Memories of Childhood

We used to go for picnics on the grass verges just outside the stadium and some of the night meetings like the Coca-Cola meetings were star-studded. One weekend we went to a meeting sponsored by Debenhams(that shows you how long ago it was) and there was someone signing autographs, so I went up with my cousin who was with me and got the autograph and I could swear blind I'd seen this kid before. I said I am really sorry but I recognise you from somewhere and he said "You don't know where I'm from?" and then he said Grange Hill, and it suddenly dawned on me who he was-he was George Armstrong the one who play Tucker Jenkins' fat sidekick! He saw the funny side of it.

I went to some odd meetings for example one was GB v USA v USSR and another saw us against the Germans, Bulgarians and one other country. Obviously the USA were going to beat us in many of the events but it struck me that sport was a lot less political back then-yes there had been incidents in the past where they both collided like Munich 1972 and the shooting of Israeli competitors, the black power salute by Tommy Smith and John Carlos and the boycott of the USA in Moscow in 1980 but in this country, relations weren't as sour with the Soviets as it is now.

One other incident I remember - the pole vault was taking place one afternoon just below us and suddenly there was a hell of a bang! The pole being carried had been planted by the vaulter but had snapped in half - I've never seen that since although there is the famous incident of Daley Thompson's pole snapping in competition. Used to get loads of autographs as well and although we weren't supposed to run on it, I did get to run around the track. Got some old programmes in a drawer somewhere, will fish them out and photograph them to post.

Seeing as we've not had much this year as we did last year with the Beast from the East, I was wondering about snowfall when we were kids. I remember several big snowfalls in the 70's and a friend of mine recalled a very cold Winter in 1981(which I have seen now thanks to one of those look-back programmes) I write things down in a diary and kept one since 1978 but the one year I don't have(thanks to losing it on the playing field one sports day) is 1981. Anyway I seem to recall a lot of snow falling in the 80's and 90's. In those days if you were at school you could quite happily have a snowball fight without health and safety worries. I can't remember the precise year but I do remember the 'mother of all snowball fights' breaking out in the playground with snowballs flying in all directions and a lot of kids getting absolutely drenched, their uniforms soaking as they came inside. What are your memories of snowball fights or indeed building snowmen.

Also I've just thought of something else. When I was a young teen I always fancied helping out on a milkround. I was vying with someone else to be the assistant and in the end he was sacked for throwing me off the milk float(never liked me and his whole family was rotten anyway). In the end I managed to get the full job and I would help the milkman(Arthur) deliver milk, some groceries and other things. Great thing about that was around mid morning we would stop in some road and have a bottle of milk and maybe a cake which he had opened from some stored in the back of the float. I would start around 6.30am and go right through until 12.30pm and my pay was £2.50! which was a lot back then. It was murder during the Winter because the milk bottles were so cold that early and if it snowed they were even colder. Mind you Summer wasn't great either because you had to shield the bottles from the sunshine. I remember collecting money owed as well - one day I knocked on the door of someone and this woman opened the door in a negligee-type thing and dressing gown(which is a strange place for a door ) and she was quite something. I also remember a younger girl, whom I rather fancied opened the door and smiled at me. It wasn't however quite like the Benny Hill/Confessions of or Monty Python where you might get a hot looking woman wearing virtually nothing-that was a bit of a myth AND milkmen when I did it, never wore peaked hats, although I did wear a cap.

It was either milk or paper round that some kids did-which were you?

(26-02-2019 16:28 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Seeing as we've not had much this year as we did last year with the Beast from the East, I was wondering about snowfall when we were kids. I remember several big snowfalls in the 70's and a friend of mine recalled a very cold Winter in 1981(which I have seen now thanks to one of those look-back programmes) I write things down in a diary and kept one since 1978 but the one year I don't have(thanks to losing it on the playing field one sports day) is 1981. Anyway I seem to recall a lot of snow falling in the 80's and 90's. In those days if you were at school you could quite happily have a snowball fight without health and safety worries. I can't remember the precise year but I do remember the 'mother of all snowball fights' breaking out in the playground with snowballs flying in all directions and a lot of kids getting absolutely drenched, their uniforms soaking as they came inside. What are your memories of snowball fights or indeed building snowmen.

Most vivid memories are from the winters of 1978/79 and 1981/82.

The first one was because of the number of school days that I missed as a result of the snow. At the time I was living in a village that was over 700 feet above sea level (we were ‘above the snow line’). One particular day which sticks in the memory was getting on the school bus at school in pouring rain, then as we climbed the hill going home being shocked at seeing huge flakes flying past the bus windows. Then as we got to the bottom of our village the bus started skidding and sliding, so much so that the driver announced that he couldn’t go any further, and that we had to get off and walk. For me this meant a walk of over a mile, all uphill with snow blowing sideways, and there must have been nearly a foot of level powder snow on the ground, with drifts piling up in various places. Just couldn’t believe the different weather conditions in the space of 3 miles.

When we eventually were able to get back to school nearly a fortnight later, we learned that the kids who lived local to the school had been in attendance the whole time as they hadn’t had so much as a flake!

I can remember vividly the sound that would give away the fact that the thaw was starting...we’d have had a really heavy fall of snow and our house had a slate roof..then the snow would change to drizzle, then would come the sound of the snow sliding off the roof in a huge slab..it sounded like a rumble of thunder...resulting in a pile of snow up to 3 foot high outside our front door.

1981/82..over a foot of powder snow on our road, totally impassable, but the abiding memory of that winter is how cold it was. I know that the temperature fell to below -26c in neighbouring Shropshire, and that we must have been pretty close to that level of cold. Having to breathe through pursed lips because it was so cold it actually hurt to try to breathe normally. Crazy.

We used to get a fair bit of snowfall in London especially in the 80's and in early 90's a very heavy covering, so much so my mother who worked at a Jewish kindergarten and me helping out, had to walk because the bus was snowed in. Nobody turned up so we had a cup of tea and left for home again.

I remember plenty of snow in the early 80's.
Snow would block the road to our village, the school bus couldn't get through so we went home to watch Sesame street

(27-02-2019 00:00 )Tractor boy Wrote:  I remember plenty of snow in the early 80's.
Snow would block the road to our village, the school bus couldn't get through so we went home to watch Sesame street

Oh God, Sesame Street!

One nutty programme that was...a green thing that lived in a bin, an oversized bird, a blue muppet with a cookie fixation, and a vampire that would always create a rumble of thunder after counting up to a certain number then laughing..

Not forgetting later that giant elephant -like thing Mr Snuffleupagus, everybody's favourite game show host Guy Smiley and cute little Elmo. There is no truth in rumours that Ernie and Bert were gay - same as Laurel & Hardy and Morecamve & Wise shared a bed - don't think kids cared that much. This thread has been brought to today by the letters G, M and the number 4

Never been to anything on ice, went to several pantos but can't remember their names. Used to go to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham to watch athletics and over the years must have seen dozens of had been, currently were or were going to be Olympic or World Champions (but that probably belongs in a different thread as I've been doing that throughout my adult life). Didn't get any autographs though. Never got round to going to RAF Cosford though, where the indoor meetings used to be held, which I regret. It wasn't that much further away but awkward to get to without a car. I used to love the dual meets against other nations which Greeny refers to, it's sad that they have come to an end as the focus these days is on star-studded extravaganzas like the Diamond League. My first ever athletics meeting was a dual meet at the Alexander Stadium against the USSR. I still remember it fondly. Only went to Crystal Palace once, on the train with my dad for the Europa Cup in 1983 and saw my first world record - Tamara Bykova and Ulrike Meyfarth both high jumping 2.03m.

Dad used to go to RAF Cosford, I only went once. He has been to the Alexander Stadium many times and it will be redeveloped for the Commonwealth Games in 20222. The Coca-Cola meetings were really good because it was normally after a big event like the Olympics or Commonwealth or World where the champions, medalists etc would be able to say thank you to the public(envariably having raised money to send them to those places) I saw many British, Allcomers and other records broken but never a world record as far as I can remember.