Going back…
On a different note, on Friday 11 February I attended the funeral of my Aunt on my mother’s side; it took place in Plumstead with the cremation in Eltham. My aunt died at the wonderful age of 102 and was still conversing in a sensible manner up until her death. This got me to thinking that being born in 1908, she had lived through the invention of so many items that we take as normal in this day and age.
   Many of today’s children and adults would not be able to survive if they were transported back to 1908; how often do we hear children say that they are bored with nothing to do?
   To take the children back would get them to lose television, computers, iPods, game stations, multi screen cinemas, the use of cars and telephones - the list is endless. Many so-called luxury items then were not available in 1908 due to cost; you were only able to have access to these if you belonged to the real upper class. Mothers had no washing machines, gas stoves were still a luxury so it was down to a kitchen fuelled with wood or coal. If you lived in Ireland, it was turf. The kettle was a heavy metal job that to a child weighed a ton, so were the pots and pans. If the husband came home drunk and the wife hit him with a pan then, she could easily smash his skull in!
   To take a bath you’d need an old boiler (not one you could meet at the back of Paddington Station) or have a large galvanised bucket on the range to heat up the water, then you would pour it into a long portable galvanised bath. This bath was usually kept in the garden and when needed placed in the kitchen where it was warmer; so you could only have a bath when the kitchen was not in use for any other purpose.
   Entertainment for children was kicking an old ball around the street, or fishing for tiddlers in the pond at the local park. When I entered the world during the war, Hitler took one look at me

How the years pass and how we forget...

and decided to surrender. I have never worked out why!
   During my childhood, the only home entertainment was a radio powered by an accumulator, which was like a glass bottle with a solid top of a tar-like substance to which was attached two electric terminals. This accumulator had to be charged at the little local garage, so it was necessary to have a replacement to use whilst the other was being charged. If you did not have a spare then you could be halfway through a radio programme and the radio would go dead. In those days you rarely got repeats.
   If you were unlucky enough to need the help of the fire brigade, you would need to go to a fire point - a 5-foot high post with a little glass window at the top that you smashed to pull an interior lever out. This lever was connected to the fire station, which rang a bell indicating which standpoint they had to attend. You had to stand by the point to await the open top fire engine, which approached with a fire officer ringing a large brass bell attached above the front window. You then had to direct them to the emergency. This was because phones were few and far between. How would today’s youth survive with talking to their friends on their mobile every 2 minutes?
   Music was supplied by a wind-up record player using 78-rpm brittle plastic records. His Masters Voice made our player, using a needle made of solid steel with a large membrane encased in metal above it. That transferred the sounds to a speaker. Today’s teenagers would be lost without their iPods or MP3 players holding thousands of records. Just 50 years ago, if you wanted to transport 200 records and a record player, you would have needed a handcart!
   Some 60 years ago, if you went to the local cinema you’d get to see a series of adverts from Pearl and Dean, followed by Pathe News. This was the only way you could see up to date news. Remember that no working class person had a television. At the cinema you were also treated to a B-rated second movie in addition to the main feature film.
   On Saturday mornings, children could go to the local flea pit cinema and for a few pence were treated to a series of black and white films. These included Superman, Batman and other super heroes. Then there were the cowboys; Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Tex Ritter plus the comedy of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott
and Costello and the great

What brought it all back?
What made me think of these happenings? Well on the Thursday night before the funeral as I returned home from Kings
Cross Station with my daughter, we entered the house and were greeted by a strong gas odour. So we telephoned the National Grid who turned up within the hour.
   The gasman ascertained that the leak was on one of our meters, which had pipes going through the basement tenant’s flat. We knocked on their door and windows and although they were in, they would not open the door. So the gasman turned off our meter and also theirs as he could not take any chances of another leak and an explosion.
   The next morning we had to use 3 electric kettles to heat water so that we could wash and prepare ourselves for the funeral. We couldn’t have a cooked breakfast as there was no gas. We contacted the landlord’s office as soon as it opened on the Friday and he assured us that a gasfitter would be in attendance within 2 hours. So I arranged for someone to let him in and departed for the funeral.
   Returning later in the afternoon, we still had no gas and the fitter had gone. So we contacted him and told him his fortune in no uncertain terms! The fitter said that he had tried to contact the landlord, but due to him being an orthodox Jew he had been unavailable from Friday midday and that we would have to wait until Monday. He said he would be back at 09:30 on Monday to try and track down the leak as he now knew more facts. This meant that we had to continue to use three electric kettles to gain hot water for washing in the sink, no bathing, plus it was ping-ping meals out of the microwave as we had no working cooker.
   This was akin to being transported back 20 years! You just do not realise how much you miss a supply of domestic gas, which gives you constant hot water. I have always maintained that hot water on tap is one of the great luxuries of life. It’s when the supply is reinstated that you realise you should not take it for granted; just think how fortunate you are that someone had the great idea to invent a water heater.
   You may want to think at this moment what you would consider to be a luxury item that you would miss had it not been invented in the last 100 years? Children nowadays get lazy and just take everything for granted; they should be encouraged to do more strenuous activities. If you do not believe me, just hide the television remote control and hear the screams because they have to get off of their backsides and walk 3 steps to press a button on the television set.
   I hope I have given you something to ponder over. Until next time, keep your family and yourselves safe.

Tom Whitbread
DaC Board Member