Today we complain when the central heating malfunctions and we are without hot water. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s there was no central heating and not having hot water was the rule rather than the exception.
Who remembers tin baths in front of the fire? Ice on the inside of bedroom windows? Toasting crumpets on a long fork in front of the fire and getting your fingers burnt? Red Indians (or should that be Native Americans) chasing you out of the sitting room and up the stairs on your way to bed? The only hot water coming from the kettle? Water pipes bursting in the cold weather?
I particularly remember the very cold winter of 1963 in Norwich when we had to get water from a standpoint in the street. Day after day of freezing temperatures that went on from the New Year until March. I seem to remember sledging on Norwich Golf Course and making extremely large slides in the playground of Norwich School (I think health and safety would step in there today).
The main family room at home was always known as the sitting room and never the lounge. The lounge was a room in a pub - a bit posher and more comfortable than the bar. Many years later I remember working at the Globe at Blofield at weekends - more for the company than the money as I had a full time job.
On Friday evenings things were pretty quite all round but on Saturday the large bar was full of people doing what is now karaoke but then was just called "come on stage and sing" or something like that. There was one guy called Tony who would get up every Saturday but always pretended that he didn't want to and had to be cajoled into taking part. Once on stage you couldn't get him off. "Do you want one more?" was his regular cry before he launched into another country and western song despite numerous people shouting "no" which he just ignored. Anyway the bar was noisy and very very busy. We worked flat out serving all evening. There was a very quiet lounge where a few people came for a quiet drink. One person manned or womanned this lounge and if you needed a break you switched with another member of staff to get some respite and where you could hear yourself speak.
Sadly The Globe is no more. It was demolished at the end of 1999 which seems a great shame as it had once been a hugely successful pub. When I worked there the landlord and landlady were Judy and Roy Jackson.
Roy was a former comedian and was the last professional comedian to play the Old Windmill Theatre in London's West End in 1976. Roy and Judy were in charge at the Globe from 1973 until 1980. I worked there for a short while in their early days in charge. A number of my friends and colleagues from the Media also worked there and, after leaving the pub, Roy and Judy both worked for Eastern Counties Newspapers (now Archant).
Most Saturdays, Roy would join in the open mic evening and do selections from his stand up routine. He had a way with dealing with hecklers and people who had the temerity to go to the toilet when he was in full flow (that's Roy the comedian in full flow and not the man or woman going to the toilet because that would have been a tad messy).
The only put down I remember was when a gentleman went to the loo. On re-entering the bar, Roy gave him a withering look and said "If you'd like to take your seat sir I'll plug you in." It was funny at the time.
The picture of the Globe was taken shortly before it closed.
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I do love getting up in the morning in the winter and watching the cricket. This year we have had two test matches against Sri Lanka and now two in India.
It was good to see Norfolk's Olly Stone bowling well and taking a wicket. I'm sure not many local people know that Olly comes from our county and was born in Norwich.
He played for Norfolk in 2011 and then went on to play for Northamptonshire and his current county Warwickshire. There haven't been that many Norfolk born England test cricketers. A few that spring to mind are Bill and John Edrich, Peter Parfitt and Clive Radley - the latter was born in Hertford but brought up in Norfolk.