Previously un-published picture of Tom Canning !
Tom says:
This was my 21st Birthday in - as you can guess - Rome, just after having lunch at the Piazza Pantheon and seeing the funeral cortege of Maestro Pietro Mascagni - my Mother's favourite opera composer.
My friend is "wee wully Fenn" from Glasgow who was a butcher by trade and how he managed to see over his butcher block was a mystery he was so small. It was he who learned the salutary lesson that one did not place a Cadbury's milk bar in the shirt pocket of a KD uniform while watching " The Mutiny of the Bounty" for the seventh time at Bone Cinema in North Africa !
Happy days - 22nd July '45
posted by Ron Goldstein at 5:25 pm
8 Comments:
I should add that Wee Wully was a gunner in third troop - "A" squadron 145th RAC and was given a 94MM bombard to replace his 6 pounder. He was an excellent gunner and is on record as having stonked a house during a battle which was some 600 yards away - this was no mean feat as those guns tended to go straight up and down within yards - the occupants - the 4th German Paras -
thought they were being bombed, but were confused as there were no planes around !
Probably as we sang a lot in those days - the war was over and we were not going out to Burma as others had volunteered to do six months in the U.k. before going out there - of course that war finished also and the leave people finished up alongside us in Austria...talk about wise decisions !
What flavour was the ice cream?
Home-made Italian ice cream is generally the best. Several Italian families settled in my home area of West Cumbria in the early part of the 20th Century, many of them setting up ice cream businesses, using traditional family recipes still used by their successors in Cumbria today. It makes my mouth water thinking about them ..........
Do you still eat genuine Italian ice cream, Tom? I assume genuine ice cream is available in Canada as well as the mass-produced product? Then, did you develop the taste for Italian pasta and Austrian Schnitzels from the war years?
It is certainly an historic photograph!
Ritson - yes real Italian Ice cream is available here in Canada and not only in the old time Italian Ghetto's but generally where good ice cream is to be found - we had breakfast this a.m. at a restaurant in Chilliwack some 15 miles from home and they had an assortment of Ice Cream with many italian versions' I still have a liking for Lasanga as opposed to the Spaghetti Two years ago we spent some time in Orvieto and the food was sensational - I had the chef make me Lentil soup every day ! Also in Rome in 2000 we were up to here in pasta and always alfresco - gets boring after three days !
I didn't go for the Schnitzels in Austria as - in the main - these are Veal based and I do have an objection to killing milk fed six months old calves - They wonder why they have no beef !!!dunno - just a thing I guess ! We ate a lot of goulash in a Hungarian restaurant off the Kartnerstrasse in Wein - then from there to the vineyards at Grinzing.... and from there - there is little knowledge or you may consult the politzei records !
The photo is an antique going back to July 1945 -61 years - and as my wife would claim - can't be - I'm only 39 and a few months ! The Jack Benny syndrome !
The "World's Biggest Liar" contest is held each year in November at Wasdale Head in SW Cumbria. Are you planning entering this year, Tom?
Reputedly, the "World's Biggest Liar" - in whose memory the contest is held- was a chap by the name of Will Ritson. I don't know why, the Ritsons never tell lies: only good stories! And all the stories are always true!
Like you Tom, I too am 39 and a few months (although I would rather not say how 'few' the months are!). While I cannot remember the 1940s, I can remember the early 1960s. Not bad for 39 and a little bit .........
Do you have any more photos like this one that tell a happy story?
Hello - first of all, apologies for hijacking the comments section of a totally unrelated subject to the one I wish to raise...
My Name is Sarah Sheraton. My father was Kenneth Sheraton and he lived in Cottersloe Road, near Norton Green. He was born on May 12th 1929, the same year as Mr. Mee, whom I believe also used to live near Norton Green. I found this site via the BBC WWII site, looking for Norton Green related items. It would be so nice to correspond with you and learn more about my father if you did know him, Mr. Mee? You can reach me at SOLOSAIR at deardiary dot net. If you did not know my father or just do not wish to reply I shall understand. Thank you for writing your memories down. Oh, I forgot to mention - my Grandad Jos Sheraton was an Air Raid Warden in WWII in the area. I think we still have his bag somewhere. (g)
Kind regards,
Sarah Sheraton :)
Frank - there you go - you won't find many invitations like that one - Norton Green indeed isn't that where you used to hang out after all the palais de danse halls emptied out on a saturday night eating your fish'n chips out of the local newspaper before wandering home having had the time of your life ?
Frank -
I note the use of the term " like all the girls - she was a good dancer " something else we have lost as I watched an international competition for ballroom Dancing the other evening and was appalled at the standard - with the head jerking and sloppy footwork and the almost complete lack of clothing of most of the women and the boys showing off their manly(sic) chests.... it's no wonder that HP sauce has now defected to Holland.
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