In this Issue

Books and comics

Schooldays

Hills

Sandra Dee

Paper boys

Holidays

Dennis Wheatley

THE WAY WE WERE - A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME

I find myself thinking more and more about the 1950s and my idyllic childhood in the small village of Brockworth, in the county of Gloucestershire. I was born 1946, so I'm a genuine "baby-boomer", a result of the euphoria that suffused England at the end of the war. I want to share these memories with you because I honestly believe that people, in particular the children, were much happier then, and nothing anyone can say or do can convince me otherwise. Some of you have sent in your own memories of those terrific times, and I'll make it clear when it's someone else's memory rather than my own. But there is no organisation to this page - I'll publish it as I remember things, so don't expect to see this page regularly. Having said that, I will publish even if there's only one line - there are, after all, many thousands of images to accompany this page, as you'll see from the column on the left! So, let's have your memories - good or bad - and it doesn't have to be the 1950s and 1960s. I've chosen that era because it's when I was a boy. People older than me will have memories too, stretching back further, but they may be darker memories than mine, encompassing the war years, for example.  Those memories are still welcome - I'd like to build a picture of what life was like in the United Kingdom - and anywhere in the world, for that matter, during the last century. I'm going to kick off with my own recollections of the 1950s and 1960s, interspersed with contributions from a couple of friends I've made in the course of writing Gateway. Just e-mail your memories to me at

"I remember being sent home from school one day with a migraine. Home was a double bus ride, one to the city, then one to my village. In the city there was a newsagent, and in the window I saw a magazine with Sandra Dee on the cover. I had to have it, even though it meant spending my bus money, and you weren't allowed to use your bus pass during the day, only to and from school at start and finish times. I bought the magazine and sat on the bus with it concealed in my rucksack. When the conductor asked for my fare I told him I'd been sent home, showed him my bus pass and said I didn't have any money. He let me off, and I spent many happy hours with my magazine and Sandra Dee, forgetting all about the migraine, of course! That would have been in 1961 or thereabouts." Paul ~ UK

"Saturday was comics day. I graduated from ordinary paper-boy to "marker-up" when the boy who normally did it was late three days in a row. It meant getting up even earlier, but also more money, and you got to rifle through all the new comics and mags that came in. At the time, traditional jazz was the biggest thing in pop music, and I used to read them through to see if there was anything about Mr Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band! I also read the story strips, of course. The artwork was first class, and there were dozens of different titles, Mandy, Judy, Bunty, Tammy, all sorts, all with fantastic stories.

Of course, in those days radio was the big thing. There was no popular music on the radio, except for two weeks of the year when they used to broadcast from the Earls Court Radio Show, people like Pete Murray and David Jacobs. I remember listening to Housewives' Choice, Two-Way Family Favourites and Children's Favourites, but my favourite was Saturday Skiffle Club with Brian Matthew. Other regular favourites on the radio were The Goon Show, The Navy Lark, Hancock's Half Hour, Take it From Here, Life with the Lyons, Educating Archie, Jimmy Clitheroe, Down Your Way, Have A Go and Workers' Playtime. My Dad used to get me to listen to the Proms on the Third Programme, which I loved. The first LP we bought was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on Woolworth's own record label, Embassy. I remember one day we heard a jazz tune by Acker Bilk and I was sent out to get it but couldn't find it in the shop – I ended up getting Petite Fleur by Chris Barber's band instead – on the Pye Jazz label. I think it might have had Whistling Rufus on the "B" side. Great stuff." Paul ~ UK

I was a 1944 kid and loved the Silent Three.........my older sister got School Friend for a while and I used to hang out for 'paper' day when it was delivered on a Monday afternoon by the postman. I got the Dandy for a while, then moved to the Eagle and Lion., and my sister got Girl and School Friend - wow - I never thought I'd be able to remember those and they came off the top of my head! I can remember getting out of school at 4pm and racing home to wait for the postman who arrived generally around 4.30 as our street in Leeds was last on his run - great excitement! Dan Dare, Eagle (and the Treens) and the Dandy comics.......how I remember them..........we came to Australia in 1952 and I had two Lions Annuals when we got out here plus a couple of copies of The Boys' Own. Oh how sad to not have them any more - of course, after 53 years they were eaten out by white ants and cockroaches in our shipping trunks years ago, but I still miss them! I remember one time when we came to Australia, when the basic wage was Three pounds ten shillings, my mother gave me a shilling to buy a Donald Duck comic, brand new, from the newsagent Anyway that shilling must have been worth a heap in 1952, but the cover of the comic excited me because it was Donald and Old Unca Scrooge off to find Inca Treasure ... kept that comic for several years before I wore it out reading it over and over again. I used to chuckle at the jokes first up and then started laughing because I knew what was coming up on the next page. Garth ~ Australia

Morenext month! Send in your reminiscences, go on, make someone smile with your memories of those long-gone days!