Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases

A quick check in our bathroom cabinet reveals thirteen cold & flu remedies, five different types of sticking plasters and numerous other pills and potions. When did it become necessary to have so many? When I was growing up just three things resided in the family medicine cabinet. The first was a large jar of Vicks VapoRub, the second a packet of Veganin tablets and the third a bright orange tin containing Elastoplast.

Source

Pinterest 

Most minor ailments were taken care of with these three simple remedies. A Veganin and a bedtime story were guaranteed to cure a toothache, Vicks VopoRub applied to the chest cleared the nose and ensured a restful sleep, and a plaster applied with a 'kiss to make it better’ was all it took to sort out bumps and bruises.

Etsy.com

I only recall one occasion when something more than a plaster was needed to sort my bumps and bruises.  I was reminded of it recently when my little granddaughter Lilly had an accident. Lilly fell onto a slate floor and ended up having a two-hour operation to repair a really nasty gash to her forehead.  I was luckier in that the gash to my forehead required just a few stitches and a very large bandage.

Something like sixty years separates these two photographs.  

The photograph on the left is of me (with bandage) my brother Tony, my sister Sue and my mum.  I don’t recall the name of the lady I'm sitting with and can only assume she was a family friend.  The other photograph is of Lilly with her 'bandaged bear' – if you look closely you will notice the bear is wearing a bandage around his head and another around his arm. 

Elka Little Bear with Bandages

I didn't experience many ailments as a child, but I did suffer from motion sickness (strangely enough it has returned with a vengeance as I've grown older). I've tried all kinds of remedies from pills to patches to wrist bands, none of which really help. Maybe I should go back to my dads tried and tested remedy.  Imagine this conversation on one of our frequent trips to Cornwall or on the way to Buckinghamshire to visit relatives.   "Dad I feel sick".  “Hold on, we are almost at the shop”.  "There you go that will sort you out”.  It took years for me to realise a bar of chocolate would do one of two things; it would take my mind of the motion sickness, or it would make me sick but either way I would feel better. Simple!  How did my dad get to be so wise?

This next image found in The Windsor Magazine has nothing whatsoever to do with my childhood, although my nose might have benefited from a little reshaping. 

So Easy to Shape Your Nose - corrects all ill-shaped noses quickly, painlessly and permanently. Over 100,000 satisfied users.  Trados Model No. 25 (British Patent).

As the season of colds and flu is fast approaching I feel duty-bound to share this public information film with you. Enjoy! 

Now it's time to call in at Sepia Saturday to see what ails my fellow Sepians. Don't forget to take your handkerchief....

Farming at Ibstone, Buckinghamshire and Thame, Oxfordshire in the 1940s and 50s

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt sent me rushing for the family albums. My dad and brother were both farm workers, and much of my childhood was spent riding around on tractors. I don’t claim to know anything about these machines because I was only about four when the photographs were taken. My brother Tony is ten years older than me, and I'm guessing he was about fourteen in the first picture.  

My brother hard at work on a Fordson Major tractor.

Me Barbara Fisher (nee Flitney) when we lived in Ibstone.

My dad is driving this odd-looking caterpillar/tractor type thing. I'm not sure who is on the Combine Harvester. It might be dad’s brother Owen (Flitney) or a German Prisoner of war.  My brother and sister both remember the POWs, who worked on the farm. I have only vague recollections of the stories my parents used to tell. I know they became particularly close to one of the prisoners and talked about him all the time, but sadly I can’t remember his name.

Even before the German surrender some of the POWs were put to work as agricultural labourers. After VE-Day, all prisoners were required to work. Most POWs were employed on farms, as Britain urgently needed a high level of food production, and there was a shortage of agricultural workers.

At first, it was usual for groups of about thirty men to be escorted by armed guards to the fields where they were to work. They were kept under close supervision at all times. However, following the German surrender, the British government allowed some prisoners to be billeted on the farms where they were employed under minimal supervision. Typically, one to four POWs would live at each farm, often taking their meals with the farmer and his family. In this way, close bonds were forged between the farmers and the German prisoners. Source Wikipedia 

Update December 2017 – the caterpillar is a Fowler FD3, and the harvester is a Grain Marshall 568 Combined Harvester. With thanks to my brother Tony Flitney. 

We were living on a farm at Ibstone in Buckinghamshire when the photographs were taken. My sister and I have vivid memories of trees being cut down in the woods around us.  The noise of tractors and heavy chains is something you don’t forget.  I looked online to see if I could find out what this machine is called and stumbled across several pictures of antique logging tractors that look very similar so maybe this is the one used for the logging. [Update December 2017 – my brother confirms this was the caterpillar used for logging and the trees being felled were large beech trees, which were taken to High Wycombe for use in the furniture trade. There is an interesting article about furniture making in Wycombe here]

The photographs of the Claas Combined Harvester that follow were taken on a farm near Thame in Oxfordshire, my dad is driving the tractor, and my brother Tony is up top. 

Fast forward thirty plus years and my brother is still hard at work.

In the first of these two photographs, he’s showing Sarah, Duchess of York the controls. The second picture shows Prince Andrew and Sarah standing with the digger.  These were taken during the very early stages of the building of Sunninghill Park in Berkshire destined to be the new home of the (then) happy couple.  

Fast forward another thirty years, my brother is retired. Andrew and Sarah are divorced, and I'm sharing photographs with friends from around the world, how times have changed. Now it’s time for you to plough a straight furrow over to Sepia Saturday to see what my fellow Sepians are reminiscing about.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday 272 : Tractors / Agriculture / Wheels

 Sepia Saturday

Guest Post; My Sister Remembers - Part Four

Memories of Susan Poulter nee Flitney; Sue is my older sister (although she looks younger!)

Previous instalments here, here and here 

Great excitement came to the village of Ibstone in 1953. It was the year of the Coronation of Elizabeth II which in Ibstone meant a sports day, decorated cycle competition and many other events. Tony and I entered the best decorated cycle competition and spent hours putting red, white and blue crepe paper around the spokes in the wheels and everywhere else we could add a bow or flag we did – but we did not win a prize. Most of the village turned up to watch the ceremony on our TV, and I remember mum was in her element making tea, handing round cakes etc.,

In the summer life would be really good (as long as mum and dad were talking), dad would take us all to Shiplake where we would paddle in the river and have picnics. Summer in my memory was always hot and sunny, apart from the thunderstorms, which I hated. I spent many hours in the woods making camps with my friends, swinging from ropes on trees and pretending I was in the circus. I always imagined that one day I would move to the other side of the valley, have a big house and horses, shame dreams get shattered!

    Rene Flitney (left) and Denis Flitney (right) in the river with Tony, Sue, Barbara & friends       

It was hard for mum and dad to keep up with all the demands for uniform, items for cooking classes, material for needlework classes, gym kit and so on at High Wycombe school and I would often be the one that didn't have all I needed. This led to other children being really nasty and the fact that my dad had an old car also meant I got a lot of stick. Homework would take me hours as I was so anxious all the time, so it was with some relief that I learnt my dad was looking for a new job and we would be leaving Ibstone. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews had decided to get rid of the Jersey cows, which were my dad’s pride and joy, and replace them with pigs which, although we had some when we lived at Twigside for our own consumption, he didn't like working with.

Mum was really upset as she had friends at Ibstone and a lovely modern detached bungalow but, dad being dad, did his own thing and got a job on a farm near Thame in Oxfordshire and moved us all in to a much older, inner terrace house. This was a real come down for mum who was most unhappy with it.  I was about twelve when we moved, and I think the farm was at Scotsgrove. Excuse me (Barbara) butting in here, I just want to confirm the farm is at Scotsgrove. Terry and I visited in July 2014.

The house at Scotsgrove in the 50s - could that be mum in the doorway?

The same house in 2014, the only noticeable difference is the size of the hedge!

There was a large carthorse called Captain  who I was allowed to ride and as horses were my great love I started to relax. I took myself off on long rides at the weekend with no tack other than a rope halter. There were lovely bridle ways around Thame so summer was a joy; I used to ride down a track which ran outside the grounds owned by Sir Lawrence Olivier (the English actor) and his beautiful wife Vivian Leigh. I always thought I might see them one day, but no such luck.

In the winter the meadows opposite our house would flood and then freeze so we would all go ice-skating whenever we could. My sister, Barbara, remembers going out in the meadow before the water froze, with a little boat belong to my brother Tony.

I do remember it Sue. I don’t know how old I was, but I hadn’t started school – so not very old. Tony had a sailing yacht, and I thought it would be fun to float it on the flood waters. I crossed a road in front of the house and then walked a fair way down a track to the fields. It wasn't long before the water was over the top of my wellies but it didn’t deter me.  I must have been playing in the water for at least a couple of hours when I heard shouting and looking up, saw mum, dad and several other people heading towards me through the floods. It’s probably one of the only times I ever saw dad looking really cross!  By the time they found me, half the people in the village (including the local bobby) were out searching. I remember dad scooping me up onto his shoulders and carrying me back home through the floods – quite an adventure but one I didn't repeat!

By this time, life was a little better for mum as Thame was not far away and there were more shops, and she could get out easily by catching a bus at the stop opposite the house. I went to Aylesbury Grammar School and found it was much nicer going to a mixed school. My dad had been a prefect there in his school days and some of the older teachers remembered him, so I was made to feel very welcome and put into his old “house". Sport became my first love. I was in the school hurdles team and did quite well. I also sang in the school choir and because I was more relaxed, my academic work started to improve.

Thame High Street and Town Hall, 1957

My Auntie Babs and Uncle Fred lived in Aylesbury. They were competition ballroom dancers before retirement and my Auntie was also a pianist. They said I could have dance or piano lessons and I choose the piano. I used to go to them after school one day a week and I think I loved the tea more than the lessons. My aunt always served up small cucumber sandwiches and little home-made cakes on beautiful china and I was very impressed. I had a piano at home (it had been left me by a different aunt when we lived at Ibstone) so I thought it would be lovely to be able to use it properly. Of course, I could not practice as much as I should because living in a terraced house it upset all the neighbours!

Unfortunately my time at Aylesbury School didn't last long as within a year my dad had fallen out with his employer and we were on the move again. I think he had numerous interviews, but the one we children remember best was one for a job on the Isle of Wight. The journey across was awful with a really bad storm; I remember sitting up on the deck where I felt safest and chatting to a farmer who was taking sheep over to the island. When we got there we went in dad's car to what seemed the centre of the island to this most beautiful farm. The farmer and his family seemed very nice and friendly. They had dogs, horses, a tennis court and swimming pool – all the things that were quite impressive to us youngsters. The house that went with the job was a really large very old farmhouse and mum hated it – said that it reminded her of Twigside, and she was not going back to “the dark ages”. We were very disappointed, as I think was dad. On the way back to the ferry we stopped and picked some lovely white flowers – well we had never seen wild garlic before - the car smelt awful for days!!

Sue and Barbara on The Isle of Wight 

To be continued….

Ibstone, Bucks & Well Manor Farm, Hampshire.

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs.

Today’s theme is; Motorbikes, pillions, uniforms, couriers, turbans, tents and towels;

I've had a largely unsuccessful rummage through the family albums in the hunt for uniforms, couriers, turbans, tents and towels.  Motorbikes proved a little easier, so that will be my theme for this my first foray into Sepia Saturday territory.

What can I say about this photograph? Only my dear old dad would pose on a motorbike while wearing a suit, tie and not so flat - flat cap! I hadn't realised how odd the term ‘flat cap’ sounded until I typed it. According to Wikipedia, there are numerous other names for the same type of headwear, names like Paddy cap, longshoreman’s cap, scally cap, Wigens cap, duffer cap, bicycle cap, cheese-cutter and bunnet!  

Regardless of what it’s called dad never left home without one. Interviews, hospital appointments, days out, working on the farm, his cap went with him. His ritual on leaving the house was always the same. He would recite the words “spectacles, t-------- (word removed for the sake of decency), watch and wallet" while patting the appropriate points on his body.  Thinking back it would have made more sense to replace spectacles with cap, but then it wouldn't have rhymed! 

Dad doing his best Norman Wisdom impression, note the cap is firmly in place although this time worn backwards. Dad was a huge fan of Norman Wisdom the "little man" in the ill-fitting suit and cloth cap. He always watched the programmes on TV and knew many of the songs and gags off by heart.

  Mum played the piano a lot when we were kids. This was one of her favourite songs.

Now it’s the turn of my brother Tony to model the bike! I have no idea what was going on with the car. It's on blocks and covered by a tarpaulin (does that count as a tent?) so I presume it was a work in progress. It looks to me as though Tony has something (oil?) on his hands, so perhaps he was helping to do the car up. Tony if you should read this maybe you could let me know what you remember.

Tony looks to be in his early twenties here, so I'm guessing it was taken at the end of the 1950s.  One thing I've noticed while looking through the photos is the number of times my family have their pictures taken while standing in front of windows and/or drainpipes!  

I don’t think mum ever rode pillion, but later she did own and ride a moped.  This bike looks very similar to the one in the first photograph apart from the registration number, but then I know nothing about motorbikes so it’s probably nothing like it at all...

Mum, dad and Peggy a dog of many varieties. 

For more exploits on wheels and other exciting things, please visit Sepia Saturday

Perfectly suited

The very first post on this blog - A wreath of orange blossoms - raised an interesting question. I was asked if the pink and blue two-piece worn by mum (Rene Flitney) was an all over floral pattern, or a blue suit with a pink blouse. I’m not sure I can properly answer that as there are no photographs (as far as I know), but I thought it would be fun to try. 

Mum and dad were married in 1938 when, according to the University of Brighton, the desirable look for women was still slim, but more womanly and sophisticated than in the previous decade. This body shape was created through longer skirts cut on the bias and by an indented waistline and rounded bosom. This increased exposure of the body was due to sportswear’s influence on new styles, including the ‘halter-neck’ credited to the French couturier Madeleine Vionnet, which exposed arms and back.

According to the Victoria and Albert Museum;  Following the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, new, more down-to-earth attitudes forced on the world offered great scope for a new simplicity. In Britain, fashion became more eclectic but also more feminine and graceful and, by 1930, the 'boyish' look had disappeared.  

Typical day wear for women consisted of a two-piece suit with sleek, fitted jacket and matching skirt or dress.  Floral designs dominated, but geometric forms were also much in evidence.

This is the only photograph I have of mum as a young woman. I'm guessing it was taken in 1935, around the time of her eighteenth birthday.

This photo shows a more mature woman and the bashful look of a few years before has gone. I'm guessing it was taken around the time of the wedding in 1938.  

Considering the two photographs above, I think it fair to say a sleek fitted jacket with a matching skirt or dress in a printed fabric would have suited her very well.  

I rather like the dress and matching bolero on the right and according to one fashion critic speaking in May 1938 - boleros are being worn to refurbish or dress up last year’s ensemble. Mum, on the other hand, may well have preferred the smarter option on the left.

While looking around the Internet for inspiration I also came across this image that matches the pink and blue theme perfectly but would mum have worn it?  I'm pretty sure she would have hated the hat and bag, but the dress and jacket are quite pretty.

So what else might have influenced the bride to be in 1938?

Source Family life in Britain 1900-1950. ISBN 0316730343

When King George V died in January 1936, the romance between his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VIII, and the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, whom he had first met in June 1931, was well-known in Royal circles. When he succeeded to the throne, the young and popular King had to choose between his lover and the crown. The major political parties and the Church of England made it clear that marrying a divorcee was out of the question. The cabinet presented the young King with an ultimatum: give up Mrs. Simpson or renounce the crown. He would choose the latter.

For the 36-year-old Duchess of York, it was an earth-shattering event which propelled her from relative obscurity to become Queen Empress, reigning, with her husband, over 600 million subjects. The new King, George VI and his Queen were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937. Wallis and Edward married on the 3rd June 1937. Source BBC News

Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) in 1938                    Wallis and Edward in 1937

Looking at the photographs of Queen Elizabeth and Wallis Simpson, I can’t help but wonder if mum would have chosen something far plainer than the floral affairs so far considered. Would any of these have suited?

Or this?

I don't think any of the above is quite right - but this, on the other hand, is! It’s a pink and blue, slim but womanly two-piece in the longer style, which would have looked good on Queen Elizabeth, Wallis Simpson and Rene Flitney.  Perfect…

If anyone happens to have a photograph of the actual going-away outfit, please share. I would love to compare my idea of the perfect suit to the one chosen by mum.  Comments are always welcome, so go on what do you think?