Thinking

It was while I was struggling over this new computer that my mind wandered off into the past.
 If anyone had told me that we would have this technology I, and almost all of my peers would have not believed it.
 For a start, I was born in a fairly modern house, it had only been buitt about 8 years. It did have a back boiler system which meant we had hot water whenever we had a fire. Coal open fires of course. We did not have electricity though, but we had gas in each room except the bathroom. Yes we had a bathroom too.
 Gas was the dominant feature in those days. All street lighting was by gas. We had progressed from a gaslighter man they were on a timer so went on at dusk.
 Of course during the war, we had no street lights at all and to walk on pitch darkness is very hard indeed. one soon loses ones bearings
 Most homes in those days had little or no electricity and the wireless(radio) was battery operated. Two batteries were needed, one large one and a small one. together with an accumulator. an acid glass container which had to be recharged each week the cost being 6d. The batteries lasted about 3 months and cost a lot of money. I have seen my Mother heat the battery in the side oven just to see if it would make it last a few days longer. Of course it didn't.
 During my youngest years my Father was in the Army out in the Burma area fighting with Orde Wingate and the Chindits so I really never knew my Father as I was over 8 years old when he came home for good.
 ven after the war, times were hard, everything was on ration. I can remember going with my Sister who was 4 years older than me, going to the coking plant, this was where they burnt coal to make gas and the coke was sold  to the public. Coal was on ration to the general public so my Mother sent us to get coke. We used to take the pram and get a man to load it up for us. Anyone who has handled coke will know it is very light so the size of a1cwt sack is huge. But really that was part of growing up.
 Parents in those days had it hard too. Monday was washday, it didn't matter if it was sunny or pouring with rain it was still wash day. It was an all day proceedure. Hard to believe now but the firat thing was to get the copper on to get the water boiling. then it was firt washing the coloureds. We had like most of other a dolly peg and this was used to aggitate the water to clean the clothes. Aggitate by your own efforts. After washing the water was changed after the clothes had gone through  the mangle the clothes were then rinsed and again mangled. then they could be pegged out. The water in the copper would by then be boiling and all the whites were put in. My Mother used Persil for the whites and Rinso for the coloureds. A reckits Blue bag was dipped into the clean water so tha when the whites were taken out the blue in the water would make them look whiter. After going through the mangle, out they went to be dried. It was heaven help us if it was raining, there would be a few clothes horses filled to capacity and if we had a fire, then they would be round there to dry as soon as they could. many a time, drying clothes went on until late on the Monday evening.
 Tuesday was always ironing and airing day. There was a day set out for some task each week day of the week.  I can remember that Thursday was alwys polishing the linoleum in the bedrooms and Friday was black lead day.  No wonder you didn't see many obese women about in the days of my youth.
 I can't recall seeing a Helicopter until the 50s. All we saw were bombers ans fighter aeroplanes during the war. After it was back once more to bi- planes. We used to call the sea planes. heaven alone knows why.
 In the late 40s we moved house and had electricity. Only a live and neutral, no earth at all but we could then purchase an electric radio.
 Cars were still scarce. Each factory had about 6 spaces for cars and about 200 bicycly racks. It was a sight for sore eyes to watch the cyclists coming out all in a hurry to get home when the hooter sounded. How times have changed.
 To cut the grass one used hedge shears. It was a hard job and as children we had to do our bit to help. It took ages to cut the grass.  Now people moan about cutting grass with an electric lawnmower. Mind you I do not have any grassed area at all.
 Telephones were a luxury and when I eventually left the Railway in the mid 60s I had to use the public telephone becaued noboby aroud had a telephone. In fact when I went into business in the late 96 early 70 we had a telephone but we were on a Party Line, shared with the local Fish Shop. This was because there were not enough lines to let us have our own phone. It was about 5 years later when we both had our private phone lines. Mind you, we did get a discount for sharing, it was about £1 a quarter. There was a button on the phone and you pressed it and if you got the dialing tone it meant you could get a connection. If not you could hear the other part talking to whoever they were talking to. To be honest, in all that time it only  happened once.
With traffic being so light there was very little need for traffic lights and paying to park a car was unheard of.
 Petrol seemed to saty at the same price for ages it was about £1. for 4 gallons.
 I had better post this now as just now all went black. Oh dear, I must have hit a wrong button. Anyway I will continue tomorrow.