Days Gone By
I was born into a home where any form of mechanical noise was virtually unknown. My first memory of such was watching a man on a fire engine fanatically waving a strap to produce a clanging sound.
James George Wanstall 1916 - 2005
I know now it was the bell, being rung to clear the way so the firemen could reach the scene of the occurrence as quickly as possible. The fact that our road was always completely clear of traffic was beside the point, that was his job, ring the bell, the noise, penetrated every nook and cranny of every home. Music in any form was in very short supply, true a neighbour had a piano from which vague noises were heard through the wall as they practiced.
My introduction to the world of music was from The Salvation Army, they used to come around to perform under the gas street lamps on a regular basis, at least once a week, sometimes in good weather more often, with their brass bands and vocalists it was a treat to look forward to, they played mostly hymns of course.
The street Iamps around which they performed were switched on at dusk, and off at dawn, by a Gas Company employee by hand. With a ladder or his shoulder he rode his cycle along his designated route, stopping at each and every street lamp to perform his highly skilful Job. Later as technology was developed he left the ladder back at the depot, and used a rod with a hook on the end to operate the switch mind you if a gas mantle broke [very fragile things they were], it was back to the depot for the ladder.
Then A BIG STEP FORWARD. The Gramo-phone?? One of dad’s friends bought one of the modern versions HIS MASTERS VOICE. That made his old set redundant, so being a generous man he gave us the old machine, with about a hundred records. Had we been “psychic” in time we would all have been very rich people.
This was a record player which used tubular records, each one about the size of a tin of Heinz baked beans, the records were packed into a partitioned trunk, each space for a record was insulated, so they were almost undamaged when we got them, the machine obviously a wind up [that phrase now has a different meaning] was quite worn so the classical music forth coming was not appreciated as much as it would have been in our later years, so you can understand me when I say we could have been rich if only we had kept it for the Antique Road Show.
However our ignorance knew no bounds, using the records for play, we quickly smashed the very brittle items at every turn, we would roll them over the floor, used them for building blocks, etc, generally enjoying ourselves in play until most were damaged or broken. True some of the broken pieces were salvaged to be used to give a professional finish to a very amateur job when our hoots were repaired, first by our dad, then later as we learnt by ourselves, we melted the pieces of black wax that the records were made of and rubbed it around the edges of the new soles to give colour to the yellow leather and add, a nice new shine.
The years meander on, and Laly my eldest sister left college to become a wage earner, over time she bought one of these new fangled devices, a record payer with flat discs. To have such an expensive item, meant that it was put out of the way of us young uns up in her bedroom, she probably remembered how we treated the original too. Of course until a range of discs were available there was a tendency to play the first one repeatedly until the walls re – echoed with the noise. I think that was my introduction to the incessant noises we have had to become accustomed to, Television, Radio, Traffic, Road Machines, Jumbo — Jets Flying above, Helicopters counting the cars at a standstill on the Motorway, where oh’ where is the way of life as we knew it gone to.
The children no longer play In the street or even in their own back gardens come to that, they are too busy with their computers, or the internet whatever that is. I’d better get hack down memory lane, before I blow a gasket, what’s a gasket Mum?
I reached another milestone in life, when a friend of mine asked me one Saturday morning to go to the local cinema with him, his Father worked there, so it would he free. We entered the vast emporium, well it seemed like that to me, it had nearly 200 seats, if one counted the balcony, dress circle, royal box, and gallery, [all closed to us,] we were led to a row of seats in the stalls, which appeared to me to he full, we ware told to push, push, push what?
The boy in the end seat, push him up, its two to a seat this morning. The boy wasn’t happy about that, neither was I, he was much bigger than me. However the usher causing a side wind as he was waving his batten in a threatening way persuaded us common sense should prevail, so we got our seat in time for the opening, it was not easy balancing on half a seat for three hours I can now tell you. As far as I remember we had the usual mix of black and white, silent episodes of visually funny films headed by the Charlie Chaplin Brigade, with Adventure films to follow.
To help people understand more clearly what the films were all about there were spasmodic messages at the base of the picture to explain the action, and likewise printed versions also at the bottom of the pictures of conversations going on between the actors which helped - if one could read that is! Also to emphasis the silent graphics being shown, there was a person [man or women] pounding away on a piano situated below the screen in full view of the audience. Their impromptu contributions didn’t always coincide with the action being shown. It could he a rapid thunderous out pouring of sound to go with a lamb being fed out of a bottle, or an almost silent lullaby type of air for a waterfall cascading over rocks from hundreds of feet above, perhaps unknown to the pianist the film had been cut, or broken in places, a frequent occurrence in those days, or maybe the wrong reel was put in! Seeing some of the adventure films at that young age was for me a terrible frightening experience.
I still remember diving under my seat because a train was visually coming straight at me at high speed, scary or what! Back home after that initial experience I was gob smacked as well as clouted because my friend?? did not have the right to take me into the cinema for free, there fore I’d gained admittance by cheating, and my Mother had to pay up [3 pence.] l’m still unsure how my crime[?] was discovered, or more puzzling, how my Mum was confronted so quickly? But one did not argue then. In those days we would not dare tell our parents if we were punished at school, to do so would invite another thump, because teachers, and policemen were always right. I won’t say we were scared of authority, but we respected all of them.
Having said that I hasten to add we never were subjected to any physical violence by our parents, or anyone else, apart from the occasional clip given in exasperation rather than malice. Later the film world was to become a welcome part of our life, the films got better all of the time, and with sound added the inducement to visit the now halls now being built every where was very compelling. One film that was a must for every one to see was Gone with the Wind, [no not the stomach ache relief kind] the classical film about the emergence of the American nation, slavery, and as always in Yankee films the love life of it’s characters. It was good entertainment but it lasted so long, we had a sore backside for days afterwards.
Another odd happening occurred when we were on holiday in Ilfracombe, it was a very hot day, so we thought a trip to the cinema might he a good idea, huge placards boasted of the new air conditioning newly installed would keep everyone cool, we bought tickets, found our seats, and began to enjoy the comfort being offered. Alas one hour later the Manager came to give us our money back saying “it wasn’t worth projecting the program for two people”. Back to the blistering sands, oh weIl, we had what we wanted, a cooling off period.
Whilst all of this was going on outside of the home, so too was technology helping to improve things within the home, the Gramophone for instance went on improving, but still needed to be hand wound before starting, and so play the melodious tunes etc, hidden away in those grooves of the records. The Radio was beginning to make its appearance, the difference here was, radio’s were electric, and so needed power, which was not available in most houses.
So most people used a battery of sorts, called an accumulator, they were an big as the present day car battery, and just as heavy, and dodgy because of the acid they contained, also they had to be taken to a dealer for recharging fairly often. The first of the most popular sets were Crystal sets, these had a small crystal which was about the sire of a grape fruit pip which one had to connect to using a fine copper wire before reception could be obtained. All set every thing ready? sit back and listen, the Broadcasts from London 2.L.0. began at 2 PM daily, or 3 PM, or when ever, and lasted until as late as 10 PM.
Most sets allowed for only one set of ear phones, a way of sharing this miracle with others was to place the ear pieces into a metal bowl so that the echo was enjoyed by all. To sit around the table and listen was marvelous, but also nerve ranking, because the slightest movement would cause, the connection to break, and one had to go fiddling with the wire for a reconnection. In the following years electricity was fitted to nearly al premises very quickly.
That period in history must have been a time of great expansion in the production field of power stations, and in the manufacture of all the required cables and fittings required. Then there was the training of the personnel to make good use of these things. The mind boggles really, for when electricity became a commodity available to all, there were literally millions of homes, businesses, and public buildings waiting for the expertise of the work force to install this new source of power. Now that people could tap into this utility, and with radio’s being improved, home entertainment was blossoming, the radio’s progressed to the press button type to find a wave band or broadcasting stations they too were multiplying almost daily, life was entering another exciting stage.
However there was still a problem of good reception this was helped by having out door aerials which were made up of copper wire, they were fitted in the gardens running the entire length, and secured to the highest point possible, so looking around in the garden one was struck by this new fangled decoration, masses of these wires running up and down all the gardens parallel to the clothes lines connected to any suitable fixture as far as the eye could see.
Electricity within the home brought about a complete change to every ones lives, beginning with lighting, there followed ways of heating the home with it, and then one by one all the things we now take for granted, toasters washing machines, fridges, blankets, showers, kettles, to make the good old cuppa, fairy lights for Christmas, also outside in the garden, the lawn mower and all the other power driven tools. [I wonder how we would all get on if ever the ways of making electricity suddenly ceased?]
Photography too was also making headway, camera’s were being massed produced, together with film more cheaply so more people could afford them. It was some years though before any form of colour was introduced, we only had sepia, or black and white were available. To overcome this slight drawback it was possible to paint over the developed pictures with a water colour paint. This I did with some success, however It wan a long tedious job, so the introduction of the colour film was appreciated by me especially. Having said that I have to say I wasn’t much good at taking snaps I think now perhaps, I didn’t under stand how important it is to get the lighting right. I think now even in this field it is all automatic.
James George Wanstall 1916 - 2005