Questions for the seniors

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

We're in danger of getting back to the dreaded racism thread, but I would imagine your dad would have had to put up with a lot more predjudice/abuse than (I would hope) you have. Some things have definitely improved. 

As you'll have gathered, I do have some nostalgia for the 60s/70s, but it certainly wasn't all good, by any means. 

He did but there was a real unity and community spirit amongst Indians. So the abuse didn't really phase them if that makes sense. They all gave us good as they got. That same spirit isn't there anymore. 

But yeh we better avoid turning this in to the racism thread 

[mjmooney]

And, of course, pubs were closed in the afternoons, and everything was closed on Sundays. 

[lapal_fan]

I've got to admit it. I was a bit gutted when the recent proposed law changed to Sunday hours got turned down.  Good for the workers though I guess.

[snowychap]

19 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

And, of course, pubs were closed in the afternoons, and everything was closed on Sundays. 

June '88, I think.

Edit: On checking, it looks like May. I do remember them being open during the afternoon on my last day of school that summer which would have been early June.

Edited February 25, 2018 by snowychap

[mjmooney]

Afternoon drinking was a lot more fun when you had to know where you could find a lock-in. 

[mjmooney]

Quote

  Buying a house – In 1966 the average cost of a house was £3,620, which equates to about £60,848 in today’s money. In contrast, the average cost of a house in the UK broke the £200,000 barrier for the first time in April 2016, going up to £313,000 in the south of England.  

2.       Buying a car – Cars were far less frequent on the streets in 1966 than they are now, and the boom in car ownership had yet to take full effect.  One reason was the cost – the average cost of a new car was £950, which is around £15,968 in today’s money.  Figures for 2015 show that the average transaction cost for new cars was £22,000.

3.       Pint of beer – A pint of beer in 1966 would have set you back an average 2 shillings, equal to 10p, which amounts to around £1.75comparatively in today’s money.  In late 2015, the average price of a pint in the UK was £3.46 – the county with the lowest average cost was Herefordshire with £3.10, while in London it was £3.92.

4.       Gallon of petrol – in 1966 it would have cost you 5s 3d – which translates to 26p. This would be around £4.58 in today’s money. Now today we don’t buy gallons of petrol, we buy litres – and the average cost in the UK is around £1.01 per litre. However, with the gallon/litre equation being 1 gallon = 4.54, the figures are not too different at the moment to what they effectively were in 1966.

 5.       Wages – the average annual UK salary in 1966 was £891, which sounds ridiculously small nowadays but it equates to upwards of £14,977 in modern terms. The most recent figures from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) show that the average gross annual earnings for full-time employees was £27,600, up by 1.6% from the previous year.  However, someone working full-time on the national minimum wage (£7.20) could gross around £14,976 a year, a figure similar to the average in 1966.

And finally, footballer’s wages – the average salary for a top league footballer in 1966, the kind that might be playing at Wembley for the World Cup, was around £5,200 a year, which we calculated to be about £90,812 in today’s money – a figure that a large number of today’s top footballers would earn in a week or so!

 

Link

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Funnily enough, my wife and I were talking about this very thing the other day. It was entirely normal to let your dog out on its own all day (unless it was a posh pedigree one, of course). I lived in fear of them - probably why I'm still quite nervous of dogs even today. 

 

3 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

In the 80's a lad in our school got a load of his scalp ripped off by an Alsatian. True story. Had a year off school for skin grafts and everything.

He was swinging one of those flourescent swimming bags we all had (with the pictures on that were like the start of grange hill somehow) round and round without a care in the world and it went for him.

Funnily enough, I've never been a big dog person.

I'm very weary of dogs too because of my childhood. (Weary = shit scared of them).

Getting chased and bit by then was quite normal.

[bickster]

3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Afternoon drinking was a lot more fun when you had to know where you could find a lock-in. 

Oh indeed. We used to walk down a back alley and tap on the rear door of a pub in the city centre, same gang everyday. The shoplifters and card fraudsters having a pint after a days graft and a few other ne'er do wells but everyone just got on and chatted in our exclusive little club

[VILLAMARV]

As an ex landlord I hate the demise of 'The Pub' although I am obviously emotionally invested in the argument.

Allowing alcohol for sale everywhere i.e. the demise of the off license - the smoking ban - changes to drink driving laws - Sports Bars(Money to Murdoch et al) - (And admittedly the birth of better things to do with our time!) - All things that have come about in my lifetime. The 60's and 70's (and further back) which lapal is asking about in the OP must have looked a lot different in a drinking culture capacity.

7 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Pubs were for men. Clouds of tobacco smoke, beer, crisps and darts. If you found a pub with a beer garden that did sandwiches it was considered posh.

The division between the 'Lounge Bar' and the 'Tap Room' always seemed insane to me when my regulars would talk about 'the old days'. And the 'Snug' bar? Does anyone actually remember any of those? Secret holes in the wall where drinks would disappear. If so what was that all about?

It's never lost on me that the civil rights movement in the US was going on about 10 short years before I came along. In a world where the idea of women being made to go in a separate room for anything would seem really odd now it's strange to think it was still basically at play culturally in the UK not that long ago in bars and pubs every Fri/Sat night.

[Mark Albrighton]

9 hours ago, Seat68 said:

I was born in Telford in 1970. I remember the M54 being built and having to use the A5 to get everywhere. Stafford Park being built and the Town Centre opening. 

My mum grew up in St Georges in the Telford area and I was recently talking to her about what was there before Telford Town Centre. I do struggle to picture it not being there, or rather there not being a “centre” bit as such. Just a couple roads and a few houses. It sounds like there was a lot of walking involved.

My Dad was born in Tooting in the late forties so his childhood would have been a bit different I guess. He was run over by a horse and cart as a kid, which sounds makes Tooting in the fifties sound a bit Dickensian to me. He still maintains he was pushed.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[lapal_fan]

1 hour ago, VILLAMARV said:

As an ex landlord I hate the demise of 'The Pub' although I am obviously emotionally invested in the argument.

Allowing alcohol for sale everywhere i.e. the demise of the off license - the smoking ban - changes to drink driving laws - Sports Bars(Money to Murdoch et al) - (And admittedly the birth of better things to do with our time!) - All things that have come about in my lifetime. The 60's and 70's (and further back) which lapal is asking about in the OP must have looked a lot different in a drinking culture capacity.

The division between the 'Lounge Bar' and the 'Tap Room' always seemed insane to me when my regulars would talk about 'the old days'. And the 'Snug' bar? Does anyone actually remember any of those? Secret holes in the wall where drinks would disappear. If so what was that all about?

It's never lost on me that the civil rights movement in the US was going on about 10 short years before I came along. In a world where the idea of women being made to go in a separate room for anything would seem really odd now it's strange to think it was still basically at play culturally in the UK not that long ago in bars and pubs every Fri/Sat night.

Yea that is pretty strange!

My dads dad was an alcoholic blue nose.  A terrible family man (beat his wife and 4 kids until she **** off and left them behind) but was a great "mate".  My dad was telling me on a weekend his dad would take him to a pub with his brother, go inside all day and leave them outside where they used to just dick about for 10 hours.  

He also told me that he took his elder brother, him and his younger sister to st. Andrews in the late 60s, early 70s and they had to nappy (towel) change her on the touchline!

Worlds away from anything I'm used to.  I remeber going to 1 game at VP before the holte end was changed to what it is now. And thats very hazy.

Edited February 25, 2018 by lapal_fan

[chrisp65]

I remember being on the old Holte and hearing the roar outside (during the game) of loads of forest fans chasing loads of villa fans down the street and over the gardens of the terraced houses directly outside (what is now Witton Lane Gardens).

Then another roar from outside as the villa boys had turned and were chasing forest back. This got a huge cheers from inside as a good portion of the Holte could see what was happening outside.

Then, lastly, an absolute stampede outside as villa and forest, mixed in together all ran down the street, chased by police and police horses. Met with a huge collective laugh from the Holte.

[mjmooney]

I liked the terraces, but I can't say I miss the hooligan era. 

[lapal_fan]

I love being outside a stadium when a goal goes in. It's so atmospheric.  Particularly on a night game with the sky's glowing from the floodlights.

I also like it the away team scores.  It's a cool sound.  More tribal than home support.

But the BEST sound at a football match.. is the crack of the post and the OOOWWWWWWWW from the supporters.  It sounds almost like a collective of thousands of people, physically aching that the ball never rippled the net.  Hitz did one once, and i heard the post noise from the holte end, when it was the north end goal post.

A random deviation from the thread, but chrisp's post bought it outta me.. blame him

[ender4]

On 2/24/2018 at 21:14, Xela said:

I jest, I love the technology but its a sad sight to see groups of people at the pub or restaurant and all staring at their phones.

Why is someone on facebook/whatsapp more important than the person you are sitting with? Makes me sad inside. 

We're sharing the same joke with the people we're sitting with, or even talking online with those same people we're sitting with. 

It makes sense in the moment, even though it sounds daft typing it on here.

[Mark Albrighton]

3 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

As an ex landlord I hate the demise of 'The Pub' although I am obviously emotionally invested in the argument.

Allowing alcohol for sale everywhere i.e. the demise of the off license - the smoking ban - changes to drink driving laws - Sports Bars(Money to Murdoch et al) - (And admittedly the birth of better things to do with our time!) - All things that have come about in my lifetime. The 60's and 70's (and further back) which lapal is asking about in the OP must have looked a lot different in a drinking culture capacity.

The division between the 'Lounge Bar' and the 'Tap Room' always seemed insane to me when my regulars would talk about 'the old days'. And the 'Snug' bar? Does anyone actually remember any of those? Secret holes in the wall where drinks would disappear. If so what was that all about?

It's never lost on me that the civil rights movement in the US was going on about 10 short years before I came along. In a world where the idea of women being made to go in a separate room for anything would seem really odd now it's strange to think it was still basically at play culturally in the UK not that long ago in bars and pubs every Fri/Sat night.

Yep, the Posada in Wolverhampton has “snob glass”. Having asked the staff there about it, it would seem the men would drink in the main bar while women would use a different entrance and drink upstairs. The snob glass there is essentially little windows so the bar staff could hand the drinks through to the women without being seen by the men. The Barton Arms has snob glass too, but I think that was more of class division thing. 

The snug bars and the like are touched upon in this documentary about the post war relationship Britain has with alcohol.

 

[John]

On 24/02/2018 at 14:37, blandy said:

A cow ( a big one obviously - a small one would be a stupid answer, and a medium sized one also quite dumb).

"These are small but the ones out there are far away"...

[John]

On 24/02/2018 at 13:44, lapal_fan said:

What's the biggest thing you can think of?

ONLY FRIGGIN' KIDDING!! HAR HAR.

No, I'm somewhat fascinated by life in the 60s and 70s at the minute.. it's from my old man and mom, who lived through the time.  But there's loads of things and questions I'm asking him about that time like;

• What was it like before motorways?  The M5 was built outside my mom's mom's house, and she used to sit on the side waiting ages for a carcards to come past.. now look at the ****.

It seemed we went from Steam engines, to electric really quickly.. when did diesels fit in?  What did you think when they pulled up all the local train stations? 

As my parents were never from affluent families, it be interesting to know what life was like for people from the middle classes in those days.  Having cars when not many people did etc.

A lot happened and I'll think of more, feel free to ask more, but it would be cool to get the people in their 40/50/60s answers (if they don't mind!!)

Before motorways journeys took longer but we looked out of the windows and the places we passed were of interest to city dwellers rather than places to speed past at 80 on the way to a destination. Steam trains seemed more fun I recall as very young kids. we enjoyed getting covered in steam from their engines. Travel abroad was unheard of and seeing the seaside took our breath away. My dad had a shop and I remember the part small shops played in the community prior to the supermarkets everyone knew each other and had a chat. Shopping tended to be done daily rather than weekly and at one shop for fruit and vegetables and another for groceries and meat rather than under one roof at a supermarket. I recall going out for a night out and coming back with change from £2. I remember standing at Villa Park and paying 2/- for the pleasure. I recall the days before 4-4-2 of half backs, wingers and inside forwards. I remember playing football in the streets and waiting for The Sports Argus at the newsagents shop whilst men talked of watching the likes of Matthews in their youth. I recall black & white televisions with around twelve inch screens that needed to warm up and be switched on manually. I even used chalk and a slate to do my sums at school (the school was still using what it had no doubt used when first built). I remember using a calculator for the first time and a brick like mobile phone. Bygone days..

[Stevo985]

I get that a lot of this is nostalgic reminiscing, but I read a lot of this "how it was back in the day" and think

"it sounds **** awful"

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I get that a lot of this is nostalgic reminiscing, but I read a lot of this "how it was back in the day" and think

"it sounds **** awful"

It (mostly) wasn't.