School’s out for these two!
For a list of all the closed schools in Walsall, check out the list on Walsall Council’s winter website here.
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Try getting a Taxis, no one is working. Yet why do people think that they can call a Taxis when conditions are too bad for themselves to drive? We are getting calls at the rate of 1 every 5minutes!
Hi Bob,
Ooh, it’s snowing ! What a lot of memories of schooldays in pre-war Walsall Wood is contained in this little snippet of news, except that the schools never closed, that is, other than for burst pipies, an event of great rejoicing. This only happened in the Council school in Brownhills Road, who had the new-fangled central heating with coke-fed boilers. The good old Church School in Lichfield Road. semi-derelict now, was still equipped with open fireplaces, freezing at the back of the class, but quite cosy nearer the fire. A snowy winter’s morning was always marked by school milk thawing and warming around the fire, ( a ha’penny for one third of a pint, each complete with a cardboard skimmer, useful for post-milk activities ! No pay, no milk. No free milk in those days.) There would be gloves and other articles of apparel drying out, the melting snow on pupils and clothing sending up a washday steam towards the windows. There would be pupil absences of course, but anyone who made it was greeted as a minor hero and in due course would be added to the steam-makers, as they dried out. Playtime ? snowballing, what else ? or “cutting out” a slide in a likely place. This was man’s work, and there would be quite a queue for this, the more the merrier as frequent usage made the slide slippier and longer.
And so much to do after school ended! More slides to cut out, toboggan’s to be made and if you were lucky enough to have a decent snowdrift in your garden, a snowhouse to be built, but
first would come the the old winter food standby – stew !! Some like stew, but it comes well behind fish and chips, sausage and mash, pork chops, in my reckoning. We kids were faddy feeders at our hose and the cry ” Don’t put me no onion” or “I hate parsnips” would echo around the table, with Mom vainly inspecting plates to offer the least offence to the discriminating young diners. Dinner
over, it was back to the winter outdoor pursuits. Darkness didn’t stop youthful activity, wherever there was a street lamp, under its limited patch of light could be seen figures cutting out slides, snowballing, etc. One of the best sledge runs in the Wood was the slope that runs from the railway bridge in Brookland Road into Beechtree Road, just a wild patch of ground, then. A good run carry you well into Beechtree Road, often crossing the road into the back way behind the High Street shops
Winter was also “porridge ” time for winter mornings. Quick, simple ?? Not a bid of it !
Porridge was made by soaking the oats overnight and cooking for about 15 minutes next morning.
Boiling was critical but as oats had the tendency to stick to the saucepan and burn also to go lumpy, mom had to be a fair old cook, to get it right. Hat’s off so all the moms of that generation !
Ooh, it’s snowing ! I look out of my window, here in North Yorkshire. Don’t get out much, now,
but somehow, that old excitement of nearly eighty years ago rises within me at the sight of snow,and I am transported back to those wondrous days of my youth and the great memories associated with it as a child in Walsall Wood.
School closures: never used to happen back in the day.
I can remember sitting in Ogley juniors with our coats on until the boiler was up and running, but shutting the school was never a consideration, nor at the Grammar either.
Nowadays the authorities can’t wait to announce the closures. A few years back, possibly 2008, Shropshire announced the advanced closure of all their schools, based solely on a forecast of snow, which ultimately didn’t arrive!
Nice one David, brings back memorys to me also, polishing a slide on the footpath to the point were you would travel at the speed of sound, then one of the adult would come out and put salt on your slide, and tell you to bugger off down your own end.
Hi Clive,
Well, that’s knocked me rose-coloured memory glasses off, alright !!, but you’re quite right. The “salt and ashes” brigade were never far away. The average life of a good slide in those days was very limited. Salt was more efficient, but ashes were a good second weapon and a bit cheaper Most dustbins contained little more than ashes, an odd
salmon tin and a few condensed milk tins, which were pretty popular up our way.
Must admit that your incisive comment had me chuckling ! Happy days, eh ?
I can remember in the 60s we made a slide on Clayhanger canel bridge(facing Clayhanger) it was a good un, went all the way to the bottom of the Bridge, the only problem once you comimited yourself to the slide you went all the way, wether you were on your feet at the start, or more likly on your back some time down the slide. God help the cars trying to get up the Bridge!
why are we always last to know when the schools are closed……we send our kids then find out after they are shut ….adults who work cant always get back to get there children …..so we might aswel not send them in the first place. I think they should let us know the night before they are due back to save all the hassel ….they can see how bad the weather is getting …and if there that bothered about kids missing time off school then when the next holiday is due send em then .