My father managed to save quite a bit of money during the war, supplemented by the soldiers code, ie on invading Germany, the infantry did the banks and the Royal Artillery, the post offices, blowing the safes with gun cotton, the Reichmarks were recycled back through the Dutch resistance for useable currency.
This enabled him to buy a small house after the war, and small it was, a 1930’s semi with a kitchen, living room and down stairs bathroom, the toilet was outside, the garden quite reasonable and, upstairs, a double bedroom and 2 tiny single bedrooms. It was built of 9 inch brickwork and was always cold, the only heating we had was a single coal fire, supplemented by a parrafin heater that was swapped between bedrooms depending on whether myself or my brother needed it while we did our homework.
In the early 60’s he managed to afford to build an extension on the bathroom so we had an indoor toilet, in the late 60’s he had storage heaters installed. My mother still lives there but now has the advantage of UPVC double glazing and gas central heating.
During the big freeze of 1963, it must have been horrendous, we had a coal fire burning 24 hours a day and had to aquire an additional paraffin stove that was kept at the bottom of the stairs, I can’t remember it being a particular problem for me, it was something I was used to, besides I was out all the time, cycling down the frozen canal or sledging and having mass snowball fights with rival kids.
What people seem to forget is the winter of 57-58, it snowed so much that we woke up to find a drift covering the back door, the roads outside were beyond belief and with little traffic anyway, they didn’t clear, how my father got to work is beyond me, my brother went to grammar school on the other side of the city but couldn’t get there, my junior school was just up the road and I remember him meeting me with our sledge and dragging me home.
Life was fun though, we were constantly doing things, building dens in the woods, climbing trees and rock faces, playing with Meccano, train sets, Bayko, Dinky Toys, Airfix kits, fishing in the canal, trainspotting, going to Hucknall to see what wondrous planes were flying about etc etc, we never got bored.
As for school, I loved it, junior school was just up the road and we had such a mixture of kids, all their fathers either worked down the village coal mine, or Raleigh, Players, Boots, Stanton Ironworks etc.
By the time we went to our local Grammar shool it was even better because we got involved with the local rich kids as well, no bullying, no one upmanship, it was great fun.
Was life better then, I don’t think it’s fair to make a comparison, my son who is now 21 seems to have had a simliar childhood as me, possibly because he was brought up in a rural community, and also went to good schools, my stepson is more insular and tends to do his own thing and is very grown up for his age, some of the things he knows astonishes me. Life will be different for him when we move from this village idyll to the urban life of Braintree and Bocking, but I feel that it is of an advantage to him as all hits mates live nearby and his school is just up the road, and thats a good school too.
Thats enough for now, I have things to do.

OK, TV film I know, but did you watch that classic last night by Victoria Wood, Housewife 49, it was stunning, if you missed it I’ll never forgive you, and if you didn’t like it, then seek help.

Why is the engine pylon a different shape on the port outer, looking through my literature it seems to be the same type of pylon found on an RC-135, the pictures of John Revolting’s, bless him, a/c, don’t have the same view, so I can’t tell whether there is a similarity.
Was a spare fitting found at Mildenhall and would it have any affects on it’s flight characteristics.

A Legendary preview!

How are they going to get through that door and even Elvis can’t be in 2 places at once, he was on Steve Wright’s show on friday afternoon.

For those of you that may have been around for the evening take off at EGLL, the noise factor associated with Concorde could not really have been described, only felt, One of the few time I saw her leave Heathrow was from the confines of a display stand when a mid day departure, probably one of those tour bus flights passed over head, at the time I took a look around at various stands in sight and too a man every single person there was looking up as she passed low overhead direct Ockham, but the sound was the striking thing about it, building through the background noise from the city to announce her departure, Concorde could be heard long before she was ever in sight, something to savour everytime you heard it, and when you finally did, the only thought you could ever have was British Aviation Engineering at it’s very best.

Can anyone remember Concordes display at DX about 20 years ago.
With a full compliment of passengers, he flew very low down the runway, stood it on it’s tail and applied full reheat, climbing into a wingover, I thought he was going to barrell roll it, the noise made the Vulcan sound like a pussycat.
On the other hand I was on a cross channel ferry to Cherbourg when the captain warned us that Concorde was approaching and to be prepared for the sonic boom. You could see it coming from miles away but the actual noise was no greater than a double pistol shot.

Considering that our initial contribution to air combat against the Japanese was either Brewster Buffaloes or clapped out Hurricanes that got destroyed in their crates it’s no wonder that the arrival of a long range, powerful fighter put the s### up them and caused a bit of fear and loathing and the origin of a ‘mythical’ name, anyone got any combat figures between Beaus and Zeros by chance.

What I remember that was strange about 87 was that the windows steamed up on the outside.
At the time I was working for a firm of Structural Engineers in Bishops Stortford. Obviously, with us being scattered over various parts of Herts and Essex, the only bloke to get in the office that day lived up the road and wandered down to see if there was any damage to the building. Unfortunately for him, neither the power or phones had been affected and he was assailed by phone calls from irate people demanding that a structural engineer be dispatched to their rural properties immediately, on pointing out that we didn’t have either a JCB or Chieftan tank to pile through the fallen trees and debris, he was insulted blind, but felt he had the authority to tell them all to f### off before giving up and going home.

Does anyone have a record of loose barrage balloons with dangly bits over Liverpool around this date.