WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Does this mean that reading Private Eye (and trusting it) and questioning the role of the monarchy means that we are lesser persons and not fit to be Barlickers? Mark me down as both and while you're at it I was born out of wedlock, am the son of an illegal immigrant and almost certainly have an Australian Aborigine in my ancestry.
What an improvement the embedded pics make to the LTP transcripts that we are working on. Pluggy's asking questions about digitising the tapes now.....
The total wickedness of the two who starved and beat their child to death....
I was listening to reports about why the social services and the school failed the lad and I wondered whether things would perhaps have been different in the days when we got free school milk, free dinners and we were regularly weighed and examined by the school nurse. Had we more safeguards seventy years ago? Remember that economically the country was in far worse condition then...

[Thomo]

You forgot the "Tee hee"

[hartley353]

Does this mean that reading Private Eye (and trusting it) and questioning the role of the monarchy means that we are lesser persons and not fit to be Barlickers? Mark me down as both and while you're at it I was born out of wedlock, am the son of an illegal immigrant and almost certainly have an Australian Aborigine in my ancestry.
What an improvement the embedded pics make to the LTP transcripts that we are working on. Pluggy's asking questions about digitising the tapes now.....
The total wickedness of the two who starved and beat their child to death....
I was listening to reports about why the social services and the school failed the lad and I wondered whether things would perhaps have been different in the days when we got free school milk, free dinners and we were regularly weighed and examined by the school nurse. Had we more safeguards seventy years ago? Remember that economically the country was in far worse condition then...

The death of this poor lad is systematic of our now non caring society. When we had to pay people to care, some thing was lost, there is now just self obsession.

[Tardis]

Yorkshire Day 1st August

[Tizer]

Photos of building bridges, now and in the past, in San Francisco Bay, here:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/07/27 ... oseph-blum
and here:
http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/peter-s ... idging-bay

[Stanley]

After spending 3 hours embedding pics in one of the transcripts the site reported an 'error in submission'. Tried again and it loaded... Phew!

[Tizer]

A Bristol newspaper advertisement from the early 1960s inviting applications for jobs as Engine Cleaners with BR, age 15-16, £3 15s a week. Prospects of promotion to Fireman on £9 3s in two years. Qualify for Sick Pay from age 18, and to join the Pension scheme at age 21. Also the prospect of learning to be a Driver of one of the `new Diesel Locomotives'.

The £3 15s a week is about what I earned in my first job at about the same time. Doesn't sound much now but at least you could get a half of bitter for 9d in those days! That allows an interesting calculation...the average price of a pint of beer in Britain is now £3.00, so let's say a half pint is £1.50. That's 1.5 pounds, which in real money (240d to the pound) is 360d (old pennies), so a half has increased in price 40 fold (360 divided by 9) since 1963. So, based on the `beer index price', the equivalent starting salary for a 15-16 year old now would be 40 x £3 15s, which equals 40 x £3.75 = £150 a week or £7800 a year (150 x 52). (Feel free to correct me if I've miscalculated!)

[Tardis]

August 1st was the Anniversary of the Battle of Minden, where the Lancashire Fusilers were present:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minden

Another defeat for the French

[Bodger]

Tizer my first bought pints were Robinsons mild in the Friendship Inn Glossop, 10 old p a pint, = 24 pints per £1.00
I finished my apprenticeship, machine tool fitter in 1958, as a member of the AEU i think i was now on about £15.00 /week, i left engineering in 1959 to go in to plastics, @ £1000.00 per annum, as staff paid, i thoght i would be made for life, but life intervened and i became self employed earning £12 /£15 per hour, , a year later i was involved in setting up a company in Ireland paying the workers roughly the same per week as i was earning per hour !!.I know life can be unfair, but if chances come your way, take them, theres always something round the next corner

[Stanley]

Price comparisons can be misleading. I usually use "how many hours did it take to earn it" or the Mars Bar index. I did an article on the cost of living, I'll see if it's on the site.
I found out yesterday that you can still buy moth balls!

[Tripps]

"mild in the Friendship Inn Glossop, 10 old p a pint"

I often use the beer comparison method to update prices. I had a holiday job in a pub in about 1960, and can still remember most of the price list. Yes Mild was 10d a pint and Bitter was a shilling. So on that basis a shilling (5p) translates to £2.50 to £3.00 so a rise by a factor of 50 - 60.

By the way no one drank draught lager then it was all bottled, Danish, imported, and drunk mainly by ladies with lime added. On reflection - i never saw anyone really drunk all the time I worked there. There's a research project there somewhere.

[Thomo]

I often think of the days when as a teenager I used to earn my weekend drinks by entertaining in my then local, the Railway in Barlick. As an apprentice, I did not get much money, and in the "Tap room" Bitter was 11d a pint and Mild, 9d a pint, petrol for my bike was about 1s and 7d a gallon, but a 78 record was 4s and 7d, chips 6d a portion, My first mortgage was £15 per month in 1961. Recently on TV, and several times, the figure for bringing up a child has been quoted at around £220,000, without sitting down and thinking about it, I do not believe that I earned that amount in my entire working life, yet my two never went without. So what caused all of this? greed with no thought for the future, from bottom to top, all included.

[Tardis]

What can I say:

The tips I earned whilst working in Green Street for a year, paid for all the beer in my first year at University

[Tripps]

We are getting into dangerous territory here

"- you could get a three course meal for two, drinks, and you tram fare home, and still have change from a ten shilling note..." .

[Stanley]

Mail from Maz that she was locked out of the site. Tried and my login failed. Went on Google and searched for scg1936 (name on email account) and it threw up some oneguy topics. I came into the site via Forgotten Corners and it accepted my login. As you can see, I am able to post. I've mailed Pluggy!

[Marilyn]

Trial post...

[Stanley]

Good lass Maz, you came in by the back door?

[Marilyn]

Hee hee...I am back...however temporarily that may be...
(was getting quite a complex...thought I had been banned or summat. Now...let's see...what mischief can I get up to while I am here?).

[Stanley]

I keep forgetting to mention that on Thursday when I went to the chemist's I noticed that Bravo, the best knicker shop in Barlick, has ceased trading. A great loss. I hope finishing wasn't too traumatic.

[Thomo]

Whilst poking around on the net this morning, looking for info on the Battleship Bismarck, and the ships cat that survived the sinking, I came across a site identical in format to OGFB:- "KBismarck.org", I thought I was seeing things at first, What I did find elsewhere was an interesting pic of the ship on the seabed, 3 miles down and roughly 600 miles West of Brest in France.



Sunk on the 27th of May 1941 with a loss of 2,082 lives, the ship is in a remarkable state of preservation, this pic taken in 1989 shows that the main armament is missing, as the ship rolled over and sank, they fell off having been held in place by gravity alone, the turrets are nearby, upside down on the seabed. The Cat, Oskar survived and was taken aboard HMS Cossack, 5 months later the Cossack was sunk by a submarine, again he survived and joined the crew of the ill fated Ark Royal. Rescued again he was retired ashore at a seamans home in Belfast.

[Wendyf]

I keep forgetting to mention that on Thursday when I went to the chemist's I noticed that Bravo, the best knocker shop in Barlick, has ceased trading. A great loss. I hope finishing wasn't too traumatic.

[Cathy]

Just like Maz, I too was locked out of OG last night. It took me over half an hour to get in, that was after following all the instructions many times. At one point it told me that my new registration had worked, but still wouldn't let me in, even my temporary password wasn't accepted. I waited another half an hour then tried again, and got thru. Phew!!

[Tizer]

Me too Cath, couldn't get in this morning. It happened to me last week as well.

An amazing photo Thomo, and the story about the cat too. I suppose he was left with six lives! I didn't know about the turrets being held by gravity alone - it makes sense when you think about their weight.

[Stanley]

Pluggy was away yesterday so the site had to repair itself. I've told him that we are on a knife edge and the sooner we load the new platform the better. We still have no evidence that everyone is back online because one of the peculiar things about it is that it affects different people in different ways. It seems to be something to do with where you come at the site from. My login failed but I eventually got in via Google. I shall continue to nag!
Got in and edited half of a big transcript.... Quietly away, it's a big job embedding the pics.

[Bodger]

From my end the site now seems ok this morning ?