JOIN us for another walk down memory lane, as we travel back to 1974 and read the stories of the day occupying Teignmouth folk.

► DEBATING SOCIETY’S 30th YEAR

There was an amusing Parliamentary session on February 17 1947, when the discussion was about a Bill - “whereas it is deemed expedient for the quiet governance of the Realm for the more expeditious settlement of Tumults and Wars of whatsoever kind and howsoever incurred should cease, and redound to the benefit of His Majesty’s loyal subjects.

The “Bill” laid that on declaration of war, every member of the House of Commons was to be embodied in His Majesty’s Army, in a regiment to be named “The First (Loyal) Parachute Regiment”, paid Army rates of pay, and their Parliamentary emoluments appropriated for the purposes of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Red Cross.

The Regiment was to be commanded by the Governors of Dartmoor Prison, other prisons and Borstals.

The said Regiment shall initiate incursions upon the enemy by aerial flight from aeroplanes, flying machines, balloons, dirigibles, and other aerial conveyances, from whence the said Regiment shall be disgorged and jettisoned at suitable altitudes.”

► BEDROOM STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

During the storm on Thursday night last week, Mrs. Jane Carter, 85, was unhurt when lightning struck the outside wall of the bedroom in her flat above the Wee Shoppe in Waterloo Street.

The flash was so fierce that it knocked plaster and rendering several inches thick off the wall, and exposed wooden lathes. Falling plaster and brickwork damaged a neighbour’s car parked on the road outside the shop, which, however, was open for business the following day.

► YACHTSMAN’S HANDBOOK

One of the outstanding features of a new handbook for yachtsmen -“Sail West” - is that in the publication there are 36 aerial photographs of Westcountry ports and harbours, including one of Teignmouth and Shaldon.

The gazetteer on the 91 western yachting clubs, from Poole to Land’s End to Bristol, includes advice about tides, currents and peculiarities of different harbours. Names of chandlers, repair yards, hostelries and chemists are also included.

The foreword is written by the Minister for Aerospace and Shipping, Mr. Michael Heseltine M.P.

► IRRESPONSIBLE CALLERS

Telephone japers are at it again. One lady in Teignmouth was called up by a man who asked for “Henry the pet doughnut”, and when she replied that she could not understand what he was talking about, a woman came on and carried on the remonstrations that she must know the man - he was “down in the kitchen”.

Curiously, a relative in Bishopsteignton had a similar call, only the caller wanted “the pet giraffe”.

► HIS WAGE WAS SIXPENCE

Now in his 94th year, Mr. Frederick Skinner, of The Mount, Shaldon, then aged 12, had to take the farmer’s six bullocks to market.

After walking with the bullocks, he went with the farmers to an inn for lunch, which consisted of two pennyworth of bread and cheese, as much as he could possibly eat, and a mug of ale for a penny.

Then he thought he was quite a man at 12, so he bought a clay pipe for a halfpenny, a pennyworth of tobacco and a halfpenny box of matches, and had a penny change out of the sixpence.

► RIVIERA CINEMA

Sunday and Monday: “Jennifer On My Mind”: Anthony Quinn and Anthony Franciosa in “Across 110th Street”. Tuesday for five days; “Lost Horizon”, with Peter Finch, Charles Boyer and John Gielgud.