Back in Birmingham
BACK IN BIRMINGHAM
Many people lived within walking distance of their place of work. Most of those who had to travel further did so on the bus, on bicycles or on motor bikes. The buses were similar to the old London Routemasters, with the driver sitting in a small self-contained compartment and a conductor responsible for collecting fares and keeping order. The most memorable thing about these buses was the open platform at the back. One of the essential skills for a boy or young man (and, sometimes, not so young men) to master was the ability to chase a bus after it had left the stop and to grab hold of the pole at the back and then leap on to the platform. Another, equally essential skill was to drop off the platform while the bus was still travelling without ending up sprawled in the road. This latter manoeuvre could only be achieved if you leaned back out of the platform, let go of the pole and stepped backwards at the correct angle.
Of course, neither jumping on nor jumping off the bus were things which could be mastered by girls. Or was it maybe that girls were too sensible to show off in this manner like boys did?
Although there were far fewer cars than today, the numbers were increasing all the time as more people began to travel to work in their car. These would mostly be people like doctors and other professionals but, as Birmingham was the centre of the motor industry, cars were owned by more working class people than in most other cities. Almost all the cars on the road were British. The main exception from 1953 was the Volkswagen Beetle.
Apart from the VW Beetle, nearly all cars were supplied with a starting handle as water-cooled engines could be difficult to start because self starters were liable to be affected by cold or damp weather. The starting handle was inserted into the crank shaft through a hole at the bottom of the radiator grill and then turned clockwise. Usually it took two or three attempts before the engine would start. The most memorable thing about the starting handle was that, if it kicked back during the cranking process, the person hold the handle could end up with a very sore thumb or even a broken one. Learning how to hold a starting handle properly, with the thumb on the same side of the handle as the fingers, was something you got to know very quickly.
Police telephone boxes which were dotted around main streets in cities and towns were a comom sight. These contained a telephone with a direct link to the local police station had a roof-top blue light which would flash to alert a policeman on the beat to call the station for instructions. The telephones could also be used by members of the public to alert the police about an accident or crime taking place. This was, of course, before mobile phones and at a time when few people had a phone in their house.
If you lived in a city or large town, you could expect to see a police constable patrolling his beat every day and, although he didn’t have today’s rapid response or communications systems to back him up, the very fact that people were aware that a policeman who knew the local area and its inhabitants was patrolling somewhere nearby gave a sense of security and helped to keep crime levels down. That, and the fact that many a boy doing something he shouldn’t be doing got a clip across the ear from a hefty policeman, meant that justice and punishment were swift and not dragged for weeks or months through the courts in the case of some minor offence.
