Monday, June 24, 2013

3 Reasons we carried a knife

Mid-40's...3 reason's we carried a knife

Knife carrying today is an offence, but in the mid-40's every Gibshill lad carried a knife, a pocket knife or sometimes called a pen-knife, only the very rich carried a Swiss Army Knife, it was never used as a weapon, nobody was threatened with it, it was never used in a fight, but a Pocket Knife was a must to have

1. Was a game called knifey, now knifey was played anywhere a flat short grass piece of ground could be found, minimum of 4 players were needed, and up to ten, all stood in a circle, monies were place in a pot, usually a penny sometimes 3 pennies or thrupence as we knew it, once all had put their money in the game started winner taking all, the object of the game, was to hold the tip of the blade, and throw it to the ground, it had to make at least one 360 degree turn before sticking in the ground, some knife's hit the ground at an angel, but as long as the handle was 2 fingers high off the floor, it was counted as a hit, those who never made it was out, then started a series of moves called by the leader, who was chosen before the game, holding the blade with the handle on your shoulder, and throw, then head & throw, then 5 of your fingers, each time the knife had to turn 360 degrees, your wrist, your elbow, your chin, all parts of the body was used, the winner took all the cash, this was a serious game, no arguments, no fights, some times 10 lads were involved

2.No TV, nothing to stay indoors for, so we had to make our own enjoyment, everybody hated us when we decided it was tie the doors together, lot's of woman left their washing lines out at night, so with our trusty Pen-knife we would cut the rope, and pick a down-stairs flats, of someone who maybe told the lads off for playing football, or making a noise, sometime during the week, as I said we cut the rope, and tie the knockers of the two down stairs flats together, not tight, but enough slack that just one house could just about see out, then knock the two doors and retreat to the back yard in the dark, this so called game couldn't be done in daylight, you would then hear at the top of their voices " You little Bastards " " I'm gonna tell your mother", and lot's lot's more, someone in the family had to climb out of the window to loosen the rope, we never tied the 2nd or 3rd floors, only the ground


3. In the 40's not only did we not have a TV, we didn't have a Fridge, nobody had a fridge that I knew, all our milk and butter, cold meat, etc was left out on the window ledge, now if you were daft enough you leave it out on the scullery window ledge, it made it easy for the boy's to climb up the waste pipes that ran down beside the scullery windows, and nick the bottles of milk, nothing else, that included the 2nd & 3rd floors, no one was safe, so tenants began to leave the milk out the back bedroom window ledge, or the front windows, I remember when I first took Cindy to Gibshill to meet the family, Cindy being helpful, was helping mother to make tea, " Where's the milk Mrs Sinclair " In our Fridge " was mothers reply, Cindy looked but couldn't find our fridge, till mother took her to the front room window, and showed her, now people thought their milk was safe, because it was away from the windows that didn't have the wastepipes running along side them, so our trusty Pocket Knife went to work on the clothes line, and a lasso was made, and the bottles of milk were lassoed and brought to ground, now me being the 2nd best goal-keeper in the world, Jimmy Cowan Morton's Goalkeeper being the 1st, it was my job to catch the milk bottles before they hit the floor, now the tenant's on the 3rd, floor were safe, we were not that clever, but the 2nd floor and the ground floor at the front was easy, we only took maybe one or two bottles a weeks, which we passed around and drank

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing us great blog about knife. Knife is really helpful for many reasons.

    Best Out The Front Knives

    ReplyDelete