Past Recessions - what were your experiences?

olly300

SingleSue wrote: »

Strangely, I do the same! The kids used to ask why I did and I always replied "In case of a power cut" and they would give me that weird look that kids always give when they think the parent has gone a bit mad.

Can someone explain why I have this thing about having lots of torches and batteries for them?

I wasn't around in 73/74 so I didn't suffer those blackouts. I've suffered from about 4 blackouts in my life - 2 in London due to storms and 2 while on holiday where I "just happened" to have a large torch and batteries with me.

RecoveringAlcoholic

Some fascinating comments on this thead from a wide diversity of posters.

The Party is Over.

We are in for a very long lasting Hangover.

fc123

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Did he recover his hearing, or was it a permanent loss?

My Dad's older brother has very poor hearing, and also is blind in one eye. It really cuts him off from easy interaction with other people, i think - in his case, it was childhood problems (complications from measles, I think).

He has a hereditory disease that usually only goes down the female line...rare for men to develop. Otosclerosis http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23069149/
It is not that uncommon but varies in severity...it's a disease of the bones in the inner ear. It only affected 1 ear but the other ear then doesn't work properly...sounds get mixed up. Any background noise at all renders you unable to decipher any sounds/speach.

His mother had it but her op failed (also quite common) then the other ear developed it so she has been stone deaf since her late 30's. Hearing aids do work a bit and she has a bolt coming out of her head behind the ear that was a new development a few years back. However, she mainly lip reads and you can tell when she can't really hear and understand what conversations are going on. She can hear telly though if it's turned up really loudly

OH op worked but it was a bit touch and go. It can affect balance too.
However, his recent test showed that he hears higher pitches far more loudly than 'normal' hearing would....it's now very ''bionic''. He keeps telling me not to shout (I got used to shouting over the years as he went deaf I guess)...and he can hear women (higher pitch) talking from far, far away.

baileysbattlebus

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

It was pretty grim back then. I know it's wrong but a few of us used to sneak into the school during the holidays to steal the coal to get warm indoors. There were parents there doing the same. Yes it's wrong. I'm referring to normally honest, law abiding people who lived in single glazed, metal framed houses who had no coal, no central heating, and no paraffin for warmth. It makes mr wonder what could happen if food and water supplies were ever to become seriously disrupted.

My grandfather was a miner in Northumberland - retired by the 70's though - he had pneumoconiosis and had to retire early. They lived in a village, in a tied house and part of retirement was free coal for the rest of their lives - so they didn't have any issues with lack of heat. But people used to go the "pit heaps" as we used to call them - where they dumped the waste - and collect what they could. It could be quite dangerous. During normal times they would never have dreamt of doing anything like that.

And I guess in cases of true shortages people will do what ever they need to do to look after their familes, be it honest or not. I know I would.

amcluesent

Everyone's gone soft. My grandfather was a PoW and was fed on potato peelings mostly. Now yer 'elf'n'safety inspector bans even the pigs getting swill.

Clown and Mugabe have identical economic policies. We'll soon be living like those in Zimbabwe, no more luxuries, hoarding the essentials.

It's the kiddies I pity. They'll have to live with little oil, little water, little food and WWIII between China/USA and the Islamic Axis.

1echidna

amcluesent wrote: »

Everyone's gone soft. My grandfather was a PoW and was fed on potato peelings mostly. Now yer 'elf'n'safety inspector bans even the pigs getting swill.

Clown and Mugabe have identical economic policies. We'll soon be living like those in Zimbabwe, no more luxuries, hoarding the essentials.

It's the kiddies I pity. They'll have to live with little oil, little water, little food and WWIII between China/USA and the Islamic Axis.

I note from amcluesent contributions that he is predicting not a severe recession or even a depression but what can perhaps best be described as a collapse of civilisation as we know it. Pessimistic but who knows? It might solve society's obesity problem. I know I am rather too tempted by good food and could do with losing a stone or perhaps two. Every cloud perhaps has a silver lining.

Maz

I remember quite vividly, debating with my then husband whether to spend our last 50p on a bag of spuds or a bag of bran flakes to last us for three days' meals. We had a bit of cheese, two eggs and nothing else in the cupboard to eat. We also had two babies to feed.

As we didn't have central heating in our rented house, my hubby 'borrowed' two discarded railway sleepers, which he carted over two miles, then cut up so that at least we could have some heat. I also remember scaveging bones from the local butchers to make into soup, together with scraggy veg from the market at the end of the trading day. B'stard butcher wised up and starting charging me 10p for the bones! This was in the late seventies. We had less than nothing and both my children (and ourselves), were clothed from jumble sales and charity shops from the kids being very small babes until around 7 or 8. (Things started to pick up then)

baileysbattlebus

Maz wrote: »

I remember quite vividly, debating with my then husband whether to spend our last 50p on a bag of spuds or a bag of bran flakes to last us for three days' meals. We had a bit of cheese, two eggs and nothing else in the cupboard to eat. We also had two babies to feed.

As we didn't have central heating in our rented house, my hubby 'borrowed' two discarded railway sleepers, which he carted over two miles, then cut up so that at least we could have some heat. I also remember scaveging bones from the local butchers to make into soup, together with scraggy veg from the market at the end of the trading day. B'stard butcher wised up and starting charging me 10p for the bones! This was in the late seventies. We had less than nothing and both my children (and ourselves), were clothed from jumble sales and charity shops from the kids being very small babes until around 7 or 8. (Things started to pick up then)

Actually one of smartest women I know clothes herself from jumble sales and charity shops. I first met her in the mid 1980's, we lived in Scotland and her husband had lost his job, they had 4 children and she was always really smart. When I commented on smart she was, she said she bought everything from jumble sales etc, she wasn't bothered about the size (she was tiny) as she was handy with a sewing machine.