How Did You Pass the Time When There Was No TV?

How Did You Pass the Time When There Was No TV?

During the 30's we spent very little on commercial entertainment. Family  members used to visit each other quite frequently, using bus or tram. We moved from Peckham to New Cross before I was old enough to go to school. When we lived in Shardeloes Road, New Cross my mother took me on the tram [1.7 ml according to Google Earth] to see her parents in Peckham almost every week. There was a strong tradition of the family coming together for tea on Sunday. We had a piano in the house, and on Sunday evening several people would play.

We also had a wind up gramophone [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:78tours.ogv] so we could listen to music. The standard record was 10 inches in diameter and each side played for 3 minutes. There were 12 inches ones mainly used for long orchestral works. The  case of the gramophone was about 18" x 18" and about 9 inches deep. You lifted up the lid in order to put a record on the turntable and then very gently lowered the needle on to the record. Mounted above the needle was a small sound box. Our gramophone stood on top of a cabinet which was about 3 feet high. It had a cupboard with vertical partitions in which were stored about 20 records. The records had to be stored carefully because they were made of brittle shellac.

Until I was old enough to do jobs to help my parents I had a lot of spare time. My primary school was Mantle Rd Junior Mixed. It had no grassy sports field, but after school we would play on the asphalt playground kicking a tennis ball around. At home we had a slate bed billiards table and a dart board. I learnt to play on them when I was about eight. There were no electrical toys, but I had a clockwork train set. There were lots of board games such as Ludo, where you rolled  the dice and moved your counter on the board. On Friday my father would buy me a lead soldier or a farm animal. I played with my military band and my farm. I sometimes went to a rather dull youth club attached to the local church.

Public Libraries

I spent a lot of my time reading and was lucky that there was a public library a short distance away. During the school holidays I would have all day long to read. Sometimes I would read a book in a day and go to the library next day to get another. In 1938 we had the Munich crisis and the news was very worrying. Sometimes I would deliberately read in the library so that I did not get home until the Six o'clock News had finished.