World problems

It seems from reading these posts that you naturally grumble about the prices as they are and at the steady increase, but in general go along with them, after all what can you do about them? Nowt!.

Me I'm in a state of shock when I read them, see I'm in a time warp when it comes to the British pound. My last pay was 22 pounds a month as 2nd assistant cook on the Athlone Castle, and a pound of that was because I held a B.O.T. Ship's Cook's ticket. That was in 1958. Then I did a runner, emigrating first to Canada then into the USA.

Half of my sea going earnings was as a Catering Boy at ten pounds a month rising to eleven pounds a month.

I did many trips to England on business and paid mostly with a company credit card and I was reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses when I got home so I didn't really worry about it, I automatically calculated it into dollars. The times I visited after I retired, i did gulp, because it was real money (coming out of my pocket).

Now another twenty-five years have passed since I've seen the price of things and I can't believe them. Because I'm stuck mentally with the 1958 pound. I can't translate it, because I can't ask what I would be earning today as a Catering Boy or a 2nd Asst. Cook, not only do they not exist, neither does Union Castle Line or the British Merchant Navy as we knew it.

I just realized it, I'm like the last bloody Dinosaur except I know it, he or she got sucker punched.

Cheers and a little BOO HOO, Rodney:cool:

Rod when I went to sea I got 7pounds a month as deck boy; two pounds allotment to my mother, my very first sub was in Galveston in Texas
that was it, until I paid off in Tilbury, which was just as well that I got a travel voucher home and back to rejoin the ship. I can't remember worrying about not having any money as I had never had any before anyway, two pounds a week working in a tinplate works five and a half days a week went into the family home.
Being at sea with all found was the best of lives for a young bloke. Think about all the mortgage worries young people have today makes e feel we lived the life as youngsters.
Des

Rodders I agree with that.
Prices go up and up and as you say nothing we can do apart from stop buying the products.


But UK is a shock, every time we go there the price of basic goods is up, again.

First time back for me after 18 years was a real eye opener, not just prices but the change to society and life in general there.
But wait until May, we have our Feral budget then and who knows what nasties the current labor gov will dish up.

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Originally Posted by Des Taff Jenkins

Think about all the mortgage worries young people have today makes e feel we lived the life as youngsters.
Des

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I started on £6 per month, no overtime. Do I feel sorry for today's youngsters and mortgages, no not really, nothings changed, in our day we saved for years to get a deposit, your wife's earnings were not taken into account, if the house you wanted went up £200 it went out of your range, gazumping was rife, start again, cut your cloth, we were happy just to have our own front door and an empty inside and build up from there, mostly with second hand stuff. We didn't expect to have a ready made home with all the appliances and cinema TV's etc. The young still want their nights out, their iphones and ipads (must be the latest model) their designer trainers etc etc and are not willing to compromise when I have discussions with them. We didn't think the world owed us a living and that the State will provide, they now get disability payments because they cannot control their eating habits and think it is their right. Sympathy in short supply at this end of the pen. But then again I am a miserable old git.

i feel sorry for young families today we have the grandkids 4 days a week the price of childcare today is 700 pound a month mortgage on top of that and gas electric prices going through the roof just how do you live we are going backwards in this country? jp

Well said John. I totally agree with Ivan , he is a miserable old git, just a quote from his own post.

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Originally Posted by James Curry

Well said John. I totally agree with Ivan , he is a miserable old git, just a quote from his own post.

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Finally! something we agree upon:love10::faint:

John P
I don't agree with childcare, if you have children its your responsibility, if you can't afford to look after them don't have any. One of the reasons that houses are so dear is that people are prepared to sacrifice their looking after their own children so both parents can go to work that is why houses are dear in the first place. It's a I want society. Out here people with no children are paying an increased tax so that the Govt can pay for childcare, they should be able to opt out of it.
Des

As I have previously said, my ex-wife and me were married on Saturday and emigrated to Canada on the following Wed. or Thus..

We both found employment two days after we arrived in Toronto. She as a copy typist, I as a cook in The Lord Simco, Hotel.

Two years later, when we decided to start a family, she by mutual agreement quit work in her sixth month of pregnancy.

Eventually we had three children. One was born in Canada the other two in the States. Never did she work again until our youngest of three sons passed sixteen.

I recognize that times have changed, but in my time, I viewed my wife going out to work when we had children; was a failure on my part as head of the household.

We did not have a car until I was 25 (it was a used Ford Falcon.). Our only piece of furniture was a tv. We rented furnished. We did not have furniture because I was changing jobs and locations moving up the career ladder.

But I did not consider myself a failure. I believed my job was to provide and my then wife was to be the anchor to our children.

Today, I'm 86, I do not have to worry about finance. I am covered by medical insurance, so when the end comes nigh., I will be taken care of. The only sad part of my life is I lost my wonderful wife, but anyway....

Cheers, Rodney:cool:

Ivan #14

Could you Imagin in your wildest dreams; when you were a Boy Seaman, you would live long enough to work for a whole month; seven days a week, no overtime pay, to buy a pint of ale? Unbelievable!

Cheers, Rodney