[News] Life was less complicated three or four decades back…….

[Invicta]

Anybody else get one of these for Christmas in the early 1970's? I recall my dad wasn't happy when he came under withering fire from my brother and I when trying to set the table for Christmas Dinner.

You'd have SWAT at the door now.

I had one of those, great present one year. Excellent picture you found there.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'll take 'now', thanks.

Hankering for the past is feeble minded.

I was complimenting my class of students earlier in the week for showering and brushing their teeth before rocking up to work in close proximity in a small classroom. Even ten years ago there would be at least one student stinking the place out and/or breathing dog shit breath over everyone.

I had a project student 15 years ago, living at home with his parents, clearly plenty of money, to whom I had to say:

"When you shower in the morning would you mind standing a bit closer to the water?"
(He looked a bit taken aback, nodded and came in fresh for the rest of the project.)

And don't start me on sexual harassment in the workplace 30 plus years ago (my experience, could be more recent for others). Slapping arses and worse.

And before that, egregious bullying in the workplace, even assaults that went unreported and unpunished. My brief time at Acres the Bakers 45 years ago being a case in point.

And the open racism, homophobia and sexism.

Simpler times for simpler folk.....

By and large we humans strive to make things better. Thankfully.

 

[Eeyore]

I remember in the late eighties going under the shoreham flyover with a shotgun shooting pigeons. Pellets in my lunch was a nightmare but no sign of the cops. Greater times.

I suppose my disappointment is not that that you did such a thing when you were young, but that you look back on it with such amusement.

 

[The Clamp]

Metal spud guns.

Loved those things.

 

[The Clamp]

I suppose my disappointment is not that that you did such a thing when you were young, but that you look back on it with such amusement.

It’s not that unusual. Is it?

We used to go shooting rabbits on my uncles farm. Still do sometimes.

Pigeons are grubby little ratty things. Fire away.

 

[atfc village]

Lucky the police turned a blind eye in the 80s we had mini home made crossbows which fired hook nails ,thankfully the fad lasted a couple of months

 

[GT49er]

Good point well made.
I was young and pigeons are vermin.

....... and also very delicious, and a fine source of nutrition for families!

 

[Perfidious Albion]

I was born in ‘47 and I don’t remember any hardship. Perhaps I was too young to know but we always had food and what we needed .. There was no tv until later on, that was for folk better off than us, we had the good old wireless.
One thing was better as a young man, you could turn up at the Goldstone at a quarter to three, pay a few shillings at the gate and go to your favoured spot on the terrace…… None of this pre booking and digital wallet nonsense!

 

[MJsGhost]

I had a project student 15 years ago, living at home with his parents, clearly plenty of money, to whom I had to say:

"When you shower in the morning would you mind standing a bit closer to the water?"
(He looked a bit taken aback, nodded and came in fresh for the rest of the project.)

Brilliant.

 

[raymondo]

Metal spud guns.

Loved those things.

My brothers and I had them!
We also used to make mini cannons out of bits of old pipe, hammer one end flat, secure to a block of wood with a couple of bent over nails, then drop in a lit banger and a handful of dried peas, and aim at the neighbors' windows

 

[raymondo]

Although you would have spent the first few years in hardship due to ongoing rationing from the war. Easy to say Boomers have this privileged life but their childhood years were nothing like as privileged as the generations since then. Something that is not realised or easily forgotten!

I was born in 54. Brought up on a Hove council estate. Both parents worked, dad at the Gas Works in Shoreham, mum doing cleaning jobs. We always had food on the table but I frequently heard mum and dad discussing what food they could afford to buy for the weekend as they had to 'pay the rent on Friday '.

 

[Dr Q]

Anybody else get one of these for Christmas in the early 1970's? I recall my dad wasn't happy when he came under withering fire from my brother and I when trying to set the table for Christmas Dinner.

You'd have SWAT at the door now.

Had one of these, great fun, although those bullets did hurt at close range. Very realistic too. Certainly being seen with one today would have plod down on you like a ton of bricks

 

[raymondo]

Exactly, I know a bloke who's wife's friend's cousin's husband's golf-buddy's window cleaner got PUT IN PRISON for wishing a MUSLIN "Merry Christmas"

That must have put a strain on his finances!