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Post by baycityroller on Jun 25, 2011 8:09:29 GMT -1
Anyone remember the smogs we used to get in Manchester? I particularly remember one in the early 60s when I was trying to get home to Withington from Salford going through the city centre, along Oxford Road and then Wilmslow Road before turning off at Burton Road. The journey normally took me half an hour but the smog was so bad the traffic was gridlocked and it took over four hours to get home. I could smell the smog all over me when a got in.
I can remember another one when I was in Burnage on a Sunday and it suddenly descended. Thankfully being a Sunday there wasn't a lot of traffic about. I had a couple of mates in the car and one of them had to walk infront of the car to make sure I didn't hit anything infront (never mind what was behind me!) and that I stayed on the left side of the road! I gave up trying to get where I was going and crawled back home.
At least that's one thing I don't miss from my early days!
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Post by jackaitch on Jun 25, 2011 10:15:52 GMT -1
I remember those smogs...who could forget them...bus conductors walking in front of the bus...all
those kinds of things..I do remember arriving home with multi coloured socks due to the smog...
I used to ride the bike to work ,the clothes style was beige sport coat,brown pants and YELLOW SOCKS...you can imagine the colour of the socks!!!!~!
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Post by crabbygit on Jun 25, 2011 12:09:25 GMT -1
One thing I could never understand with the smogs, was why the authorities put out those smoking paraffin lamps on the roadside.
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Post by Lisa on Jun 26, 2011 6:55:24 GMT -1
I remember the smogs very well and having to try to get home from work in either Manchester or Cheetham Hill. The bus was packed and crawled along with the conductor walking in front. You literally couldnt see three yards in front of you and my nose was blocked with black tar....even my clothes smelled of it the next morning. How on earth did our lungs survive that polution. When I later moved to London, it was even worse in the West End....with the squares eerily quiet and dense. You could see the lights from the buildings but only hazily. The tube was the only place you could get away from the smog and it was awful at rush-hour with the trains packed to capacity with everyone wheezing and coughing. I only ever see smog now in those old black and white films and the occasional morning mist in Winter.  |
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Post by southampton on Jul 8, 2011 17:32:40 GMT -1
I attended St Columba's school in Wythenshawe back in the late 1950's early 1960's whilst living in Crumpsall and many a time me and my brother were allowed to leave St Columba's early in order to try and get a bus back to town and then to Crumpsall, for some reason the bus (103 express?) to town was allways running but many a time we had to walk from Picadilly to Crumpsall due to the non running of the buses along the Cheetham Hill area, and yes the smog was really thick and black. as Lisa says your clothes did really smell of smog for days.
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Post by elainegregory on Jul 8, 2011 21:56:20 GMT -1
As I always had a "weak chest" the doctor once told my mother to put me outside in my pram, and leave there in all weathers, except fog, and if any road works were happening to leave me as close to the tarmac as possible as the fumes were good for me! dont think that would happen today !!
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Post by Lisa on Jul 10, 2011 6:37:05 GMT -1
Hi Elaine, My mother was also told the same as a treatment for my Whooping Cough, which I had for 18 months (so my mother told me!!). Whenever there was any roadworks in the area she would drag me there and make me inhale the fumes from the tar being boiled by the roadside. Whenever I smell tar now it always reminds me of those days as a five year old. The tar didnt cure my cough, a herbal emulsion cured it. It was thick pink liquid and I can still taste it to this day.  As I always had a "weak chest" the doctor once told my mother to put me outside in my pram, and leave there in all weathers, except fog, and if any road works were happening to leave me as close to the tarmac as possible as the fumes were good for me! dont think that would happen today !! |
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