General Chat

Green Shield stamps - much appreciated by my late mum.

A Christmas 'box' from the local grocer.

Annx, our first phone number was Fawley 583 - not a lot of phones there in those days!
Not only did we have a 'party' line, an elderly gentleman used to regularly phone from 43583, via an operator. This was misheard as 'Fawley 583', so was charged to our number.
We children were blamed for the high phone bill, until it was sorted :-|

I have very good memories of the 1952 smog as it wasn't only in London it was all over the Country.

Going to school in that smog was horrendous.We had to wear hankies and scarves over our mouths and keep a slow walk as it was dangerous.Walking into lamp posts was no fun I can tell you.
Did it many a time.

Maggie, our first number was similar to yours. Also, on the dinosaur phones (now quite trendy among some) you had to use the letters and numbers on the dial.

Our first was also a shared line.

It was much easier to remember the letters and numbers rather than try to remember 11 or so numbers. Although my children and grandchildren remember the numbers so it may just be an age thing? :-S

AND - remember when Directory Enquiries was free!

Trolley buses, coal men delivering. Lead water pipes, gas mantles.

Phone boxes - button 'A' and button 'B' :-D

Before STD came out only phones in large cities eg London, Birmingham had a number dial with letters. Out in the sticks the usual approach was to lift the handset and ask the operator for the number. 4d was the minimum and once connected you could not get a refund via Button B. You could add more cash during the call though.

If you have one of these phones esp Brum, Glasgow they can fetch a shedload of money from collectors.

I always disliked the phone box and got hold of a mobile (the size and weight of a brick) at the first opportunity. There was usually at least one broken pane to let the rain in, 1001 contact cards from tarts et al , a strong smell of no.6, pee/ganja and the page of the phone book you wanted was missing or often the whole directory. The box was like a Beetle or mini too small for anything but the stated purpose.

In central London and other such cities some boxes were more or less taken over by organised crime which discouraged others from using them. Quite a few had taps attached to them by GCHQ or the more recondite branches of the Met.

As a young man being friends with Capn Crunch could save a fair bit on long distance calls.

Makes the tin can phone on a string look good then....no phone taps needed :-D

Despite all the modern modes of communication, I'm surprised that many churches still hang on doggedly to the outdated printed weekly newsletter. :-S

Why not half the old people won't want them via emails etc and they make up most of the congregation...

Caroline - you are probably correct, although I'm a bit puzzled by you saying half the elders make up most of the congregation. They must be the big half!

When I occasionally look around at our dwindling congregation on a Sunday, I believe I'm the youngest there.

I'm not divulging my date of birth here - but I have already outlived 6 of the 7 Popes - 2 of whom have been Canonised as Saints.

So, no complaints & I make good use of the free bus travel, winter fuel allowance plus other bits & bobs allocated to mature residents just like me, Saints or otherwise.

Directory enquiries 118 118 is expensive

"Caroline - you are probably correct, although I'm a bit puzzled by you saying half the elders make up most of the congregation. They must be the big half! "

Dermot I'm always right :-D :-D

Actually, I said half of them wouldn't want the emails etc I wouldn't dare assume all of the old dears wouldn't be online checking out their dodgy websites..... :-D :-D