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60 years of change.


Speedwheel

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I wish it was like 1953!

The first picture I remember well as most of my fathers family are Suffolk based, the last but one is my fathers home town where we had many holidays. The third was exactly like the interior of our house up to 1964 we had an identical range which once a week had a big galvanised bath in front of it! There was not hot water just a cold tap in the scullery. We fetched coal in a wheelbarrow from David Bakers wharf too - Happy days.

Edited by Laurence Hogg
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Nice photo's , and nothing like a few choice images to get people to don the rose tinted glasses.

 

Happy days? Rationing?

Happy days? Back breaking days down 't mine?

Happy days? Mum, after a ten hour day of housework, all by hand, might disagree.

Happy days? Infant mortality so much higher as it is now.

Happy days? No sanitation to speak of, and people living in slums

Happy days? Smog choking cities and the poorest.

 

But at least you could leave your front door open.. :rolleyes:

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Happy days? Rationing?

Happy days? Back breaking days down 't mine?

Happy days? Mum, after a ten hour day of housework, all by hand, might disagree.

Happy days? Infant mortality so much higher as it is now.

Happy days? No sanitation to speak of, and people living in slums

Happy days? Smog choking cities and the poorest.

 

 

Yeah, but apart from all that it was great! :lol:

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Were we poorer financially? Perhaps. But with more money we are inclined, and encouraged to spend it. Were people more respectful of one another, and did they enjoy a community of greater camaraderie? You bet they did! Did we value what we had back then, as much as we might looking back on them from today? Most likely not, for who could have forseen the future. Our intent was saving up for a new bicycle, a motorbike, or next years week at Margate or wherever.

 

That shot of Admiralty Arch - I'm in there amongst the crowd, sitting on my Dad's shoulders and getting barely a glimpse of the coach, let alone the Queen.

 

And like Laurence, the bath hung on a nail in the back yard, and got put in front of the fire maybe once a week. One cold tap, and no hot water, other than what Dad paid for to put in an Ascot - and that immediately became property of the Council!

 

Yes, I'd go back - but I'd change my direction.

 

The so called "woman" holding up the hand made tea cosy is clearly a schoolgirl showing her prowess at needlework, and rightfully proud of it too.

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Perhaps it would be good to have some values from the past, but I am happy to live in the now. I appreciate that others may have had different experiences, but I wouldn't swap the modern pain killers, antibiotics, better living conditions, better diet that I now enjoy. What does upset me all these years later is that we still seem unable to wipe out poverty on a worldwide basis, yet we waste so much in the west. Perhaps we just don't want to?

 

But you always had a lock on the outdoor bog.

Nice one :)

 

I remember my grandfather protesting strongly when the toilet was inside his newly acquired house. He said it was very unhygienic. He would be saying "I told thee!" if he could see the toothbrush covers now on sale.

 

I think it was Mike Harding who said, "As kids we crapped in the garden and ate in the house. Now they crap in the house and eat in the garden."

Edited by Guest
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Perhaps it would be good to have some values from the past, but I am happy to live in the now. I appreciate that others may have had different experiences, but I wouldn't swap the modern pain killers, antibiotics, better living conditions, better diet that I now enjoy. What does upset me all these years later is that we still seem unable to wipe out poverty on a worldwide basis, yet we waste so much in the west. Perhaps we just don't want to?

 

 

 

Couldn't agree more. If I hadn't had a hip replacement thirty odd years ago, I would have been in a wheelchair now. Medical science has improved many lives immeasurably, it's a pity we haven't taken as much care of the things we can measure. Comparing the quality of life 'then' and 'now' and drawing some conclusions about what society is doing today for the future is why I am so involved with historical research.

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Happy days? Rationing?

Happy days? Back breaking days down 't mine?

Happy days? Mum, after a ten hour day of housework, all by hand, might disagree.

Happy days? Infant mortality so much higher as it is now.

Happy days? No sanitation to speak of, and people living in slums

Happy days? Smog choking cities and the poorest.

 

Never mind that lot,

Happy Days? Izal bloody medicated toilet paper....

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Couldn't agree more. If I hadn't had a hip replacement thirty odd years ago, I would have been in a wheelchair now. Medical science has improved many lives immeasurably, it's a pity we haven't taken as much care of the things we can measure. Comparing the quality of life 'then' and 'now' and drawing some conclusions about what society is doing today for the future is why I am so involved with historical research.

I have had to sit down for a while; I'm not accustomed to people agreeing with me :)

 

My sister, a keen historian too, argues that we can learn so much from history and hopefully shape the future using that knowledge.

 

Never mind that lot,

Happy Days? Izal bloody medicated toilet paper....

Toilet paper? You were lucky! We had to manage with last years telephone directory hung on a string!

Edited by Guest
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Perhaps it would be good to have some values from the past, but I am happy to live in the now. I appreciate that others may have had different experiences, but I wouldn't swap the modern pain killers, antibiotics, better living conditions, better diet that I now enjoy. What does upset me all these years later is that we still seem unable to wipe out poverty on a worldwide basis, yet we waste so much in the west. Perhaps we just don't want to?

 

I loved the 1950s - proper trains hauled by steam engines, doctors and nurses who seemed to really care - even though they didn't have all the stuff that is available today, buses with conductors etc. etc. And most of all, even though we were quite poor and lived on a council estate in a rural village, I didn't know anyone who was on the dole . . .

 

Having said that, I do agree with what catweasel says above and it is a shame that we cannot create a better world by blending progress with our experience . . .

 

Edited because this computer thinks it knows better than I do about what I want to say . . .

Edited by NB Alnwick
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Wives of bargemen rest and talk on decks of barges tied up in a canal in Warwickshire

 

I know it is the only the bloody Daily Fail, but wouldn't it be great if the media could stop repeating this error!

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I know it is the only the bloody Daily Fail, but wouldn't it be great if the media could stop repeating this error!

I agree, but never really notice the error. "Barge" seems to be becoming a generic term for anything that floats on the cut.

 

It's a bit like people calling a lamp a "bulb," that used to really wind me up when I was a spark, but I generally call them bulbs myself now...

Edited by Guest
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Toilet paper? You were lucky! We had to manage with last years telephone directory hung on a string!

 

last years telephone directory.....bluddy luxury..... we had to pick the spines out of the nettle leaves before we crouched over t'ole.

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last years telephone directory.....bluddy luxury..... we had to pick the spines out of the nettle leaves before we crouched over t'ole.

Aye, and tell the youngun's this today and they don't believe yer!

 

 

Snip:

Edited because this computer thinks it knows better than I do about what I want to say . . .

That is progress for you :)

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I know it is the only the bloody Daily Fail, but wouldn't it be great if the media could stop repeating this error!

 

Perhaps this is something else that we just cannot change - I imagine that in a nation of 60 Million or so less that 100,000 would have a clue as to what you are referring to - whereas 'barge' is a word that most would understand - it used to bother me that people would call a locomotive a train and just could not see that the two words had entirely different meanings. Eventually I realised that in trying to explain the difference, I simply found myself labelled as a 'geek' or an 'anorak' - so I just accepted that language is the property of the majority and, to be taken seriously, one has to go with the flow . . .

 

Anyway, even barge is better than 'long boat' when applied to our boats . . .

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The usage of words and the way they (and other ) things change is a common conversation when my kids come home. Inevitably words and meanings do change, and a lot of us do struggle with that. The best example I can think of is how the meaning of the word "gay" has changed in my lifetime. It meant lively or jolly when I was a sprog, then referred to homosexuality later on, and now kids where I work use it to mean something derogatory. I hear kids describe a poorly functioning computer as being "gay" on a daily basis. They also accuse people of being "gay" if they are behaving in an inappropriate or silly manner.

 

Another example of change: If as a schoolkid I had written the address on a letter anywhere other than the top right of a letter, I would have been beaten. In this computer literate age it is quite acceptable to put the address top left. The old English teacher where I work thinks this is a hanging offence. I asked her if it really matters in the grand scheme of things? Seemingly I am in league with Satan.

 

Snip:

 

Anyway, even barge is better than 'long boat' when applied to our boats . . .

Being of Viking decent, I actually prefer "longboat." ;)

Edited by Guest
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I agree, but never really notice the error. "Barge" seems to be becoming a generic term for anything that floats on the cut.

 

It's a bit like people calling a lamp a "bulb," that used to really wind me up when I was a spark, but I generally call them bulbs myself now...

 

Yes,

 

And I kind of accept a "narrow boat" is still a "barge".

 

I doubt their steerers were often happy being called "bargemen" or "bargees" though. If you read the histories where narrow boat crews and real "bargemen" or "bargees" had to co-exist, neither had a great respect for each other, (in the London area, at least - I'm less familiar with other parts of the country).

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Yes,

 

And I kind of accept a "narrow boat" is still a "barge".

 

I doubt their steerers were often happy being called "bargemen" or "bargees" though. If you read the histories where narrow boat crews and real "bargemen" or "bargees" had to co-exist, neither had a great respect for each other, (in the London area, at least - I'm less familiar with other parts of the country).

I have read about the lack of respect too.

 

I believe that it is important to use the correct terms when discussing/recording historical matters such as working boats and those who worked them. I don't suppose it is quite as important with purpose built leisure boats.

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Another example of change: If as a schoolkid I had written the address on a letter anywhere other than the top right of a letter, I would have been beaten. In this computer literate age it is quite acceptable to put the address top left. The old English teacher where I work thinks this is a hanging offence. I asked her if it really matters in the grand scheme of things? Seemingly I am in league with Satan.

 

I think therein lay the rub. Whilst we are using computers on a regular basis, the software that allows us to place addresses where they should be is often counter productive. I have given up trying to get an address in the correct place using indents and columns, every attempt infuriates me more. So it gets dumped on the left, with the addressed beneath.

 

Not so computer literate Derek

 

PS. As to dietary improvements since the 1950's - YOU ARE JOKING! Greater variety you might have, but quality you do not. Todays food is sanitised and 'doctored' with any amount of chemicals such that ailments are more common from not having built up enough antibodies from a bit of dirt! Watch those chemicals being sprayed on crops from high powered tractors - some of that does not wash off. Added to which there are the laboratory species being 'engineered' for . . ? 'Higher yields and more food?' Wrong - try again. Sterilisation programs. Oh it's happening alright, just don't expect to read or hear about it in the popular press.

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I think therein lay the rub. Whilst we are using computers on a regular basis, the software that allows us to place addresses where they should be is often counter productive. I have given up trying to get an address in the correct place using indents and columns, every attempt infuriates me more. So it gets dumped on the left, with the addressed beneath.

 

Not so computer literate Derek

 

PS. As to dietary improvements since the 1950's - YOU ARE JOKING! Greater variety you might have, but quality you do not. Todays food is sanitised and 'doctored' with any amount of chemicals such that ailments are more common from not having built up enough antibodies from a bit of dirt! Watch those chemicals being sprayed on crops from high powered tractors - some of that does not wash off. Added to which there are the laboratory species being 'engineered' for . . ? 'Higher yields and more food?' Wrong - try again. Sterilisation programs. Oh it's happening alright, just don't expect to read or hear about it in the popular press.

Not joking but deadly serious.

Depends where you get your food from..

If we buy overpriced, overwashed, standardised prepacked rubbish from supermarkets then I agree with you 100% and we deserve all the poison we get.

We do however still have choices; I eat far better food now (and a greater variety as you rightly say) than I did 50+ years ago. It is worth noting that food was being sprayed with stuff of unknown effect even that long ago, DDT was introduced during or just after WW2 as a widespread insecticide.

I accept that even food grown in a more natural way is poisoned by pollutants from the air, but they have been in force since Victorian times.

 

I'll have to take your word about what is in or isn't in the popular press, I wouldn't know.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited by Guest
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