50s/60s Britain and Now

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I find it strange to single out Champagne. They are not all the same.

 

Do you not like some other white wines? Do you not like sparkling wines?

 

I note also that you are in the USA where champagne might be something quite different from Champagne.

 

Champagne is just very expensive lager, comes in the same category, fizzy p!ss.

 

Mike.

[Joseph_Pestell]

12 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Champagne is just very expensive lager, comes in the same category, fizzy p!ss.

 

Mike.

 

You obviously know as little about lager as you do about Champagne.

 

I should probably enlarge on that remark. I have no problem with people not liking sparkling wine or indeed other drinks with too high a level of carbonation (however produced). In my time in the wine business, I have encountered many people (my wife included) who prefer still wines.

 

But not liking a product is not a reason to make uninformed, derogatory comments about it. Respect other peoples' preferences.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Joseph_Pestell
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[caradoc]

17 hours ago, rockershovel said:

My recollection of school sport, was that the main thing was to avoid cross-country running, and hockey. Both were cold, wet and miserable, the main difference being that one included the risk of being hit in the face with a hard, wet ball.

 

And being whacked in the shins with a wooden stick !

 

My school also disregarded soccer, our sports being rugby, hockey and cricket, none of which I was any good at, so cross-country running (or rather, walking round the streets and Thames-side paths of Oxford) and rowing were the alternatives. I wasn't big or strong enough to make the first eight, but I did get selected for a regatta once as no-one else was available ! The race started on the Thames at Tilehurst with a great view of the GW main line; IIRC a 37 passed while waiting for the start.

 

[BernardTPM]

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

I find it strange to single out Champagne. They are not all the same.

 

I note also that you are in the USA where champagne might be something quite different from Champagne.

I suspect in '50/'60s Britain what was sold as 'champagne' wouldn't necessarily come from Champagne. Much like 'sherry' which back then may have been nowhere near that region of Spain.

[Devo63]

My senior school sports were rowing in summer and rugby in winter. The winter sport was unusual as South Oz is mainly a Australian Rules Football state but having a Welsh father and growing up hearing how well Wales were going in the 1970's heavily influenced my choice. PE at school mainly consisted of either gymnastics or track & field sports for most of my education. This changed in my final senior years when a new Sports Master was employed. He introduced a number of elective activities such as golf, ice skating, fencing, small bore rifle shooting and kayaking. Not surprisingly he was poached by another more affluent college after only a couple of years.

The only Aussie Rules match I ever played had me pulled from the field within the first ten minutes. It was my Cub group against another from the other side of Adelaide. The only time I handled the ball was to handpass it to an opposing player who promptly kicked a goal. All these years later I am still reminded of it by my family.

 

Dave R. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 minute ago, BernardTPM said:

I suspect in '50/'60s Britain what was sold as 'champagne' wouldn't necessarily come from Champagne. Much like 'sherry' which back then may have been nowhere near that region of Spain.

 

Before my time as a drinker, but my recollection is that wines sold in the UK have always been fairly clearly labelled. In my 1960s childhood, there was certainly "Burgundy" that was not from France, but the country of origin (South Africa, Australia) was always shown so no real cause for confusion.

[Nearholmer]

Buses.

 

They were truly magnificent conveyances.

 

Here is the sort of thing I remember very well https://christopher-leach-photography.blogspot.com/2008/08/tunbridge-wells-southdown-leyland-pd212.html?m=1

[BernardTPM]

2 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

I find it strange to single out Champagne. They are not all the same.

 

I note also that you are in the USA where champagne might be something quite different from Champagne.

I suspect in '50/'60s Britain what was sold as 'champagne' wouldn't necessarily come from Champagne. Much like 'sherry' which back then may have been nowhere near that region of Spain.

[BernardTPM]

13 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Before my time as a drinker, but my recollection is that wines sold in the UK have always been fairly clearly labelled. In my 1960s childhood, there was certainly "Burgundy" that was not from France, but the country of origin (South Africa, Australia) was always shown so no real cause for confusion.

I do recall there was something called 'British Sherry' back then, though I believe that was a blended product.

[Reorte]

Just now, BernardTPM said:

I do recall there was something called 'British Sherry' back then, though I believe that was a blended product.

 

Reminds me of something in a children's book - two rather disreputable characters celebrating with a bottle of "Spanish Style Home Counties Cooking Sherry."

[Joseph_Pestell]

11 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

I do recall there was something called 'British Sherry' back then, though I believe that was a blended product.

 

There still is. Nothing much like the Spanish original. Like "British Wine", it is made here from imported grape juice.

[Fat Controller]

3 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I think that we may have been at the same school!

Probably one of our old boys.. My grammar school was obsessive about rugby; a friend (and later, colleague) was selected to play soccer for Wales Schoolboys. The problem was that he was due to play rugby for the school on the same day; the headmaster tried to forbid him accepting his cap, but then realised the two matches took place outside of the school week, so his authority was limited.

It wasn't just Rugby, it was Rugby Union, rather than that game where you got paid. In the foyer at the entrance to the main building was a trophy cabinet, with things like citations for military honours, and caps or jerseys for boys who had played, or been selected, for the national side. Pride of place was given to the jersey of one who had not only played, but scored. However, he announced he was turning professional. Before the end of the day, all reference to him had been excised, rather like those pictures with Trotsky after his fall from grace.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 minute ago, Fat Controller said:

Probably one of our old boys.. My grammar school was obsessive about rugby; a friend (and later, colleague) was selected to play soccer for Wales Schoolboys. The problem was that he was due to play rugby for the school on the same day; the headmaster tried to forbid him accepting his cap, but then realised the two matches took place outside of the school week, so his authority was limited.

It wasn't just Rugby, it was Rugby Union, rather than that game where you got paid. In the foyer at the entrance to the main building was a trophy cabinet, with things like citations for military honours, and caps or jerseys for boys who had played, or been selected, for the national side. Pride of place was given to the jersey of one who had not only played, but scored. However, he announced he was turning professional. Before the end of the day, all reference to him had been excised, rather like those pictures with Trotsky after his fall from grace.

 

I remember those days. Not a Rugby League fan myself but find the hypocrisy (snobbishness) of the Rugby Union appalling. Covert professionalism was rife at the upper levels of the game.

[Fat Controller]

18 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I remember those days. Not a Rugby League fan myself but find the hypocrisy (snobbishness) of the Rugby Union appalling. Covert professionalism was rife at the upper levels of the game.

'Boot money', literally stuffed into players' boots before the match. The 'star turns' often had sinecure jobs, such as brewery reps.

[Legend]

19 hours ago, rockershovel said:

My recollection of school sport, was that the main thing was to avoid cross-country running, and hockey. Both were cold, wet and miserable, the main difference being that one included the risk of being hit in the face with a hard, wet ball. 

 

 

 

I remember once our Sports Master was off so we joined the girls PE class at Hockey. A doddle we thought .  It was a massacre !

Edited April 27, 2020 by Legend

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, Legend said:

 

I remember once our Sports Master was off so we joined the girls PE class at Hockey. A doddle we thought .  It was a massacre !

I'm with you there. Some folk think that ice hockey is violent. I'd vote for mixed hockey, closely followed by mixed netball.

[Joseph_Pestell]

NEVER play hockey against women!

 

Lacrosse is another dangerous sport. Men wear protective gear, women don't.

[Reorte]

We had a version of hockey, played mixed, on tarmac (which had been polished quite smooth over the years), mostly surrounded by brick walls. It was also a fairly small space so there was a push only, no hitting the ball rule. Quite good fun actually, although one girl ended up with a few stitches near her eye once when she tried to stop the ball but had the stick at a bit of an angle which sent it flying in to her face.

[Kickstart]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

NEVER play hockey against women!

 

Lacrosse is another dangerous sport. Men wear protective gear, women don't.

A friend worked as a baker at a girls boarding school. Once a year they had a pupils vs staff cricket match, and staff vs pupils lacrosse match.

 

Every year the staff won the cricket match and lost the lacrosse match.

 

First year there he said he was doing quite well at lacrosse. Then he was stretched off the pitch.

 

That was the point the the other staff told him they had learnt it was safer not to try!

 

All the best
 

Katy

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

NEVER play hockey against women!

 

Lacrosse is another dangerous sport. Men wear protective gear, women don't.

Wasn't it played with the severed heads of your opponents?

 

[melmerby]

4 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Wasn't it played with the severed heads of your opponents?

 

Well, that's one way of ensuring you always win........

[Welchester]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Buses.

 

They were truly magnificent conveyances.

 

We had these well into the 70s.

[Nearholmer]

The fleet local to us that remained ‘classic’ longest was Eastbourne, including this single-deck beauty which was in everyday use until c1980, and is still in their fleet I think. https://jimmyshengukbuses.smugmug.com/Preserved-Buses/Eastbourne-Corporation/i-HKKDz8m/A

 

Yep: Sold to the London Bus Preservation Group in 1978, it was later repurchased by the Corporation, and has since been restored to full PSV status by them and into its original livery as no. 11 once more.

 

It used to bring trainee teachers to our secondary school, and years later we hired it for a works outing c15 years ago, ‘doing’ the Bluebell and several of the better pubs around Ashdown Forest.

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Nearholmer

[TheQ]

Hockey.. PAH... Try shinty a lot less rules , you can hit the ball in the air with either side of the stick . So there are bits of wood waving at you at any height or direction.  Shoulder charges are permitted. 

The sticks (Caman) are shaped like this.

 

 

Those corners Will  get you..... 

Edited April 27, 2020 by TheQ

[chrisf]

On 26/04/2020 at 12:32, J. S. Bach said:

Chris,

 Will you please print the whole thing? I (and maybe others)  might like to read it.

 

Much to my surprise, I have found it!  Here goes:

 

"I Love You, Yes I Do" (with apologies to Psalm 23)

 

The Lord Bright is my shepherd: I shall not want him.

 

He maketh me to collapse in green pastures: he leadeth me into the the supposedly hot waters that are actually stone cold.

 

He attacketh my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of Views Common for the sake of the Education Act 1944.

 

Yea, though I run up the slope of the shadow of death, I fear plenty evil; for thou art standing at the top; thy rod and thy staff, they beat me .

 

Thou preparest a circuit before me in the presence of my fellow sufferers; thou anointest  my head with sweat; no-one runneth thee over.

 

Surely goodness and energy will follow me all the days of my life; and thank goodness I have not got to stick this lot for ever.

 

[[I should explain that Views Common was where we did circuit training for cross-country running.  Much of it is now occupied by the A14.  I worked on the compulsory purchase order.   Revenge is sweet.]

 

Chris