The way we were..60 years ago

[CHJ]

The other half is niggled to this day that her old ration book still has unused sweet coupons in it, guess there were other priorities for what little money was coming in.
The only alternate for me was to take a small blue bag of sugar into Kidderminster market and trade it for sweets.

 

[Digit]

Anyone remember the first bananas? None of us kids knew what to do with them!

Roy.

 

[CHJ]

Remember my first slice of water melon, in Lewis's store in B'ham. (now the the minories building). Felt very guilty at saying I did not like it because I realised it must have been expensive to be sold by the slice.

 

[Digit]

Dad had an allotment, raised Hens and Rabbits, poached when he could so we never went hungry, but the diet lacked the variety that we enjoy now, but no matter how dull a diet I could never stomach Whale meat!
How the Japs can go overboard for it mystifies me.

Roy.

 

[RogerS]

..... but no matter how dull a diet I could never stomach Whale meat!
.........

Seeing where you live, Roy, isn't that cannibalism?

And bringing the thread back on track, my first job was on BBC TV Outside broadcasts in 1968. When we stayed away overnight we got £32 for 24 hour subsistence allowance..no receipts required. In today's money, that's about £400+ quid. Then some years later, and long after I had left, they started asking for receipts and the sales of John Bull printing sets went through the roof :-"

 

[Digit]

:lol: :lol:
I didn't see that coming, I'm slipping!

Roy.

 

[RogerS]

:lol: :lol:
I didn't see that coming, I'm slipping!

Roy.

Neither did Dylan and Bronwyn :shock:

 

[woodbloke]

...Whale meat!

Roy.

...reminds me of the old WWII song by Dame Vera...'whale meat again, don't know where, don't know when etc' :mrgreen: :mrgreen: (hammer) - Rob

 

[Digit]

Gawd it was 'orrible!

Roy.

 

[dickm]

The one thing over the last 40-odd years that I could well manage without is house price inflation. This was brought home forcibly when I retired, and we went to look at a house in the Lune Valley that was identical to the one we bought in the area for £4000 in 1968. The similar house in 2005 was £412,000. Even on an incremental salary scale, there was no way my salary had gone up by a factor of more than 100 times over the same period.
So somewhere, lots of silly money was created for some by re-mortgaging; for the rest of us, it just made housing less affordable.

But I'm another who wouldn't be here without the development of antibiotcs, though the original sulphonamides d**n near killed me through an allergic reaction

 

[Digit]

Not all of it is down to inflation ****, you get more for your money. Today as standard you would likely get DG windows, UPVC frames, central heating, insulation, TV and telephone points etc. In 2015 it will get worse as all houses must be constructed to the 'Zero Carbon' standard.

Roy.