50s/60s Britain and Now

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

That is somewhat of an old wives tale... Literally 

It came from girls schools to stop them wearing too short a skirt or kilt, without a male member of staff having to manhandle the girl to measure to prove it was too short.  However it's not to far out

Well, that's how I was measured the one and only time I hired one, in 1982.

[Fat Controller]

My wife's school, a grammar school with delusions, taught Human Biology until it came to reproduction, when it switched to the rabbit... This was in the early/mid 1970s.

They also did the 'kneeling on the floor' test for skirt length.

[Unicorn1]

In addition to 'brewing up' on the grass verges of various A roads , here's a few other things that I remember that have definitely changed since the 'sixties;

 

Living not far from London Airport (as everyone called it then) a regular treat was for dad to take us there and park next to the North runway. Here, for a modest fee, collected by a man in a white coat, we could watch the aircraft take off and land. I seem to remember a small picket fence on the grass between us and the runway.

(Also then many bus routes ran 'through' the airport - very close to the planes). 

 

Feeding buns to elephants at London Zoo.  Buying small metal tubs of corn in Trafalgar Square to feed pigeons, everyone being mobbed by pigeons - the mess!

 

Having to stand on odd items of furniture - and contorting ones self - whilst holding the television aerial in order to obtain a satisfactory picture. A reasonable picture having been achieved one was told simply to 'stay there!'

 

Cigarette coupons. My mother smoked Embassy cigarettes, and a packet of twenty contained a coupon for six points - never buy a packet of ten because you only got two points. My mother still had things in her house 'bought' with Embassy coupons at the turn of the last century.

There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough!

 

Cheers for now

 

Les

 

[Reorte]

12 minutes ago, Unicorn1 said:

There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough!

 

Would it have been a saving to buy the cigarettes, keep the coupon, then sell on the cigarettes cheap to someone else?

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, Unicorn1 said:

Cigarette coupons. My mother smoked Embassy cigarettes, and a packet of twenty contained a coupon for six points - never buy a packet of ten because you only got two points. My mother still had things in her house 'bought' with Embassy coupons at the turn of the last century.

There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough!

 

This is pre-war, but I have one of the Basset Lowke "cigarette coupon" locos that belonged to my uncle.  My grandfather collected the coupons and paid the real price...

 

[Nearholmer]

The editor of the TRain Collectors Society journal, a respected academic in the field of industrial design, and super-knowledgeable about the early history of toy/model trains refuses to have anything to do with those locos because he lost a person very close to him to the evil weed.

[tomparryharry]

34 minutes ago, Unicorn1 said:

In addition to 'brewing up' on the grass verges of various A roads , here's a few other things that I remember that have definitely changed since the 'sixties;

 

Living not far from London Airport (as everyone called it then) a regular treat was for dad to take us there and park next to the North runway. Here, for a modest fee, collected by a man in a white coat, we could watch the aircraft take off and land. I seem to remember a small picket fence on the grass between us and the runway.

(Also then many bus routes ran 'through' the airport - very close to the planes). 

 

Feeding buns to elephants at London Zoo.  Buying small metal tubs of corn in Trafalgar Square to feed pigeons, everyone being mobbed by pigeons - the mess!

 

Having to stand on odd items of furniture - and contorting ones self - whilst holding the television aerial in order to obtain a satisfactory picture. A reasonable picture having been achieved one was told simply to 'stay there!'

 

Cigarette coupons. My mother smoked Embassy cigarettes, and a packet of twenty contained a coupon for six points - never buy a packet of ten because you only got two points. My mother still had things in her house 'bought' with Embassy coupons at the turn of the last century.

There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough!

 

Cheers for now

 

Les

 

 

Yes, I remember those coupons. Players No6, I think. 5 points on a twenty pack, 2 points on a 10. 

[Ashcombe]

14 hours ago, Philou said:

But, but, there are 5 ds - it's Old d dudders. Do you remember the old joke that if the letter 'D' became illegal to use, what would Edward Woodward become? Try saying it!!

 

Really? Only counted four the last time I checked.....!

[Ashcombe]

7 minutes ago, Ashcombe said:

 

Really? Only counted four the last time I checked.....!

  
My apologies: I’ve just checked and there are indeed five on his profile! This could well be a typo on his part but (and I need to inform you of this before he does!) it might explain the reason I was always given set two to teach for Maths.....! 

[Oldddudders]

Mrs OD is doing a fine job of defending my good name (sorry), but a little explanation, previously provided elsewhere in these august pages (and it's only May) might  enlighten further. 

 

From 1968 until 1973 I worked in the Control of what was then called Central Division, Southern Region. When your surname is Dudley, people call you all sorts of things  - Duddles, Duds and Dudders being among them. Among the younger set in that office it was the last that seemed to stick, and I recall one colleague, Keith, referring to me as Old Dudders. His father was SM at London Bridge at the time. It seemed a natural monicker for RMweb. Quite where the fifth D in my username came from is lost in the mists of time.

 

Anent clicking balls - I'd worry if mine did that, at least very often. And St Enedoc's ref to y-fronts reminds me that during the Cold War, when nuclear attack was considered a possibility, y-fronts were touted as being a good antidote to fallout.

 

As for Mrs OD's pre-emptive strike about her maths qualification, I ought to point out that she holds a degree, whereas I left skool with a very modest pair of A levels and joined BR before my 18th birthday. 

[Philou]

@Oldddudders Used or new Y-fronts? An enquiring mind and all that ................

 

A-levels? Pah, despite being in grammar skool I attained the apogee of 3 'F's ...................

 

Forgot to add that despite my high attainment - not - it didn't stop me getting a triple set of C+Gs and HNCs, as I 'discovered' hedjumacashun in my mid-twenties.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Philou
Addition

[St Enodoc]

20 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

y-fronts were touted as being a good antidote to fallout.

That's true with or without a nuclear attack.

[Ohmisterporter]

2 hours ago, Unicorn1 said:

 

Cigarette coupons. My mother smoked Embassy cigarettes, and a packet of twenty contained a coupon for six points - never buy a packet of ten because you only got two points. My mother still had things in her house 'bought' with Embassy coupons at the turn of the last century.

There was the Embassy Catalogue, which offered such delights as foreign holidays - if one managed to smoke enough!

 

 

There was no truth in the rumour that if you collected enough coupons you could buy an iron lung.

[Joseph_Pestell]

13 minutes ago, Ohmisterporter said:

 

There was no truth in the rumour that if you collected enough coupons you could buy an iron lung.

You'd already done that by paying all the tax on cigarettes.

[petethemole]

Later 60s; is anyone going to admit asking for "Ten No. 6 and a packet of Rizlas"?

[Fat Controller]

5 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Later 60s; is anyone going to admit asking for "Ten No. 6 and a packet of Rizlas"?

Two packets, surely?

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Two packets, surely?

Or a packet of three?

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Or a packet of three?

 

Too embarassed to ask for a "packet of three" ?

[rockershovel]

31 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Too embarassed to ask for a "packet of three" ?

 

Anything for the weekend, sir? 

[Hroth]

17 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

Anything for the weekend, sir? 

 

I'll need a haircut after all this....

 

 

[Colin]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

I'll need a haircut after all this....

 

 

I need one now - apart from having gone very grey, I’m starting to look like one of my old school photos from around 1969! Now where are those flares?

[Philou]

I remember going to the 'gentleman's barber' and though in my exceeding late teens at the very end of the 60s, never once was I asked '..... and something for the weekend, sir?' I can't remember where I purchased the necessary rubber-ware then - not I liked them much as I found them a real faff - and somewhat passion killers .

 

Cheers,

 

Anonymous (oh .... too late!)

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

4 minutes ago, Philou said:

I remember going to the 'gentleman's barber' and though in my exceeding late teens at the very end of the 60s, never once was I asked '..... and something for the weekend, sir?' I can't remember where I purchased the necessary rubber-ware then - not I liked them much as I found them a real faff - and somewhat passion killers .

 

Cheers,

 

Anonymous (oh .... too late!)

 

 

I was! It was the only time that I had my hair cut in a below concourse barbers at one of London's stations (Victoria or Waterloo).

 

I did not know what he meant. Not surprising given that I was 9 or 10 years old.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Joseph_Pestell

[Joseph_Pestell]

On 07/05/2020 at 10:37, Unicorn1 said:

Buying small metal tubs of corn in Trafalgar Square to feed pigeons, everyone being mobbed by pigeons - the mess!

 

 

Somewhere in the family photo albums is a snap of me (aged 8) feeding the Trafalgar Square pigeons. The experience left me very phobic about being in close proximity to birds. When a heron got stuck inside our chicken enclosure some years ago, I had to get BiL to come and rescue it.

 

Back then, there were also many sparrows in the London Parks. Eating a sandwich without getting attacked could be difficult.

[BernardTPM]

Something like this?