Where were you 60 years ago today?

mikelapta



Joined: 20/11/2008
Posts: 2186

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:19

To those 60+years old:



Me? My father was stationed at RAF Gatow,nr.Berlin.I remember vividly Berlin recovering from the war.No fresh meat,just spam and corned beef.But I did shoot an odd rabbit in the woods with my bow and arrow !!!

Fresh meat,what luxury.We arrived back in UK within a few days,Liverpool Street Station was still shrouded in Black,for the King's funeral.





Mike

kbasat



Joined: 28/07/2011
Posts: 481

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:25

I was 'vitamin C' in one of the orange trees in Lefke.



K.

harita


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 1343

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:25

I was in the 2nd year ..

We were waiting to have a history lesson ..

When the teacher came into the classroom, his first words were "The King is dead, long live The Queen"

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:26

That is 1952. I was still at primary school at Ktima, Paphos. I was ten years old at the time. Did the coronation of Elizabeth take place about June 1952? I remember porcelean mugs with the picture of the queen on it given free to all students. They were used by most as ornaments in the sitting rooms.

ismet

mikelapta



Joined: 20/11/2008
Posts: 2186

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:32

Ismet,I am sure you are right.Also in UK we were given mugs.The coronation of the Queen was the first time I saw television.About 30 people in someones living room looking at hazy black and white moving images.

harita


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 1343

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:33

No elko2 .. The coronation was 2nd June 1953 .. Some 18 months later ..

Giles


Joined: 16/08/2011
Posts: 256

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:35

Mike (msg 1) That must make you (well?) over 70, are you going to update your avatar?

dippersgirl



Joined: 04/05/2010
Posts: 795

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:38

Wasn't she crowned in June 1953? Mr. Doodle says yes!!

I was in Kindergarten in Nordhausen, Harz, East Germany and did not know anything about England. There would have been lots of snow and my mother always pulled me home on a sledge.



Mr. Doodle was in infant school in Ealing, London and got a propelling pencil with a little crown on top for the Coronation. He has still got it.

Groucho



Joined: 26/04/2008
Posts: 7993

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:40

I can vouch for Mike looking just like his avatar...

Giles


Joined: 16/08/2011
Posts: 256

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:41

Mike, apologies. I have had a word with myself, and will now eat humble pie.

EamonnMc


Joined: 18/06/2010
Posts: 1019

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:46

In my mother's womb !

greylag


Joined: 08/04/2009
Posts: 1110

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:55

Re-mess 4,



Would i be correct in thinking that you were born in the same village as Rauf Denktas, Ismet.Sorry for going off thread,



Paul.

astro941


Joined: 22/05/2011
Posts: 193

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:56

I remember being given the mug, a thin slim blue tin of chocolate with a picture of the Queen on it and a copy of the new testament. These items were better than manna from heaven to a boy living in a 60s mining village. I wonder whatever happened to the chocolate.

Ossie


Joined: 19/01/2008
Posts: 311

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 18:56

Just started boarding school.Happiest days of my life apart from National Service which I have never regretted serving in. Met some great blokes and travelled at the expense of the government. Germany,Libya,Malta and Cyprus. 2nd Royal Tank Regiment who are now in Afganistan.

mikelapta



Joined: 20/11/2008
Posts: 2186

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 19:14

Giles,eat your pie !!!!!

My gf belives I am 59,and act 49<39 some nights>No she has seen my passport.

I stand corrected on the year of coronation,was 1953.

And to those my age,sweets were still rationed,as many things then.

Bloody hell,you lot,under 60 don't know a thing !!!

japeal



Joined: 12/09/2008
Posts: 1052

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 19:28

I was in a cot next to mum's bed, I was 60 on Saturday.

mikelapta



Joined: 20/11/2008
Posts: 2186

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 19:43

A belated Happy Birthday !!!xxx

japeal



Joined: 12/09/2008
Posts: 1052

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 19:52

Thanks Mike

kelvin


Joined: 18/12/2008
Posts: 377

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 20:07

I wasn't born but my father was working in The Ballingarry mines in Co Tipperary, he was 14 yeras old.

shrimp


Joined: 01/09/2010
Posts: 939

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 21:13

I was five months old and being pushed around in my silver cross pram in Nicosia with my sister a year older on the pram seat perched at the front! (neither of which you see nowadays unfortunately!)

niceone


Joined: 08/06/2011
Posts: 60

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 21:54

I was a twinkle in my fathers eye

selpak


Joined: 15/12/2011
Posts: 281

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 22:27

My mother was just putting me to bed in our little house in Devon !

Turtle


Joined: 28/05/2007
Posts: 2669

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 00:42

I was a eye in my dads twinkle

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 01:04

I was spending most of my spare time digging up wooden tarred blocks from main road tram tracks to take home as a substitute for coal which my mother could not afford even though the ration was meager. I was also sent from house to house to try and swap "sweet" ration coupons for "clothing" coupons. Travellers relying on trams in those days had a pretty unreliable service !

EamonnMc


Joined: 18/06/2010
Posts: 1019

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 01:43

Msg 24,



Has the statute of limitations run out on that heinous crime ? lol.

waddo


Joined: 29/11/2008
Posts: 1966

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 08:10

Msg 24/25 - See occupation, he pardoned himself years ago! LOL.



I was on my way to Canada - I think - memory a bit thin on that date now, what was I talking about?????

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 09:38

msg 12

"Would i be correct in thinking that you were born in the same village as Rauf Denktas, Ismet.Sorry for going off thread,"



Yes, both of us were born at Ktima, Paphos and we both went to the English School, Nicosia. The main difference is that he studied law, I studied engineering. I bet I knew more about the law than he knew about engineering

BTW, Ktima is the main town of Paphos, so its a town rather than a village.

ismet

JohhnyLee


Joined: 25/04/2009
Posts: 2495

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 09:42

I was still in my dads scrotum.

Cocklebay


Joined: 26/02/2011
Posts: 353

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 09:50

At St Joseph's junior school in Cardiff, can well remember some of the very physically abusive staff!!!

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 11:39

EamonnMc. It was a sort of trade off. My mother died over 60 years later at the age of 97 still awaiting the return of the metal railings and front gate to our home which the government took for the manufacture of war munitions !

juliamoons



Joined: 14/05/2009
Posts: 849

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 11:51

I was in Tripoli where by brother was born. My father was in the army so we all went.

periwinkle


Joined: 21/09/2011
Posts: 83

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 12:00

A twinkle in my father's eye !!

Lundunsip


Joined: 03/02/2009
Posts: 38

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 12:32

My dad was 5, he didn't even have a twinkle in his eye yet!

cyprusairsoft



Joined: 22/06/2009
Posts: 2066

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 14:09

i was a sperm

phylray



Joined: 21/09/2007
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 18:17

I saw the headlines on billboards on way home from school. Next day at school we got to see the proclamation on black and white t.v. and were told we could wear black armbands to show respect.

Coronation was following year June '53 if I remember rightly. Dad got a t.v. installed and neighbours

were in and out all day. We got the choice of mugs or new testaments at school and all the school

chose the testaments (it being a private school and they thought the mugs "vulgar"). I rubbed out

the II for Elizabeth, as Scotland never had an Elizabeth and neither did G.B. That was in Sussex which

was the first part of U.K to have t.v.

snakes



Joined: 28/10/2008
Posts: 1512

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 18:47

I was 3 weeks old looking out of a 2 up 2 down in Enfield (Nawf Lundun) finking "is this the best we can do" Then a bright light burst through the window and a voice from beyond using lots of echo said !!!!! "fear not young Barry, 60 years from now you will be in sunny North Cyprus !!!!! OOps .

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 21:12

Snakes. I never saw yer when I looked owt me winder in West Hendon. I must have been looking towards Wembley and not Enfield as I could see the Twin Towers across the Welsh Harp. On Cup Final days if I had the radio on and a goal was scored I could hear the roar of the crowd across the water. Nowadays, and sadly, the twin towers have gone and I can't hear my own mobile ring let alone the radio. Not to worry, I can hear your guitar when you perform !

pammick


Joined: 09/07/2009
Posts: 722

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 08:53

I was 4 yrs old and living a 1 up 1 down house with no bathroom, the toilet was at at the bottom of the yard, we had no electric, our house was lit by gas mantles and the house had a black lead range which was coal fired. I remember helping my mum on wash days when she had to boil all the water on the range and I used to help her bang the posser stick up and down in a dolly tub and rub the clothes on a wash board. She had 3 kids by then, all under 5 years old - life must have been so hard for her. Just before Coronation day, we moved to a better house, with electric and 2 bedrooms. Still no bathroom and the toilet was still down the yard, but this time it was a flush toilet, not the earth type, like at my first home. I can still remember the thrill of pulling the chain and all that magic water came gushing out! Life was incredibly hard for our parents and when I look back, I am so grateful for my lifestyle now.



Pam

martinD41


Joined: 06/09/2010
Posts: 3001

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 10:49

I would have been 2 years old, so probably playing mud pies,but I do remember as a youngster (12 yrs) wondering what I would be doing as a 20year old.When I got to 20, I would wonder what lay in store as a 50 year old.Now I am 62, it seems something of a pointless exercise...

mamachina


Joined: 22/11/2008
Posts: 730

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 11:27

Boarding school - told at assembly. Had time off for coronation though, went to my grandma's, and we all went next door to watch on the tiny tv set - what a thrill. We got New Testaments from school - still got mine somewhere, I think!!

brijan


Joined: 23/11/2010
Posts: 52

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 11:28

Iwas fifteen and getting ready for "o" levels.

pollymarples


Joined: 08/08/2010
Posts: 1778

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 12:33

I was six years old and at school complete with my National Health specs, only one wearing specs so was called 'four eyes'. See I have always been bullied...joke...

EamonnMc


Joined: 18/06/2010
Posts: 1019

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 13:59

Msg 38, Pammick,



Great post and spot on. Many of our parents had a very hard life and we should NEVER forget the sacrifices that they made on our behalf ! Where would we be without the love and support that they gave us ?