Up until the age of 10 we had a coal fire and no electricity.
Radio was powered by an accumulator (http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk/expand.php?key=191) and lighting was by candlelight or gas light. No phone, no TV and clothes washing done by hand.
Toilet was at the end of the back yard and was freeeeeezing cold in the winter. We were so poor we had newpaper for toilet roll, and, we had to use both sides.

Eeee, times were 'ard but we was 'appy

 

Well kids are flexible and resilient, a bad start can be just that, a start.

The school "the landlady" works in has just seen a 10% fall in GCSE results, sounds bad ?

That's because of all the dead-heads sent there from other schools, the smart kids have scored the same as in previous years.

Yet, for 240 places this year, there have been 650 applicants. As a certain South Leeds establishment has gang, bullying and other social engineering created problems, thus they lost 50 staff at the end of this academic year.

dunx

P.S. We had a coal fire, winter meant ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, and we got fed, so we were O.K. ! Eventually we got a B&W TV !

 

I was poorer than you, we didn't have windows in our house and the air freshener was a pig

 

A pig? you had a pig? Luxury. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

Python

 

Luxury

 

OliveR6

I guess if you live in Carlisle then the private school you are talking about is Austin Friars / St Monica's............ not a chance I could afford to send my 3 kids there.

Some local Grammar schools are quite good though.

Shaun

 

My father told me that when he was a teenager because my grandfather (who was a self-employed tradesman in the building trade) was doing quite well they decided to invest in an inside toilet. So he converted the upstairs box bedroom into a toilet come bathroom.

When it was completed all the neighbours came to see it in amazement because they couldn't believe you could have an upstairs toilet that actually flushed.

In 1953 my grandfather went out and bought one of the first black and white TV's to watch the Coronation, the whole street also turned up to watch and the place was bedlam.

 

You think that's bad, when I was young we only had one TV in the whole house, we had to take turns to watch it, play on the games consoles and use the commodore 64.

Hard times

 

My word,I must be really missing out.

We have only got one TV in the house now!

Les

 

 

Saw a working tax credit notification the other day from a woman who had 4 kids, 3 of which had "special needs". She got more from the Government annually than I do from my part-time job, which I think is quite well paid for PT! All the kids were huge, she smelled of **** and spoke with a speech impediment.

We shouldn't judge, but if this is the type of person having loads of kids, where does this leave us in 2 generations? Honestly, if you work and have a work ethic, HAVE MORE KIDS!!!

 

Lucky you! We had no toilets when we were kids. We had to go to the jungles with a pot of water to do our business. Sometimes, water wasn't available either due to drought. In that case, a dry leaf would work like a toilet paper to wipe our pathetic @rses. Sometimes a tiger or a panther would appear from behind the tree, and we'd run away like hell with our pants down; business half done.

On a serious note, we had everything to cope with life tbh. I'm was born in late 60's, so what I remember is the blackouts and curfews due to Indo-Pak recurring conflict and stuff in 70's. We couldn't even light a candle inside the house, and would concentrate on hearing helicopters and jets going past to bomb us. Living on the edge, we did; that way. Mind you, even now they have blackouts in India due to recurring power cuts. No more wars, but plenty of mosquitos to kidnap you while the fan is out of order, and you can't find repellent spray in the dark to kill the bawsturds.

 

that reminds me of one of my daughters most badly timed questions ever...

So we are sitting on the bus on the way to McDonalds, (she had been pestering me to take her on a bus for weeks), a black guy gets on the bus and takes a seat directly in front of us.

In what seemed to be the loudest voice ever. "Daddy, why is that black mans hair so curly?)

I dont mind admitting that I completely froze up and didn't have the first idea what to say. Luckily the guy in front just turned round smiled at me and told her that's how he liked it.

 

Yes mate, Austin Friars or Lime House. Austin Friars do busaries amd also discounts on each extra child you send after the first. I'm kind of hoping with being an old boy, captain of the rugby team, house captain etc that we might get a tad more discount lol!

Yer, we have considered QEGS and William Howard (as I'm originally from out near Brampton so know a lot of folk that went there) but even those are now attracting the "undesirables"!!

But as I said earlier, we have 10 yrs to go before we have to send a child to a secondry school! We might not even still be up these parts!

On a different note, I'm no Sherlock but I take it you drive the blue bugeye with Midlife... in the rear windows and often round Port Road?!