On the way down the hill

Apparently it is now 50 years since I began my final year in what we then called sixth form . This seems strange as I am sure that I ran a three legged race with school friends outside the sixth form block some time yesterday - memory has a strange way of doing tricks like that. 

At the time we were on a roller coaster ride. Factories (we still had those then) were held up by strikes for weeks on end as the country settled down to realising the Empire really had gone and we were no longer able to flog second rate stuff to countries who HAD to take what we sold to them .

Yet at the same time our living standards were rising even faster than inflation    (20% !) . Almost everyone over 21 now had a car , a telephone in the house , a fridge and some way of listening to the radio and playing something we called ‘Records’ . Some lucky souls even had a TV with colour pictures ! How could we ever get any richer we thought .   

Of course in the eyes of my Grandson (11 next week going on 25 ) this was a hellish existence . How could you possibly live as a young person without multiple devices on which you could play games , watch videos, chat with friends etc. As for having to write down telephone numbers in a book and having only one phone in the house , usually in a draughty hallway and unmoveable , that is inconceivable.

But we did have  really wonderful summer with non stop sunshine and drought . - cue library picture of women standing in a queue waiting to fill a bucket from a tap in the street . Perversely the Government appointed a ‘Minister for Drought’ and the next day it began raining incessantly . He (Dennis Howe since you ask) is probably the most effective Government Minister anywhere on the planet ever .

Hope you enjoyed our little soiree in the past. Do keep a lookout for further musings from the dim and distant past . Subscribe if its an option .

Thank you for giving up some of your free time to read my twaddle .