A Glimpse Of The Future?

[kerching]

I remember going out on our bikes for the day on adventures to "the little woods" or to,the "swinging tree" ( tree with a bit of rope and a plank)

Used to call at the cake shop on the way for free meringues as they were broken.....it,seemed to,take hours to get there as we were at the other 'known end' of the outer limits of the town.

Now i am a bit older i know that it is only about 0.5 mile from my mums!!.....could have walked it in 15 minutes

Biggest issue the idle git next to me has to worry about is weather to play 'world of wankcraft' with his wooly hat on or off!

Just being more tolerant in 2015

 

[apprentice87]

The reason all the kids are so useless at everything and could not screw a nut onto a bolt, is they stopped proper things like metalwork in schools in favour of playing with stupid computers. Why the obsession with computers??? The halfwits in government seem to think all jobs require playing with the crappy things. Now, i am no computer expert, far from it, but if you cannot learn to use one by yourself to a level required for everyday use, then you must be a retard. They all manage to master facebook ok, and i do not see that in the national curriculum.

My mum was a teacher for 44 years. Towards the end they had 4 year olds in her class playing with the things, "playing" being the operative word...

They should put the schools back how they were, all facing the front, pen and paper, spelling and grammar, and mental arithmetic. My mum was once criticised by an ofsted inspector because her class was "not noisy enough!!"

All the PROPER things for them to do though, like Onoff got up to, would have them taken into care or policemen ariving in helicopters now...

john...

 

[kerching]

I t always used to amaze me when parents were talking ( this is late 80s) about how fantastic their kids were on computers!

They may have been good on the 'games' .....ask them to compose a letter on them and it all went Holly Willoughby

Just being tolerantish

 

[ProDave]

Ah Schools.

Where we did proper stuff like woodwork, metalwork, physics, chemistry. and we didn't wear safety glasses to light a bunsen burner, and there was the mercury barometer at the front of the class with it's open pool of mercury to dip your fingers in.

We made proper stuff in engineering using lathes, milling machines etc, we even did some welding and casting.

It's probably all banned now as "too dangerous"

Me and my sister used to go off for the day on our bikes. No map, no phone, no gps. Once we got lost, well what happened was we cycled to a village and went down a one way street. Of course we couldn't go back the "wrong way" down that one way street (see we were taught to respect the law) so that meant we had to go a different way, and lets say it was a longer route home than we expected, and it took us to a dual carriageway.  Well we made it home in one piece, if a little late. 

What do you mean the desks don't all face the front now? you will be telling me they are not sloping, made of real wood, with a lift up lid and an ink well (full of chewing gum) next. don't be so daft.

I'll bet someone will be along to tell me blackboards and chalk are no longer used.  If there's no chalk, just what does the teacher throw at the unruly pupil if he can't throw the blackboard rubber?

 

[apprentice87]

Ah, respect for the law.... When i was a kid, if you were out on your bike and it got dark, if you had no lights, you pushed it home for fear of been spotted by a policeman. Now, IN FRONT of policemen, they ride along the wrong side of the road, on pavements, across the centre of busy junctions and generally anywhere they like, completely ignore road markings and traffic signs/lights etc, and nobody says a thing.....

john...

 

[Sharpend]

John, it doesn't matter if they have lights or not they can't see past the end of the phones!

 

[apprentice87]

You are right there!!!!

john..

 

[Blue Duck]

And they wont hear you coming because they'll have their headphones in

All this reminiscing is great but in this day and age of 70's tv personalities in Raincoat's handing out worthers originals to young kids and the litigious nature of our culture were too afraid to let them outside.



Oh and apologies about the hastily written OP.

 

[kerching]

Is it illegal to drive a car with your headphones on/earplugs in?

Just wandering all over the road

 

[Blue Duck]

Driving with out due care and attention? Did I make that up?

I was involved in an accident when I was 17.

I was arrested for being in charge of a pedal powered vehicle while under the influence, although they could not prove the under the influence bit, but I had admitted to being up all night.

 

[apprentice87]

ha ha, how funny is that!! What happened??

john...

 

[OnOff]

Respect? Back when we actually had a village PC and he lived in the "police house" again in the village we would go there as Cub Scouts to do our First Aid Badge where we'd put him in a sling etc. Did mine and as he had just gotten a new car (the old police blue Austin Allegro) he gave me a lift home, all of about 2 miles. Never mind I'd passed my badge I got a rollocking from Mum for being driven home in a "polis car" her being a God fearing Irish lady. There followed a couple of days with her saying "I'd better just pop over to yer Auntie Anne/Violet/Rita etc to explain!". She was so worried about what all the curtain twitchers thought. That's funny too, every neighbour back then was Aunty/Uncle everyone DID borrow sugar, eggs etc when the shops were shut! 

On a practical note I bought my (just) 16yr old boy the Raspberry Pi annual for Christmas. Loads of projects to make in there etc. He's half interested I think. It was either in there or one of the papers there's a good bit in there about ICT now being cited as kid's least favourite subject below maths and English. Seems it's now so boring with them doing Excel spreadsheets etc they're all switching off. One of the reasons the Pi came into being was to get kids back into "practical" computing rather than sitting at a console. One good thing is that this year he'll be using the Pi at school. Speaking to one of the teachers at an open evening and the guy said if my boy wants a Pi to play with at home just to ask!

On the downside I got him to "help" the other day when I was putting some shuttering together. I put the screws in finger tight and passed him the Makita 18V - he looked like his wrist was going to break and watching him attempt to use the drill was painful. Very unsteady on the steps too! My fault I guess, should have had him doing this sort of thing earlier but sort of "missed" a few years when work was the priority.

 

[NozSpark]

My 15 year old has been told that they're going to be doing something with a Pi later in the year,,,, I'll have to make sure that I get another SD card for it so she can use it free reign...

But she is another that is rather unpractical,,,,,, unless its something to do with the rigging on her boat that is.... I bet she won't be helping me drill out and epoxy the worn screw holes, do the gel coat repairs or the fibreglass repair to her dagger board.... anything else though

 

[Blue Duck]

ha ha, how funny is that!! What happened??

john...

Was riding down a big hill, traffic slowed, I went on the pavement couldn't see what was on my right due to a mobile library, crossed a road blind and wham into the side of a 205, went up in the air in slow motion and landed on my face!

Cost me £800 and I was arrested. The police were real arseholes & they wanted me in jail. Because I'd been up all night on disco biscuit's and been hit by a car I was a bit worse for wear. :lol:

 

[apprentice87]

Oh dear oh dear oh dear......!!!!!!!

I take it the cycling proficency test had been abolished round your way by then!!!!

You could have been killed...

I knew someone that had a skateboard. They had fitted these very expensive special wheels with very low rolling resistance "Red Kryptonics" i think they were called. Anyway, they decided to let me have ago.

I had been on a skate board a few times, but trendy things like that were beyond me.

So, off i went down the road near me. Only a slight slope, but after about 150 yards i must have been doing about 20MPH. I thought "Oh xxxx How you going to get off" By the time i had finished thinking 100 yards later, i was doing about 30 odd MPH. I just had to jump off, could obviously not run that fast, and ended up sliding down the nice freshly tarred and gravelled, extremely grippy and abrasive surface on my face. Still hurts to even think about it!!!

john....

 

[Blue Duck]

Try doing that infront of a PC!

( Personal Computer NOT Police Constable )

I remember Krypto wheels

 

[Evans Electric]

Probably texting about some mardy old far t stalking her around the supermarket!?

 

[apprentice87]

Yes, that was the bloody things, red ones. Quite squidgy they were, which you would think would increase the rolling resistance, but the idea was that they would just roll over grit and all instead of having to climb over it if you see what i mean. Sounds to me like it would never work, but trust me, they did, far too well!!

john

 

[Evans Electric]

Well  "The Times They are a'changing"    Some things for the better some not  I guess.

I grew up in different world to today ,  but was it better or just different ?  

So , no TV  just radio .  Winter brought ice on the INSIDE of bedroom windows , central heating unheard of.  But summer lasted forever (it seemed)

So little traffic , we sat in the middle of the road or played football there . Main job for me as a kid was to run errands  ( Me Mum'll pay at the end of the week)  & breaking up the big lumps of coal ready for the fires .

We wandered the streets , at 10 or 11 we had a penny child's bus ride to the Bull Ring street market and spent the whole day in the city centre , just two of us , paediaphilia not invented back then it seemed . 

"Mind yer car Sir? "   As the crowds arrived for Villa Park you'd offer to guard their car for 6 pence , then down to watch the match ( we knew how to get in)   then dash back to stand there "on guard"  before they returned.  

Paper round at 13   good money  13/6d week  gave my Mom half ,  Saturdays cleaning cars at a car sales pitch, save up for the latest Skiffle record and some Drainpipe  jeans.

As others have said ....Trollies or Goo carts , a plank with old pram wheels fitted , racing down the local hill.    Later,  build your own bike from handed down bits and how proud were you of it when it was on the road , basically a bag of $hytte . 

Dinky Toys , toy guns , air rifles , Boy Scouts , always loads of books & comics to read  , William , Famous Five, Eagle , Beano, Roy Rogers and all the neigbourhood kids playing  street games , in & out of each others houses  ,  Teddy Boys   ( who thought they were the Peaky Blinders)

 

[apprentice87]

Back when england was england... Before the rot set in..

Robert Mugabe once said he would not be lectured to by "a government of homosexuals" Rotten to the core this country is now, from politicians that categorically deny that they have ever been to clapham common, then when this is disproved, were. "looking for badgers" to ones thay "forget" they have £400,000 mortgages, to cyril smith and the rest of his conspiritors, as named in the newspapers, to now, [alledgedly] royalty. Why has Prince Andrew [who one presumes has done nothing wrong] not had his collar felt, or his house turned over?? Quick enough to do it with Cliff Richard....

Rotten to the core....

Where by Villa park did you live?? I do not know the area very well, but i have been to tame road a few times, which i believe is in the locality..

john....