Things you don't see anymore


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Some folks only request information, which is fair enough by me. Maybe they don't want discussion, chat, banter etc. Different people want different things from a forum, and that's fine.  If

Things you don’t see anymore (times 2) A 1945 photo of my aunt, wearing a turban and scrubbing her front door step on Queens Grove, Meadows. She dug her heels in and refused to move when the

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11 hours ago, LizzieM said:

My satchel, bought 59 years ago just before I started Grammar School, spoilt by my fair hand when I got interested in boys and pop groups.  There’s lots of felt-tipping on the inside too.  Just could never bring myself to throw it away .........

 

The question which has to be asked......who - or what - was Mac ?

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15 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

Almost everyone at Fairham had an ex-army haversack; anyone using a real satchel was considered a sissy and weird.

 

The lettering on haversacks was football teams, current fashionable phrases, and pop or rock groups (and there's a very important distinction between the two). You were either cool or laughable, depending on whether you had Cream or Deep Purple or the Monkees or the Hollies.


It was just the same at Forest Fields Cliff Ton when I attended 1961-66. Wakefield’s at the bottom of Exchange Walk was where my army haversack came from. Several lads had pale blue RAF ones but the dark blue Royal Navy ones were quite rare. I had my school nickname “MESS” written on mine in large capitals. I used a blue biro and it took me ages. I also had many of Bob Dylan, song titles written on it which used to stimulate debate.

It was in the bottom of my wardrobe for years before I left home.

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I think I may have had an Army haversack early on, but I definitely ended up with a pale blue R.A.F one .. on which I had Ray Charles and the titles of some of his early blues songs written in Biro.  It must have had some effect because when, many years later I got in touch with a former class mate via an early internet forum.. he immediately recalled me as 'The school's biggest Ray Charles fan'...

 

My haversacks were also pressed into service for hiking and camping in the Derbyshire Dales.  As I recall. they had the facility to have assorted bits and pieces hung on them or strapped to them.

 

A few years later.. in my late teens.. we mixed and matched all sorts of military surplus stuff.  We bought pure white supposed 'arctic' camouflage jackets which were a single layer of cotton and I suppose intended to go over warmer gear.  We thought we were 'way cool'.. and when they got grubby we just dyed them darker colours.

 

I made one mistake which turned out to be a bit embarrassing....  I bought a black ex-National Fire Service jacket which was pretty much identical to British Army battledress, except for the colour and the silver/chrome buttons with NFS on them.   Me being naive and law abiding.. I didn't realise that the same pattern and colour of jacket was issued to young gentlemen who were detained at certain 'approved schools/Borstals/ Youth Detention Centres' or whatever they were called. It may account for some of the 'funny looks' I got.  Dunno what happened to that jacket.... but I wish I'd at least kept the buttons.  Quite collectable now.

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I think the ex army rucksack were standard advisory issue by 1973, probably even part of the dress code, majority were blue at my school..

Does anybody remember the 'Stringer'...

maybe a London school thing...

 

By the fourth year, or earlier, the sack was becoming somewhat threadbare, with the removal of the thread, and the application of spit..and a certain amount of skill....a physics lesson.. ;)

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I see that Mars Limited has re-branded Uncle Ben's Rice to Ben's Original following criticism that the branding employed racist stereotypes of African Americans as the packaging included a picture of an elderly black man with a bow tie which many said indicated that the man was a servant.

The company said the branding had been changed "to create more equitable iconography"

How many brands of our youth would have failed this test?

I'll kick off with Black Jacks the wrapper had a golliwog on it.

Here in OZ we have a brand of cheese called Coon, named after the person who invented the fast maturing method used to make the cheese, an American called Edward William Coon. The name used since 1935 is scheduled to be changed.

I guess we will soon not be allowed to order a "black and tan" in the pub if there are any left open after this latest round of Covid 19 restrictions.

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I recall probably in the early 1960s when broadcast weather forecasters were banned from using the term "black ice" for certain roads conditions and were required to change it to "dark ice" - which, in my view, was no improvement.

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Just seen the new John Lewis Christmas commercial. Pleased to see it starts off with the statutory black person. Nearly all TV commercials appear to have to have a black person now. Strangely we don’t see Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese nor Eastern European’s. Don’t they matter?

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54 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

Just seen the new John Lewis Christmas commercial. Pleased to see it starts off with the statutory black person. Nearly all TV commercials appear to have to have a black person now. Strangely we don’t see Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese nor Eastern European’s. Don’t they matter?

 

Eskimo lives matter.

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PhilMayfield, I have to agree with you in reference to tv ads.,although I did think we weren't allowed to air such views. But your rght, almost every ad has a black person or mixed race child in them. I wonder if it is compulsory that they must show ads that way. I read some where a long while ago that all American films and shows must have a black person in them.

Must admit I never would have said owt, if you hadn't mentioned it first ! You don't know who you're gonna upset nowadays.

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A little anecdote.  When I was taxi driving for A2B I picked up a couple of lads at Crabtree estate. Can't  remember what the conversation was but at one stage one of the lads said," yeh man you is only sayin dat cos I is black"!

I did explain to him that I  was darker than the pair of them and why was he talking with a mid Caribbean accent, when I knew they were both born at Crabtree, near Bulwell cemetery.

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6'6'' Male wearing long black coat,,enters underground Car Park,, where I was having a Fag break.....Parks his Car in Disabled bay,,,takes a Piss up the side of next car,,,collects a shopping trolley and enters the store,,first item he selects ,an Apple,which he eats whilst walking round store,,,then two jars of Coffee vanish inside his coat,,followed by a pack of Gillette razors.....Starts an argument with the Butcher about the price of Pigs Liver,,

                         In the mean time he has placed a loaf of bread and a pint of milk in his trolley,,and proceeds to the checkout,,here he accuses another bloke of ''Pushing in '''......the other bloke backs down and moves to another check-out,,,

                          He pays for his bread and milk...….and exits the store........I stop him outside,,and bring him back to the Office,,,

Here he accuses me of following him....''COS HE'S BLACK''.........LOL...…….

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