May 2008 Archives
You're as old as you feel
Posted by Ray on May 7, 2008 8:53 AM
Through Remember When I have met many elderly people - and I am often amazed by what they have achieved in life, whether it is struggling through being evacuated during the war, serving in the armed forces at any given time, or dealing with the general hardships of life. But one person, Danny White, certainly stands out.
Danny arrived in the Evening Chronicle offices one day with sheet music from the days of the silent movies. He sang during the silent films - obviously many, many years ago.
I interviewed Danny and he related his life story to Remember When, his schooldays, war service, etc. Now Danny was very sharp, definitely left me standing (though that's not too hard) and, later I edited his story for Remember When.
But when I typed in his date of birth I believed I had got it wrong, I had misheard him. So when Danny returned to collect something I had borrowed, I enquired how old he was, saying I had misheard his date of birth and had him down as 100.
"I am 101 on my next birthday," said Danny. Now we have set preconceptions of the elderly, one is that their faculties begin to wane.
Danny was so fit and, all I can say, if his mind was on the wane, he must have been a genius not so many years ago.
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A load of old tripe!
Posted by Ray on May 12, 2008 10:43 AM
I was talking to Christine the other day - Christine is one of the unsung heroes of the Chronicle library, without whom my job would be impossible - and, somehow, the subject of food came up, which meant we exchanged Remember When fry-up stories.
We talked about the delights of dripping and bread. As Christine's grandfather was a shipyard worker during the war, he got all the eggs and bacon, to keep his strength up for the hard day ahead and (by way of a treat), the children were given dripping and bread, amongst other war-time delicacies.
Continue reading "A load of old tripe!" »
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Strange but true
Posted by Ray on May 25, 2008 8:53 PM
Remember when parking your car on the street was so easy - as long as it didn't cause an obstruction. Remember when putting your rubbish in a bin was simple and not a constant worry that a rubbish policeman will pounce on you if you accidentally put in the wrong kind of rubbish.
As for parking, first came the meters and yellow lines, traffic wardens and for bins, first the wheelie and then the green bin. Now they are both part of a massive industry, whose tentacles are reaching into all walks of life, in deliberately fining the public for anything they can catch a person doing against some new ruling.
Take former TV presenter Joan Bakewell, who managed to escape a fine when she fell foul of the new internet parking rules.
Apparently, her particular town has introduced a new parking bays linked to the internet. When you park you just use your mobile phone to text in and bob's your uncle (or quite a few bob is syphoned off your account!).
If you have not got a mobile phone you have to go elsewhere. Many elderly (and not so elderly) people have not got a mobile phone and even Joan Bakewell found that she didn't understand the rules. Imagine some elderly person getting flustered trying to text parking details.
It's all becoming a nonsense and it is about time councils (and police) went back to the old ways, which meant serving the public and not fleecing them.
Finally, a story I read today said that a guy was fined for blowing up and then releasing a balloon. Actually, he then turned away and the balloonn flew and fell and became litter. Under the zero tolerace attitude of the council he was fined £50. Mmmmmm. In the same newspaper school pupils released 205 balloons carrying their address.
They flew up into the air and away. But someday, somewhere, they will be litter - and with the school address on will that mean they will get 205 fines of £50 each?
It's becoming a mad mad mad world!
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