Robots and employment

Keith when staying with my Aunt and cousin who was in to the construction of crystal sets was about 1944. They lived in a 2 bedroom flat at the top of Howard street in North Shields, think at the time they paid 5 bob rent. We used to hang out the window firing our peashooters at passer byes, so anyone who can remember receiving a sharp stinging pain in the back of the neck, it was my cousin. They had no kitchen no bathroom, they cooked on a ring burner on the landing on a table. The toilet was in the backyard next door to a wash house where the laundry was done. My Aunt lived in the same flat all her married life up until the eighties, and think the rent was practically the same. They had to go to the public baths when starting to smell too much. When we moved into a council house in 1949 we had a bathroom and they used to come once a month for a bath whether they needed it or not. The trio father wife and son are all now dead, my cousin died while on a ship as was drowned. That little tiny flat must have meant their world today. I know my mother was thrilled when we moved into that council house as was the only house of her own ( even though it belonged to the Council) that we had ever lived in. Me I couldn't wait to get out of it and 4 years later was sailing the Spanish Main. People in our time didn't expect too much, but everything you owned were riches to ones way of thinking. My younger brother still lives in the same council house paying an exorbidant rent, the local Club (affiliated) is now a mosque and most of the inhabitants on the estate walk around everything covered with only the eyes visible, they are I assume females. Such is life in so many of the old working mans districts of the UK. JS

Hi John.
You want to get your Council to visit Cooma, we have what is called a Tip shop where all the rubbish that is collected from the like of rentals where people skipped out, plus any that people take down there, the shop is only open on Sat morning but it made $ 150,000 last year, and the Compost made around $250,000.
Cheers Des

Keith,you may know this ready but up the A66 a few miles from where I live there is a place called Warcop I believe the military have some kind of base there.Thought it might interest you .

Des #32, sounds a bit like ours here as well.

But my great grandfather lived in Sunderland and was a chain maker in the ship yard which at that time we could see from the house. The house in a cobbled street the whole of which is now a heritage listed area.
He lived with his daughter who had to cook on the open range, the dunny was out the back yard, but they did have a bathroom. I hung regally from a large nail outside the scullery and on Friday nights was put in front of the open range.
Lighting was by gas lamp, he refused to have electric ones, and it was only after his passing in about 1960 that his daughter had it put on.

Hi shipmates,we lived in the olden days most of us? jobs were hard graft low wages and bad living conditions for some of us? but we were made better for it, today with your job on a knife edge Today {if you have one} no unions, no contract of employment, and one step from a robot doing your job? life is not good, with record debts levels ,and people made homeless daily , what will happen in the near future?

Like you Ivan I refuse to use self service checkouts I wont even allow myself to us electronic check in at airports.I know I`m peeing in the wind and I`m losing the battle but as a `grumpy old man` I will go down fighting .The young of course will get the rough end of the pineapple by letting `things` happen. I hear today on radio that ``they`` are experimenting with glasses that police will be given so that while your blowing into the Breathalyzer you pop the eye glasses on to see if you are to tired to be driving ! They will pull you over soon to see if the length of your leg is long enough to reach the accelerator pedal !! Regards Brian W.

It would have been 1952. I was fifteen and had just left school and had nine months to fill in before I could join the M.N. at sixteen. Among other go-no-where jobs I had was one working as a fry cook in the Regency Grill Bar, next door to the Ivy House pub on the front at Southend-on-Sea. It was late spring and the hoards of day trippers from London had not arrived yet. Anchored off near the end of the pier was an American aircraft carrier.

Wednesday night was a big night in town as Wednesday and Saturday was dance night at the Kursal amusement park. The dance floor was a large one and they would have every now and then a big name dance orchestra, Ted Heath Etc..

Anyway a big buzz was going around, because we just knew the yanks would hear about the dance and dancing meant girls, and sailors would be attracted like flies to a honey pot.

Now why would red blooded young men be looking forward to more competition in the hunt for that luscious sweet smelling curvy thing called GIRLS...it was to watch the yanks dance and get free lessons in the fine art of ballroom dancing. We'd all seen the movies of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and just new that the sailors wouldn't be as good as them, but they'd sure slide around the dance floor almost as good.

Wrong, the buggers didn't have a clue, but they certainly hogged and cuddled the girls. Talk about wall flowers, that was my mates and me. Finally there was an "excuse me dance" where you could cut-in on a couple and finish the dance. I cut-in, the sailor was okay about it, but I remember the girl was royally pished ( guess they knew about G.I. war brides).

We (the guys) were glad the ship left before the Saturday night dance and things could get back to normal.

I remember that the ship was nicknamed the "Mighty Minnie." I would have thought her proper name would be "The Minnesota," but I have not been able to find her. At the time I didn't know too much about ships and I've wondered if perhaps she was an aircraft carrier converted from some other type of vessal.

Thursday night I was on the close up shift, meaning I had to work until eleven P.M. and be ready for the pub crowd at closing. It was really cold and rainy and the "front" was dead. A lone American sailor came up and ordered a hot dog. I gave it to him and I remember I told it was 1/6d ( one and a half shillings). He dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change, farthings, halfpennies, pennies, three penny bits, six pences, shillings, two shillings. and halfcrowns and said something like "Take what you need, I can't make head or tails how these work."

I remember I took a shilling and sixpence. Then I felt sorry for him with that load in his pocket, so I said that I would give this back to him and show him how I could get the same amount in smaller coins and lighten his load. So I took what pennies he had then told him two of a half pence made one of the pennies and add his two three penny bits and a sixpence and it was the same. I'm telling him as I'm doing it look the numbers are on some of them. I remember him smiling and saying. "I'm going back to my ship, here," and he handed me the lot as a tip. Later I counted it up and it was more than my days pay!

I also remember he told me the hot dog was lousy. I thought they were great at the time, a long chipolata (sp.?) sausage and grilled onions.

Matter of fact I still do, skinny grilled banger or snags, grilled onions smothered in H.P. Yum!:thumbsup:

P.s. Roger (Townie) do you happen to remember this ship coming to Southend? There was a Swedish aircraft carrier anchored off the pier about a year before the "Mighty Minnie" visit.

Rodney!! a Swedish Aircraft Carrier?? you kidding me buddy!!

Possibly: HSwMS Gotland, she was a seaplane cruiser of the Swedish Navy built by Götaverken. The design of the ship started out in December 1926 as a seaplane carrier with room for twelve aircraft ?

Ivan, I was in the Sea Cadets at the time, I was probably thirteen. The Sea cadet company ( troop?) were invited aboard. Two things stick in my mind. Along the edge of the flight desk were what looked like safety nets made out of wire cable. We were told that the guy giving hand signals to the landings or takeoffs had a place to jump to safety if it looked like the plane was coming too close to him. I remember it because me and my mates were daring each other to jump in. I remember I did give it a thought, but the flight deck seemed way-up from the sea and the wire mesh seemed widely spread and I wondered if my legs would go through the gaps, funny the things that stick in one's mind, anyway we all chickened-out, no one jumped. The second thing was a mate and me found the galley, and the cook fixed us a ham sandwich. Two hunks of bread and butter with the thickest slice of ham I had ever seen. Remember this would have been somewhere around 1950, it looked like enough meat to feed our whole family.

My memory thinks it was a Swedish vessel, but it could have been Danish, or maybe Norwegian? It wasn't the American as I was working and no longer in the Sea Cadets.

Anyway you could find out Keith? Its got me puzzled now.

Another memory just crossed my mind. The officers of the ship were staying ashore at the B+B places in Southend and on the way to the Sea Cadets and being in uniform I would salute them as I walked past. I remember I was chuffed to bits that they returned my salute. They probably were laughing on the inside.