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When I Were a Lad by Andrew Davies (2009) Paperback
Looks at the glorious - yet - risky childhoods of yesteryear before the Health and Safety officers told us we couldn't do everything because it was too dangerous. The authors have trawled through the major historic archives to find some photo opportunities where the safety angle of the participants was the last thing anyone thought of.
- GenresHistoryPhotography
Unknown Binding
First published November 1, 2009
11 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Davies
160 books28 followersAndrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 1, 2016
I imagine that we all have stories of 'When I was a Lad/Lass' and this book will undoubtedly bring happy memories to many readers with the nostalgic, and oft-remembered games and the like featured in the sepia photographs. Having said that, while some of them may well be very familiar, others are less likely to have been experienced and the activities pictured may well not have been indulged in.
One of the chapters is 'We Had It Rough' where one of the photographs depicts a line of children looking closely at the apples that they were eating. Part of the caption reads '...If someone gave you an apple you had to work out where [the] maggot hole was'; my main recollection of such a situation was another youngster, or even myself without an apple, asking someone with an apple, 'Will you stump me?' That meant please could I have the core and what little apple was left around it - the stump that is! Austerity or what?
In the chapter 'Footer were tough' there are some intriguing images such as the old-fashioned, soberly dressed lady teacher apparently demonstrating to the attentive boys how to take a long throw-in - bizarre! The chapter also shows a photograph of youngsters in a team line-up in the days when 'footer boots were made for clogging not dribbling', with part of the caption reading, 'And the shortest lad had to be goalkeeper'. I am now only five feet eight inches tall but as a young schoolboy I was a goalkeeper so I imagine that this part of the caption was true as far as our team was concerned; I should say that I became a (dynamic!!) midfield player in my later years, putting goalkeeping well and truly behind me.
There is also a photograph of a boy being passed down a crowded Spion Kop (steep terracing for standing on) over the heads of the spectators so that he could get a decent view at the front. This was certainly true for me in a Blackpool game against Manchester City in 1958 when I was late arriving and spectators manhandled me down our own Spion Kop over their heads of others so that I could sit on the running track around the pitch - the Blackpool goalkeeper of the day (George Farm) had to say, when occasion demanded, 'Come on lads, give me room to take the goalkick' and we had to part, rather like the Red Sea to allow him to do so. As the sub-title of the book states 'Health and Safety ... forget it!
A panda taking a photograph, another panda standing in a small size goal net as though he was a goalkeeper are most amusing and as Andrew Davies states, 'y'didn't have to call the World Wild Life Fund to see if it was okay'!
A schoolyard photograph shows all the children wearing hats, looking rather like 'a coal scuttle' and Davies points out, 'None of yer Nike, Reebok, Adidas rubbish - or hoodies' and a great photograph shows a young lad dressed as a policeman with the caption, 'Some kids loved dressing up as a policeman. Nobody'd play with them , so they had to use stuffed pets.' And to prove his point there is a stuffed Highland Terrier sat at the wheel of one of those metal children-sized toy pedal cars!
A young boy fishing in a canal with primitive fishing equipment draws the caption, 'We didn't need Sky Plus when we had the joy of a canal' and a father playing with his children on a strange contraption that looked like a bicycle but was made of a sewing machine table between two bike wheels with a platform on top, linked with suitable chain to the main pedalling system. The adult sat precariously on a seat attached to the sewing machine table to assist the boy and girl down below in the movement of the machine and the amusing caption is, 'If you were an adult back then, you could get away with acting like a complete barmpot [a lovely, descriptive word that seems to have gone out of common usage] without involving social services'!
And there are plenty more crazy situations with suitable captions to match.
Andrew Davies has delved into the archives to produce a most amusing book that will undoubtedly bring back many happy, and perhaps sometimes painful, memories for readers of a certain age - that definitely includes myself!
One of the chapters is 'We Had It Rough' where one of the photographs depicts a line of children looking closely at the apples that they were eating. Part of the caption reads '...If someone gave you an apple you had to work out where [the] maggot hole was'; my main recollection of such a situation was another youngster, or even myself without an apple, asking someone with an apple, 'Will you stump me?' That meant please could I have the core and what little apple was left around it - the stump that is! Austerity or what?
In the chapter 'Footer were tough' there are some intriguing images such as the old-fashioned, soberly dressed lady teacher apparently demonstrating to the attentive boys how to take a long throw-in - bizarre! The chapter also shows a photograph of youngsters in a team line-up in the days when 'footer boots were made for clogging not dribbling', with part of the caption reading, 'And the shortest lad had to be goalkeeper'. I am now only five feet eight inches tall but as a young schoolboy I was a goalkeeper so I imagine that this part of the caption was true as far as our team was concerned; I should say that I became a (dynamic!!) midfield player in my later years, putting goalkeeping well and truly behind me.
There is also a photograph of a boy being passed down a crowded Spion Kop (steep terracing for standing on) over the heads of the spectators so that he could get a decent view at the front. This was certainly true for me in a Blackpool game against Manchester City in 1958 when I was late arriving and spectators manhandled me down our own Spion Kop over their heads of others so that I could sit on the running track around the pitch - the Blackpool goalkeeper of the day (George Farm) had to say, when occasion demanded, 'Come on lads, give me room to take the goalkick' and we had to part, rather like the Red Sea to allow him to do so. As the sub-title of the book states 'Health and Safety ... forget it!
A panda taking a photograph, another panda standing in a small size goal net as though he was a goalkeeper are most amusing and as Andrew Davies states, 'y'didn't have to call the World Wild Life Fund to see if it was okay'!
A schoolyard photograph shows all the children wearing hats, looking rather like 'a coal scuttle' and Davies points out, 'None of yer Nike, Reebok, Adidas rubbish - or hoodies' and a great photograph shows a young lad dressed as a policeman with the caption, 'Some kids loved dressing up as a policeman. Nobody'd play with them , so they had to use stuffed pets.' And to prove his point there is a stuffed Highland Terrier sat at the wheel of one of those metal children-sized toy pedal cars!
A young boy fishing in a canal with primitive fishing equipment draws the caption, 'We didn't need Sky Plus when we had the joy of a canal' and a father playing with his children on a strange contraption that looked like a bicycle but was made of a sewing machine table between two bike wheels with a platform on top, linked with suitable chain to the main pedalling system. The adult sat precariously on a seat attached to the sewing machine table to assist the boy and girl down below in the movement of the machine and the amusing caption is, 'If you were an adult back then, you could get away with acting like a complete barmpot [a lovely, descriptive word that seems to have gone out of common usage] without involving social services'!
And there are plenty more crazy situations with suitable captions to match.
Andrew Davies has delved into the archives to produce a most amusing book that will undoubtedly bring back many happy, and perhaps sometimes painful, memories for readers of a certain age - that definitely includes myself!
December 22, 2015
A good laugh. Loved the pictures, and my oh my how things have changed now!
February 9, 2023
A fun little ride through historical photography of children playing and just living life.
November 6, 2024
Wonderful photographs and cheeky, fun comments of the way we were - great stuff! Nothing was out of bounds, the world was our playground, we learnt from experience and survived - today's generation are missing such a lot. Hopefully a glimpse at books such as this will help them to appreciate life outside of the Facebook and Twitter worlds! There is a second volume which shows a photograph of the Queen as a child being help on the top rail of the famous balcony by Queen Mary - no harness, no safety net! Think of the outcry if she did that to Prince George! Great book, recommended.
December 15, 2017
Even though I'm not a British...I enjoyed this book, I'm fascinated with old photographs.
June 8, 2021
Hilarious comparison of the good old life and modern living. I love the photographs, I’d be fascinated to know the real story behind all of these photos too.
November 14, 2021
Fun little book. Great photos
November 8, 2010
LOVED all of the old pictures. So fascinating to see how things have changed over the years!
May 5, 2016
This book book is only a 5 minute read but it's hilarious!
February 6, 2017
"You didn't have to worry about animal civil rights. If you wanted to have a panda take your picture, then it were fine."
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews