Maurice mitchell


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MargieH. Yes, I and some pals, did go to Metropole ABC Minors on a Saturday morning. Robbie says he thinks it was about1/- to get in but as I recall we always called it 'the tanner rush' implying the admission was sixpence. I am open to correction on this though. I think the Minors song started "We are the ovaltinies, happy girls and boys" but I can't go any further. I think all of us remember obscure details from the past but can't understand why. This is one of mine which happened just after the war ended. I was standing at the corner of Sherbrook Road and Mansfield Road with my Dad who was talking to a friend. Dad became aware that I was staring across the road at the I & R Morely factory and asked what I was looking at. There was some kind of framework on the ridge of the roof and I said, "What's that thing up there for?" Not giving a fuller explanation he simply said, "that's where they used to put the letters before the war", and carried on talking to his friend. That left me thinking, "why would the postman have to take his letters up to the roof?" It was quite some time before I realised just what letters where actually put up there. Silly isn't It? Perhaps it's part of what makes us human. regards, vulcan4

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"We are the girls and boys well known as

Minors of the ABC

And every Saturday we line up

to see the films we like and shout aloud with glee.

We love to laugh and have a sing song;

such a happy crowd are we;

We're all pals together,

we're Minors of the ABC."

If you want to hear it being sung, it's on Youtube.

I remember my brother playfully punching his friend whenever we sung the penultimate line of the song! Another random memory....

I, too, thought it was 6d - maybe Robbie is much younger than us and the price had gone up? Robbie??

The Ovaltiney song was something else - on the radio

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Margie, thanks for putting me right about the Ovaltiney song. Something else to do with air raid shelters. Bonfire Night was not allowed during the war but the first one after the war saw an enormous Bonfire in the middle of the road just up from my house. Celebrations went on long after my bedtime but I was eventually tucked in. I went out the next morning to find the bonfire still smouldering and several kids saying that there was going to be another bonfire that night if we could find enough stuff to put on it. Then someone had an idea. All the folks round about brought out the wooden bunks from the air raid shelters and huge cheers rang out as we had a bigger bonfire than the night before. A few days later the council came and cleared up the ash to reveal a large diameter hole several inches deep, in the road where the fire had burnt the tar away. There were several such bonfires around the estate and it was some time before all the holes were repaired. vulcan4

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Another memory. In 1949 I reached 11years of age, along with some pals who all lived close to one another. At that age we had to go to senior school which for us on the estate, meant Claremont Secondary Modern boys school which was on Hucknall Road in Carrington. There was no school bus laid on as there had been when we went to Haydn Road Juniors in Sherwood. We had to use the normal corporation service bus. We took the number 18 which took us from Northwood Road, along Edwards Lane to the Five Ways pub, right along Valley Road and then left up Hucknall Road and we got off opposite the old Formans Printing works. The fare was three ha'pence. However, we soon worked out the following. When the bus turned onto Hucknall Road there was a stop where the conductor had to stamp his time table at a clocking machine. The fare to this point was one ha'penny. the fare from there to school was also one ha'penny. Se we got off and waited for the next bus, which I think was the number 6 from Bestwood. So we saved one ha'penny. Do the same on the way home in the afternoon and we were one penny in hand. At the end of the week, of course, we have five whole pence and that bought a lot of peanut brittle in those days. vulcan4

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#25 Hi Margie,

I spoke to my sister who doesn't remember much either, we both have memories like sieves. She said admission was only a few coppers, so your 6d is probably correct. She doesn't remember the song but does the monitors, even asked if I was one.

She did say that on one occasion she had to leave half way through a film because there was an invasion of ants.

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