A Real East Ender

In response to:Surviving The Blitz ... London's East End

2009-09-23T03:10:31+02:00

Thank you for sharing your memories. It was wonderful to share your pain.

In response to:Cursing and Swearing East End Style

2009-06-23T11:54:53+02:00

Of course, you may both be right. Wet fish shops were common in the 40's and 50's and many had live eels on display, writhing around in trays as I recall.
There were probably still quite a few of those local shops around in the 60's and 70's before they were killed off by the supermarkets.

In response to:Cursing and Swearing East End Style

2009-06-23T07:55:51+02:00

I grew up in East Ham in the 1960/70's. I've been racking my brains to try to remember where the live eels were - I keep thinking it was Myrtle Rd near the main entrance to the Market. Sounds like I've got it wrong if you say it was in the Barking Rd.

In response to:Surviving The Blitz ... London's East End

2009-04-06T22:37:02+02:00

My father grew up in Bethnal Green during the war and witnessed the tube disaster. His mum granny violet didn't want to be evacuated. I think it's a miracle anyone survived at all.

In response to:Surviving The Blitz ... London's East End

2009-03-31T07:24:54+02:00

Thanks - as someone in the U.S. born in 1970, I'm always amazed by the intense times of warfare experienced by people in cities overseas. My relatives live in Upton Park today. We are Indian-(me American, they British). My grandfather was in Italy during the War, fighting as a citizen of a British colony. The war was all-encompassing in a way I hope never happens again. I'm glad the east end has moved on in the face of great adversity!

In response to:Cursing and Swearing East End Style

2008-11-19T12:20:01+01:00

My mum's family lived in and around Stepney - mum was born in Custom House. My grandad, born in Mile End was a bookie on the dog track and his track name was Harry Neil. My mum did his off-track 'running' which used to scare her to death, peddling round on her bike with cash stuffed in her pockets. On a Saturday night, aged 6 or 7, she would be sent down the road with a basket and basin to get boiled pork,faggots, saveloys and pease pudding, "and don't forget the gravy!" my nan would yell. I spent lots of happy days in the house they eventually had in Johnstone Road, East Ham. Anyone remember the fish shop on Barking Road with live eels on the front?

In response to:Smoking ... 1940's ... Part II

2008-06-23T19:53:52+02:00

tu as assistance moi avec mon devoir
merci

In response to:London's East End ... In sickness and in health.

2008-05-24T00:31:07+02:00

Does anyone remember a street name in the Jewish quarter of the East End where there was a shop called W.Werner poultry dealer i think it was there in the 1950s, there was a cafe opposite, the poultry dealer was next door to a synagogue please help.

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2008-04-13T11:54:04+02:00

In most societies throughout the world, siblings will usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their time during childhood together. mold removal

In response to:Surviving The Blitz ... London's East End

2007-08-29T18:02:59+02:00

Fascinating stories, i can only imagine what i would have been like to have actually been in it, the whole thing seems a world away to somebody born a good 40 years later XD. I think my granny was in the tail end of the Blitz, but never talks about it much. Seems like she moved around a lot at the start and finally ended up at some airfield... where Douglas Bader picked up 6d for her XD

In response to:East End Kids ... and Other Animals!

2007-08-26T13:30:23+02:00

Thousands of domestic pets were put down at the outbreak of war in September 1939 - with official encouragement apparently.

My family never took any notice of that idea though. Pets were (and still are) part of the family. Some were kept for food (chickens, and rabbits) others just for their company although dogs were good guards and the cats kept the mice and rats down. They weren't a wealthy family by any means - a large unruly mix of Irish and Scottish and several kids running to school together under one coat!

My grandfather once pulled a carter down from his cart and used a whip on him for mistreating his horse on a steep hill. He'd probably be prosecuted nowadays!

In response to:East End Kids ... and Other Animals!

2007-08-25T23:53:02+02:00

No, funnily enough, we always knew him as Jimmy...Ribbentrop was the ambassador at the time...a friend of my grandmother's worked at the embassy and brought him to my grandmother to find out whether she would take him in which she did...

In response to:East End Kids ... and Other Animals!

2007-08-25T22:22:56+02:00

Fascinating Jen. Was the cat's name Adolf by any chance?

In response to:East End Kids ... and Other Animals!

2007-08-25T19:49:26+02:00

Sounds like the film A Kid for Two Farthings...the market I mean..LOL...we had cats and they also were fed on scraps I think...one of them was the German Ambassador's cat which we acquired when he left Britain when the war started....strange times...LOL...

In response to:East End Kids ... and Other Animals!

2007-08-25T17:13:19+02:00

Great stuff Grumpus.We live life as it comes.
Sometimes there are no choices,needs must.

Keep them coming

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2007-08-22T09:17:48+02:00

No my friend If anything it's Old Timers Keep it comming

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2007-08-21T19:04:56+02:00

Thanks Marv. For that I'll send you a signed copy. I am keeping copies of all these posts. One day ... who knows, some publisher may come knocking at my door with a shed-load of dosh. :roll:

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2007-08-21T19:00:14+02:00

Thanks Nulty. Once I start thinking about it the memories just seem to flood back from sixty-odd years ago. Might be a sign of Altzheimers ... I sometimes can't remember something I said just minutes ago. I sometimes can't remember something I said just minutes ago.
:crazy:

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2007-08-21T18:32:02+02:00

You should put all these memories in a book, I'd buy it.

In response to:East End Kids ... Brotherly Love

2007-08-21T13:50:15+02:00

You are a brilliant story teller Grumpus,I can just imagine you both we used to cycle down to Loch Lomond chips and pop and get the train back.We slept well those nights

In response to:East End Wartime Winter ... Part II

2007-08-16T18:56:44+02:00

The wife doesn't believe me though

In response to:East End Wartime Winter ... Part II

2007-08-16T17:29:57+02:00

Not mine, Tyll! Mine had a leather belt, but they got very heavy and sagged under the crotch! :D

In response to:East End Wartime Winter ... Part II

2007-08-16T17:28:18+02:00

No, me neither Nulty! :roll:

In response to:East End Wartime Winter ... Part II

2007-08-16T17:14:18+02:00

What about knitted swimsuits? (we called them Bathers). The minute they got wet they fell down round your ankles!

In response to:East End Wartime Winter ... Part II

2007-08-16T13:26:22+02:00

Nice blog. Made me think of fifties Glasgow things were not much different then. What I remember is that if you were bad you got kept in nowadays when the kids are bad they are told to go out as a punishment.

Not that I was ever bad

In response to:Wartime Winter ... London's East End

2007-08-08T13:09:37+02:00

Just continuing a theme, ABE. Be my guest at the fireplace. Just don't catch fire to your nylons; you'll end up painting your legs with gravy powder!
:wave:

In response to:Wartime Winter ... London's East End

2007-08-08T13:03:53+02:00

You had to lay fires neatly and carefully or they wouldn't catch. But, yes, the army taught a lot of people a lot of things. Things that are often sadly lacking today. I learned fire-lighting in the Scouts. Start with a toffee paper under a pyramid of match sticks, light it, shield it, blow it, and gradually add more twigs round it until you built a raging bonfire big enough for a whole troop to sit round and sing "Ging Gang Goolie!"

In response to:Wartime Winter ... London's East End

2007-08-08T12:54:23+02:00

I used to love staring into the fire as we all sat round it. You could imagine all sorts of shapes. The fronts of our shins would get all red and blotchy from the heat whilst the backs of our legs were freezing from the draught that came under the door and shot straight up the chimney.
Occasionally, on a windy night, there would be a sudden down-draught, which would blow a cloud of black smoke into our faces. We'd all jump up coughing and spluttering.

In response to:Wartime Winter ... London's East End

2007-08-08T12:47:13+02:00

My dad once borrowed a set of chimney brushes to do ours and I seem to remember talk of him maybe going into business as a Chimney Sweep. However, it never came about. The mess he made and the filthy dust that filled our room and our throats for days afterwards, put him right off!

Now you mention it, I do remember "banking up" the fire overnight. I suppose it helped keep the house warm in the wee small hours. Not sure about the potato peelings. I think ours mostly went in the "pig bin".

In response to:Wartime Winter ... London's East End

2007-08-07T20:41:44+02:00

LOL, MR Grumpus! What made you think of starting fires in the middle of hot August afternoon? But I hope you don't mind me warming myself up a bit by your fireplace?