Dear Alf & Adelaide,

How wonderful!  I remember the pen and ink with the inkwell in the middle
of each desk.  So much of what you have written has reminded me of much I
had forgotten!  My children will be the richer for the rekindled memories.
TY
E of the headdress

At 12:53 PM 9/26/2000 +0930, you wrote:
>I sat on the stairs one night and listened to mum and dad argue about how to
>make the weekly wage stretch. "Six pence? a loaf of bread is six pence!" I
>heard dad exclaim "One day they'll charge a pound for it!"  Many years later
>in a Wellington (NZ) baker's shop, I bought a loaf of bread for $2.70. I
>happened to notice the exchange rate that day....NZ$2.70  equals one pound
>sterling.
>
>Sunday dinner in winter always had brussel sprouts.... we hated them and the
>wet overcooked cabbage. Somewhere in the last few years someone has invented
>crisp cooked vegetables.
>
>There wasn't a chinese take away anywhere, just good ol' fish and chip
>shops.
>
>Most working men rode to work on bicycles, regardless of weather. The normal
>working week was 6 days (50 hours).
>
>Every kid had fillings in their teeth before they were 8 years old.
>
>Shops had a 'half day closing' every Wednesday afternoon and were always
>closed by 12.30 Saturday.
>
>New movies used to come to the 'flicks' about once every 6 months. There was
>one showing per night, none on Sunday, and people queued for an hour to get
>in.
>
>TV was black and white and only one house in our street had one, guess where
>all the kids were at suppertime.
>
>You had to book an international telephone call a month in advance, wait
>until the unearthly hours for the appointed time to make it, and got cut off
>by the operator after exactly 4 minutes.
>
>The woody scent of garden bonfires used to permeate the house on warm summer
>evenings when we laid restless in our childhood beds.
>
>Babies were pushed around in big wheeled 'prams'. Old pram wheels were in
>great demand for making pushcarts, as were orange crates.
>
>We used to run through the windrows of meadow hay, surrounded by blue and
>brown butterflies, chased off by the exasperated farmer! There is a housing
>estate there now.
>
>We learned to write with 'dip' pens with scratchy nibs. We learned up to
>twelve times table by rote.
>
>All grown ups were to be respected and we said 'please' and 'thank you' for
>every thing.
>
>'Sunday best' meant the clothes that you only wore on Sundays and, the devil
>take you if you got them messed up.
>
>Monday was wash day and Tuesday was ironing day, and you didn't annoy Mum on
>those days.
>
>Bath night happened once a week, and if the weather was icy it was in a
>galvanised tub in front of the fire.
>
>Old people smelled 'old'.
>
>Sex was a four letter word.
>
>Measles, mumps and chicken pox were things every kid got.
>
>Every tree was for climbing, barbed wire was for ripping pants on, apple
>orchards were for 'scrumping', muddy creeks were for splashing through.
>
>One penny was a fortune and you could buy a pocketful of sweets with it.
>Many things were priced 'four a penny".
>
>Drugs were things you took when you were sick.
>
>Father Christmas brought you your very own orange and a chocolate bar you
>didn't have to share with anyone else.
>
>And yes, you could hear the sleigh bells on his sled if you listened real
>hard........
>
>Alf
>Adelaide
>50 <1 48
>
>