Carnivals and so on

I can't remember when it started, or even if it was before I was born, but in the late 1950s and into the 1960s there was a carnival procession in Southall. Floats, often mounted on flat-backed trucks (lorries as used to be) processed through the town to the park. They were often sponsored by local businesses and themed in the usual kind of way. I feel now it was part of the coming out of England from the bleak post-war years which ran into the 1950s, when there was still rationing. Many of the floats were amateur but bright and it was a chance for the scouts, boys brigade and what have you to parade. It also provided an excuse for a fair in the park and a tented village which hosted all sorts of competitions and displays. This was time of growing employment and spending power, when people came onto the streets in numbers and the town was dressed up.

I can't remember when it was (I think the mid-1950s) but I remember a largescale cycle race coming to the Carlyle Road rec. In my memory it was like a mini Tour de France, with a lot of cyclists and support vans. The streets near the rec were festooned with banners and lined with locals and the rec itself was buzzing. For some reason I remember that free Murray Mint sweets were handed out.

Another memory is of a group of buskers who came on Saturdays to the Broadway, usually outside Woolworths. They played trad jazz and a type of marching music and were ex-servicemen, some of them obviously had been wounded. I saw them also in Hammersmith and other centres, so they obviously had a circuit.

We used to welcome the approach of bonfire night, from late October, as the chance to make some money and have a bit of fun. An old pram would be found and some old clothes would be stuffed and turned into a Guy. Either a mask could be bought in one of the sweetshops or one painted on. Various groups of children would stand at places along the Broadway, asking for 'Penny for the Guy' as people went home in the evenings, which by then were dark. Weekends were even better. On one occasion I recall someone's younger brother being put in the pram with a mask on as a Guy substitute. That didn't work so well! Fireworks were bought by most families and let off in gardens or local areas. On the night of November 5th the air hung heavy with the smell of gunpowder and smoke, since bonfires were the other passtime. We would spend time scouring the backs of shops for cardboard and boxes to burn, until parents thought we had enough. In the run up to bonfire night there were the expected issues with bangers and other fireworks on the street (and sometimes in letter boxes).