To Reader123
Rivets: it's true that they're a low maintenance item when they're new, but as they were light alloy (which didn't matter much when the life of an aircraft would only be a few months), corrosion became a nightmare for enthusiasts trying to rebuild them maybe forty years after. They had to drill 'em all out and start again.
Deep trench latrines - it's not a pleasant subject, but then they played an important part in our lives and I have an amusing tale to tell about them - but not now!
From what you tell me, I can fix your Dad fairly confidently. The only air-conditioned cinema I know was in Calcutta, in Chowringhee, not far down from the Grand hotel, which your father would have known very well (air conditioning was very new then, the Grand certainly didn't have any). We had to do our best with fans or (out in the bundoo where there was no electricity, punkhas) - a punkha-wallah was a must in any office or workshop. Do you remember the punkha-wallah in "It ain't half hot, Mum"? (he'd let loose a stream of Hindi with the last few words in English - they actually do that quite often).
There were no char-wallahs? Not in a busy city like Calcutta, there wouldn't be. they were creatures of the camps far out in the wilds, where there was no competition.
Prickly heat; yes it was terrible. wear nothing tight (certainly no underclothes) and drink plenty of soft drinks, (it'll come straight out again as sweat, but it seems to ward off the dreaded prickly). And of course, Calcutta (along the river) was particularly hot and sticky from March onwards. All the Memsahibs and the families trooped off to Darjeeling for the hot months, leaving Dad behind to sweat it out, earning a living.
Americans: there were a lot about but we were all busy with our own little bits of the war and didn't have many dealings with them (they envied us our Boy-Scout shorts in the heat).
I gather your father was an engineer officer; there were plenty of Engineering and Equipment units of all kinds all over town, from the huge arms factory out at Dum-Dum downwards.
The blanket/rags tale goes back to WW1: The original story goes like this: some officer was responsible for a batch of water tanks, some had been nicked. He stood to have to make the loss good out of his pay (and they were very expensive).
He reported the loss of the same number of water bottles, (these were dirt cheap). A week or two later, he put in an amendment slip to his original loss report: "For "Bottles", read "Tanks". A bored clerk passed it through unnoticed: he was in the clear........ (Les silences du Colonel Bramble)....... Author forgotten (Andre Maurois??). ............ Someone will tell us.
Cheers,
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 20th Jun 2012 at 15:42.