[Misc] Things you used to be able to do before "Health & Safety" took over

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

On joining my first ship in the RN,she was in a minor re-fit. I remember walking along the main drag( passageway) as the dockyard workers stripped lagging off the overhead pipes. The lagging was asbestos. It looked like flakes of snow as it fell. No one was wearing any breathing apparatus or protective clothing.

My next door neighbour has just had his old asbestos shed roof removed, it cost him £500 , and no one who was unprotected was allowed within about 20 foot of it.

At school we did all our chemistry labs using an asbestos square. My dad encouraged my interest in chemistry by bringing an odd shaped sheet of asbestos from work and sawing it into a more convenient square, using an electric sawing device in the garage. The clouds of dust were a marvel to inhale

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Both me and the missus in past days separately had wooden ironing boards that were protected from flammation by the asbestos rectangle on which the hot iron rested.

Both of us had to have the council round to dospose of them. At no charge, back then. The whole street would be evacuated for days if it happened now.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

When I was a child of about 10 we had a soft top Renault 4. With obvious consideration to my and my sister's Health & Safety my father attached a bar which traversed across the opening of the roof from side to side.

The bar enabled my sister and me to then safely stand on the back seat of the car as we sped along on our journey with our heads and shoulders emerging out of the roof's opening, steadying ourselves by gripping the aforesaid safety bar.

I've just this second recalled that immediately in front of the bar and parallel to it my father had also installed a transparent, orange plastic wind deflector / fairing type attachment. I'm unsure if this was done with any consideration for our safety or was merely to make our experience more comfortable. Perhaps the reasons were more aesthetic as I must admit it did look rather swish, giving the effect of a tinted motorbike windshield.

One day my enjoyment of this particular contraption was marred by an unfortunate incident which all the incorporated safety features failed to prevent. As we drove home from one particular day out with our heads exposed to the elements I foolishly donned my white sailor cap with the transluscent inky blue sun visor. The inevitable happened and my sailor cap was blown from atop my head never to be seen again.

I knew that for my carelessness I could expect a beating from my father on our arrival home so the rest of the journey was spent in fear and trepidation. On our arrival home instead of entering the house I sought refuge in the house of an irish girl who lived down the road who was about the same age as me. I've no idea how or why but we ended up in her bedroom whereupon she gave me my first unclothed, non-penetrative sexual experience which was prematurely curtailed by a knock on the fortunately locked bedroom door. From the other side her mother called out informing us that my father was downstairs come to collect me.

What happened after that is erased from my memory so I have no idea what fate befell me, if any, but the memory of that young, lustful, naked, Irish girl and the events which led me to her remain forever ingrained in my memory.

I apologise for going off track but once I'd started my memory continued to wander.

Thanks for sharing. This thread needs to be published as a book

 

[astralavi]

Get a gutter fix with a ladder and not have to build scaffolding

 

[zefarelly]

I think that says more about their opinion of you than the sweets - I've taken loads of packets of sweets into the Amex, but always alongside my young children....

E's for kids, E's for kids, he's smuggling E's for kids!

Sorry!

 

[zefarelly]

Only the metaldehyde ones. Likewise the old school rose blight spray (fantastic smell!). Creosote, too (fantastic smell!). .

Luckily I have a good supply of them all in my shed.

I still have a good stash of proper lead solder and flux, from my grandfathers workshop.

 

[PeterOut]

When I was 10 / 11 years old, I used to work on a Saturday at a local hardware store.
Started with the paraffin round - going out with the paraffin tanker, delivering paraffin to the old girls who lived nearby. Happily pumping the flammable liquid by hand into the containers, running them up the stairs and (particulalry in the winter) pouring the paraffin into the (often still lit) heaters.
Once we got back from that, I was out at the back of the shop with an axe, chopping kindling for the coal fires.
Happy days

 

[lawros left foot]

One of my best mates used to make pipe bombs. Genuine fertiliser and sugar explosives, with a magnesium ribbon fuse we used to pinch from the science labs in school. He blew up the swings in Home field park, Worthing, a shed in someone's garden in South farm road, and, the day we took 5 of them to the sand dunes in Littlehampton remains one of the most entertaining days of my life.
He stopped after his Dad found out what he was doing, and threatened to have him sent to Borstal.

 

[Lankyseagull]

My Dad securing our wooden two seater sofa in the back of his transit van for me & my sister to sit on for a 2-3 hour journey to visit relations near Reading. And he didn't bother to remove many of his building tools from the van either - shovels, pick axes, mattocks, etc etc merrily rattled around with us en route.

 

[OzMike]

A days work.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Spell staphylococcus aureus and know that it is a gram-positive, round shaped bacterium that is a member of the Firmicutes AND CAN CAUSE DEATH.

 

[Bodian]

On joining my first ship in the RN,she was in a minor re-fit. I remember walking along the main drag( passageway) as the dockyard workers stripped lagging off the overhead pipes. The lagging was asbestos. It looked like flakes of snow as it fell. No one was wearing any breathing apparatus or protective clothing.

My father-in-law was in the merchant navy and tells me quite a few tales like this. They also rigged up a tap into the lead-lined hot water pipes coming out of the engine to make their tea without having to go to the galley. Later on, he went to Dounreay when it was going critical, basically armed with a spanner - and a little badge to wear that when it went black, you should think about leaving because you had exceeded your 'safe' radiation dose.

He's 83 and as fit as a fiddle - although most of his workmates have gone through asbestosis or unexplained blood ailments.

 

[FamilyGuy]

My Dad securing our wooden two seater sofa in the back of his transit van for me & my sister to sit on for a 2-3 hour journey to visit relations near Reading. And he didn't bother to remove many of his building tools from the van either - shovels, pick axes, mattocks, etc etc merrily rattled around with us en route.

My dads first "family car" was a pink Austin A40 van, so he went to the local breakers yard, purchased a single car seat and a 2-seater car bench seat. He then "secured" them in the back of the van with an odd length of washing line. Being the oldest I got the single seat, which swung around on the rope in the back of the van ever time we took a corner, accelerated by my dad laughing his head off - as was I. FFS!!

 

[Hampden Park]

welding sentry in the mob - lucky not to have arc eye

 

[marlowe]

This is a photo I took in Leeds in 1982.

Nowadays that building would be completely boarded up and secured and thereby ruining a lot of children's fun.

The piled up mattresses would also now be viewed as a potential fire hazard especially as none of those in the picture would have had fire safety labels which weren't introduced until 1988 with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations.