Sunday 3 September 2017

Ramsgate in 1934, an illiterate moment in Waterstones for me today and a minor ramble.

 I have just got home after invigilating the final shop before the start of the school year, the day of the lost sock and protractor, the shoe that fitted Cinders type of thing.

I have sat down and am wallowing what? Well it can’t be nostalgia as I wasn’t alive in 1934, but some sort of looking back.  
 I rather fancy the 1930s sailing yacht, they have wosisname, chic or something, I would guess they were very expensive to operate.

Lost in my Walter Mitty moment here, wondering just what would have gone tappoca onit, I should point out that these pictures all come from one of the guides I produce a reprint of, here is the link http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/ramsgate_for_1934.htm

The sample pages have turned into corrupted image files, so this post is partly a reminer to try and sort them out when I am at work on Monday. 

 Worth clicking on the picture to expand it
and the map too, useful for navigating the past.
 I had some timewarp difficulties with this page. ‘ Dancers are catered for in the numerous dance pavilions, and the latest devices… where devices fit in?? perhaps the photo of what look like young adults building a sandcastle with a full size spade – or is it shovel?? Gives some clue. I suppose pole dancing is unlikely and I would imagine anyone with experience of dancing in 1934 a bit difficult, the people in the would be around 100 now. 
I think I had better move on to Canterbury

 There is - spot the difference - on the cathedral picture
I managed to lose my propelling pencil, so bought a cheap temporary replacement, since Chromos, the art shop in Canterbury closed – the pencil for the discerning is probably unobtainable in Canterbury.

This coincided with shopping in a Primark – something I am allergic to, so I was taken to the man crèche which proved to be Waterstones opposite. I tried to browse but my nostalgia for the St Margaret’s Street Waterstones, recently the largest new bookshop in East Kent, got the better of me.

I mean wot is wrong with the world, if the largest:- theatre, art gallery, library or museum had closed there would have been. Wot? Ok not rioting in the streets but some sort of wosisname.


Anyway I got browsers block, the rare reciprocal of writers block. Eventually a seat with a view and my new pencil to test drive.  
I sat down and realised that I had become illiterate and the only solution would have to be worked out with a pencil.
 As pencils go, the ‘Faber Castell Grip Matic’ lives up to it’s name, I only dropped it once, when it took off during a particularly difficult head of hair, as you see it wasn’t a good day for hair – I have been told this is called a ‘bad hair day’ (asked a grownup)   

Next work – well I wasn’t at work on Saturday, but others were frightening the wuthering in the bookshop, so here’s the linkage http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/wuthering-fright-in-bookshop.html

this is a link to some fuzzy photos of some of the Canterbury bosses  I think I means I need a more expensive camera. 

2 comments:

  1. My wife has been told by one of her aunts that her Great Grandfather, Albert Matthews (b.1869), used to 'skipper' King George III racing yacht, whilst visiting Ramsgate.

    The Ramsgate Sands pic is interesting. I've seen pics of the 'roller-coaster' before, but not the 'world globe' behind it. Was that taken circa 1934? Also spotted what looks like the 'New Britannic' pleasure boat in the smaller pic.

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  2. David all of the photos are from the same guide for 1934 so I assume they were taken during the summer of 1933. I have just fixed the corrupt image files on the sample pages linked to buy it now page, you may need to clear your browser cache to see the, but more 1933 pictures there

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.