# How do you know you're getting old...



## D_W (20 Mar 2022)

....when you see news stories about rockers who had a long career and are now getting sober and leaving the scene because their lives have fallen apart. 

Though when I was young, if this was rappers (well, that still applies), I wouldn't have a clue who they were either unless they were mainstream charting. 

What is "Imagine Dragons?"

I thought from the title that the band's name was "Imagine Dragon's Dan".


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## Sgian Dubh (20 Mar 2022)

How do I know I'm getting old?

That's easy because my nearly sixteen year old granddaughters (twins) tell me I'm an antique. I tell them in response that I pre-date antiquity. They're not yet old enough to be able to conceive time that far back, so I still win, ha, ha. Slainte.


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## Jameshow (20 Mar 2022)

When your old three things go..... 
Your eyesight, 
Your hearing..
And I cannot remember the last one ..!!


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## Terry - Somerset (20 Mar 2022)

Nothing to do with health, eyesight, joints, general decrepitude, morality, music etc etc.

When you are young, old people don't understand.

When you are old, young people don't understand.

Nothing changes - to ones contemporaries, one is always of an age.

Far better to go through life, however short or long, however troubled or otherwise, enjoying each day for what it brings. 

If the negatives consistently start to dominate your daily experience, then its probably time to move on - depending on belief, upwards to the angels, down to eternal damnation, a new existence, or fertiliser.


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## Terry - Somerset (20 Mar 2022)

I'm not sure whether my last post may upset some - if so apologies. 

What I do find distressing about age is watching old movies with ladies who I once found attractive only to realise they are now 80+ if indeed they are still with us!


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## Sachakins (20 Mar 2022)

Your getting old when waking up breathing is a celebration....


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## AES (20 Mar 2022)

Terry - Somerset said:


> I'm not sure whether my last post may upset some - if so apologies.
> 
> What I do find distressing about age is watching old movies with ladies who I once found attractive only to realise they are now 80+ if indeed they are still with us!




Well you didn't upset me Terry. And you're bang on about one thing, e.g. Sophie Loren


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## artie (20 Mar 2022)

It's when you're about to ring someone to relate something funny or strange and you suddenly remember, they're dead.

Unfortunately the list is growing too fast.


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## clogs (20 Mar 2022)

I find it so hard to get up off my knees.....
oh, plus eye sight going .....hahaha....
My much younger (20 years) wife says she's sleeping with a pensioner now, to all who will listen.....lol....
and only one person has ever said is that ur dad......hahaha....

I still enjoy everyday but not sure if it's the pills doing it....hahaha....


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## MARK.B. (20 Mar 2022)

You know when you are getting old when you attend more Funeral's than you do Weddings  and when a good Fart carries more risk than it used to


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## Bigegg (20 Mar 2022)

When your grandkids call Motley Crue "granddad music"


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## Jameshow (20 Mar 2022)

Terry - Somerset said:


> Nothing to do with health, eyesight, joints, general decrepitude, morality, music etc etc.
> 
> When you are young, old people don't understand.
> 
> ...


I'd add be positive for when your incapacitated by Stoke cancer or dementia then the outlook shown in the previous 70 years will the expressed in sickness!!


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## eribaMotters (20 Mar 2022)

When you prefer to sit down for a pee instead of standing up.

Colin


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## mikej460 (20 Mar 2022)

eribaMotters said:


> When you prefer to sit down for a pee instead of standing up.
> 
> Colin


and it saves you a rollocking for leaving evidence of your visit.....


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## MichaelAD (21 Mar 2022)

Getting old is certainly not for wimps.


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## AES (21 Mar 2022)

Here there's a famous actor (so famous I forget his name!) who wrote a book - "Alte geworden ist nicht für Feiglinge". Literal translation: "Getting older is not for cowards".


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## Phil Pascoe (21 Mar 2022)

In the words of the immortal Leonard Cohen - "I ache in the places where I used to play."


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## shed9 (21 Mar 2022)

You know you are getting old when you comment on an online woodworking forum about how you know when you are getting old.


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## Tris (21 Mar 2022)




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## Kittyhawk (21 Mar 2022)

Well I quite like aging, you can get away with a lot.
And I think old age is a good time to take up the criminal profession. If your 20 and a copper catches you lurking down an alley somewhere he'll pull out his truncheon and arrest you. When you're in your 70's he'll think poor old guy, he must be lost


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## selectortone (21 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> In the words of the immortal Leonard Cohen - "I ache in the places where I used to play."


I ache in places I didn't even know I had places.


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## Thingybob (21 Mar 2022)

Kittyhawk said:


> Well I quite like aging, you can get away with a lot.
> And I think old age is a good time to take up the criminal profession. If your 20 and a copper catches you lurking down an alley somewhere he'll pull out his truncheon and arrest you. When you're in your 70's he'll think poor old guy, he must be lost


What Kiwi cops still have truncheons or is that a euphamism


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## Thingybob (21 Mar 2022)

Age is a mind thing wife and i were early morning partying at clubs in Manchester at 60 and the young uns would say i wished my mum ad dad were like you, Still dont think im old even though im wrong .


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## Jacob (21 Mar 2022)

When you hit 2nd childhood and start relaxing a bit.


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## Phil Pascoe (21 Mar 2022)

“Everybody has two lives. The second begins the day you realise you only have one.”

Confucius


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## gwaithcoed (21 Mar 2022)

When your Grandchildren ask what was it like Grandad in the olden days


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## Bingy man (21 Mar 2022)

When your wife or partner ask you to do something and you can no longer think of an excuse not to do it and your only reply is yes love I’ll do that now ..


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## Phil Pascoe (21 Mar 2022)

I remind my daughter (me 68, she 26) when she says I'm a dinosaur that her great grandmother (whom she just about remembers) never owned a house, never had a bathroom, never had an indoor toilet, had never gone abroad or held a passport, had never used a computer (or even a calculator) or a mobile phone. She had never driven a motor vehicle or flown in a plane either.


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## quintain (21 Mar 2022)

When you realise a lot of people are past it except you...Courted & married my young lady who is still with me and I talked to her on an early date about the new band called the Beatles and that I enjoyed listening to Johnny Cash; she in innocence or (thinking) who is this eager/stupid young silly person and asked me are they in the same band.

Almost all of them now dead some having suffered repeatedly from drugs; thankfully I could not afford any drugs except my pipe and occasional pints. Pipe now long ago abandoned with occasional whisky or brandy replacing pints.


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## Sandyn (21 Mar 2022)

When my daughter was being disrespectful, in fun. I told her to stop being so smart, it's not so long since I was changing her nappies. She replied, yea....right!! it won't be too long until she will changing mine!!


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## D_W (21 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> I remind my daughter (me 68, she 26) when she says I'm a dinosaur that her great grandmother (whom she just about remembers) never owned a house, never had a bathroom, never had an indoor toilet, had never gone abroad or held a passport, had never used a computer (or even a calculator) or a mobile phone. She had never driven a motor vehicle or flown in a plane either.



The abroad thing is curious (one of my grandmothers never did the things you mentioned except she did have an indoor toilet - it was under the steps in a house that didn't even have a kitchen at the start - none did. I posted a few forums up about the magic of the under-the-stairs toilet that was created early on to have a pot in the house. Box in the stairs, put plaster and lath over the bottoms and then you have a toilet in the apex of the stairs that you battle to get close enough to without banging your head). 

In the US, I don't know what percent have a passport (I don't, and probably won't unless I have a business reason). I would've traveled abroad in school if it's required, but abroad here generally means to europe or asia, so there is no convenient cheap flight where you can just get somewhere in an hour or two (that's florida instead). 

Then again, there are kids in some places - especially suburban philadelphia - who have never been to city center in philly. I met one a couple of years ago - 25 years old, grew up half an hour outside of philly in an affluent area and never went into the city in his life.


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## Richard_C (21 Mar 2022)

When anything you spend from your savings won't get replaced, ever.


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## DBC (21 Mar 2022)

Well I’m bald, have a hearing aid, wear glasses for close up work and I have arthritis. But what really dates me is that the great bulk of my power tools have cords on them.


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## thetyreman (21 Mar 2022)

you know you're on the way out when you fart way too much, it's super loud and your vertebre no5 almost slips when it happens.


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## Kittyhawk (21 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> What Kiwi cops still have truncheons or is that a euphamism


Are you implying coppers don't carry truncheons any more? When did that happen? Perhaps I missed it - must be getting old..


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## MikeJhn (22 Mar 2022)

You know you are getting old when you waist measurement overtakes your inside leg measurement.


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## HamsterJam (22 Mar 2022)

Apparently you are old if you can remember the first laptop computers being introduced and really old if you can recall a life before digital watches, pocket calculators, mobile phones and personal computers. Well that’s according to my kids anyway.


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## Titan_uk (22 Mar 2022)

showing my young nephew and nieces the latest and greatest in technology - my casio databank watch and psion 3 then feeling a tad behind the curve when they look up from their 8k tablets and Samsung78 phones and snigger


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## D_W (22 Mar 2022)

MikeJhn said:


> You know you are getting old when you waist measurement overtakes your inside leg measurement.




One that goes with that (Fortunately not for me yet), when the belt goes over a belly instead of residing under it. Not sure if that's specific enough, but a lot of the older big guys where I grew up - before the internet and cell phone cameras where everyone had to worry about how they looked, the older guys often hiked up their pants and adjusted their belt around their belly instead of trying to let it hang over their pants. 

Probably nipple to belt buckle vs. buckle to ground ratio is a reasonable indicator of age group.


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## Phil Pascoe (22 Mar 2022)

Titan_uk said:


> showing my young nephew and nieces the latest and greatest in technology - my casio databank watch and psion 3 then feeling a tad behind the curve when they look up from their 8k tablets and Samsung78 phones and snigger


I have no idea what those four things are.


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## JBaz (22 Mar 2022)

When you can't bring yourself to pay ten bob for an orange!


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## JBaz (22 Mar 2022)

Or 13 shillings for a Mars bar!


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## Geoff_S (22 Mar 2022)

JBaz said:


> Or 13 shillings for a Mars bar!


Or know what a Mars bar is.


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## recipio (22 Mar 2022)

When your grandchildren ask what devices you had growing up. I still remember the advent of 'stereo' with excitement.


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## AES (22 Mar 2022)

JBaz said:


> Or 13 shillings for a Mars bar!



Try a fiver for a coffee (admittedly, a good coffee here) but blimey, a FIVER????? "Back in my day you could buy a LOT for a fiver!

(OK. OK: QUOTE: 'ole int ground? Sheer looksery. We 'ad to live in a shoe box, 'ad ter git up 'afore we went to bed, (etc, etc). Then on, "these young whippersnappers ov terday don't they've even bin born!" UNQUOTE)

(For the benefit of our transatlantic cousins - and the youngsters, if any of 'em are reading this - in the above I'm paraphrasing a very famous UK TV comic sketch from the '70s where 2 old codgers with "Norvern Brit accents" are exaggerating more and more over the hardships they had to go through when young. As - yet another - sign of my advancing years I can't for the life of me remember who did the original sketch, very sorry. But I'm sure someone will be along soon to set the record straight).


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## Phil Pascoe (22 Mar 2022)




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## JBaz (22 Mar 2022)

Geoff_S said:


> Or know what a Mars bar is.


Forest Mars (yes, that was his name) invented (developed, introduced?) the Mars Bar in 1932, so to be able to remember pre-MB days would make Geoff_S .......let's see now. ..........I used to be able to do this ........... Nope, where's me slide rule?


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## AES (22 Mar 2022)

Thanks a lot Phil. You're "a trooper" Sir! I shall enjoy watching that again.

Edit for a P.S. Yup, I did enjoy seeing that again. Must be YEARS since last time (and I even recognised the 4 faces)!

Another edit for another P.S. Not sure I can name all 4 though!


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## NormanB (22 Mar 2022)

One indicator of old age is, when all your friends smell of urine.


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## Thingybob (22 Mar 2022)

Geoff_S said:


> Or know what a Mars bar is.


Its an invention to help you work,rest,and play


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## D_W (22 Mar 2022)

recipio said:


> When your grandchildren ask what devices you had growing up. I still remember the advent of 'stereo' with excitement.



Only due to having cheap relatives do I have a clue what a US hi-fi system was. 

I don't mean like a component system with a rack and speaker towers, but the giant things that you put a lamp on and that cost the moon:



expensive enough to have a cabinet made separately by a furniture company. Probably free or near free at estate sales unless there is an internet forum pushing them as a must have. 

The size of the magnet on the bass speaker astounds me given the size of the alnico magnets on JBL speakers in amplifiers from the same period (then again, a fender twin in the 1960s cost the equivalent of about $5500 dollar's in today's money if you ordered JBL alnicos). 

About a third of that now and a fifth if you're willing to settle for solid state (which was probably well received - solid state - back when these hi-fis were made). 

As a kid, I was absolutely not allowed to use the turntable for fear of damaging either the needle or a record.


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## Mick p (22 Mar 2022)

MichaelAD said:


> Getting old is certainly not for wimps.


I don’t remember signing up for this old age group


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## AES (23 Mar 2022)

What old age group?


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## ian33a (23 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


>




It was fantastic to see that again Phil - I've not seen it for years.


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## JimB (23 Mar 2022)

My shaving mirror tries to give me a hint. It started by turning my hair grey, then it gave up on me and somehow changed to my father. Then it changed to my grandfather! I think I need an electric razor


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## Richard_C (23 Mar 2022)

When today's inflation rate is a lot less than when you got your first job or bought your first house.


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## JimMc (23 Mar 2022)

When you log into a new site and you have to enter your date of birth. You then have to scroll back for ages to enter the year!


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## MikeJhn (23 Mar 2022)

AES said:


> Another edit for another P.S. Not sure I can name all 4 though!


From left to right, Tim Brook-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapmen and Mary Feldman, that is the original sketch, lots of other re-makes with different people, but always John Cleese.


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## Kittyhawk (23 Mar 2022)

How about a cheer for all you good old guys instead?
My brother in law is one, 86 years old, a genuinely nice man and crazy as a coot in an endearing sort of way. There are four things he always has in his pockets - a small screwdriver, an optician's penlight, a ball of string and a yo-yo. The first three because he says you never know when you may need them and the yo-yo is because he just likes playing with it. He doesn't like shopping though and when his wife drags him through the stores the yo-yo will come out and he's pretty darned good with it as well. In his working life he was an ophthalmic surgeon and mastered all the tricks of the yo-yo as a means of putting his child patients at ease.
I admire him for not giving a rat's backside about what anybody thinks. Growing old disgacefully - that's the way to go.


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## johnny (23 Mar 2022)

you realise that you have finally got 'old' when everybody seems wayyyy.. too young to be doing their job .


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## John Brown (23 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> In the words of the immortal Leonard Cohen - "I ache in the places where I used to play."


Who sadly proved not to be immortal...


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## John Brown (23 Mar 2022)

Senescence begins
And middle-age ends
The day your descendants
Outnumber your friends.

Ogden Nash.

Never going to happen to me, all my "descendants" have been acquired by marriage.


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## John Brown (23 Mar 2022)

NormanB said:


> One indicator of old age is, when all your friends smell of urine.


Ah yes! What's got 28 legs and smells of p!ss? 

A conga in an old people's home.


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## Phil Pascoe (23 Mar 2022)

I went to pick my lad up from after school rugby. he was about eight, so I'd have been fifty six. We had to go into the school as they wouldn't allow the children out after normal school closing time. I walked down the corridor and a lad shouted Matt, your granddad's here. Matt walked around the corner, saw me and said that's not my granddad! Oh, I am sorry, the lad said, your great granddad. (He was the only kid picked up on a 1900cc Yam, though.)


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## Gordon Tarling (23 Mar 2022)

So when does 'old' begin? I'll be 73 soon and sometimes I feel much older and sometimes, in my head, I think I'm 40 again until my body reminds me that I'm not!

G.


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## DJT48 (23 Mar 2022)

My first venture into what could be called personal computers was an Acorn Atom, a precursor to the BBC computer. It came with 2 kb of memory. That's right, two kilobytes.
This was a slight handicap, especially as the machine used most of it for the display and work area. This left half a kilobyte of program space for the user but, if you're canny, you can do a fair bit in 512 bytes.

You could upgrade to a maximum of 12 kb, each kilobyte consisting of a pair of 512 bytes integrated circuit components which would set you back £3 per pair in 1981.

If you think about it, at that price per kilobyte, a 16Gb USB stick would cost you £50,331,648.


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## Phil Pascoe (23 Mar 2022)

My son's maths master was a bit of a know all - I was always tempted to send the boy to school with my slide rule and five figure log tables and ask to be shown how to use them.

I've covid atm and after having double pneumonia twice in the past my lungs are feeling every day of sixty eight.


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## Henniep (23 Mar 2022)

Gordon Tarling said:


> So when does 'old' begin? I'll be 73 soon and sometimes I feel much older and sometimes, in my head, I think I'm 40 again until my body reminds me that I'm not!
> 
> G.


Talking to yourself has alway been a sign of getting on. Answering yourself is confirmation of a steep down hill in the mental race .. but when you ask yourself to repeat what you just said ... well!!!


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## alexalexander (23 Mar 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> Apparently you are old if you can remember the first laptop computers being introduced and really old if you can recall a life before digital watches, pocket calculators, mobile phones and personal computers. Well that’s according to my kids anyway.


The first computers I worked on occupied a large room and we had punch cards to input programs and data. Then we had magnetic tape..... whoopy! It was several years before terminals and keyboards appeared, let alone laptops. Now I am feeling old.......


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## D_W (23 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> My son's maths master was a bit of a know all - I was always tempted to send the boy to school with my slide rule and five figure log tables and ask to be shown how to use them.
> 
> I've covid atm and after having double pneumonia twice in the past my lungs are feeling every day of sixty eight.



Best wishes for it to clear quickly and leave no evidence that it was there other than capable antibodies and t cells to ward off the next round.


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## TRITON (23 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> I've covid atm and after having double pneumonia twice in the past my lungs are feeling every day of sixty eight.


Best of luck. Stay in bed and sleep through it.

Artie might be in later to tell you you don't have covid.


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## Phil Pascoe (23 Mar 2022)

The first time I had pneumonia I was working part time at the market. I went back to work and a sweet old lady asked if I was feeling better and said you know the best thing about pneumonia? When you get it again you'll know exactly what you've got.
Twelve months later to the week (my daughter's birthday) I got it again. I rang the GP. What can I do for you, Mr. P? I've got pneumonia, doc. What makes you think that? I've had pneumonia before. Come in right away, you've got pneumonia, he said. I told him what the old lady said, and he said unfortunately she was right.

I'm about three days into this, and if this is as bad as it gets I'll be lucky.


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## D_W (23 Mar 2022)

Someone mentioned breaking wind earlier. 

This comment really isn't fit for public, but I think I've learned around 40 that suddenly the idea of covert breaking wind outside (where nobody will notice) suddenly cannot be trusted. 

I hear there's a point beyond this where you get old enough not to care that someone will notice. I'm far from there, but a little miffed that at 45, I now must suffer the full cost of manners. 

Conversion rate in the old days (not caught, etc) was probably 99%. I think the fraction has flipped to be a photographic negative now. 

Like a pitcher who has lost his control.


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## pe2dave (24 Mar 2022)

MikeJhn said:


> From left to right, Tim Brook-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapmen and Mary Feldman, that is the original sketch, lots of other re-makes with different people, but always John Cleese.


Marty Feldman (very early member!)


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## HamsterJam (24 Mar 2022)

alexalexander said:


> The first computers I worked on occupied a large room and we had punch cards to input programs and data. Then we had magnetic tape..... whoopy! It was several years before terminals and keyboards appeared, let alone laptops. Now I am feeling old.......


I recall coxing a Burroughs TC500 to life complete with paper tape. Much time spent reeling it back up when it dumped itself in a pile on the floor 
It predated me but was donated to our school at the end of its useful life. At that time BBC micros were the new kid on the block. *FX etc etc


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## sorslibertas (24 Mar 2022)

Richard_C said:


> When today's inflation rate is a lot less than when you got your first job or bought your first house.



Bought your first house?! What is this sorcery of which you speak?


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## MikeJhn (24 Mar 2022)

Why the predictive text left out the T I don't know, but yes Marty not Mary  as I said the original sketch.


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## MikeJhn (24 Mar 2022)

On the computer side of things, I remember the first Analog one being installed into the offices of Ove Arup's in Fitzroy Street, (1966 or thereabouts) a crane was needed to get it into the building through a full height window opening, I worked in the B.E.D. (Building and Engineering Design department).


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## Tris (24 Mar 2022)

Growing up in a time when being on the spectrum meant waiting 15 minutes for a game to load


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## IZZY (24 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> Its an invention to help you work,rest,and play


I only used to eat the rest and play bits as I wasn't bothered about work .


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## stuart little (24 Mar 2022)

Phil Pascoe said:


> The first time I had pneumonia I was working part time at the market. I went back to work and a sweet old lady asked if I was feeling better and said you know the best thing about pneumonia? When you get it again you'll know exactly what you've got.
> Twelve months later to the week (my daughter's birthday) I got it again. I rang the GP. What can I do for you, Mr. P? I've got pneumonia, doc. What makes you think that? I've had pneumonia before. Come in right away, you've got pneumonia, he said. I told him what the old lady said, and he said unfortunately she was right.
> 
> I'm about three days into this, and if this is as bad as it gets I'll be lucky.


Get well soon, mate.


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## Mike bryant (24 Mar 2022)

I remember my father buying 4 gallons of petrol for £1 and still had change for a pack of woodbines!


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Mar 2022)

I'm not that ancient, but I remember fish and chips being 11d - less than 5p for you callow youths.


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## Jameshow (24 Mar 2022)

Tris said:


> Growing up in a time when being on the spectrum meant waiting 15 minutes for a game to load


That was fast on the Amstead CPC 464 it was 29mins!

Cannot believe my first computer funded the apprentice...!


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## jcassidy (24 Mar 2022)

DJT48 said:


> My first venture into what could be called personal computers was an Acorn Atom, a precursor to the BBC computer. It came with 2 kb of memory. That's right, two kilobytes.



Mine was an '80s Atari STE with a whopping 512kb and...wait for it...

An integregated 3 1/2" floppy drive! La de dah! High tech or what?

My mum was still using it well into this century to play Zelda... then something burned out in the motherboard and altough a technician at work said it was fixable, he couldn't source the parts except from another STE, if i could find one.


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## okeydokey (24 Mar 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> I recall coxing a Burroughs TC500 to life complete with paper tape. Much time spent reeling it back up when it dumped itself in a pile on the floor
> It predated me but was donated to our school at the end of its useful life. At that time BBC micros were the new kid on the block. *FX etc etc


Barclays Bank used TC500 when they came out to process cheques and etc that customers paid into their accounts


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## J-G (25 Mar 2022)

Jameshow said:


> That was fast on the Amstead CPC 464 it was 29mins!
> 
> Cannot believe my first computer funded the apprentice...!


That would have been a different game then! The CPC 464 had a 4Mhz Full spec Z80 CPU & 64K Ram compared to the Spectrum's 3.5Mhz Cut-down Z80A CPU and generally 16K Ram.

The introduction of the 464 was a major revalation as far as reliability was concerned. We expected in excess of 20% failure rate with new Spectrums but the Amstrad cut that to < 2% . . . and no your first computer didn't fumd 'The Apprentice' Alan M. Sugar Trading was always much more than a computer company though it did do more for the personal computer than any other contender - including the BBC !


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## cowtown_eric (25 Mar 2022)

My father went from kerosene lanterns (no'lectricity) to tryin to keep his mac updated!....but his wkend I'm gonna intoduce my grandkids to a dial phone whichshould be real fun!


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## Jameshow (25 Mar 2022)

J-G said:


> That would have been a different game then! The CPC 464 had a 4Mhz Full spec Z80 CPU & 64K Ram compared to the Spectrum's 3.5Mhz Cut-down Z80A CPU and generally 16K Ram.
> 
> The introduction of the 464 was a major revalation as far as reliability was concerned. We expected in excess of 20% failure rate with new Spectrums but the Amstrad cut that to < 2% . . . and no your first computer didn't fumd 'The Apprentice' Alan M. Sugar Trading was always much more than a computer company though it did do more for the personal computer than any other contender - including the BBC !


I don't know how long it took to load just seemed like for....ever, my brother was more into it and went into networks and security. 
Finding the apprentice was a joke tbh!


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## HDC83 (25 Mar 2022)

When there’s more creaks from your knees than your stairs


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## Spectric (25 Mar 2022)

When you look around and can see just how bad things are now, if you are younger then it is the norm for you and you will not remember when we had better times, fuel was £1 a gallon and twenty quid did a months shopping, there was more of a buzz in life whereas now it is flat lined and mental health is normal for many. Life was better before mobile phones, advertising went on steroids and vanity did not rule peoples lives, you know you are old because you can see all what is going wrong and how hard life is for youngsters of today, so would I want to be born in these times, no. I may be old but the memories of better times and having a proper childhood with freedom are worth the age.


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## Phil Pascoe (25 Mar 2022)

The 1st class hike for the Scouts was a twenty five mile hike carrying full kit including a tent with an overnight stop on a farm. My friend and I passed it along with the whole of the rest of the 1st class qualifiers when we were twelve years old. Before we had left school we had completed a dozen or more thirty mile sponsored walks, climbed Skidaw, Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Snowdon etc. We had kayaked the river Fal from Grampound to St. Anthony and much of the North coast of Cornwall and hiked across Dartmoor several times, all in mid winter.
We left home at 8.00am for a day on the beaches when we were eleven (with enough money for a bag of chips at lunchtime) and got home as darkness fell. It wasn't unusual to snorkel 12 - 15 miles in a day. My friend's calves were so over developed he couldn't get wellington boots on. Mine were huge, but not quite that huge.
I met my friend after thirty years by which time he had three teenaged boys. He said the greatest regret of his life is that they didn't have/couldn't have had the freedoms and the fun that we had. My lad is twenty and despite living within not too many miles of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world I doubt he's been on a beach in seven or eight years ............ as his T shirt says "I went outside once. I didn't think much of the graphics."


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## thetyreman (25 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> When you look around and can see just how bad things are now, if you are younger then it is the norm for you and you will not remember when we had better times, fuel was £1 a gallon and twenty quid did a months shopping, there was more of a buzz in life whereas now it is flat lined and mental health is normal for many. Life was better before mobile phones, advertising went on steroids and vanity did not rule peoples lives, you know you are old because you can see all what is going wrong and how hard life is for youngsters of today, so would I want to be born in these times, no. I may be old but the memories of better times and having a proper childhood with freedom are worth the age.



I'm 36 and can definitely see the change especially pre internet, pre social media and pre mobile phone, the world was a very different much friendlier place, I'm not saying this to be a debbie downer or miserable git, it's the truth.


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## Bodgers (25 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> When you look around and can see just how bad things are now, if you are younger then it is the norm for you and you will not remember when we had better times, fuel was £1 a gallon and twenty quid did a months shopping, there was more of a buzz in life whereas now it is flat lined and mental health is normal for many. Life was better before mobile phones, advertising went on steroids and vanity did not rule peoples lives, you know you are old because you can see all what is going wrong and how hard life is for youngsters of today, so would I want to be born in these times, no. I may be old but the memories of better times and having a proper childhood with freedom are worth the age.


Is there an element of rose tinted specs here?

There is a guy on YouTube interviewing Russians on the streets of Moscow, and one of the questions asked was "was it better in Communist Russia in the 80s or now?"

A lot of older ones were actually pining for the simpler Soviet days. Which given the queues for bread and general levels of poverty, not to mention the political situation seems like a very optimistic take...


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## Spectric (25 Mar 2022)

Bodgers said:


> Is there an element of rose tinted specs here?


Not at all, we earned a great deal less but it brought an awful lot more and work was plentiful most of the time, leave a job Friday and start a new one Monday.

Thinking back we had no Amazon or online shopping but could always get what we wanted because we had a thriving retail sector in our towns and people were less materialistic, more happy with there lot. Now a lot of people want to be something else, girls walk around with paintbrushes for eyebrows and sink plungers for lips and they think there are more than two sexes, believing what they wish for can become reality. No times were better because people had there feet on the ground and no one took offence to jokes and no one had to think about what was being said and the only Wokies were living in Wokingham.


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## Thingybob (25 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> Not at all, we earned a great deal less but it brought an awful lot more and work was plentiful most of the time, leave a job Friday and start a new one Monday.
> 
> Thinking back we had no Amazon or online shopping but could always get what we wanted because we had a thriving retail sector in our towns and people were less materialistic, more happy with there lot. Now a lot of people want to be something else, girls walk around with paintbrushes for eyebrows and sink plungers for lips and they think there are more than two sexes, believing what they wish for can become reality. No times were better because people had there feet on the ground and no one took offence to jokes and no one had to think about what was being said and the only Wokies were living in Wokingham.


Totaly agree not only thriving retail sector but Exchange and Mart like ebay and Wish but in paper form and in Manchester electrical army surplus stores could get all components for amateur radio building gave me a good grounding


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## D_W (25 Mar 2022)

Bodgers said:


> Is there an element of rose tinted specs here?
> 
> There is a guy on YouTube interviewing Russians on the streets of Moscow, and one of the questions asked was "was it better in Communist Russia in the 80s or now?"
> 
> A lot of older ones were actually pining for the simpler Soviet days. Which given the queues for bread and general levels of poverty, not to mention the political situation seems like a very optimistic take...



I listened to a girl who escaped from north korea, made it to china, got sold as a ___ slave (fill in the blank, I just don't like typing it) underage by the rules in this country and made it through mongolia to escape china and eventually made it to South Korea (if she'd have gotten caught, she'd have been sent back to N. Korea and killed). 

She said in N. Korea, nobody has a clue that they have choices or what the concept of love or anything like that is. When she got to S. Korea and was confronted with freedom and having to think, it would cause her to be exhausted. She would think for 15 minutes or so and then retreat to a dark room or somewhere that she could take a break.

She eventually ended up in the united states and graduated from Columbia in NY (not by any means and easy university). 

My point being that a lot of these folks would've been in the middle of life when things changed a lot and if you're 45 or 50, changes are much harder. Learning new things and being mentally flexible is much harder  -we work on managing experience to make decisions, not processing new information. I'd bet the change from the soviet days has been taxing and stressful, but in a different way than being soviet was stressful.


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## artie (25 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> Totaly agree not only thriving retail sector but Exchange and Mart like ebay and Wish but in paper form


I was relating to my son recently, how things used to be.
Cycle six miles to town on Sat, bring home exchange and mart peruse for hours, pick item required. Cycle to post office on Monday, buy postal orders put everything in an envelope affix a stamp, go home and wait for ever.

Now we press a button and it's here next morning.


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## Sandyn (26 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> and in Manchester electrical army surplus stores could get all components for amateur radio building gave me a good grounding


  was that an intentional pun??


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## Sandyn (26 Mar 2022)

When you die, your relatives have three options what to do with your body, cremation, burial or recycled at the scrap yard.


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## DJT48 (26 Mar 2022)

Mike bryant said:


> I remember my father buying 4 gallons of petrol for £1 and still had change for a pack of woodbines!


Haha! Yes. When I started driving, petrol in the UK was 6s 8d (about 37 pence) per gallon. Now it's more than £7!


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## artie (26 Mar 2022)

DJT48 said:


> Haha! Yes. When I started driving, petrol in the UK was 6s 8d (about 37 pence) per gallon. Now it's more than £7!


Be interesting if you told us the percentage of your take home pay 6s 8d was compared to the percentage £7 is today?

BTW 6s 8d closer to 33.5p


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## Spectric (26 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> and in Manchester electrical army surplus stores could get all components for amateur radio building gave me a good grounding


In Chelmsford it was GEC Marconi, EEV and Crompton electrical that provided all the surplus and gave many people an early interest in electronics and paved the way for future careers. There used to be so many shops selling new components, walk in and buy your transistors and even valves or go to one of the many surplus shops, great days and now all gone along with even Maplins so a sign of the times and we wonder why we have such a skills shortage. There is nothing to get youngsters interested in these hands on hobbies. Look around, what happened to all the model shops, places of wonder and most towns had at least one and I can clearly remember going to Wanstead flats to watch the model planes flying and the boats in the lake.

No the kids of today are missing out on so much without even realising it, life is a rush where parents force kids to growup fast as if growing rhubarb and get them onto the conveyor belt ASAP to go through education and the mandatory degree in anything to become a five star worker in the local takeaway, what happened to the "teenager phase" ! 

Life has flatlined, there is something missing that I cannot put a word to but excitment, buzz, anticipation are in the right vein. So put yourself in their shoes, what is the future, a lifetime of debt and unless you invest heavily no retirement until you are to old to enjoy it and now the addition of pandemic's and world war, so being old is not so bad after all but we should be educating the youngsters as to what life could be and getting a better balance of age in government so the young get a fairer and better say in their future rather than leaving it to people who only have limited time left, yet are willing to leave them a horrendous future.


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## Awac (26 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> In Chelmsford it was GEC Marconi, EEV and Crompton electrical that provided all the surplus and gave many people an early interest in electronics and paved the way for future careers. There used to be so many shops selling new components, walk in and buy your transistors and even valves or go to one of the many surplus shops, great days and now all gone along with even Maplins so a sign of the times and we wonder why we have such a skills shortage. There is nothing to get youngsters interested in these hands on hobbies. Look around, what happened to all the model shops, places of wonder and most towns had at least one and I can clearly remember going to Wanstead flats to watch the model planes flying and the boats in the lake.
> 
> No the kids of today are missing out on so much without even realising it, life is a rush where parents force kids to growup fast as if growing rhubarb and get them onto the conveyor belt ASAP to go through education and the mandatory degree in anything to become a five star worker in the local takeaway, what happened to the "teenager phase" !
> 
> Life has flatlined, there is something missing that I cannot put a word to but excitment, buzz, anticipation are in the right vein. So put yourself in their shoes, what is the future, a lifetime of debt and unless you invest heavily no retirement until you are to old to enjoy it and now the addition of pandemic's and world war, so being old is not so bad after all but we should be educating the youngsters as to what life could be and getting a better balance of age in government so the young get a fairer and better say in their future rather than leaving it to people who only have limited time left, yet are willing to leave them a horrendous future.


I know what you mean when you say, life has flatlined. I do wonder if this is my memory or a reality? I certainly do not have rose tinted specs about the past, work was brutal, hours terrible etc. I have also not got to retirement yet, so anything can happen!
However I remember as a child building things, and that has stayed with me, people I work with throw things away and they laugh because I get distressed and try to repair what I can!

They have something called “Sloyd” in Scandinavian schools. I think society would be all the richer for it…doing something for enjoyment, not just for a financial gain. 
Performance. The internet has given the young portals which pressure them to perform and measure against a huge audience around the world, where we just had ourselves in the bedroom painting a WW2 tank or building a go cart with our best mate. Listen to the language youngsters use today, they sound like mini tycoons, phrase's like “moving forward, my projection is, I need to control my destiny”. Good luck in life with all 3 of those!

_The word sloyd is derived from the Swedish word slöjd, which translates as crafts, handicraft, or handiwork. It refers primarily to woodwork but also paper-folding and sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet.

Educational sloyd's purpose was formative in that it was thought that the benefits of handicrafts in general education built the character of the child, encouraging moral behavior, greater intelligence, and industriousness. Sloyd had a noted impact on the early development of manual training, manual arts, industrial education, and technical education. ( From Wikipedia)._


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## Spectric (26 Mar 2022)

Awac said:


> doing something for enjoyment, not just for a financial gain.


To many people spend their lives in chasing the money, they become a slave to the cash as life passes them by. The most valuable assets we have do not require money to achieve and they are knowledge and life itself. 



Awac said:


> where we just had ourselves in the bedroom painting a WW2 tank or building a go cart with our best mate.



How many children today have a bedroom with airfix model planes they have built and painted hanging from the ceiling and how many dads get involved with these hobbies, I think far to many parents now take the easy option by giving the kids a tv in their bedroom and a smart device to sit and stare at whilst they become obese due to lack of activity.


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## DJT48 (26 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> Be interesting if you told us the percentage of your take home pay 6s 8d was compared to the percentage £7 is today?
> 
> BTW 6s 8d closer to 33.5p


You're right, my arithmetic was awry. I claim COVID brain fog.

The percentage comparison isn't really correct. The income of an 18 year-old back in 1967 could hardly be called representative of a living wage at the time. In my case, it was in the order of £11 or £12 per week 

However, to put things in a perspective, compound inflation to date since 1987 in the UK has been 149.56%. Petrol price inflation in the UK for the same period has been over 2200%.


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## Thingybob (26 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> I was relating to my son recently, how things used to be.
> Cycle six miles to town on Sat, bring home exchange and mart peruse for hours, pick item required. Cycle to post office on Monday, buy postal orders put everything in an envelope affix a stamp, go home and wait for ever.
> 
> Now we press a button and it's here next morning.


See life moved at a slower pace now its rush rush rush takes the fun out of planing what you will do when parcel arrives "anticipation "


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## artie (26 Mar 2022)

DJT48 said:


> You're right, my arithmetic was awry. I claim COVID brain fog.
> 
> The percentage comparison isn't really correct. The income of an 18 year-old back in 1967 could hardly be called representative of a living wage at the time. In my case, it was in the order of £11 or £12 per week
> 
> However, to put things in a perspective, compound inflation to date since 1987 in the UK has been 149.56%. Petrol price inflation in the UK for the same period has been over 2200%.


I always think it's interesting to compare prices to wages, in 1976 I was a 20 yo single guy living with my mother, not ideal but that's how it was. I was taking home £55 a week. I don't think I've been better off financially before or since.


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## Thingybob (26 Mar 2022)

Could not agree more with Spectric my next door neighbours bought the kids a trampolene took over a third of thier garden when they first got it kids were on it every day and night school permiting dad was working till late mum was also working and when she did come home and in the garden she never stoped texting tweeting or facebooking kids soon tired of trampolene now its rusting away taking up most of the garden . I dont understand why both parents need to work so many hours ,2 cars,trampolene, bash the house around get fed up of alterations start again all cash cash cash tip is full of thier discards . I understand they both want to persue thier careers but why have kids ( Ok someone to leave their money long houred hard earned cash to ) Thank goodness we have moved .


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## Thingybob (26 Mar 2022)

Sandyn said:


> was that an intentional pun??


I thought that when i had typed it but hey ho


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## Thingybob (26 Mar 2022)

You know when your getting old when you no longer look whats free in your cereals and look at the nutritional value


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## DJT48 (26 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> Be interesting if you told us the percentage of your take home pay 6s 8d was compared to the percentage £7 is today?
> 
> BTW 6s 8d closer to 33.5p
> [/QUOTE
> ...





DJT48 said:


> You're right, my arithmetic was awry. I claim COVID brain fog.
> 
> The percentage comparison isn't really correct. The income of an 18 year-old back in 1967 could hardly be called representative of a living wage at the time. In my case, it was in the order of £11 or £12 per week
> 
> However, to put things in a perspective, compound inflation to date since 1987 in the UK has been 149.56%. Petrol price inflation in the UK for the same period has been over 2200%.


Sorry, I got my numbers wrong. I told you, COVID brain fog. 

Compound inflation since _1967_ is 1511.35%. Petrol inflation is still >2200%


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## Geoff_S (26 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> I always think it's interesting to compare prices to wages, in 1976 I was a 20 yo single guy living with my mother, not ideal but that's how it was. I was taking home £55 a week. I don't think I've been better off financially before or since.


Crikey! What did you do? 

I was on £18pw take home. Mind you, even back then that was a really dung wage.


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## Phil Pascoe (26 Mar 2022)

I remember one of my weekly pay slips from a major construction site in 1973. 40 hours at straight time, eight hours at time and a half, and ......... wait for it ........... 69 hours double time. My hours dropped to a mere 115 a week after about six weeks of it. We were the living dead.


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## artie (26 Mar 2022)

Geoff_S said:


> Crikey! What did you do?


Heavy plant driver. But thinking back I did work more than 40 hours, so it would have been around 40 quid for a 40 hr week.


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## Phill05 (26 Mar 2022)

I started my full time working life on a farm in 1966 from 4am till 8pm six days a week on Sunday morning when I had milked the cows and cleaned out I could have the rest of the day off till milking time at night then getting back home around 8pm and for this I got paid a flat rate £4 -10 shillings a week and one meal and 1 pint of milk each day, there was no overtime pay, after 18 months I asked for a rise of 10 shillings and was told I was already taking home more than the farmer was making.


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## Spectric (26 Mar 2022)

Awac said:


> I do wonder if this is my memory or a reality?


It is reality, just imagine being young today! Teenagers no longer have any identity and don't have the same paths we had to travel along, they are just young adults with a hard life ahead wheras back in the day you knew you needed education and a job, that could allow you to buy a house, collect a wife along the way and pay for it ready for retirement with a final salary pension, things were layed out and jobs could be for life. There was also a retirement age, you were not expected to work until you drop. Now we are in a right mess, people seem to have this conception of infinite choice that goes way beyond the bounds of both sense and normality where anything can be anything, at least for now computer systems are still binary but god help us when AI takes over and your computer decides it is a one legged pan sexual alien called sue!


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## Sandyn (26 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> There used to be so many shops selling new components, walk in and buy your transistors and even valves or go to one of the many surplus shops, great days and now all gone along with even Maplins


They have just had to adopt to modern times. Even good old Tandy are still alive, but I do miss being able to go in to the shops and browse around for bargains.


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## Sandyn (26 Mar 2022)

Getting old isn't all bad. For example, I don't have to work any more and the government gives me a bit of money every month.


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## artie (26 Mar 2022)

Sandyn said:


> Getting old isn't all bad.


I can agree with that, I'm probably happier now than at ant previous point.


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## JimB (27 Mar 2022)

Perhaps growing old is when you realise that you wouldn't really want to meet your opinionated younger self


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## MikeJhn (27 Mar 2022)

I'm far more opinionated now than I ever was in my youth.

Salary in 1963 was £3.2/6 a week, train fare to work £1.5s gave my mother £1.2/6 for my keep, at the weekend I used to earn over £10.00 cleaning cars, Mohair suits and spend most of my weekend evenings in the West End, Wardour and Carnaby Street mostly, Oh yes day release and three nights a week at Collage.


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## JimB (27 Mar 2022)

MikeJhn said:


> I'm far more opinionated now than I ever was in my youth.



So am I but my experience now tells me I'm right


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## fixit45 (27 Mar 2022)

Growing old, is when all those you love and know start dying and you get closer to being on your own.


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## Mick p (27 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> In Chelmsford it was GEC Marconi, EEV and Crompton electrical that provided all the surplus and gave many people an early interest in electronics and paved the way for future careers. There used to be so many shops selling new components, walk in and buy your transistors and even valves or go to one of the many surplus shops, great days and now all gone along with even Maplins so a sign of the times and we wonder why we have such a skills shortage. There is nothing to get youngsters interested in these hands on hobbies. Look around, what happened to all the model shops, places of wonder and most towns had at least one and I can clearly remember going to Wanstead flats to watch the model planes flying and the boats in the lake.
> 
> No the kids of today are missing out on so much without even realising it, life is a rush where parents force kids to growup fast as if growing rhubarb and get them onto the conveyor belt ASAP to go through education and the mandatory degree in anything to become a five star worker in the local takeaway, what happened to the "teenager phase" !
> 
> Life has flatlined, there is something missing that I cannot put a word to but excitment, buzz, anticipation are in the right vein. So put yourself in their shoes, what is the future, a lifetime of debt and unless you invest heavily no retirement until you are to old to enjoy it and now the addition of pandemic's and world war, so being old is not so bad after all but we should be educating the youngsters as to what life could be and getting a better balance of age in government so the young get a fairer and better say in their future rather than leaving it to people who only have limited time left, yet are willing to leave them a horrendous future.


The absolute best comment I’ve read on this topic i now know that I’m officially OLD . Thanks


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## Keith 66 (27 Mar 2022)

When you get up from kneeling down you say "ooof". 
And all you have to look forward to is dry dreams & wet farts.


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## the great waldo (27 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> I always think it's interesting to compare prices to wages, in 1976 I was a 20 yo single guy living with my mother, not ideal but that's how it was. I was taking home £55 a week. I don't think I've been better off financially before or since.


You could buy a lot of beer for 55 pounds in those days. I remmember I used to earn in the early 70's 3 pounds on a Saturday washing up in a staff kitchen in Bourne and Hollingsworth in Oxford street I think a Guiness was about 1and /6pence and I thought I was rich !! Mind you I never went hungry on a Saturday steak and chips for lunch (forbidden by the management who left a sign by the cutting board stating Steak was only for the customers) I somehow missed that every Saturday. The ladies from the cosmetics counters recieved their steak thicknesses on a scale according to how attractive they were. Watching are you being served was not far of the truth.
Cheers
Andrew


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## artie (27 Mar 2022)

the great waldo said:


> You could buy a lot of beer for 55 pounds in those days.


I don't remember exactly. I think you could get around 3 pints or three shorts for a pound.
I used to give mother her share first then put a tenner in my pocket for spending and put the rest in one of those fold over note holders and hide it in a cupboard. 
That worked ok until my younger sister found out where it was.


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## Glyn Hyatt (27 Mar 2022)

DJT48 said:


> You're right, my arithmetic was awry. I claim COVID brain fog.
> 
> The percentage comparison isn't really correct. The income of an 18 year-old back in 1967 could hardly be called representative of a living wage at the time. In my case, it was in the order of £11 or £12 per week
> 
> However, to put things in a perspective, compound inflation to date since 1987 in the UK has been 149.56%. Petrol price inflation in the UK for the same period has been over 2200%.


You were quite well paid compared to my apprenticeship.1976 £13.99 for a 40 hour week. 
works out at 35p per hour. 
gave up a labouring job in a local factory at £21 per week. My mum wasn’t impressed.


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## Phil Pascoe (27 Mar 2022)

1970 a decent pint was 2/- (10p), Guinness a bit more. 1977 a decent pint was 25p - 28p, Guinness 33p. It was in my bar, anyway.


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## MikeJhn (27 Mar 2022)

Glyn Hyatt said:


> You were quite well paid compared to my apprenticeship.1976 £13.99 for a 40 hour week.
> works out at 35p per hour.
> gave up a labouring job in a local factory at £21 per week. My mum wasn’t impressed.


You know when you are old when the post above confuse's you as it does not work out in ponds shilling and pence.


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## selectortone (27 Mar 2022)

fixit45 said:


> Growing old, is when all those you love and know start dying and you get closer to being on your own.


It happens.

I was in that situation: 70, widower, friends mostly pushing up daisies, kids moved away. I joined my local woodturning club, met a crowd of new friends and now go tenpin bowling twice a week in a local league I was introduced to by my turning friends. That's good exercise and plently enough social for this old curmudgeon. Beats sitting indoors feeling sorry for yourself. Just friendly advice.


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## stuart little (27 Mar 2022)

DJT48 said:


> Haha! Yes. When I started driving, petrol in the UK was 6s 8d (about 37 pence) per gallon. Now it's more than £7!


About the same as a 45rpm record , If remember right.


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## GweithdyDU (27 Mar 2022)

When what you give a damn about the most when the world is looking like it is going poo-shaped, is not what it means for you or 'our lot', but how said poo is going affect our kids and grandkids. Not just relating to the recent poo from poo-tin, but the seemingly inevitable slide to massively divided communities, full of people with little tolerance for anything they hear outside of the 'echo-chambers' they 'inhabit'. 

Oh yeah, and on a completely different note, when younger people see my Allen scythe working and you tell them you were taught to use one in Rural-Science class at age 13 and they say, "But surely the school were breaking Health and Safety rules". They have a similar incredulous response when you tell them at age 17 you could ride 100mph+ motorcycles on L-plates. Mind you, they often call you a "jammy (insert expletive)" when you tell them you had a 'tweaked' one that you built and it went far too fast.


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## JimJay (28 Mar 2022)

I drove over for an overnight visit to the outlaws with The Boss yesterday. They're all part of my Fending Off Old Age plan - her parents are just a couple of years older than I am.... 

Even when I was still living in the UK, which wasn't that long ago, looking at the prices in the supermarket would still shock me - how could a loaf of bread be more than a tanner, let alone over a quid?


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## ian33a (28 Mar 2022)

Spectric said:


> In Chelmsford it was GEC Marconi, EEV and Crompton electrical that provided all the surplus and gave many people an early interest in electronics and paved the way for future careers. There used to be so many shops selling new components, walk in and buy your transistors and even valves or go to one of the many surplus shops, great days and now all gone along with even Maplins so a sign of the times and we wonder why we have such a skills shortage. There is nothing to get youngsters interested in these hands on hobbies. Look around, what happened to all the model shops, places of wonder and most towns had at least one and I can clearly remember going to Wanstead flats to watch the model planes flying and the boats in the lake.
> 
> No the kids of today are missing out on so much without even realising it, life is a rush where parents force kids to growup fast as if growing rhubarb and get them onto the conveyor belt ASAP to go through education and the mandatory degree in anything to become a five star worker in the local takeaway, what happened to the "teenager phase" !
> 
> Life has flatlined, there is something missing that I cannot put a word to but excitment, buzz, anticipation are in the right vein. So put yourself in their shoes, what is the future, a lifetime of debt and unless you invest heavily no retirement until you are to old to enjoy it and now the addition of pandemic's and world war, so being old is not so bad after all but we should be educating the youngsters as to what life could be and getting a better balance of age in government so the young get a fairer and better say in their future rather than leaving it to people who only have limited time left, yet are willing to leave them a horrendous future.



I started out doing an apprenticeship working for another of those big companies, albeit a little further down the road, an outfit called Plessey. I did well with them and got an electronics degree by the end. The initial pay was rubbish. Even after getting my degree, it was still rubbish. I moved to a field office of a large American test equipment corporation and didn't really look back after that. 

I also fondly remember the likes of Tandy and Maplin and a host of other companies where you could buy a kit from a magazine and have it sent to you or turn up at a shop and buy a 100 ohm resistor (you didn't call them 100R back then). 
I've also lost count, must be several hundred, model kits that I bought from Airfix, Revel, Tamiya and so on. So many lovingly painted and stored on shelves for years. They must have been a curse for my mum come dusting time but my parents loved the fact that I was practical and was willing to make stuff and enjoyed doing it.

In my first year of the apprenticeship I was sent to a training centre. It was like prison, except that you went home in the evenings. I had a cap with my number written on the front of it. My tools had my number stamped on them. I was number 40. I will never forget it. I still have many of those tools, the best part of 45 years later. I hated the place. I hated how they treated people. I went back to my boss at Plessey one day, on the verge of tears. He told me "It's a game, it's just a game. Play the game and once it's over, you'll look back and see that it was worth it". He was so right. That pseudo prison gave me the confidence to use hand and machine tools and to make stuff and to deal with a wide range of people. It set me up for life, not just for a working life.

When our son came around to choose a career, he was going to take the maths, further maths and physics approach. I suggested he consider something a little less academic. He took the further maths out and substituted electronics and control (and Geography). He really enjoyed the electronics and went on to do a masters in it. 

Is he practical? Somewhat. Being practical these days, it seems to me, is more about being able to adapt stuff to suit your needs. You might buy a bit of electronic kit from Amazon and then, via Alexa, tweak it to suit what you want it to do for you. Or you may open a web page and change some parameters and adapt it via wi-fi. It's just different. Is it worse? For those of us who knew or know an old school way, it probably seems like mickey mouse practicality. For youngsters of today, who have no interest in learning machine code or low level programming, it's how things are done.

Equally, if we look around the house. When I was starting out, I built shelves from scratch. I did electrical wiring, plumbing, I did simple plastering, decorating, you name it. We're in the process of moving and it seems to me that if you don't have a building control certificate for this and a completion works for that and an electrical safety certificate for this and a gas safe certificate for that ... well ! (The indemnity policy is going to cost you) It's not a bad thing necessarily, but with everything being so stressed, it's no surprise that youngsters just pay somebody to come in and do stuff.

In our new place (or more correctly, in our new, old place), assuming it all goes through, there is a fair bit of stuff to work on. Much of it is cosmetic and we will do ourselves, slowly, as retirees. Anything that is a little outside my comfort zone or which needs official sign off, we will get people in. It's probably a function of being a little older and, as my uncle famously said "you need to put your hand in your pocket" (and pay somebody), and we can afford to do so now. 

Is is more stress for youngsters these days? Yes, I think it is generally. Deadlines are shorter. Management of activities via IT make everything more visible to everyone, particularly managers and there is a mentality of "I want this and I want it done by... and I'll be monitoring it so make sure your time sheets are submitted electronically". 

Having said that, our son now works for one of the big four professional services companies as an IT auditor. The company, being short staffed during the busy period, asked people to up their hours by about 20%. There was wide spread moaning because it was unpaid (but in the contract). Our son was bleating to us about being over worked doing a 45 hour week, home based. He got very little sympathy from myself or my wife. For us, throughout our working lives, 45 hour weeks were at best the normal and almost seemingly part time... and we had to commute to work on top!

Us older people were and are rock 'ard .... today's youngsters are not known as the snow flake generation for nothing.


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## the great waldo (28 Mar 2022)

artie said:


> I don't remember exactly. I think you could get around 3 pints or three shorts for a pound.
> I used to give mother her share first then put a tenner in my pocket for spending and put the rest in one of those fold over note holders and hide it in a cupboard.
> That worked ok until my younger sister found out where it was.


Yes I used to leave mine under the mattress. I told my brother to help himself and the lodger who was a mate too. The lodger always replaced any money he took, my brother seemed to suffer from a bad memory!!
Cheers
Andrew


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## stuart little (28 Mar 2022)

GweithdyDU said:


> When what you give a damn about the most when the world is looking like it is going poo-shaped, is not what it means for you or 'our lot', but how said poo is going affect our kids and grandkids. Not just relating to the recent poo from poo-tin, but the seemingly inevitable slide to massively divided communities, full of people with little tolerance for anything they hear outside of the 'echo-chambers' they 'inhabit'.
> 
> Oh yeah, and on a completely different note, when younger people see my Allen scythe working and you tell them you were taught to use one in Rural-Science class at age 13 and they say, "But surely the school were breaking Health and Safety rules". They have a similar incredulous response when you tell them at age 17 you could ride 100mph+ motorcycles on L-plates. Mind you, they often call you a "jammy (insert expletive)" when you tell them you had a 'tweaked' one that you built and it went far too fast.


OOH! An Allen scythe - haven't heard of one in 'a coon's age' (Davy Crockett said). When I was 15 or 16 [circa 1960] I had a p/t job gardening for a retired major, one of my chores was to mow a small meadow (now a housing estate of about 10 bunglehouses ) with a 'trusty' Allen, cutting down thistles, nettles, & docks etc, which horses wouldn't eat.


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## Keith Cocker (28 Mar 2022)

Sandyn said:


> Getting old isn't all bad. For example, I don't have to work any more and the government gives me a bit of money every month.


Indeed! The way I see it is they are giving me back a small amount of the money I paid them over many years!!!


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## Spectric (28 Mar 2022)

ian33a said:


> albeit a little further down the road, an outfit called Plessey.


Was that the one near South Ockendon / Upminster?



ian33a said:


> I hated how they treated people. I went back to my boss at Plessey one day, on the verge of tears.


Can you imagine the youngsters of today in that enviroment, but the saying no pain and no gain is true. My dad worked for a company in Chadwell Heath called Motor Gear, a specialist manufacturer of all types of gears and universal joints and again long gone, I don't think these products are made in the UK any more so another huge loss for British industry and then lets not forget RHP in Chelmsford, it was the largest bearing manufacturer in Europe for decades and now just a university where you go to get a degree in drama or some other easy subject. On their open day it was an amazing place to walk round, rows and rows of machinery with the heavy smell of cutting fluid hanging in the air with ball bearings the size of melons and bearings you could stand several people in the centre of.



stuart little said:


> with a 'trusty' Allen, cutting down thistles, nettles, & docks etc, which horses wouldn't eat.


 I still have an Allen strimmer, thirty five years plus old and still going strong with a Kawasaki two stroke engine, no plastic bits apart from the fuel tank.


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## Concizat (28 Mar 2022)

stuart little said:


> OOH! An Allen scythe - haven't heard of one in 'a coon's age' (Davy Crockett said). When I was 15 or 16 [circa 1960] I had a p/t job gardening for a retired major, one of my chores was to mow a small meadow (now a housing estate of about 10 bunglehouses ) with a 'trusty' Allen, cutting down thistles, nettles, & docks etc, which horses wouldn't eat.


I still have one at my house in France. Very powerful little beasts. I remember once I decided to drive it back into the shed instead of pushing it. Misjudged and cracked the door frame when the wheel hit it. It will probably remain there as I'm no longer able to go out due to the wife having Alzheimers so the house will be up for sale soon


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## Titan_uk (28 Mar 2022)

When your spending money had proper silver in it and being so very happy when your dad brought home a little packet from the pub as a treat that consisted of 2 cheese biscuits a bit of cheese and 2 silverskin pickles that cost 3p (I think)


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## Doug B (28 Mar 2022)




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## JBaz (28 Mar 2022)

_Mike Jhn said "Mohair suits and spend most of my weekend evenings in the West End, Wardour and Carnaby Street mostly"_

Aaah - Two tone Tonic Mohair trousers (with turnups), Fred Perry or Ben Sherman shirt, Squire shoes and Harrington bomber jacket or Crombie in the winter. A weekend millionaire!
​


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## MikeJhn (29 Mar 2022)

Shoes where Revel's in my case, still around but only women's shoes now, my shirts now come from Henry Arlington you will love them: Sale Shirts - Men's Shirts - Henry Arlington England


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## Swannie61 (29 Mar 2022)

I was explaining to my grandchildren whilst driving them to school this morning, that when I was their age, I had to walk everywhere, as grandpa rarely gave me a lift. Grace asked if he actually had a car, or did I mean horses for a horse and cart. I didn’t think I was that old, they obviously have a different opinion , so this makes sense I’m only 61


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## HamsterJam (29 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> Totaly agree not only thriving retail sector but Exchange and Mart like ebay and Wish but in paper form and in Manchester electrical army surplus stores could get all components for amateur radio building gave me a good grounding


Do you still have a radio licence? I have kept mine although been inactive for years. I wonder how many others on here have them too?
I cut my teeth on Everyday Electronics magazine and spent a lot of pocket money at the local component store.
I work with RF and have used or repaired equipment from most of the manufacturers mentioned including EEV, Plessey, etc


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## artie (29 Mar 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> Do you still have a radio licence?


No longer, but it was fun at the time.


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## niall Y (29 Mar 2022)

Being old, is when stars who were famous when you were a child, are now only a year or two older than you.


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## Thingybob (29 Mar 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> Do you still have a radio licence? I have kept mine although been inactive for years. I wonder how many others on here have them too?
> I cut my teeth on Everyday Electronics magazine and spent a lot of pocket money at the local component store.
> I work with RF and have used or repaired equipment from most of the manufacturers mentioned including EEV, Plessey, etc


Strange thing , Years ago i bought a ZX81 computer first Sinclair foray into computers took ages to programe and when finished after about 2 days a 6 pixel long white line could be navigated around the screen anyway digressing , One evening i had my headphones pluged into ZX when i picked up a local lad on his CB radio sadly in those days could not plug in a mic would of been interesting to reply


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## TRITON (29 Mar 2022)

niall Y said:


> Being old, is when stars who were famous when you were a child, are now only a year or two older than you.


Or worse, their funeral is being announced


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## Sandyn (29 Mar 2022)

Your wife has a list of all your tools and how much to sell them for when you are gone. (permanently, not just out for the day)


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## Jameshow (29 Mar 2022)

Sandyn said:


> Your wife has a list of all your tools and how much to sell them for when you are gone. (permanently, not just out for the day)


Never - if she ever sells mine she'll think I've been a shrewd invester!


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## Thingybob (30 Mar 2022)

Sandyn said:


> Your wife has a list of all your tools and how much to sell them for when you are gone. (permanently, not just out for the day)


Yea but i have got a list of all her shoes and make up if she go s first (world cruise worth )


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## ian33a (30 Mar 2022)

Thingybob said:


> Yea but i have got a list of all her shoes and make up if she go s first (world cruise worth )



I'll be poor if she goes first - she isn't into fancy clothes, shoes or make up ...... 

..... which means that I get to have nice tools, cars, bikes and watches while she's still alive and I can enjoy them


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## Jameshow (30 Mar 2022)

If she goes first I've got our time ... 

That proves I'm old!


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## stuart little (30 Mar 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> Do you still have a radio licence? I have kept mine although been inactive for years. I wonder how many others on here have them too?
> I cut my teeth on Everyday Electronics magazine and spent a lot of pocket money at the local component store.
> I work with RF and have used or repaired equipment from most of the manufacturers mentioned including EEV, Plessey, etc


I had one for a car radio once upon a time, 'when I was sitting comfortable'.


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## artie (30 Mar 2022)

Getting a spam email from some online seller and not knowing what most of the stuff is even used for.


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## Alwyn (31 Mar 2022)

If I die before my wife, never let her know how much my tools cost me!


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## Geoff_S (31 Mar 2022)

If I died before my wife and she found out what I’d paid for stuff, she wake me up and kill me again!


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## Tris (1 Apr 2022)

When you no longer get 'early onset' anything


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## WoodchipWilbur (1 Apr 2022)

Swannie61 said:


> I was explaining to my grandchildren whilst driving them to school this morning, that when I was their age, I had to walk everywhere, as grandpa rarely gave me a lift. Grace asked if he actually had a car, or did I mean horses for a horse and cart. I didn’t think I was that old, they obviously have a different opinion , so this makes sense I’m only 61


I grew up in a rural area - and can still vividly remember the excitement in the village when a farmer brought the first tractor into the parish. Can also remember happy hours, to and fro, sitting on a Wesh Cob mowing or ploughing with a bit of baler twine to hang onto. They used to bring the threshing machine around with its traction engine - but replacing a reliable horse? Horror!


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## Spectric (1 Apr 2022)

HamsterJam said:


> Everyday Electronics magazine and spent a lot of pocket money at the local component store.


More reminders of what once was, there were many magazines for the various hobbies and most with projects for you to build, I can remember clearly getting Everyday Electronics and there was also practical electronics as well as many for the radio hams. I can see why electronics is maybe not so popular now and that is because we only had through hole components and they were more chunky and easy to work with, now with surface mount and components being much smaller it can make things much more difficult for the hobbyist. This reminded me of the component shop I used to visit in Hornchurch, the owner said that if I could remember the resister colour codes then he would let me have these for free which helped, but I also used to salvage components from old Tv's and radio's.

Another reminder are the chaps who would come round and repair your Tv carrying their leather tool bag, they were essential really because the Tvs were always going wrong.


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## Jameshow (1 Apr 2022)

Spectric said:


> More reminders of what once was, there were many magazines for the various hobbies and most with projects for you to build, I can remember clearly getting Everyday Electronics and there was also practical electronics as well as many for the radio hams. I can see why electronics is maybe not so popular now and that is because we only had through hole components and they were more chunky and easy to work with, now with surface mount and components being much smaller it can make things much more difficult for the hobbyist. This reminded me of the component shop I used to visit in Hornchurch, the owner said that if I could remember the resister colour codes then he would let me have these for free which helped, but I also used to salvage components from old Tv's and radio's.
> 
> Another reminder are the chaps who would come round and repair your Tv carrying their leather tool bag, they were essential really because the Tvs were always going wrong.


Aeromodeller for me, esp the Vic smeed plans!


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## Thingybob (1 Apr 2022)

When a little younger i used to love military modeling building dioramas , A lot of the time was taken up with research mags ,library and chatting to vets to get the campaign badges right and the colours it was nt just make a plastic model


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## Jim Davis (6 Apr 2022)

When you prefer getting to bed earlier than meeting with friends to hang out.


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