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

[DJT48]

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!

 

[artie]

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

 

[Spectric]

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.

 

[Awac]

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).

 

[Spectric]

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.

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.

 

[DJT48]

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%.

 

[Thingybob]

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 "

 

[artie]

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.

 

[Thingybob]

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 .

 

[Thingybob]

was that an intentional pun??

I thought that when i had typed it but hey ho

 

[Thingybob]

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

 

[DJT48]

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

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

The year was 1967 not 1987 and compound inflation is

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%

 

[Geoff_S]

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 ***** wage.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

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.

 

[artie]

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.

 

[Phill05]

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.

 

[Spectric]

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!

 

[Sandyn]

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.

 

[Sandyn]

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.

 

[artie]

Getting old isn't all bad.

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