It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Hardup_Hester

I got married in 1976 & bought first house at the same time, I didn't lose any pay during the 3 day week as we worked 5 days a week but spent 2 of them freezing cold & working by a tilly lamp. The mortgage rate went up to 15%, in 1978 I was making clothes for my son from my cut down maternity clothes once he outgrew his babygro's. I don't think this recession is any worse that the ones before, not that I am much affected by boom or bust, I live in my own little frugal world.
Hester

ceridwen

shegar wrote: »

Im in same boat as you cos I cant recall the problems of the 70 s either, I did get married in 74, but cant recall that either....!!:eek:

I have a theory on this - wait for it...expectant pause....and it boils down to:

If someone (ie you or me in this case) has done "rather a LOT of living" over such a long period then it equates to having crammed in several lifetimes worth of experience in that time and our minds can basically recall "ONE lifetime's worth of experience" in detail for that length of time. Well - thats my theory and I'm sticking to it....:rotfl::rotfl:

As long as you remember just which husband you married back in 1974 (hopefully the same one you have now?:):rotfl:) then thats all that really matters in this instance. 'Twould be nice to remember where you got married/what you were wearing, etc but thats optional extras and the photos of the occasion will tell you if need be...

maryb

kittie wrote: »

I am having a lot of success with revamping used compost. I just pull the old roots apart and add bfb, dried manure and a spray of revive, .

Kittie what is Revive? Did a google search and couldn't see anything that looks relevant. I hate putting compost in the compost bin when it hasn't used up all the goodness so something that got more use out of it would be great

shegar

ceridwen wrote: »

I have a theory on this - wait for it...expectant pause....and it boils down to:

If someone (ie you or me in this case) has done "rather a LOT of living" over such a long period then it equates to having crammed in several lifetimes worth of experience in that time and our minds can basically recall "ONE lifetime's worth of experience" in detail for that length of time. Well - thats my theory and I'm sticking to it....:rotfl::rotfl:

As long as you remember just which husband you married back in 1974 (hopefully the same one you have now?:):rotfl:) then thats all that really matters in this instance. 'Twould be nice to remember where you got married/what you were wearing, etc but thats optional extras and the photos of the occasion will tell you if need be...

All I can say is no coment..ha ha..:Dcant remember what I had for tea tonight, so no chance going back near 40 yr...:eek:

Rosanna79

During the powercuts of 1972 I was a pupil midwife in East London doing my 3 month community training. I remember buying a very large battery operated lamp and whoever was first on night call used to take it out with them. There being no power meant we were given dire warnings on no account to use the lifts in a tower block en route to a home delivery. Hating lifts I've always climbed the stairs in tower blocks anyway even if it was 20 floors!! Helped keep the weight down to some extent but it was a miserable time. We used loads of candles but at least had gas for cooking in our lodgings.. How I hated midwifery training! Perhaps that 3 month period was a major factor in that dislike?


When OH and I bought our first house in east London I think our mortgage interest was 16 % and the house prices literally doubled in the following 2 years . It was a tough time but we survived it. Ultimately we were able to sell up at a massive difference from the property we later bought for cash in my home town which made the earlier hardships worthwhile as well as sorting out our credit card debt in one fell swoop. I remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by the debt we'd got into and the massive relief it was when we moved north. It was a lesson I wished we'd learned years before and to this day I cannot really say why it happened . I guess many on this thread have possibly been in a similar situation. We really should have known better..

As for this idiot who made judgements on the size of a poster's family it reminded me of one of my first New Birth Visits in my last h/visitor job. It was the client's fifth child, the other four sat beautifully dressed and behaved on the settee. My client told me that the midwife had told her off for having another baby. I politely enquired as to whether she felt able to provide for her brood as they looked fine to me. She said yes and so I advised her to tell the aforesaid midwife that she now had a new H/V up from the East End of London and to tell this midwife from me that:

1. It wasn't any of her 'bleeding' business
and
2. that she (the client) was keeping the midwives, health visitors and school nurses in a job!!

Some weeks later this lady arrived in the Baby clinic and informed me that she had given my message to the midwife and told her that I was up from London and I'd ' sort the bu***rs out!!!!

'Sorting the Bu****rs out ' is something I still miss in retirement- and it's always great to take on a fight.. Nowadays the energy levels needed just to survive in this economic environment do rather leave me drained.

((hugs)) to all who need them and if you have a larger family think of yourself as rich in other ways that miserable gits like that will never understand.

Rosanna79

Kittie.
Thanks for that little tip regarding getting a bit extra out of the minicole cabbages. We find Harrod Horticultural very good and although they're quite pricey we've not had another brassica touched since by slugs or cabbage whites since we started using their ultrafine insect mesh. It really pays for itself longterm.

I'm another interested in rejuvenating old compost and would also like to know what REVIVE is. I use the other stuff but any extra ways of recycling would be great - as you say it can get quite expensive doing a lot of container gardening. We are working on various ideas with that and although we'll always need some fresh compost for sowing in the greenhouse do hope to cut costs drastically on compost next year... Still learning - only our 3rd full season growing. onion total going up but the original outlay on ordinary onion sets of about £7-8 worth gave an initial yield of 96 lb weight. When we priced this amount on average price per lb at a supermarket it came in as about £470 WORTH . Now OH has added the other onions / shallots etc we have about 122Lb weight. A lot more ripe tomatoes this year but I think there will be a sufficient quantity of green one left for chutney.... anyway it's great eating what you've grown yourself- OH loves it.

oldtractor

Rosanna79 wrote: »

During the powercuts of 1972 I was a pupil midwife in East London doing my 3 month community training. I remember buying a very large battery operated lamp and whoever was first on night call used to take it out with them. There being no power meant we were given dire warnings on no account to use the lifts in a tower block en route to a home delivery. Hating lifts I've always climbed the stairs in tower blocks anyway even if it was 20 floors!! Helped keep the weight down to some extent but it was a miserable time. We used loads of candles but at least had gas for cooking in our lodgings.. How I hated midwifery training! Perhaps that 3 month period was a major factor in that dislike?


When OH and I bought our first house in east London I think our mortgage interest was 16 % and the house prices literally doubled in the following 2 years . It was a tough time but we survived it. Ultimately we were able to sell up at a massive difference from the property we later bought for cash in my home town which made the earlier hardships worthwhile as well as sorting out our credit card debt in one fell swoop. I remember the feeling of being overwhelmed by the debt we'd got into and the massive relief it was when we moved north. It was a lesson I wished we'd learned years before and to this day I cannot really say why it happened . I guess many on this thread have possibly been in a similar situation. We really should have known better..

As for this idiot who made judgements on the size of a poster's family it reminded me of one of my first New Birth Visits in my last h/visitor job. It was the client's fifth child, the other four sat beautifully dressed and behaved on the settee. My client told me that the midwife had told her off for having another baby. I politely enquired as to whether she felt able to provide for her brood as they looked fine to me. She said yes and so I advised her to tell the aforesaid midwife that she now had a new H/V up from the East End of London and to tell this midwife from me that:

1. It wasn't any of her 'bleeding' business
and
2. that she (the client) was keeping the midwives, health visitors and school nurses in a job!!

Some weeks later this lady arrived in the Baby clinic and informed me that she had given my message to the midwife and told her that I was up from London and I'd ' sort the bu***rs out!!!!

'Sorting the Bu****rs out ' is something I still miss in retirement- and it's always great to take on a fight.. Nowadays the energy levels needed just to survive in this economic environment do rather leave me drained.

((hugs)) to all who need them and if you have a larger family think of yourself as rich in other ways that miserable gits like that will never understand.

my late father was from a family of 14. I am from a family of 5 . I only had 2 children but wish I'd had more ,i would have liked 5 or 6 THB. In my experience big families are happy families.

charlies-aunt

Still busy trying to keep up freezing, pickling and preserving with the never ending supply of produce from the allotment – even the scratty half dead cabbage plants that were donated to us have transmogrified into big, firm cabbages and I would rich if I had a £1 for every courgette that we’ve picked . . . :eek:

Big vet bills have upskittled the house budget and decimated our savings so the ‘free’ food from the allotment is an absolute godsend. With a bit of stretching, my walking stick & I managed to liberate half a carrier bag of eating apples from a hedgerow tree at the weekend – there were lots of windfalls on the floor so I was probably a bit late in the year picking them.

I remember the powercuts, sugar shortages and the bread strikes of the 70's! Seems we are going fast forward into the past in lots of ways, even fashion seems to be revisiting the 80's.

ceridwen

Well - I would agree re the amount of "energy" needed just to survive in this economic climate - darn it! Whether that be dealing with **** having hit the fan or taking protective measures to try and avoid it doing so. It DOES take more "energy" living life than I ever expected years back...:(

I have no wish to "take on a fight". Never did....I'd much rather walk (or preferably - run) from any "fights"...:cool:

The challenge to try and change Society for the better was something that I could/did get interested in....but for some while now it's felt like all one could do to "hold back the tide" - never mind improve Society.

I DO miss that optimistic/relatively carefree mindset of years back - that I believe came from the times we then lived in (ie rather than being younger than I am these days). I certainly recall clearly when the thought never crossed my (or pretty much anyone's mind) that Society would go backwards.

We just saw it as "19th century workers had huge great long workweeks/health hazards/huge families whether they wanted them or no (as there was no way to prevent them - bar abstinence)/discrimination against women/etc/etc" and that things had been steadily getting better and better since then. The thing was - we believed that things would continue to get "better and better". I wonder how we would have felt if we had realised that - in years to come - it would have been all we could do just to "hold our position".

On another level - it certainly never occurred to me that the countryside near me would be steadily "eaten up" by development. I just assumed that all countryside would remain countryside ad infinitum and not be sitting here well aware of just how much countryside has been "eaten up" in my lifetime to date and scared stiff at the thought of all the proposed developments "they" are trying to do in my area (which would result in vast tranches of areas that I know are countryside becoming built-on) and that is a very worrying thought to many of us. I never thought there would come a time when a Daily Prayer is "Please let all developers go bust - tomorrow preferably".....

Just reminded self - "Must join Campaign for Protection of Rural England". Naughty ceridwen - make that top of to-do list....

grandma247

I remember that power cuts in the 70's. All the mill workers worked a three day week and were paid benefits of some sort for the two days they could not work. I had to work the power cut days though because I was "office staff". We had a little sump heater to keep us warm ,NOT warm! I wore my coat all day and drank lots of coffee from a flask.

My grandfather had 18 children , my mother had four and I had six. Although I like big families I feel strongly that no-one should have children if they really do not want them. I get cross at people who ask why someone doesn't have any or ask when they are going to have some.