caulfield, followed by Mrs Kilshaw; Miss Backhouse (my favourite); Miss Hackwood (the terror of many).

You must have been a newbie as I was leaving in 1957. Everyone loved Mrs Backhouse (think it was Mrs), she was a sweetie.

Glad you enjoyed my posts.

[katex]

Originally Posted by susie123

You must have been a newbie as I was leaving in 1957. Everyone loved Mrs Backhouse (think it was Mrs), she was a sweetie.

She lived next door to me when I was growing up ... popped in every night to exchange newspapers. She was great fun.

Yes, was Mrs. Her husband was quite a lot older than her and she was a widow for a very long time. They had lived in Cuba at one time.

She had a long life (in her 90's), and very alert in her mind until the end.

[susie123]

Originally Posted by katex

She lived next door to me when I was growing up ... popped in every night to exchange newspapers. She was great fun.

Yes, was Mrs. Her husband was quite a lot older than her and she was a widow for a very long time. They had lived in Cuba at one time.

She had a long life (in her 90's), and very alert in her mind until the end.

That doesn't surprise me. I believe she died not that long ago.

[Karolgadge]

Ah, right. For some reason (probably due to failing memory) I always thought of her as 'Miss'. As a 'newbie' my classmates were David Greenhalgh, Andrew Ormerod, Andrew Nuttall, Brian Cookson, Peter Whittaker, Christine Court, Ann-Marie Stanley, Gillian Torevell - to name but a few.
I remember vividly Mrs Backhouse playing the piano at assembly. In particular, she could play elements of Tchaikovsky's concerto no 1 - which appealed to me greatly. I never knew where she lived (we used to live at that time in Cedar St) nor that she had lived to such a good age. It;s nice to know that my memories of her kindness are shared by others.

[Big Dave]

I think she lived in Robert Street just off Penny House Lane if its the lady I think you are talking about,Pure white hair and glasses?

[katex]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

I think she lived in Robert Street just off Penny House Lane if its the lady I think you are talking about,Pure white hair and glasses?

Not far off, Big Dave ... 47, William Street, next door to my family.