Who needs brick dust? ………………

 This will be the last foray into those pennies, half pennies, farthings and shillings which were part of my growing up.*

Half Penny, 1951

And if you were born before 1971 they will have been part of how you paid for things, what you got as pocket money and more recently kept as mementos of your youth.

Most of the ones in my collection came from our Stella and last week I brought them out for a bit of fresh air prompting a series of stories about them, ranging from what a history lesson they offer up to that childhood practice of cleaning them with brick dust and a hankie.

And it was that last story of brick dust, and a hankie which prompted David O’Reilly to comment “Re your brick dust penny blog. Alternatively, you could leave a coin in vinegar over night? Or use a cloth to rub the coin with a mixture of HP sauce and salt !

Queen Victoria, 1865

Miss Rox, my pretty Primary school teacher in 1958 would give you a ‘good’ penny for any ‘bun’ penny you found. (Early Victoria reign impression with her hair tied behind in a bun).

As for childhood games and rhymes……. don’t get me started!

I have the Iona and Peter Opie books and made a lifetime study of it whenever I was on ‘yard duty’."

Now vinegar, HP sauce, and salt were all new to me, and on reflection I wish I had come across them back in 1959 which would have saved my fingers and mum’s handkerchief from the damaging effect of brick dust, not to mention the holes in the walls of Edmund Waller School.

The alternatives remind me also of the questionable practices engaged in to harden conkers before the all-important contests in the playground and in the street from September onto November.

That aside David also reminded me of the work of  Iona and Peter Opie who explored the rhymes and games of children played out in school yards and on the streets.**

Unlike David I never bought into the books although I knew of their work and now, I wish I had.

My own childhood games pretty much centred on playing fag cards which I was never that good at, and the odd game of football and cricket which I was equally lack lustre at, which pretty much left just mooching around.

Edward VII, 1909

The highlight always being wet days when we were kept in and the piles of old comics kept in a cupboard were brought out.

If I am honest I don’t remember many traditional kid’s rhymes which may be because we were from south east London and grew up in the 1950s when those songs and rhymes were on the decline.

The only one that stands out pitched a large number of American television stars  of Westerns into a rhyming story using their names set against a series of adventures.  

It was in its way a kid’s version of of that 1959 song “Delaware” by Irving Gordan and made popular by Perry Commo which referenced 15 US States in the form of puns, "like Della wear, new jersey, Calla 'phone ya, how ar' ya, Missus sip, mini-soda, Ora gone, I'll ask 'er, taxes, Wiscon sin, new brass key, Arkan saw, Tenne see, Flora die and misery".***

I have tried remembering the kid’s version but it has long since been lost from my memory, although if I am honest I was rubbish remembering all the connections back then.

The best I can offer are a selection of children's songs sung by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, along with some more about Charlie Chaplin by the Oldham Tinkers.

Kids playing on the streets, Hulme, Moss Side circa 1970s

It would have been just three years after the Clancy's and Tommy Makem recorded their melody at Carnegie Hall that I first heard those children's songs and a little later the Oldham Tinkers with a collection of songs about Charlie Chaplin.

And both have stayed with me

And that is about it.  I await the memories of others.

Location; the 1950s

Pictures; coins from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1865-1951 and Kids playing on the streets, Hulme, Moss Side circa 1970s, courtesy of Roger Shelley

*Coins, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Coins

** The Iona and Peter Opie Archive, https://www.opiearchive.org/

***Delaware, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_(song)

****Children's Medody Live at Carnegie at Nall, November 1963, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5R03zuaRy4

*****Charlie Chaplin, The Oldham Tinkers, Oldham's Burning Sands, 1974, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHm-b99-ER4

Don’t try this one at home ……………

 This is one of those warnings which extends beyond the home to everywhere and involves an old coin, some brick dust and a hankey.

The penny that escaped the playground, 2023

With the passage of the years, I can’t remember when we used brick dust and a handkerchief to breath life into an old penny.

But it will be around 1959 or 1960 and I would be nine rising ten, and for a while it was all the rage in the playground of Edmund Waller School in New Cross.

At the time it seemed almost like magic.  You rubbed the clothe against the brickwork and then transferred the dust onto the coin and rubbed vigorously and after a while the dirt of decades began to vanish, and the penny took on a bright new appearance.

Preferably the penny couldn’t be too old or the detail on the coin would not benefit from the exercise.

Of course, today I am not surprised that the continued application of an abrasive would do the business.

The downside was that the surface of the penny became pitted, and worse still the practice left dents in the brick work which in some places resembled the craters of the moon.

And over sixty years later I wonder what staff and students make of these circular depressions in the bricks, but I suppose weathering will have probably left our handiwork less obvious.

And Edward VII remained safe, 2023

Why we stopped is a mystery.  There may have been a dictate from on high about damaging the walls of the school, or more likely we just got bored with something which didn’t do much for your hands or the penny, and led to difficult conversations with mother about the state of the hankies.

The disappearance of the old pennies followed by their copper  decimal equivalents will have pretty much killed off the practice, and now as we edge ever closer to a coinless existence few ten year olds will ever feel the need to stand in the playground with a handkerchief and some brick dust.

Cleaning your pennies will have faded into the past along with heaps of old playground games, children’s songs.

One of which I remember pitched a large number of American television stars  of Westerns into a rhyming story using their names set against a series of adventures.  It was in its way a kid’s version of of that 1959 song “Delaware” by Irving Gordan and made popular by Perry Commo which referenced 15 US States in the form of puns, "like Della wear, new jersey, Calla 'phone ya, how ar' ya, Missus sip, mini-soda, Ora gone, I'll ask 'er, taxes, Wiscon sin, new brass key, Arkan saw, Tenne see, Flora die and misery".*

I have tried remembering the kids version but it has long since been lost from my memory, although if I am honest I was rubbish remembering all the connections back then.

Great Britain Flag no. 26, 1956, Flags of the World

I guess it might well have started life as a skipping song and just transferred from one playground activity to another.

One of which will have been flicking cards, where you put two picture cards against a wall and flicked other ones  towards the two propped up.  

The winner was the first to knock a card down and the prize were the cards already on the floor.  

Originally it would have been cigarette or fag cards which by the 1950s had become the picture cards from boxes of tea bags.

But the favoured cards because they were so much bigger were those from a series called Flags of the World,

Italy, no. 80, 1956, Flags of the World

They came with a disgusting bit of bubble gum, and carried the flags of nations as they were in the mid 1950s and had useful information on the back including each country's currency, population, capital city and a translation of the word hello.

Often the bubble gum had gone hard and brittle, and the cards for ever afterward smelt of perfumed bubble gum.

Such were the things we did in the playground.

Location; in a playground

Picture; 1909 Edward VII penny from the collection of Andrew Simpson and the flag of the Great Britain, no.26 and Italy, no.80, 1956, courtesy of Flags of the World, Dean's Cards,  http://www.deanscards.com/c/716/1956-Topps-Flags-of-the-World

*Delaware, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_(song)

**Flags of the World, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Flags%20of%20the%20World