I suppose it must have been my dad who got me to carry a 10/- note in my wallet whenever ever I went out.
It was an insurance against having spent up and was the emergency reserve.
I pretty much carried it from when I was 16 through to when I left Well Hall for Manchester three years later.
By which time I had abandoned smart jackets, Ben Sherman shirts and neat ties for the uniform of a student, and wallets didn’t quite fit the image.
But now I have reverted to the habit and carry a fiver, which I know is daft, because in this almost cashless world we inhabit, my piece of plastic will pay for a bus ride, a cup of coffee and much more.
And that got me thinking of the passage of time and the things we, and our parents and grandparents never went out of the house without.
For some, depending on wealth and status it would have been the pocket watch, which might have been engraved and would have been suspended from a heavy silver or gold chain.
While during the war years there would have been the necessity of always having your identity card, and in the early stages of the last world war the all important gas mask.
Both dad and grand dad always wore hats, which in the case of granddad was a flat cap and for dad it varied between a beret and a homburg.
And for mother and Nana it was the head scarf, which might be swapped for a hat on special occasions and was always accompanied by one of those string bags, which had to be carried “just in case I see something I want.”
Today the move away from plastic shopping bags has brought a return to the “bag just in case” but the watch I think may be on its way out.
After all, who needs to a watch when most of us carry a mobile?
And that mobile phone offers up a shedload of things which made much of what we carried or needed to do totally redundant.
Like looking for the right change for the telephone box, buying an early edition of the Evening News, and the most basic of all, not having to prearrange a meeting place after a day shopping separately in town.
Now I grant you that in the great sweep of history stories this is nothing more than a triviality, but it is the small bits of the past which are often so much more fun to read about.
And yes I do think Wagon Wheels are smaller today, Jubilees were a con, and sherbet and liquorice sticks are as disgusting now as they were when I was ten.
But I still savour sherbet lemons, miss the white dot as the telly was turned, have no idea what to do with our growing collection of ancient mobiles, and wonder what happened to my ten bob note.
Location; sometime before now
Pictures; three telephone kiosks, Knaresborough, 2013, my Nokia 3310, 2014, a selection of our old phones, 2015, and the watch of Earl C Duffin, courtesy of David Harrop
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| Three telephone kiosks, Kanresbrough, 2013 |
I pretty much carried it from when I was 16 through to when I left Well Hall for Manchester three years later.
By which time I had abandoned smart jackets, Ben Sherman shirts and neat ties for the uniform of a student, and wallets didn’t quite fit the image.
But now I have reverted to the habit and carry a fiver, which I know is daft, because in this almost cashless world we inhabit, my piece of plastic will pay for a bus ride, a cup of coffee and much more.
 |
| My favourite Nokia, 2014 |
For some, depending on wealth and status it would have been the pocket watch, which might have been engraved and would have been suspended from a heavy silver or gold chain.
While during the war years there would have been the necessity of always having your identity card, and in the early stages of the last world war the all important gas mask.
Both dad and grand dad always wore hats, which in the case of granddad was a flat cap and for dad it varied between a beret and a homburg.
And for mother and Nana it was the head scarf, which might be swapped for a hat on special occasions and was always accompanied by one of those string bags, which had to be carried “just in case I see something I want.”
Today the move away from plastic shopping bags has brought a return to the “bag just in case” but the watch I think may be on its way out.
 |
| Pocket watch, 2016 |
And that mobile phone offers up a shedload of things which made much of what we carried or needed to do totally redundant.
Like looking for the right change for the telephone box, buying an early edition of the Evening News, and the most basic of all, not having to prearrange a meeting place after a day shopping separately in town.
Now I grant you that in the great sweep of history stories this is nothing more than a triviality, but it is the small bits of the past which are often so much more fun to read about.
And yes I do think Wagon Wheels are smaller today, Jubilees were a con, and sherbet and liquorice sticks are as disgusting now as they were when I was ten.
 |
| Abandoned and forgotten, 2015 |
Location; sometime before now
Pictures; three telephone kiosks, Knaresborough, 2013, my Nokia 3310, 2014, a selection of our old phones, 2015, and the watch of Earl C Duffin, courtesy of David Harrop
Reach out to the Community is always grateful for old phones!
ReplyDeleteLovely piece......very nostalgic.....! I relate to everything you said.....��
ReplyDelete10/- was 3 pints in the Man of Kent and pie and chips on the stroll down Eltham hill, left at Vandyke Cross, cross Keynsham road into Gardens and turn the key in the red door of number 7 a weeks number 6 fags, or entrance for two into the small mod's disco at the Black Prince Mottingham, a lot of dosh in the day,
ReplyDelete