'Ere, Stan! Have you clapped eyes on that new clippy yet? She's a crackin' bit of stuff!Er, right. I seem to have slipped into Reg Varney mode for a second there. Anyway it appears I've struck a rich vein with yesterday's bussy news, as reader Nick has sent me these two superb photos from his archive. Nick writes: 'Here's a photo of a nearly new Daimler Fleetline pictured at Cecil Square, Margate c1970. Curiously, it's the same bus in the colour picture a few years later in the Millionaire's Playground!'
Well thanks for those Nick. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, eh!
9 comments:
I can go deeper in the nostalgia for I recall standing at the Queens Road bus stop with a whole hobble of boys in green blazers when, at school times, the buses came in convoys. Then all scrabbling to get on one of the newer Leyland ones, as against the older Guy models, being more state of the art of the time. Followed by swarming up the stairs to try and secure the front seats. Happy days!
Wouldn't it be nice if stagecoach repainted all its east kent buses in the cream and gold livery and stopped calling them funny names like loop,star,and triangle?
Ps Reg Varney used to play the piano at the San Clu
We were called into assembly at Chatham House Grammar one day and told of an incident on the 52 (?)bus bringing pupils over from Margate where a pupil had inserted a pair of compasses into a bus seat and someone had sat on them. Makes my eyes water thinking about it. The culprit was asked to own up- you can guess the outcome. Makes the Bash Street Kids seem tame by comparison.
Those of us who went further afield to school on the trains (Manwoods at Sandwich) had even more fun. Home made smoke flares let off in compartments and locking up carriage doors along one side of the train. Result - the girls from Clarendon House had an unscheduled trip to Herne Bay one afternoon before anybody realised what was happening!
Happy days indeed!
Real ripping yarn stuff this and who remembers bus and train prefects. Two of my siblings went even further afield to Simon Langton in Canterbury and have some hairy train stories. Mind you, compass points, whoopy cushions and stink bombs were a lot more acceptable than some of todays monsters.
The original cream and maroon East Kent livery was much more tasteful than the red and white they brought in around the early/mid 70s. As we would be able to see from the photos if the top one was in colour!
Oh yes, memories ... us girls from the Ursuline Convent lived in fear of our neighbours at King Etherbert's. many a time our hats were seized and flung out a window but then when some bright spark decided to take our summer panamas and pour ink in them it became an incident for the police as this was regarded as a serious misdemeanour. One girl actually got expelled from my school for being caught underage drinking as the police decided the school should be advised as well as parents, rigid society but it worked and this was early 70's not 50's we are talking about! Also you knew what buses ran where at what time, with different routes and lots of stops. I have a car fortunately because as a disabled traveller Id be up the creek as very few buses go past where I live in Cliftonville now. Recently I needed to go to Margate hospital by bus and finding out what bus went to and from where was a 3 day exercise. In london I just ring TFL at normal call rate and they tell me all my options.
This take of On The Buses is brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4PPKPXoWI
p.s. My Dad played in a concert party with Reg Varney in the 50s at the Lido in Margate and said he was a dreadful pianist. I dunno.....
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