Some rantings, musings from a South Londoner interested in aviation as a boy. It’s starts with, “when I was a lad…”
My dad, who served in the Navy during WW2 would tell me tales of fishing airman out of the water while on picket duty.
He would build model planes, watch films like Angels 1-5, tell me tales of the Navies `Pussus Spitfire` and buy me Commando comics.
During Biggin Hill week there would be posters on bus stands, reports on TV with Raymond Baxter and Noel Edmunds. The Rothmans team used to fly over
Peckham Town Center (I am sure) to drum up support. What’s more for a poor South London family you could get a bus to Biggin Hill. I suspect also it was not
as expensive.
Once a year in Burgess park there would be an event sponsored by the Duke of Windsor promoting the armed forces, including the RAF.
You could sit in a plane. See models. We even had a demonstration one year by a Wessex Helicopter.
The school would take us on trips to the Imperial War Museum and Hendon.
You could get a tube to Northweald. Buy Arfix kits in newsagents. Battle Action Comics and Johnny Red.
It used to be a big deal when an aircraft, like the Blenheim, took to the skies. It would be on radio and TV.
What kid, especially and specifically a town center kid from a poor family these days, gets access to any of this?
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