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Changed world - why?


Stallard12

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In 1947, when I was 8 yrs old, I lived with my parents on Gig Lane in Woolston.   One day, my hero, my father, came to me and said "Son, I want you to do something, I want you to go to Manchester, find Marks and Spencer's and bring back a shopping bag with the name on it".   He gave me a half a crown and that was it .

I left the house, walked down Gig Lane to Manchester Road and caught the No 10 bus to Manchester Victoria.  Where the conductor told me to get off, cos this was the terminus, I did and asked the first person I saw "Where's Marks and Spencer's?".  I completed my mission, returned to Victoria, got on a bus with a No 10 on it and waited till it took me home.

In 1950, I went to the Festival of Britain with Richard  Fairclough School (how I happened to be there is another story).  On a communal day out in London we passed a store and in the window I saw a beautiful Scouts knife.  I had been given just enough ' present' money to buy it.  The next morning I coerced a friend to go with me after breakfast to find the shop to buy it - we did.  Then we had to get back to Gower St in time for the 10:00 o'clock days coach trip.  By a quarter to ten I knew we couldn't make it, so I flagged down a London cab and made it back with five minutes to spare - two shillings poorer!

The teachers read me the riot act, but later that night, two of them came to my bed and told me how they were impressed and how I had the ability to become the leader of the free world,  Sorry, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I was moved out of Richard Fairclough a month later.  

That friends is the power of parenting.  My question is, not literally, but psychologically, why can that story never be repeated in this day and age and who is responsible?

 

 

l

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Partly parenting today and partly the "ooh we must protect the children from evil" brigade.

As a kid growing up i was taught that doing wrong hurt, mainly because i got found out by my parents and the resultant "clip round the ear" hurt, result was that i did not do wrong again or at least not that my parents would find out about. (they usually did though). Today that would be classed as child abuse, along with it's many and varied cries of outrage that you could treat a child that way.

As a kid growing up we had little in the way of valuable items, my first bike was not so much a hand me down as a Frankenstein, cobbled together from bits salvaged from old bikes scavenged from the tip or canal. an old butchers bike frame made from what appeared to be drainpipes coupled with the latest sturmey archer three speed gearing and lever brakes that only worked well if you stuck your feet on the floor as well. Muggings happened to old grannies on pension day and in other far off exotic places like manchester and liverpool.

Kids these days cannot exist without a phone that cost more than a months wages and the latest designer trend fingernails.

The answer lies in the trend towards not hurting the kids, naughty steps and time outs instead if a "clip round the ear". also in the fact that kids have no real boundaries as such and know that they will be believed if they say they have been abused/mistreated, even if it is a complete fabrication because dad/mum won't let them have an extra five minutes on candy crush.

This trend has been ongoing since the late sixties and slowly gathering momentum and has resulted in a group of parents that were not "severely disciplined" and as a result are less inclined to be harsh on their kids, which in turn makes those kids less inclined as well until discipline, as such, is just given lip service by the parents and literally laughed at by their offspring.

oh bugger rambling now so shut up SID. 🤭🤫

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The big question: is a safe environment where kids can be allowed to develop alone, climb trees, break a leg......... , better than a world without discipline where kids cannot find their way home without gps and may be abducted at any minute.  How stupid do people have to be to allow the latter to happen and even promote it.

Syd, we had the same experiences.  My first bikes, at 7 yrs old, were all built from scrap yard finds.  There was a great yard right behind the old Kinema on Manchester Rd across from the church hall.  Never did find a split link, had to use a piece of baling wire to hold the chain together, used to last about a mile.

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Odd thing was watching a program called antique road trip earlier this week and i am sure my old bike was on display for sale in a shop. They wanted about £200.00 for it.

Spent many a hour searching through my dads bits and bobs for a split link. it was always that clip that was the elusive part. getting the chain tension was a great test of ingenuity, especially if it was a few links too long.

where i was brought up we had a scrap yard that was at the back of our house, think it was hickmans scrapyard, it was adjoining land to Dallam loco sheds. A great source of bike bits apart from seats. strange how many bikes turned up minus the seat. I used to wonder if there was a big shed somewhere in Warrington full of old bike seats.

I am not sure that it was a particularly safe environment i grew up in as such but there were fewer incidents of violence or much fear of abduction or so it seemed at the time. We did lead a healthier lifestyle, being kept in was a punishment, these days being sent outside to play is.

It's a funny old world.

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We've all come through the times when atrocities against kids was rare headline news , the Moors Murderers ,Susie Maxwell  etc , but is the commitment of such crimes these days so commonplace that it gets only local reporting ? You listen to reports about all these stabbings & we are living in vile times.

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On 8/30/2019 at 5:14 PM, Stallard12 said:

The big question: is a safe environment where kids can be allowed to develop alone, climb trees, break a leg......... , better than a world without discipline where kids cannot find their way home without gps and may be abducted at any minute.  How stupid do people have to be to allow the latter to happen and even promote it.

Syd, we had the same experiences.  My first bikes, at 7 yrs old, were all built from scrap yard finds.  There was a great yard right behind the old Kinema on Manchester Rd across from the church hall.  Never did find a split link, had to use a piece of baling wire to hold the chain together, used to last about a mile.

1950's Summer school holidays comprised of .. meet friends for 9am start;  one second hand bike,a bottle of "corporation pop" a jam butty, my packamac tied to the cross bar and the instructions "" Be back for your tea at 5.30.""

Wonderful wonderful days ...........

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Exactly Latch.  My lifelong cycling career started exactly like that and at that time,  except that I had a tomato buttie wrapped in brown paper which, after two hours was so soggy the paper fell apart!   Most of our rides started off up Chester Road and can you believe it, we could ride all the way into Wales on the main roads and only see six cars.

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2 hours ago, Stallard12 said:

Exactly Latch.  My lifelong cycling career started exactly like that and at that time,  except that I had a tomato buttie wrapped in brown paper which, after two hours was so soggy the paper fell apart!   Most of our rides started off up Chester Road and can you believe it, we could ride all the way into Wales on the main roads and only see six cars.

Tomato butties blimey you were dead posh!

At the Latch household if the jam ran out before pay day.. it was" Stork Margarine Sugar Butties"..😉image.jpeg.e15a9c37fbd66e4a84611e70b3fc4f3d.jpegImage result for Stork margarine 1950's adverts

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Dripping on toast.. A veritable feast !

My Mum had a Saturday morning job and so Dad made breakfast ..always a doorstep of toast smothered in dripping to this day I remember the wonderful savoury feast.

Not had it since I was 9 or 10 but still remember how scrummy it tasted.

Then the door was opened and I was free to enjoy my Saturday wherever it took me and my pals.

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On 8/30/2019 at 5:14 PM, Stallard12 said:

The big question: is a safe environment where kids can be allowed to develop alone, climb trees, break a leg......... , better than a world without discipline where kids cannot find their way home without gps and may be abducted at any minute.  How stupid do people have to be to allow the latter to happen and even promote it.

Syd, we had the same experiences.  My first bikes, at 7 yrs old, were all built from scrap yard finds.  There was a great yard right behind the old Kinema on Manchester Rd across from the church hall.  Never did find a split link, had to use a piece of baling wire to hold the chain together, used to last about a mile.

Stallard, I believe the scrapyard you are referring to is 'Podmores' it is still there and trading today.

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