THE TALE OF A 57 YEAR OLD LAMP! I have happy mems each time i look at that lamp modelled on a ships wheel-mum bought it in 1957 to put on top of the first telly we had that year.More and more people were getting televisions so we had jumped on the bandwagon when dad had saved enough from his wages and part-time fireman job...to be honest,i disliked having that light on the t.v. set because for some reason it caused distraction for me though it didnt seem to bother the other members of the family-i said once- they dont have a light on in the cinema to which dad replied well this isnt the cinema,son!-leave it on! so that was it.Well one day not long ago i saw a television programme and one of those lamps featured in someones house!I paused the film to take a good look,it was almost identical!Did you or anyone you know have one of these unusual lamps? So,i knew the lamp was here in the house somewhere unused for many years so i rooted it out,gave it a good polish to the brass bits and saw to a loose bit of the woodwork,replaced the old flex on it,put in a bulb,pressed a switch to see if it would work-and hey-presto!...there you are.Its only been put on that telly of mine in the photo to demonstrate how we used to have it all those years ago! Looks nice,doesnt it? I wont leave it there,though-it will go back on the sideboard(its still distracting for t.v. viewing!) and besides its just balancing there as these modern flat screen sets are too narrow for ornaments. So what else did we have as ornaments in the 1950ies?Well one thing i remember though i cant find it now,was a glass dome on a pedestal-it had a wintry scene,like trees and houses,when you shook it the liquid inside produced an imitation snow-storm!...fantastic!There was also a savings box or tin in the form of a Royal Mail round letterbox-wonder if theres any still around? Another popular adornment was the horse-brass-cast or pressed brass horseshoes with a horses head and set in straps of leather-also brass ashtrays,mum set up the brasses along the mantelpiece top,or hung them alongside on the wall-i dont polish them regularly myself but every Tuesday regular as clockwork mum set an old newspaper on the kitchen table then off came all the brass-work,out came theBrasso or Dura-glit...the latter had polish laden bits of cotton wool in a round tin.Then the front door brass letterbox and house number got a polish!Another day she would get out the Ronuk or a similar name polish to do the sticks-(furniture) and Monday night was her ironing night,and the cosy scent of warm clothing (i cant iron!)....she had a day for everything-Friday was baking day,Monday morning was wash day. The hallway in our old house up Uwchydre here had a very large hallway,there was even an armchair in there and it was often my retreat for peace and quiet now and then.The floor was red quarry tiles,with a rug for the armchair-she would polish the tiles withRonuk or Mansion Polish-she also used something on the old cast iron range in the kitchen,was it Red Lead? ithink there was a black-lead too,and some red stuff was put on the front doorstep too,as well as the outside concrete drain surrounds. I have an elderly close neighbour who still gives the front doorstep this treatment!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 17:29:38 +0000
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