Past Recessions - what were your experiences?

Mr_Falling_Star

I am in my late thirties and remember planned power cuts in the late seventies, they always seemed to occur on Blue Peter nights.I also remember having to eat crackers at school as there was no bread during a bakers strike. I was out of work in the early nineties for five months, though saying that I did have a fair amount of temping work so it wasn't terrible, I was still able to buy a house with my then girlfriend. I do remember a lot of empty shops in the high street though. I also seem to recall a lot of nastiness about that if you were out of work you were a total loser which is just plain nonsense. As for now my wife has just come home from her shift in a shop and they have doubled their shops target this week so for now there seems to be some money about still.

mizzbiz

I buy Camps coffee. I put it in milk to make coffee milkshakes. It's absolutely lovely.

I really can't imagine drinking it as hot coffee though, that's pretty disgusting. :-(

amcluesent

>Thatcher......... Just the sound of that womans name makes me cringe<

Classic quote from the Iron Lady, "Any man in his thirties still using the bus may consider himself a failure"

Mr_Falling_Star

amcluesent wrote: »

>Thatcher......... Just the sound of that womans name makes me cringe<

Classic quote from the Iron Lady, "Any man in his thirties still using the bus may consider himself a failure"

Yes thats it! I remember now. Well you demented old cow I took the bus into town today but I own my own house and am reasonably OK money wise. In no way shape or form would I consider myself a "failure" (whatever the hell that means) I wish she could comment?

What a horrible horrible woman Margaret Thatcher was.

jm28cardiff

amcluesent wrote: »

>Thatcher......... Just the sound of that womans name makes me cringe<

Classic quote from the Iron Lady, "Any man in his thirties still using the bus may consider himself a failure"

Huh? Crazy quote!

I was in High School when Thatcher went, a teacher sent a kid round to each class in school, he came in and said "Thatchers gone", and the whole class cheered!

clobber_2

I wonder of this lot will end up being as loathed as she was.

I don't know anyone who will confess to voting for her, but someone must have done.

DoI: Have voted labour in the past. Probably won't next time. Will try and be honest if asked.

The_White_Horse

anyone who despises Thatcher is a fool. Without her, god knows where this sinking ship of a country would have ended up.

the country needed hard medicine, and she gave it. yeah, a load of greedy miners that wanted to be paid more than the mines were actually producing, lost their jobs. that was their fault. if they weren't so greedy, perhaps they would have kept their jobs.

fc123

SingleSue wrote: »

this was also the start to my feeling of being a failure - if only my body had been stronger, we could have saved our home.

Absolutely not a failure Sue...but I so understand where you are coming from.
My OH felt this way when he went deaf 4 years ago......he couldn't function....he tried...but it's hard when you can't hear decipher anything properly....people think you are thick instead.

My fear is if I stop for just one day...I won't be able to start up again....and then it will all collapse on top of me....everything just gone.

You're doing fine...things can only get better.

themanbearpig

clobber wrote: »

I wonder of this lot will end up being as loathed as she was.

I don't know anyone who will confess to voting for her, but someone must have done.

DoI: Have voted labour in the past. Probably won't next time. Will try and be honest if asked.

I wasn't even alive when she was elected as prime minister, but from what ive read, she was a revolutionary. Socialism doesn't work, and its counterproductive.
We need someone like her now. She would straighten out one of the fundamental problems with the UK; free-loaders. People that believe society has an obligation to look after them, when in reality, you should not get anything for nothing.
Survival of the fittest is a part of life. If you don't want to work for food, you should starve.

fc123

I remember the 70's; no sugar, candles, jack frost inside the windows in the morning, trying to get a signal on a tiny radio to listen to music and Anna Raeburn.

I left school in '79 @ 16 with 9 o levels. I couldn't wait to leave home (my parents had divorced and I didn't like my stepfather back then)and I wanted to leave home....only way to do that was to get a job and go.
That's what I did.
I was meant to do A Levels and uni and something academic.....I went to an OK grammar school.


I got a shop job and did well...becoming supervisor after 3 years....earnt well, had a room in a house.

Then I entered a competition on the BBC and came 2nd in amateur designer of the year comp...and the lovely Jeff Banks spent the journey back to London telling me how to apply to college etc........and Banarama were sitting behind us on the coach.

So I did...and learnt Italian in night school. All free back then...no money worries as I had a sat job in Liberty and did freelance trend forecasting and illustration on the side.

Set up a market stall in last year of college. Met OH. Graduated with distinction all ready to fly high....and fell pregnant.

And I ended up living in Nil By Mouth Land.

The 90's recession was an opportunity for us. We had a new idea. We developed the market stall into a gigantic one (just like Red or Dead) and opened a huge shop in 1990 with another couple.

Bought derelict house ( 1990) when prices first fell....and renovated it over 6 years...every ££ spent on improvements disapeared in negative equity. I remember when rates were high and, after mortgage payments, there not being much left.

Exported strange second hand clothing to Japan by the tonne.

I didn't think we had benefitted from the boom...I just thought we were doing well.....but looking back I think we may have afterall...and there's me thinking it's because I was hardworking and smart.;)

School fees have mashed our budget over the years....but a good education and a stable homelife is worth more than any amount of stuff.......but, man, is it an effort to provide.......exhausting;)
Mind you, teen daughter feels her life is empty as she doesn't own a pair of GHD's.