When I were a lad

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I used to love Dance & Rave eJay.

Those were my introduction years ago.
And music2000 on the original playstation.

Until someone handed me a few CDR of cracked pro software and I never looked back.

Listed after hardware for many years. Finally took the plunge over lockdown. Been a labour of love.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

that's class that, nice setup

Thanks mate. That's the new brain of my setup. Spending some time getting to know it in isolation.

Looking forward to reworking some of those shadowgate songs.

 

[Danez]

Thanks mate. That's the new brain of my setup. Spending some time getting to know it in isolation.

Looking forward to reworking some of those shadowgate songs.

Yeah I bet! lot's of potential there for some proper bangers

 

[8ob]

I used to be sent up to the corner shop (O'Keefe's) with a sealed envelope with cash and a note enclosed. I returned with a box carefully wrapped in a brown paper bag and sealed against curious eyes.

My mates errands also included taking a ten bob note down to the grocers to change for single shillings for the gas and leccy meters, can you imagine how long a 5p piece would last with todays energy costs

Bob

 

[pawsnizzy]

Yeah, Yeah, yeah...and you walked to school 6 miles thru knee-deep snow and it was uphill both ways.....

Carter's Pop wagon round these parts

 

[premmington]

was it your dads mam?...bet he went all full on rage

Not sure what happened - I was toddler at the time.

Nan had cats - she gave them bread milk and tinned fish.

Her sight was so bad - she really could not see dirt.

It was difficult later in life to "go clean her house up" - becasue if you moved anything - this caused problems for her.

She lived to a good old age - never went into care - fended for herself - died of a stroke.

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Living in the docklands as a kid,there was that many cockroaches my old man used to put our bed legs in old paint tins filled halfway with water and i remember checking every morning to see if there was any in there.

I personally know a more extreme version of this recipe. Kerosene is poured into jars. Because cockroaches are harmless insects. And blood-sucking bugs, it hurts. But sometimes, hungry bugs, meeting a barrier on the way to food, climbed to the ceiling and attacked the bed from above.

 

[pedrobedro]

A house we moved into when I was about 9 was infested with roaches, the council was sorting it while my parents were stripping the paper off the walls. The wallpaper was over 1/2" thick in all the rooms just layer on layer and never stripped and there were tunnels in the paper where the bugs were living. It took a few weeks to clear them all out, man they were crunchy underfoot.

 

[ajlelectronics]

[

Panda pops. Thick garishly coloured soft drinks. "It's frothy mannn".

I got that wrong, the catchline was for Cresta...

It seemed to drop into Joe and Petunia when it finished; which was fun.

 

[KemppiFrog]

Tales of hardship...and some fun

I was born in '47. Think our first TV was in '50? 9" with a big magnifying glass, so 405 and BBC only. Only moved on when BBC2 came out, as parents not interested in ITV. My bro and I converted the old set into an oscilascope..
Rationing still on and that odd concentrated orange juice, along with spoons of malt. Off to school on my fairey cycle (up the A10!) at 6 or 7.
Helped the milkman on his round locally for 6 pence and a bottle of orange.. Rag and Bone man came past. Eye was kept open in case Hercules dropped some rose fertilizer...
As for Concorde, actually worked on bits of the air ducting round the engines, getting the aerodynamics right. Made GRP ducts for tunnel testing, as the HS guys were having trouble with the flow.
When young, we had remarkable freedom. In this day and age, parents would be prosecuted and we taken into care, for some of the stuff we were allowed to do.
Aged 11, I built a little sailing dinghy. I suggested I would sail across Falmouth bay. 'Sounds like a good trip' was the only comment at breakfast, so I did. I did take a life jacket, so that was OK...

As for the comment about most 'over 75s having not much of a life. We, and many of our friends, keep busy. Myself, still bashing out stuff in the W/shop, as people keep turning up with ideas. But, one chooses what is less heavy and not so many jobs as in the past. No restoration of Chateau gates!
Having said that, a couple of rolling gates at 4 & 5 mtr this month. Order book has a couple of months full, so far.
KF

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Rickets, my granny was always saying things like "he wouldn't stop a pig in a passage"

Corporal punishment that was handed out casually and frequently at school

Large dollops of malt and cod liver oil.

One bog in the house, and usually in the bathroom so you either waited or gassed the occupant or visa versa.

The ever changing combined radiogram/cocktail cabinet that was full of miniature spirit bottles that had had their contents swapped for water or tea years ago.

Angel delight, prawn cocktails and those packet chow main dinners with crispy noodles that never quite all cooked leaving rock hard bits.

The HP guy who came around every week so you could pay off the cost of the telly or twin tub.

Thick aggressive coppers shipped in from Essex who would clog your front door down and march in without a warrant looking for a striking miner, even though your dad was a fork lift truck driver at the glass works.

I think I prefer today.

Some of those things on your list brought back memories.

I don't remember fondly having to get up early doors to do my milk round before going to school. Crates stacked on a hand-cart and door-to-door delivering the glass bottles to the step, retrieving the empties. Farmer later acquired a flat-bed pickup and we could run alongside grabbing bottles as he trundled along. If there was any distance between streets/roads we jumped on the back with our legs dangling over the sides.....

Ahhhu, what memories.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I was born in '47

Snap! Remember powdered egg? Although we were lucky in that we were the last houses before the countryside, looking right on to farmland. It was easy to help ourselves to veggies, and walk to the local mill to get an empty biscuit tin of 'meal' for the porridge.

And, fish was free for the asking if we went down to the harbour when the boats were landing their catches - if we couldn't catch anything edible ourselves, fishing off the rocks that is.

 

[KemppiFrog]

Snap! Remember powdered egg? Although we were lucky in that we were the last houses before the countryside, looking right on to farmland. It was easy to help ourselves to veggies, and walk to the local mill to get an empty biscuit tin of 'meal' for the porridge.

And, fish was free for the asking if we went down to the harbour when the boats were landing their catches - if we couldn't catch anything edible ourselves, fishing off the rocks that is.

Yep, powdered egg... and waterglassing batches of eggs to preserve them.
Have to admit..we were a bit 'middle class' and not too badly off. After my father left the RAF, he managed a steel works, along with designing the structures, in Hatfield. Designing boats was a hobby, but became full time after the steel business closed down. Designing on it's own was not terribly lucrative (in those days) but he was partener with a local sports equipment manufactuer and they produced the boats and kits.

 

[Other Daniel]

Yep, powdered egg... and waterglassing batches of eggs to preserve them.
Have to admit..we were a bit 'middle class' and not too badly off. After my father left the RAF, he managed a steel works, along with designing the structures, in Hatfield. Designing boats was a hobby, but became full time after the steel business closed down. Designing on it's own was not terribly lucrative (in those days) but he was partener with a local sports equipment manufactuer and they produced the boats and kits.

Did you live in Cornwall for a while, then ?

 

[nickk]

Panda pops. Thick garishly coloured soft drinks. "It's frothy mannn".

Iirc that was Cresta.

 

[Olderisbetter]

We had cresta and alpine pops.. i think they did cocopina a bit like lilt

 

[dobbslc]

We lived in Watford and close to Cassiobury park so we regularly used to jump off the bridge into the canal or ford across the weirs near the old cress beds into uncharted territory!
We'd smoke this plant we found in the woods I don't know what it was but is was woody and stank
We would ride off on our Raleigh Choppers at dawn singing the J Giles band song Centrefold at the top of our voices (we had no idea what a Centrefold was ) and not return until dark covered in dust and starving hungry.
We played on the single track railway line putting stones on the rail and used to follow another that was disused just like the boys in the film Stand By Me but never found a dead body, we did convince ourselves we saw a dagger in the river with blood on though
We climbed trees and made camps and built fires some of which got a bit out of control....

First porno mag we had was found in a bush (that's where they lived in the 70's ) and read it hiding in an old oil tank by the bus garage, we used to close the lid so no-one could see us!
We had fun back then but it soon got serious for me when my mum had a stroke and was in hospital for a couple of years she survived and bought us up after the divorce and is still moaning away now!

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

We adored the utility pipe welders, they used calcium carbide in portable acetylene generators. After finishing work, they poured milk with sediment on the side of the road and in this smoking, smelly puddle were pieces of unreacted carbide. We used carbide for bombs made of glass vials and... The mouth of an empty aluminum aerosol can was opened with a can opener. A hole was made in the end with a nail. Then everything was simple and effective. Carbide + saliva, both holes were closed with palms, then active shaking, and the can was filled with acetylene. Then you bring a match to the hole, and a loud explosion follows, but without the destructive consequences, unlike glass bombs. A fragment of such a bomb once ripped open my nostril and it was not without a surgeon.

 

[maroon]

I remember one of our parks had accumulated natural bike jumps, like really good ones. No concrete. if you came off you went into the river. Or into a tree. I have no idea why the then snowflake brigade were so against us "hoodlums" congregating there

That's another thing... No one wore bike helmets.

 

[redlig]

A house we moved into when I was about 9 was infested with roaches, the council was sorting it while my parents were stripping the paper off the walls. The wallpaper was over 1/2" thick in all the rooms just layer on layer and never stripped and there were tunnels in the paper where the bugs were living. It took a few weeks to clear them all out, man they were crunchy underfoot.

So glad you put " underfoot".