General Chat

I want to know why Sue is naughty

Oh - I thought you were going tomorrow - silly man

Of course not Tec, everything would be creased, I will pack on Tuesday

Hello Linda - are you packed? :-D

Don't tell me :-0 you've bought more bamboo furniture - or plants :-D

Why???

Oh Tec - I've been naughty :-(

Hellooo to you :-)

Hellooooo :-D

Love your avatar too, Huia. The two ladies were very daring. Fancy showing your bloomers :-0 :-D

Huia



somewhere I have a photo of my Dad in his swim suit, mid 1920s to around 1930


It's wool, and very saggy :-)

I have a lovely photo of me on my first holiday at the seaside, 1946/47 .................. in Bispham, which is about 2 km north of Blackpool on the Lancashire coast



7 children on the beach. We're all wearing thick coats, and hats or hoods. I'm in bare feet, but most of the others are wearing shoes and socks. I also have my bucket, but no spade to build sand castles


I think it must have been cold :-)


I do remember that we stayed in a caravan ............. and Mum was not too happy :-)

Sue


I thought you would!!


Note that Frank, on the right, is showing his watch chain even though he is paddling in the North Sea :-)

That was usually a 21st birthday present ................. but he was only 17 when he died, so he must have got it for his 16th birthday. He was the eldest son.

Berona ....................


"wakes" in Wakes Week comes form a very old religious connection.


Every church at its consecration was given the name of a patron saint and either the day of its consecration or the saint's feast day became the church's festival.

Church services began at sunset on Saturday and the night of prayer was called a vigil, eve or, due to the late hour "wake", from the Old English waecan, meaning to keep watch.

The church service on the Saint's Day would then be followed by sports, games, dancing and drinking.

Gradually, some events would take place on the Saturday, then the church service on Sunday, and public entertainments such as bands, games and funfairs.were moved to the Monday


Finally, the Wake became a regular summer holiday day or weekend, particularly, but not exclusively, in the north of England and industrialised areas of the Midlands.

The wakes holiday started as an unpaid holiday when the mills and factories were closed for maintenance ......................... the owners took advantage of the days off that the workers were taking to officially shut down for maintenance!




The funereal "wake" also comes from the same root as Wakes week .......... the all-night vigil, which is how it started

But it then became more of the social interactions .......... or partying ......... after the funeral.


In parts of Northern England, a funeral that was followed by a good meal, with lots of food and drink was described as having given the deceased "a reet good send off"







reet ..................... means right






When I was in school, the Oldham Wakes Week or Weeks were at the end of June and very beginning of July.

School did not end until the 3rd or 4th week of July .................. and the external examinations that we had to take were during the month of June.

The result of this was that the schools could not close, and the staff had all to be in attendance, but classes in years below the examination years were much depleted as pupils went away with their parents. It was accepted that this would happen ................. you didn't have much trouble getting permission!

It became a time when trips were organised for those students who did attend, usually at no or very little cost. I went on a week long school trip to Stratford-on-Avon one year, we stayed in a youth hostel, and did lots of things ............ very cheaply.

We also played a lot of games ............. cricket, tennis etc .......... students against staff. Watching Wimbledon on TV was popular ................... the Biology lab having the only TV in the school, and that not until late in the 50s!


No real work could be done because there might be less than 10 students out of 28 or 30 in attendance.



It was quite an eye-opener for me when I started teaching in Cheshire, where they did not have Wakes week ................. and I had to teach right through to the end of the summer term :-)

Somewhere on my computer I have a photo, probably about the same era, of a group of men sitting on a fence ouside the ladies' changing rooms that has a sign saying for ladies only. I also have a photo of my parents in one-piece suits, hers pale blue with a dark midriff and his dark blue with a pale midriff, not that it is a colour photo, but we were told the colours. Would have been taken in the late 20s or early 30s I imagine.

Hi Berona and Huia




Huia .....................



love your avatar!!!


they were being very risque showing off their bloomers :-)

I might put some of the old paddling and swimwear photos on FB sometime, but I should go for a walk now while it is not raining.

With all this talk of paddling I had to change my avatar to show my grandmother and friend paddling about 100 years ago.

It took me ages to read to-day's posts. What a lot of chatterboxes you are!

When I was at school, we had morning assembly on 24th May when a local politician would visit and tell us what a wonderful British Empire we belonged to - then he would declare that we could go home. Empire Day was never a public holiday other than for the schools like that. My first passport, issued in 1953 has on the front of it "An Australian Citizen by Birth and a British Subject". My later passport, issued in 1990 just says "Australian Passport". Nobody these days seems to know what Empire Day means.It is not mentioned anywhere.

The only 'wakes' we ever knew of (other than the wake created by boats) were those held by Irish people, but the word has been used in recent times by some people when they refer to the gathering for refreshments, etc. after a funeral. I've noticed that using that word is becoming more and more common in the last decade or so.

Another thing I'm reminded of from your comments here, is the earlier times when we had the post-war influx of immigrants. At the time, for summer casual wear, the local men wore shorts and sandals (just before thongs/flip-flops were invented) but we could always 'pick the poms by the fact that they wore ankle socks with sandals'.

Love the avatar Sylvia :-D :-D