Billy Cans

[jukel123 7,957]

17 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

When I was barely into my teens I used to walk four miles to Newcastle and spend the day rummaging in the Army & Navy stores; piles of old civil defence uniforms on the floor, Red guardsmen tunics hanging on racks, but what I liked was the American gear, I managed to buy a USAF A1 leather flight jacket and a CHiPS leather motorcycle jacket. Very expensive items now. Ex Korean and Vietnamese war kit, old 38 pattern British kit. It was like Aladins Cave to me !

Cheers.

 Me too, there were a few shops in Manchester. I amassed a collection of bayonets, knives, water carriers, army belts with slots for bullets and my prized possession an Amercian brown leather flight jacket. I lent it to a mate and he lent it somebody else and I never got it back. The Exchange and Mart was good for ex military stuff.

[chartpolski 23,279]

I could probably start an Army & Navy store in the man cave !

Cheers.

[jukel123 7,957]

10 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

I could probably start an Army & Navy store in the man cave !

Cheers.

You need to get a billy can to complete the collection

[WILF 46,681]

1 hour ago, jukel123 said:

I love listening to accents. The only ones I'm not partial to are the Belfast accent. They always seen to be SHOUTING some fundamentalist religious crap and the Birmingham accent, it seems so slow and slightly re...tarde...ed. lol

People think there's only one Scottish accent. In fact there's dozens. The same is true of Ireland.

 

[tatsblisters 9,519]

Got an old bread bin in the outside bunker that I got out of the father in-laws shed after he passed away that he stored bits and bobs in though at some time he had sprayed it with green metallic paint. Can't believe how much they are fetching for an old enamelled bread bin. Lol 

[chartpolski 23,279]

19 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

You need to get a billy can to complete the collection

I am going to add a couple of hurricane lamps.

Cheers.

[tatsblisters 9,519]

39 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

 Me too, there were a few shops in Manchester. I amassed a collection of bayonets, knives, water carriers, army belts with slots for bullets and my prized possession an Amercian brown leather flight jacket. I lent it to a mate and he lent it somebody else and I never got it back. The Exchange and Mart was good for ex military stuff.

Remember us going in as 12 year olds and buying bone handled bowie type knives and the shop assistant not batting an eyelid also buying the old gas mask bags to carry purse nets in also remember some new rubber type lace up boots with a yellow wool type lining and we all got a pair eventually but they weren't long before they split and started letting water in the hammer we gave them knocking about down the shitbeds and woods. 

[TOMO 26,067]

43 minutes ago, WILF said:

 

Remember watching them all them years ago..very funny...love how he got Paisley and Adams to a tee

[DIDO.1 22,637]

9 hours ago, jukel123 said:

In Cumbria it's not 'snap' it's 'bait'.

"Have you got your bait marra?" Means...Have you got your sandwiches mate?

Is bait not more Northumberland dialect?

[THE STIFFMEISTER 15,744]

10 hours ago, jukel123 said:

In Cumbria it's not 'snap' it's 'bait'.

"Have you got your bait marra?" Means...Have you got your sandwiches mate?

Ti which the reply would be … 

“get back up wigton road you flat roofed inbred mutant “ 

[Leo Sayer 2,397]

10 hours ago, tatsblisters said:

Remember us going in as 12 year olds and buying bone handled bowie type knives and the shop assistant not batting an eyelid also buying the old gas mask bags to carry purse nets in also remember some new rubber type lace up boots with a yellow wool type lining and we all got a pair eventually but they weren't long before they split and started letting water in the hammer we gave them knocking about down the shitbeds and woods. 

I remember buying a pair of German army para boots used ones , in the old army and navy shops on Tibb street in town. They was like black rigger boots. First night out lamping up the dales on the steep fells wearing them. We had about 36 rabbits and the fog rolled inn. We was poaching and got lost . Those fookin boots was like razor blades cutting me feet and bleeding. Awful bloody things, no wonder Gerry lost wearing those god awful things lol

Edited September 15 by Leo Sayer

[THE STIFFMEISTER 15,744]

6 hours ago, Leo Sayer said:

I remember buying a pair of German army para boots used ones , in the old army and navy shops on Tibb street in town. They was like black rigger boots. First night out lamping up the dales on the steep fells wearing them. We had about 36 rabbits and the fog rolled inn. We was poaching and got lost . Those fookin boots was like razor blades cutting me feet and bleeding. Awful bloody things, no wonder Gerry lost wearing those god awful things lol

Sorbathanes mate 

they are useless off concrete mate 

[mC HULL 12,286]

i’m waiting for wilf with a picture of all his stuff 

[Leo Sayer 2,397]

14 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Sorbathanes mate 

they are useless off concrete mate 

Don't I know it lol , i was about 21 and daft as a brush back then 

[jukel123 7,957]

On 15/09/2024 at 04:31, Leo Sayer said:

I remember buying a pair of German army para boots used ones , in the old army and navy shops on Tibb street in town. They was like black rigger boots. First night out lamping up the dales on the steep fells wearing them. We had about 36 rabbits and the fog rolled inn. We was poaching and got lost . Those fookin boots was like razor blades cutting me feet and bleeding. Awful bloody things, no wonder Gerry lost wearing those god awful things lol

Were the pet shops still there on Tibb Street in your time? 

In the fifties a big treat for our gang on a Saturday morning was to walk from Salford into Manchester City centre. First we would pay a visit to the abbatoir and watch the killers at work. The workers would try and freak us out and frighten us with body parts. I used to always beg horns from sheep or cattle. One day a fella said  to me" hold on son, I'll get you one," stunned a cow snapped a  bloody horn off and said " there you go lad".

Very impressive.lol

Next stop was Shrewdhill market. All sorts of traders there. A scene straight from Dickens. Comics, books, pet mice, pigeons and a variety of nut jobs preaching religion or some 'ism" or other. There was a mouse seller who put live mice in his mouth just leaving the tail flipping. Pigeon sellers would always display the wing feathers and say " look at that lads, a perfect wing and no canker in my birds."

Onto the food market. There was always fruit which had slightly 'gone off" discarded on the concrete. We weren't above biting off the rotten bit and eating the rest.  We thought it par for the course to nick an apple or an orange too.

The highlight were the pet shops in Tibb Street. Mongrel pups,kittens, tortoises piled high for six pence each, budgies, rabbits, rats, canaries and once some ferrets. The air inside the shops made your eyes water. It was overpowering : shit and ammonia. There was a tiny squint eyed owner who seemed oblivious to the smell.

Then on to army and navy shops. Lots of Manchester and Salford still  carried the evidence of the war. So browsing through all the British and German gear had a kind of spooky reality to it. The bayonets used to fascinate me. I always used to wonder if they had ever been used in action.  

Brilliant days. Funnily enough I read just last week that the river Tibb runs under the street, hence the street's name.

PS I swear by Sorbothane insoles. I knackered my feet running decades ago. Sorbothane takes all the strain.