"It is a proprietary device for removing Boy Scouts from Girl Guides..". was the standard answer when I was a lad, and the world a simpler place... We could only put men on the moon, or satellites around distant planets, with calculations done by people, not machines. Drawings were drawn, machining took skill, and understanding, after teaching, training and lots of practice... Fitness was being able to run for a bus. You had to be 21 before you were responsible enough to vote, yet only 16 to have children. Now people vote at 18, and wait until 30 before having kids! We walked everywhere, or caught a bus.... Pencils lived behind ears, in case we thought of something useful to write down - Yes, we wrote on paper! We carried small knives for sharpening pencils... Now kids carry large knives for carving each other - or guns. Our guns were 2 fingers pointed and we shouted Peow! Poew! - I have never held a real one. We collected glass bottles, to return to shops for the penny deposit - Now that was re-cycling! Aluminium and paper were re-cycled, veg matter went on the compost (including tea leaves and coffee grounds) to grow better vegetables later. We had outside loos.... Quick in winter! We bathed weekly, whether we needed to, or not. We scraped ice off the windows on winter mornings to see if it was frost or snow outside... We laughed and played outside - in all weathers. We saved a few years to buy bicycles (Luxury!), and my Dad had a treadle lathe - My Sister powered it while I machined small parts for models... (My legs didn't reach the treadle when sat on the stool to use the lathe...).
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, if my memory serves me well?
K2
