Part 7 - Life on the Back Lawn.

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I’m sorry it has been so long since the previous post but, to tell you the truth, I have been exceedingly busy printing, dating  and cataloguing the latest batch of old family photographs.

In many cases all that was available to me, were rather poor negatives produced on old ‘box-cameras‘, but it is far better to have some sort of record than none at all.

As I am the eldest of the family, I am acting as a sort of family custodian of this archive. 

It has fallen on me to take on the task of identifying people and places recorded in those early “Watch the dickybird“ days. In many cases I am having to estimate the dates on which the pictures were taken, and hence people‘s ages, as very little of this, was every recorded.

A lot of the pictures in this latest batch are pre WW2 and many out of sequence with what I am presenting here. I have therefore created another blog called ‘Blast from the Past’ which will present these pictures and periods and which will not need to be in chronological order. 

But back to Linden Road and a few pictures of  ‘life on the back lawn’ during my first four years in the world. These will probably bore many of you to tears, as these are again pictures featuring ‘yours truly’. Purely for family records you understand.    

Here’s one of my bare bum (and a Granddad) enjoying a bit of sun in 1943.

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Pop & I - Summer 1943

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I know there was a war on, but you think they could have found me something to wear!

Perhaps they were out of clothing coupons?

Actually, in those days it seems to have been a popular way of photographing children. I even have one of my mother lying on her tummy with no clothes on.

Here, fully clothed I’m pleased to say, is my Mother and Grandmother, along with ‘One Man  and his Dog’ in their ‘birthday suits’.

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One thing I have noticed from all these early pictures is that I did not have many toys and any that I did have were hand made or given from friends and family. I was told that someone gave me a doll dressed as a Red-cross nurse, but I have not found any records of it.

I found a picture of me with an elephant, a different doll and a Teddy on a see-saw in the back garden A heavy elephant, doll and Teddy by the look of it,

as my end is up! 

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The simple things in life.

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I bet these toys were made by Mom or Nan. 

Everything had to be made in those days, as long as you had the skill. 

There were few toys to be had and those in the shops windows were just for looking at.

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Window shopping.

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Well, I was lucky as my Dad was certainly good at woodwork. He was of course away in the RAF but somehow managed to knock up a few toys for me during his spare time.

Like this little truck with its solid wheels. I think it originally came full of coloured square bricks.

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And here’s a sturdy wheelbarrow, again with a good solid wheel.

I’m sorry about the quality of these prints, 

but you see, there was no focusing on a box camera.

In those days, it was just - choose a sunny day, point and click. 

(I have done the best I can with my ‘photo-software’.)

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I think I have told the story before about this little horse. 

It was built whilst Dad was away at RAF Ternhill near Market Drayton. 

The wheels are made from old ball-races, probably wheel-bearings off a Hurricane or a Spitfire. 

I do know the horse didn’t drive like Spitfire! 

It used to jolt on all the cracks in the path. 

It was made for me for Christmas 1943 and Dad had to heave it all the way back to Bournville on trains and buses. He told me years later that he had to turn down many offers from passengers wanting to buy it. 

As you see, it arrived safely in Linden Road in time for the 25th.

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The summer of 1944 was to be a turning point in the war 

and on Tuesday, the 6th June the D-Day landings commenced in Normandy.

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D-Day landings - 6th June 1944.

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And where was I in the summer of 1944?

Well, on the 20th July I was with my Dad at Bournville Lido learning how to swim. 

(Luckily Mom had written the date on the back of the photo.)

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Sadly the old Lido is no more. It was filled in years ago - so I’m told.**

**Web search tells me - “That area is now occupied by Oak Farm housing estate.

The actual Lido pool area is now occupied by a small group of new houses, built in 2006.”

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