Chit Chat
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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's ! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags and we went round the streets on Go-carts made from old pram wheels & bits of wood. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC or Subway. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on FOXTEL, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time... We were given catapults for our 10th birthdays, We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! RUGBY, NETBALL and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla' We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
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Shut that door!
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we made **** of weeds and smoked them ; did paper rounds .other odd jobs/ ate fruit and veg we stole . went rabbiting in the harvest .some went bird nesting
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from Facebook is it?
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I went bird chesting
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I got belted with a strap IN CASE I did anything wrong. TRUE
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you were lucky
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HA HA HA
yOU LIVED IN A CARDBOARD BOX? |
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We all had pet animals, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, canaries,
we all drank from the same pop bottle, we rode bikes with no brakes, lights and peddles, Climbed trees or gas light/lamp poles, used our jumpers or pieces of coal as goalposts, Made catapults or had a pea-shooter, saved up for an air rifle or doc martin boots, Stayed in a caravan by the seaside, went crabbing with a net pole, down the rivers after sticklebacks and bullheads, maybe a newt, ran home at Dusk when the Bats came out. |
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One thing I remember from those days was the football games in the park during the holidays. Jumpers for goalposts; start about 10am and went on 'til it got dark. First arrivals would be divided into 2 teams and after that whoever turned up went on one of the sides. Players would go home for lunch and tea/dinner and maybe come back. Numbers varied during the day from 3/4 a side to about 20 a side. I dont know how anyone knew whose side we were all on but it seemed to work.
There was also a old bloke who would watch and we thought he was a football coach but with hindsight he was probably a perv. who liked watching young boys. |
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We had a job for life, while Britain was at its most prosperous, we made a mint from houseprice growth so that our children now have to rent from pensioners and their BTL empires. We have spunked all the money up the wall and left the debt to our children and we didn’t even get conscripted. Fk me we didn’t even do national service.
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Remember fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, and chips always tasted better eating them in the street. Remember Wimpy and Berni Inns. Jukeboxes. And same as bix ^ playing football in the park with jumpers for goalposts. Holidays at Butlins or a caravan holiday. And we only bought one can of dog food a week, dog would mainly live on scraps and he lived to nearly 14 ! We would go down the fish shop sometimes and get some pollock for the cat. In those days it was considered only fit for cat food, interesting these days a lot of ready frozen meals, fish in sauces etc. some of it is pollock. Always considered it cat food !
Remember our first TV it was black and white and I think only 2 channels, and you had to turn it on and wait for it to warm up before you got any picture. Kids programme after lunch time and then it would go off air until tea time. 6 5 Special and The Lone Ranger my 2 fav TV shows. No remote control in those days, you had to get up and walk over to the TV for the controls !! Remember first record player Christmas present, couldn't afford to buy many records so didn't have many and use to play them over and over even the B sides. Then had a tape recorder with the microphone and and use to record from the telly or the radio, and put the budgie out the room otherwise you would get him on the tape. Nothing like the technology now, the other day went out for a pub lunch at a country pub, afterwards walking through the car park mobile phone rings and daughter phoning up from Canada, we never had technology like that. And ten years ago if you were to say in ten years time everybody will be walking around all day staring at their phone......... And imagine a world today without the internet. Also, I seen The Beatles when they weren't even top of the bill, they were just a support group on tour ! |
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TVs always had a problem with the vertical hold which stopped the picture rolling up and you had to find the one spot in the room where the set-top aerial would work.
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Pushing through the market square,
So many mothers sighing News had just come over, We had five years left to cry in News guy wept and told us, Earth was really dying Cried so much his face was wet, Then I knew he was not lying I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies I saw boys, toys, electric irons and T.V.'s My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare I had to cram so many things to store everything in there And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people I never thought I'd need so many people A girl my age went off her head, Hit some tiny children If the black hadn't a-pulled her off, I think she would have killed them A soldier with a broken arm, Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, And a **** threw up at the sight of that I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor, Drinking milk shakes cold and long Smiling and waving and looking so fine, Don't think you knew you were in this song And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there Your face, your race, the way that you talk I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk We've got five years, stuck on my eyes Five years, what a surprise We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot Five years, that's all we've got We've got five years, what a surprise Five years, stuck on my eyes We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot Five years, that's all we've got We've got five years, stuck on my eyes Five years, what a surprise We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot Five years, that's all we've got We've got five years, what a surprise Five years, stuck on my eyes We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot Five years, that's all we've got Five years Five years Five years Five years |
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We got electricity installed and mother bought the biggest lightbulb (150watt) that she could find. The living room was lit up like Wembley Stadium and must have been visible from outer space.
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Free higher education then we voted in governments who made our children pay for their higher education.
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we use to go srcumping and play 'knock down ginger'.
the concept of half day closing on a wednesday and the shops not open on a sunday is alien to youngsters. we used to get a 10p mix of sweets at the corner shop. once we made our own goalposts out of wood and netting, they were not very good so we went back to jumpers for goalposts! |
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I have been alive during five decades but I am only 38.
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I have been alive during five decades but I am only 37.
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Ok...an interesting topic but almost impossible tale at the start!
This to help, and I can relate to everything here It was a difficult read so hope this makes it better.... We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on FOXTEL, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms.......... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time... We were given catapults for our 10th birthdays, We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! RUGBY, NETBALL and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla' We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. |
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Fast forward 50 years and they'll be a bunch of old gits saying the same things about being born in the 1990's.
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As has been said those of the baby boomer generation were lucky.
Free university, lower house prices, jobs for life, index linked pensions now living in houses worth loads due to the housing boom. Add to that a sense of entitlement and they do sound a bit smug. Eeee...we had it tough....bull**** no generation had it so good. |
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Even the old people were better back in the day they had lived through the blitz, fought in the trenches these guys were heroes. Nowadays the older generation are the bloody baby boomers - the worst older generation ever. What chance have the kids got now with grandparents like that as role models ffs.
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"knock down ginger"
forgot about that one, we use to play that stupid game as kids, usually carried out in darkness, knock on door and run like hell, and even more daring go back to same house and do it again ! I say it's stupid now but as kids it was just a jokey thing to do, we were just kids being kids, hardly the crime of the century. But I can look back now and realise what stupid nuisance behaviour that was, and really annoying and upsetting to people. I wouldn't like it done to myself now. But you don't see it that way as kids. |
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I am actually quite serious on this one. I remember as a kid my grandma (born circa 1910?) everything was “mustn’t grumble” or “as long as it’s not too much bother”. She lived through 2 world wars ffs. Nowadays you look at the 60 and 70 year olds it is all about entitlement all gimme gimme gimme and take take take. Pathetic really.
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we respected our elders, especially the truly elderly. in fact i think if we were messing around and an elderly person walked by that was enough to make us act sensibly (until they were out of sight).
going back to the same house for knock down ginger, id forgotten that. respect for whosever turn it was and woe betide them if they got caught! |
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Well done Larry....
I was born in the late 1940's and can relate to everything you've said - we used to make camps, climb trees, go birds nesting even had "catapult and Air Gun Fights" learnt to throw knives made bombs out of weed killer and sugar ...Christ how did I ever survive ? Was a lot of fun though ...  |
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I'm 54 and agree with nearly everything rob_dylan has to say about the generation of the 1950s.
What they've paid in taxes barely covers the working-age benefits they've claimed. Yet for retirement they've awarded themselves 25 years of free healthcare and pensions rising at a minimum of 2.5% per year in a deflationary world. Without paying a single penny towards them. Never mind. Just keep increasing the retirement age, and force the younger mugs to work and pay for it all. Where I'd disagree is about the previous generation having a Mustn't Grumble attitude. My parents were born in 1921 and commuted through the Blitz in one case and fought the Red Army on the eastern front in the other, and neither ever stopped moaning their whole lives. But it was understandable. So many broken lives in that generation. |
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I was keen on bombs too Rockinron.
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Screaming - "What they've paid in taxes barely covers the working-age benefits they've claimed. Yet for retirement they've awarded themselves 25 years of free healthcare and pensions rising at a minimum of 2.5% per year in a deflationary world. Without paying a single penny towards them".
What were those 11%ish national insurance deductions for then? |
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Unemployment benefit, family allowance, housing benefit, invalidity benefit, free GP appointments, free hospital treatment
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Nothing to do with "Free healthcare and pensions" then, Screaming. So how does your "without paying a single penny" square with the NICS deduction??
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Haven't read all the replies but have seen this post many times before on various site. To cut a long story short and to counteract this a little the average life expectancy in 1960 (shortly before I was born) was 70, now it is in the 80's so it wasn't all a bed of roses, however; if I had the chance to be born again in the 60's I would do it again. Feck being born now!
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Blackbarn - What were those 11%ish national insurance deductions for then?
Screaming - Unemployment benefit, family allowance, housing benefit, invalidity benefit, free GP appointments, free hospital treatment. Blackbarn - Based on the last numbers I can find, 87%'ish of the payout from the National Insurance Fund is Pensions |
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Average annual UK wage: £26,500. Eleven percent of that is £2915 of NI contributions per year.
Let's be really generous and say you earn that £26,500 per year for every one of your 45 years of working life before retiring at 65. You never once fall ill and are never, ever unemployed. Total NI contributions for your lifetime are therefore 45x£2915 = £131,175. Guaranteed weekly income for pensioners is currently £115.95/week = £6029.40/year, increasing at a guaranteed minimum of 2.5% per year. You've had a lifetime of perfect health, so let's say you live for another 22 years beyond retirement. And let's be generous and say that the government has invested your NI contributions wisely over the years to cancel out your guaranteed pension rises. Total pension received £132,648 Total NI contributions £131,175 Now tell me, where did dole money, child benefit, invalidity and disability benefit, social workers' and doctors' wages and hospital care come from through your working years? And more to the point, where are the colossal costs of medical care and retirement homes going to come from when you're 80-plus? Inheritance tax on your house? No way. That nice Mr Cameron you voted for has said no nasty inheritance tax for poor pensioners in homes worth less than £1,000,000. I'll save winter fuel allowance, free TV licences and free bus passes for a later rant. |
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Screaming, this is all vaguely relevant stuff, BUT YOU ORIGINALLY SAID..
"What they've paid in taxes barely covers the working-age benefits they've claimed. Yet for retirement they've awarded themselves 25 years of free healthcare and pensions rising at a minimum of 2.5% per year in a deflationary world. WITHOUT PAYING A SINGLE PENNY TOWARDS THEM (my caps). This final statement is bo llocks isn't it? You have now constructed an argument, based solely on NICs contributions, that completely ignores any funding derived from direct (and indirect for that matter) taxation of the population group you refer to. I do not doubt for a moment that our generation (I was born 1952) have had a very good deal, nor do I doubt the current and future imbalance between revenue and expenditure, but you do the problem a serious disservice by misunderstanding the various sources of income and how they are relative (and allocated) to the segments of expenditure. |
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Correct blackbarn, not forgetting we VAT on most of our purchases, community (council) tax TV licence (unless 75 or over)) taxes on petrol diesel and other fuel, alcohol and tobacco, Stamp duty, insurance, flights, goods from abroad if you go over your customs allowance etc, etc, I'm not listing everything here. We are still paying taxes direct and indirect. WE STILL CONTRIBUTE!!!! any one who believes otherwise is a simpleton, The treasury's tax revenue collections takes many forms.
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BTW, road tax was abolished in 1937 and replaced by Vehicle Excise Duty. This is a tax on cars, not roads, and it goes straight into the general Treasury fund. Am I exempt now I'm over 65????????? FFS
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If your generation had paid for its pensions and healthcare out of taxation, why is the government having to borrow £2,000,000,000 every single week?
Average NI contribution is £2915 per year. After paying for unemployment benefit, child benefit, invalidity benefit, doctors and hospitals, there is nothing at all left over for twenty or thirty years of pensions and old-age healthcare after you've retired. OR ... looking at it the other way: Average NI contribution is £2915 per year. After awarding yourself a pension of £6029/year out of that, there is nothing at all left over for dole, or any other benefits or falling ill or having an accident or needing care during your working life, never mind afterwards. You've paid for one, either working age benefits or your pension or your healthcare. Now you're demanding that everyone younger should give you their money to pay for the other two that you didn't pay for. And that's as well as paying for benefits and healthcare and pensions for themselves. And giving your children up to a million quid tax-free in return for an unmaintained OAP's house. |
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Next you will be asking for my address, sort code and **** size..... 6 inch avenue is my address ..the rest is private
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