I don't think they would believe it nowadays?

[Jacob]

And I would’ve had no qualms in sacking you when I caught you, as I did lots of times. Can’t stand thieves.

I wouldn't actually have nicked anything - I was merely being "facetious" (as usual). A bit like sarcasm; doesn't always work!

 

[heimlaga]

I was told at work some time back now that apprentices are only allowed to watch me not touch untill they are 18 . makes me laugh I started work at 15 could use a lathe forge welding gear and lug stuff about in fact we could pretty much use lathes etc from about 13 on at school by 18 I was fairly proficient so kids today start with a handicap.

Sounds ridiculous.
I started driving tractor at age 6 or thereabout. Massey-Ferguson 35 without cab nor roll over protection. I was taught to drive carefully and for several years I was only allowed to use the three lowest gears.
I got my first saw at age 4. Immediately started felling small trees on my own. Up to 6 or 7 cm diametre I would guess.
I got my first knife at age 7 or 8.
I got my first axe at 12 or 13.
At age 8 or 9 I helped dad build a small flat bottomed boat from plywood. the boat was to be my own. One or two years later I was allowed to go rowing on lakes on my own or with friends. At 12 dad and I together bought a 13 foot rowboat which we fitted with a small spritsail and kept in the village harbour. After some tst trps with dad I was allowed out with friends or on my own.
I started using the chainsaw at 17 and that was considered late but my parents were generally a bit on the protective side.

I am deeply worried now when my generation have kids and some hardly allow their kids to do anything else than watch a screen until they are 18. No wonder many become depressed or turn to drugs or criminality in order to have some content in their lives.

 

[Cabinetman]

I wouldn't actually have nicked anything - I was merely being "facetious" (as usual). A bit like sarcasm; doesn't always work!

Glad to hear it Jacob, I thought it was a bit unlike you. Just a thought, I reckon that people who work with their hands particularly with wood are probably a bit less likely to be thieves to start with? Something to do with being fulfilled and happy and productive maybe? Ian

 

[Jacob]

Glad to hear it Jacob, I thought it was a bit unlike you. Just a thought, I reckon that people who work with their hands particularly with wood are probably a bit less likely to be thieves to start with? Something to do with being fulfilled and happy and productive maybe? Ian

An odd thing is - I lose stuff regularly (very untidy) and often start thinking ferkynell somebody's nicked it! But in fact they always turn up eventually and I don't think I've ever had anything stolen either. Not counting borrowed and forgotten of course!
PS except battery disappearing from my Lada Estate many years ago. It was worth more than the car itself and had Russian text all over it and picture of a tractor

 

[Daniel2]

That's funny, I was thinking the opposite. I think there are people on both sides who prefer to shut down the conversation because it makes them uncomfortable. I like having uncomfortable conversations, you learn a lot about people.

I agree, you learn a lot about people, PLUS one learns a lot - full stop

 

[Daniel2]

Glad to hear it Jacob, I thought it was a bit unlike you. Just a thought, I reckon that people who work with their hands particularly with wood are probably a bit less likely to be thieves to start with? Something to do with being fulfilled and happy and productive maybe? Ian

Nah.... Probably just a desire to keep one's hands. Remembering how certain punishments
have been meted out for stealing.

 

[Glitch]

The item would then be £n. 95p
The original reason for the 99p or 19s 11d or even back to the farthing was to ensure the shop assisistant had to use the till and not just wait until the customer had turned their back and then pocket the note.

Good point, but times they are a changing.
I'm more than happy to have a cashless society. Little need for it these days.
Cash Management is expensive.

 

[Reginald]

What planet were you living on? Violence has never been lower and with the exception of Scotland education standards have continued to rise year on year for the most part.

Did you really say education standards have risen I must be on another planet

 

[Rorschach]

Did you really say education standards have risen I must be on another planet

They have, except in Scotland, they are declining there, along with a lot of other things such as health care.

 

[Deadeye]

What about racing round and round the block in town every night in our Ford Anglias , minis and Cortinas with rarely a Constable to be seen.

That'd be the block with the national gallery then?

 

[TominDales]

I seem to remember there were no speed limits on secondary A roads, only motorways, towns and trunk roads, if there was no sign then you could do what you like? I recall us egging my father on, to see if he could do 100 on a not so strait stretch, near our house.

The battery on the Morris minor was always a bit weak, not helped by my mother leaving the lights on. But all she had to do was wait by the side of the road with the cracking handle/wheel nut spanner and the next man driving pass would instantly stop and crank the car. The Morris 1000 went very fast. Although the first one they had, she was always snapping the indicator off.

 

[TominDales]

Although the summers seemed like total sunshine and a lot of fun, winters in the 60's and 70's were bitter. Chilblains and always being cold in winter. Wearing loads of cloths, thick jerseys so that you felt like the Michelin man. Every winter we would go sledging and skating on the local lakes/ponds during big freezes, it was a bit doggy testing the ice to see if it would hold our weight and running like mad if it started to crack. Throwing snowballs and conker fights were allowed in school. In fact we had a school conker championships in break time.
If it snowed, things tended to carry on as normal, getting stuck in snow a normal winter pastime.
Our house like most was heated with coal until sometime in the late 60's when central heating came in, even then it was a fraction of the power of todays and only took the chill off, it was fired by paraffin to begin with, it was another 30 years before gas turned up in our village. One of our chores was to fill the coal bucket (several times a day) my mother would spend a huge amount of the day lighting, shoveling coal and emptying ash. If we were lucky you could keep the fire in all night and re-kindle it in the morning. Otherwise it was folding up old newspaper into firelighters to get them going again.
I recall in one fireplace had a sooty hook in the chimney that could be pulled down with tongs to enable hot water to be heated.
My mother tells a story that when the council officer came round to ***** the rates for the house in the early 60's its was a bitterly cold day and he shivered and complained about the cold and she was convinced he gave it a low value.

 

[TominDales]

There was an underlying tension from the nuclear arms race for most of the 60s and early 70s. I cant remember 63 but my teachers were alarmed, it did feel that the world could end at any time. The movies at the time played on this, I remember watching the 'Day the earth caught fire' which had a plot about the earths orbit being destabilised by simulations nuclear test by the superpowers. The week it was released that very thing happened and there was a tense moment when everyone waited to see if it had set indeed set the earth on a path to the sun! Henry Fonda's Failsafe and Dr Strangelove were more fun.

We lived in a farming village with no police station, so Leicestershire police/home office/BT installed an early warning receiver in the cellar of our house. Every village without a police house, had one, known as WB400 and upgrades WB1400 If it went off, my parents was supposed to cycle round the village and tell everyone to hide - they had 4 minutes to do this. Once a quarter we had to test the thing. Turn it on, where it bleeped loudly, and listen to the instructions on the various type of alarm signalling different attach modes. Finally there was a coded word that you had to write on a postcard and send back to prove you had done your duty. When my mum forgot to listen in, she used to tick the box saying the battery had run flat. We had a good few space batteries. It wasn't removed until 1993....

 

[TominDales]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the 3 day week. Vote for Ted for 3 days in bed. The first miners strike, dock strikes, power workers strike. Inflation hitting 15 to 20% and then the IMF crisis. It was all very dramatic in the 70's. The 3 days week, when you had to have candles every where and we bought hurricane lamps that smelt terrible and cooked on the open fire.
I missed the start of it, as my school didn't have mains electricity, it was quite remote and maybe someone wouldn't pay for it, so it had an old ww2 generator that gave out 120v DC and was very intermittent, the lights would dim and we had endless power cuts. But it sailed through the 3 day week without a hitch.

 

[Doug71]

We lived in a farming village with no police station, so Leicestershire police/home office/BT installed an early warning receiver in the cellar of our house. Every village without a police house, had one, known as WB400 and upgrades WB1400 If it went off, my parents was supposed to cycle round the village and tell everyone to hide - they had 4 minutes to do this. Once a quarter we had to test the thing. Turn it on, where it bleeped loudly, and listen to the instructions on the various type of alarm signalling different attach modes. Finally there was a coded word that you had to write on a postcard and send back to prove you had done your duty. When my mum forgot to listen in, she used to tick the box saying the battery had run flat. We had a good few space batteries. It wasn't removed until 1993....

We had the early warning system for our village in our house but instead of the bike thing we had a siren which you took outside and wound the handle, it was buried somewhere in the cupboard under the stairs, I'm sure it would have taken more than 4 minutes just to dig it out! I remember the quarterly test thing, it was always very exciting, felt like we were part of some secret service.

 

[TominDales]

There was much less to do - I remember sitting around a lot on rainy days playing board games and cards, aunts and grandparents would entertain you with endless card games. We didn't see much of our fathers, they worked all day and Saturday mornings and then Saturday afternoon was off playing with their mates, he seemed to play some sort of sport every Saturday so we only saw him on Sundays and the annual short summer holiday.

My mum was busy round the house so we would mooch off with friends - one of the reasons I got into wood work, was for something interesting to do.
We were unsupervised and got into all sorts of scrapes and I'm amazed not more got injured, although my brother managed to break two arms, his back his forehead, cut his leg with a chainsaw and get glass in his backside, all on separate occasions and I had a fair few stitches including getting a bit of branch through my foot.

I recall at age 7 or so nicking a 12 bore cartridge that was lying around somewhere and a group of us probably about 5 or 6 sat round in a circle in a stable, I held it with plyers pointing face down at the stone floor while someone held a six inch nail on the trigger button while another person (my brother) hit the nail with a hammer. An enormous bang and I felt the shot rush past my cheeks having bounced off the floor. None of us was hurt - an absolute miracle - I still shudder thinking about it. No adults in sight or perturbed by the shot going off.

 

[TominDales]

We had the early warning system for our village in our house but instead of the bike thing we had a siren which you took outside and wound the handle, it was buried somewhere in the cupboard under the stairs, I'm sure it would have taken more than 4 minutes just to dig it out! I remember the quarterly test thing, it was always very exciting, felt like we were part of some secret service.

That's interesting, most people I told about it at school didn't believed me, but the few who had these things also had the siren. We didnt have one, maybe my rather absent minded mum had lost it.

 

[artie]

That'd be the block with the national gallery then?

Nope.

The one with the dole office, chip shop and Presbyterian Church.

 

[Cabinetman]

There was much less to do - I remember sitting around a lot on rainy days playing board games and cards, aunts and grandparents would entertain you with endless card games. We didn't see much of our fathers, they worked all day and Saturday mornings and then Saturday afternoon was off playing with their mates, he seemed to play some sort of sport every Saturday so we only saw him on Sundays and the annual short summer holiday.

My mum was busy round the house so we would mooch off with friends - one of the reasons I got into wood work, was for something interesting to do.
We were unsupervised and got into all sorts of scrapes and I'm amazed not more got injured, although my brother managed to break two arms, his back his forehead, cut his leg with a chainsaw and get glass in his backside, all on separate occasions and I had a fair few stitches including getting a bit of branch through my foot.

I recall at age 7 or so nicking a 12 bore cartridge that was lying around somewhere and a group of us probably about 5 or 6 sat round in a circle in a stable, I held it with plyers pointing face down at the stone floor while someone held a six inch nail on the trigger button while another person (my brother) hit the nail with a hammer. An enormous bang and I felt the shot rush past my cheeks having bounced off the floor. None of us was hurt - an absolute miracle - I still shudder thinking about it. No adults in sight or perturbed by the shot going off.

You were all incredibly lucky, that was a really dangerous thing to do as I’m sure you realise now. Makes the things I did look really time thank goodness. Ian

 

[TominDales]

The general relaxed attitude to SHE was almost certainty a bad thing, but it did afford us a lot of more adventure than todays kids.

When quite small say around 5 or 6, my mum would leave us with this kindly old couple when she had to go to Leicester shopping - it would take a day then. Occasionally we would stay the night. The woman was a cleaner and we would accompany her on her rounds, and get biscuits at 11'es. On days she was busy we would accompany her husband the bus driver on his bus, we would collect the money and spend the day riding the bus, and generally helping out the bus company with odd jobs.

When we were a bit older , probably about 12 upwards we had a regular holiday job delivering cattle food to the local farms. My brother and i would accompany the older drivers (ones with a bit of arthritis) to lighten the load. We got paid £1 day, which was great pocked money. Our job was on the wagon, to drag the sacks to the edge of the flat wagon and place it on the drivers shoulder, who would carry them into the farm barn. We soon found that one of us could do the carrying bit as well and the other would do the dragging. There were a mix of 1/2 hundredweight (25kg) and hundredweight (50kg) hessian sacks. The driver didn't like us lifting the hundredweight sacks but we liked to prove we could. We got to know every farm in within a fifty mile radius.

No-one questioned minors taking a train journey provided they had a ticket. On one occasion staying with a friend, we decided to go to go on our own to the Dutch sea side for the day - it may have been Sheveningham, it was near Amsterdam. My friends mum drove us to the station and we took a very early train to Hull crossed to Holland for the day and came home, the friends mum picked us up from the station and took us home for tea. It was a great day out today she would be arrested. Apparently she did it as a girl so it was safe to do.

One of my close friends Dad build reservoirs and when he finished Rutland water he got moved down to head office in Surry. But his son stayed on for the rest of the year. He would take the train to his parents at weekend/holidays, change at Reading and when he but to Godalming he would phone home 3 times and each time they answered press button B to get his penny back from the phone box. That was the code to collect him. Except the time he didn't realise that Reading had platform 4a and 4b and 4b took him to Plymouth. On getting there he phoned home to tell his parents he would be a bit late, except the penny got stuck in the box and he couldn't press button A. It took him to the next day to find his way back and his family had no idea where he was. But no drama, no police search, just no-new is good news and carry on.