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 > >