Fancy dress & music for the children

VJ DAY proved an unforgettable time for Birmingham’s children, with street parties and games. The Birmingham Post reported: “In the afternoon, when the sun burst through the lowering clouds, housewives were busy again in the suburbs, making provision for children’s parties and sports.

“The children, yes, the children must be thought of first. And, indeed, they were.

“The parents brought tables and food and fruit and nice clean clothes to remind the youngsters that yesterday was a memorable day.

“At Wrekin Road, Erdington, one saw an impromptu band with a following of youngsters dressed in all the colours of the rainbow and happily singing. At Bellbarn Road, again, there was a gay and festive air in the street. All the elders were intent on gladdening the young.

“One came across children’s parties in the open air and parents whom one imagines as staid, quiet folly prancing and making merriment for the children. In little, rather shabby, streets there was an efflorescence of colour – flags and bunting and mottoes of loyalty.”

The Birmingham Mail of August 16 also focused on the children: “It cheers the humanist’s heart to notice, too, that in every case it is the children who rule the celebrations.

“Everything seems to be arranged for the delight of the youngsters.

“Under a forest of flags, some of which proclaim ‘God Save the King’, you will find some self-appointed father of the street, sweating in his shirt sleeves while he organises races down the middle of the road or helps to drag a tuneless piano out into the street for the swarming children to dance. “Mothers and aunts and grown-up sisters, arms akimbo, take up strategic positions on the doorsteps and watch with indulgent smiles, or busy themselves with preparations for the outdoor tea party.

“Whatever it is, it all seems for the children. Down one side street you may find a jovial fellow leading a motley procession in fancy dress making a hideous noise on tin trays, dustbin lids, squeakers and empty boxes.

“One admires both his indifference to criticism and the selflessness with which he has given up part at least of his holiday to amuse the kiddies.”