General Chat

Hello all, Just back from a weekend in Bristol where we went to see The Lion King. Fantastic costumes and effects but the sound system seemed to be lacking something. There were two percussionists, one either side of the Hippodrome Theatre each in a box but although we were expecting a great sound it seemed very wishy washy somehow. Shame as the show itself was very good. Maybe we are being picky.

Lovely to see this thread re-juvenated, thanks for resurrecting it Annette (Moonbi). That retirement village seems to be just what you are looking for, I so hope you can sell your house and get a property there, it sounds lovely.
Brenda welcome to the thread, such interesting posts from you too. Not heard of that pianist but I am sure you enjoyed the evening. An interesting life you have led. Nice to have two music teachers on the thread.

Hi Sylvia. :-)

Nice to hear from you moonbi,
I really enjoyed the performance last night...the pianist is Welsh,his name is...Iwan Llewelyn- Jones...google him.....
It wasn't Rachmaninov ,my friend got it wrong....the first half was Ravel,Faure,Bach....then a lighter second half...Chopin,Debussy and Schubert.
The piano is a Kawai grand and Iwan had chosen it.Id never heard of the name and I have been a pianist for 70 years,starting when I was 7!
I used to teach as well ..my favourite composers are Beethoven,Chopin and Mozart,but I met my first husband who was a jazz trumpeter and though I didn't like it at first I grew to love Dixieland and eventually played in a jazz band.
Claim to fame...We played in the Cavern Liverpoolwhen it opened as a jazz club and the Beatles were our supporting band!

When I married my late husband 25 years ago,He was a classical fan,so I reverted to my first love,but on my 70 th birthday he booked a surprise party with jazz band .and I played a couple of numbers with them,so we started going to their regular venue until He became I'll and I cared for him for 5 years as he was housebound.

When I went to the Grampians jazz festival it made me feel that I had to have a life again and now I go to a jazz night with 2 chaps who are fans...one being a blind trombonist...so between my love of both forms of music it is given me an interest in going out again.

Love to hear about your musical interests...without music life would be very dull!

Brenda x

Hi Brenda
you are right to assume that I live near Mt Buffalo. the last few days they have had another dump of 50 cm snow, so the ski season will be extended. its been a long very cold windy and wet winter. It's supposed to be spring officially, but it sure doesnt feel like it yet.

I went to the Grampians for my birthday - a long time ago - and my sister went there last new year. she said its very beautiful, and green again. Recovered after the fires that went through there a few years ago.

I like some types of jazz too, and as a former piano teacher, I can also appreciate Schubert and Rachmaninov. I find it interesting that this famous pianist is playing both composers on the same ticket. who is it? what new piano did the church buy?

You should have an interesting night.

Thought I'd join in on this thread .I had seen it back when it started,but my life was rather busy at that time and although I did post occasionally I wasn't really into general chat as I cared for my sick husband....

However as it seems such a nice thread,as they used to be with no bickering,Ifind it very interesting having read it mostly from the beginning.

John ...just read that you have lived in Rhos on Sea.i lived in Llannerch rd west off Brompton ave until we moved about 4 miles away in 2000 to downsize from one of the big houses there,so I know the area you are talking about...small world !

moonbi,
so you don't live far from Mount Buffalo...my son goes climbing near there sometimes andI think they go for the snow as well.He lives in Melbourne with his 2 children and I was there for 3 months ..Christmas till mid March this year.Have never been to Queensland but flew to Sydney for 2 weeks from Melbourne to stay with stepson and family and also went twice to Halls Gap in the Grampians...once for a week in the New Year a nd then a week end for their February jazz festival.

I am going to get ready shortly to go out to tea with some friends and then on to a piano recital in a church in Conwy...I believe it's to celebrate a new piano and a quite famous pianist...so I'm told....is playing Schubert and Rachmaninov ...should be interesting..will let you know!!!

Brenda x

Hi Sylvia,
yes I did look around Eli Waters, but my nephew who is a civil plumber said not to choose in that area. So I decided on Urangan, the other end of the Bay. Its called Sugar Coast Village.
How are you going; are you keeping well?

Hi moonbi


lovely to see you.


so glad to hear that you had such a good time away.

It wasn't Eli Waters where you went looking at cottages by any chance was it???

Don't work too hard painting the built-ins




s
xxx

Hello I'm back again.
There has been a lot of banter about the site again, and I like the idea of writing about growing up during the war years. Unfortunately that was my mother's generation, so my memories are about growing up in the late 50's and 60's!

Two days ago I Returned from my month long holiday on the Fraser coast Qld and enjoyed the warmer weather a great deal. I stayed with my niece in her lovely home.
A few days I looked around for a 2-3 bed cottage and found a retirement village for over 50's that would suit my needs perfectly. there are 80 cottages in the estate with about 12 for sale when I was looking. So there should be one to suit when I am ready to move.
Brunching with a friend at the Boat Club, I found out about a medical clinic that was taking on new clients. so I made an appointment there and added my name.

I took walks on the beach in the mornings, visited my cousin, and spent much time with my sister. we found a great fabric shop called "dew drop inn" and soon realised that the owner is a lady who went to high school with me !!

One afternoon I had a trip on the QuickCat II to do whale watching. It was a fabulous experience and the best I have ever done as far as getting to see lots of whales up close. the day was warm and the sea was glass flat that day.

On my return I visited Homebush in Sydney where my navy son has recently moved to. Im so glad I went to see him, as yesterday he phoned me to say he has been sent to do a 6 week course in Fleet West which is based in Fremantle WA.

I am so proud of myself that I drove all that way there and back by myself.
staying in motels along the route. Had no car trouble at all, and no mishaps.

The 3 rooms were painted beautifully and the bath was re surfaced while I was away. Its lovely, but not enough to entice me to stay.
Next week I will paint the built-in wardrobes, and sort out the kitchen.

oooooooooh

Ann

I never went into the Chat Rooms on any of the FR incarnations

............ never have been in Chat Rooms on any site!!!



I just used the threads and boards on FR that were equivalent to the ones on here.


One was called Discussions ................ and that could be like the old Chat board on here :-D :-D :-D :-D


You used to get 1 minute and 2 minute bans on FR, if someone disliked what you said!

Imagine posting something, then going off for a couple of hours, and returning to find you'd had a 1 minute ban?! It was hilarious!!!

Love the reminiscing!!! All so familiar, I can taste that orange juice now John, and the malt.

Sylvia, I was a member of FR before Genes but didn't go into the chat rooms. Met up with quite a few old school friends though.
The original chat board, the unthreaded one, was something else wasn't it? A free for all, but I went on occasionally and had some laughs and 'met' some good people on there. And - yes - I remember Janey Canuck mainly because we clashed a couple of times when I dared to disagree.
The Gen chat board pre the big split when FTF was formed was great fun, I especially enjoyed the 'pub' (can't remember the name of it) where we had some hilarious evenings, laughed so much! I had a couple of good friends on here then who left at the split but I am still in touch with them. It wasn't the same after the split though, the laughter died for a while.
I am a member of FTF (invited) but have never gone on there much, I didn't seem to get the hang of it somehow. Strangely the birthday card group is one that survived the split and is continuing with members from both sites.

I suspect the heart is still here, just not quite so obvious because there are not so many posting members.

Rose


you may have a point.


I joined Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited at the same time in April 2004.

BUT I found a home on FR

GR was where I came later in the evening our time (very early morning UK time), when my friends on FR had gone "home". I would spend about an hour on here, but 3 or 4 hours on FR

I came on here to help others, work a little bit on my tree, possibly contact some people, etc.

I looked on the Chat thread on about my 2nd or 3rd visit .......... and ran like h**l!

It seemed to be argument after argument!


Tried again a few years later, by which time I had met Janey Canuck (remember her?) on look-ups ................... the title of one thread on Chat intrigued me, had something to do with Canada. So I opened it to find a on-going discussion, with JC heavily involved, and being told by someone that she knew nothing about Canada :-S :-S

Now she was born Canadian, I was a Canadian citizen of long-standing ................. so I had to join in, didn't I? :-D

Of course, this happened again a few nights later, and the following week.


I think it was the 3rd or 4th time this happened.......................... that I was accused of being JC under another name :-S :-S :-S :-S


The rationale was that we went on the same threads, had the same or similar ideas about how things worked in Canada ................ and always appeared at about the same time :-S :-S :-S :-S :-S :-S


I remember we both got banned one time for making very similar posts on a thread ............. only she got a 6 month ban, and I got 24 hours.



But FR was still my "home" .............. I'd met a lovely group of people online, from all around the world. Met up with one lady in Austria in 2005, with a small group in Australia in 2006, and another group in England in 2008.

But then came trouble in Paradise


First, FR decided that the problems with slow submitting of posts, etc was because the site had not been designed to have Chat threads.

So they set up a new site, called Connections, where people could meet people, set up with Chat threads and Chat Rooms ............ and free.

Oh yes, and you were not to use your real name, aliases were de rigeur.

Once it was working, all the Chat threads from FR would be closed and we would have to move over to Connections

Uproar!

One year later, it happened.

Lots of people left ........... Connections was REALLY strange ...................... our protests re names had been listened to, and people were allowed to use their real names. BUT there was this whole group of people who had joined during that first year who did not.

Plus, as it was free, people would have multiple memberships.

You never knew what was going to happen next.

Still, a large enough group of people from FR remained to make it fun ............ but I began to spend more time over here, and also looked on the Chat board more often.


Then came the next change at FR ................ which had turned itself into a free site soon after they removed the chat threads .............

......... they were closing the Connections site down, and re-starting chat threads on FR, plus Chat Rooms.

By the time they were finished, about another 50% had gone ............ and most of the rest were not too comfortable.


Then they did the final change several months ago ............... and it has become very strange. It now is a Memory Site ........ with millions of memories in one place

Anyone who was posting on what is now called a Discussion Group before they did this last change, can still post there, but you cannot post on any group if you had not been a member ......... and it looks as though no new groups can be formed.

Some of my original friends are still hanging in on FR ..................... but about 95% of them have left the site over the years. Some I can find on FB. Others have disappeared back into the ether.



Does any of this sound familiar??????????????????????




I can find so many of the GR names over on FTF ........ started by ex GR members after a little furor in 2006. That was at first a site you joined by invitation ........... proud to say I was an invitee. Then they opened it up to anyone who finds the site



and it is still free.

Just to revert back to the original question a minute and please don't stop with the remniscing ( which is very interesting though I am a few years younger ;-) ).

John mentioned something about humour on another thread and it led me to thinking that when I joined and came on the boards, first site joined and first foray on the internet, it was like getting to know a large group of people and over time you got used to their individual personalities, way of writing and sense of humour and felt 'at home'
( even with the ones you didn't much like or vice versa lol) .

Then when so many of them leave over time, for what ever reason, and new members join you find you then have to 'figure them out' also, their personality traits, humour,...not that it is a bad thing to be 'meeting' new people just that perhaps some feel they can no longer take that on and so don't post as much as they once did?

Maybe as one gets older one is more drawn to old friends than the making of new ones?

lol just one of my late night rambles :-D

:-) :-)

Thick orange juice. Third of a pint milk kept warm on radiators in school, rose hip syrup, cod liver oil, tripe. These are a few of my favourite things.

And one car in quite a nice road of about 70 houses - it was belonging to Mr Hughes next door and was pre-war and polished daily. Rest of us caught the bus. Grandma wanted to move to Mochdre because it was one penny ha-penny on the bus to Colwyn Bay - and where we lived in Rhos was 2d.

No the threads haven't lost all their heart. But they do seem quieter and slower than when I came on 3 weeks ago :-(

EXACTLY!!!



You may have grown up in Wales, and me in a cotton mill town in Lancashire .................. but our lives were very similar.



Did your mother donkey stone the front door step, and the flagstone immediately next to it???????

Fascinating stuff, Sylvia :-)

Isn't it funny that we put these not so good times to the back of our minds. My son (now 27) told me he was doing a history project at school. "Can you help me dad" "Depends" "It is about the 1950's"

And that brought it all back to me. Born 1946 myself. Yes, everything was brown and horsehair.. Milk and bread (daily) and fruit & veg (weekly) was all brought to the door on horse drawn vehicles. Old Mrs Hughes next door was straight out with her spade to put the fresh d**g on her garden.

No TV. Lovely old Bush radio with Hilversum on it. Wilfred Pickles and Mabel were required listening and I associated it with lunch being ready.

Often played cards together as a family. And did quizzes and I-Spy. Only one of my friends did not go to Sunday School, and his parents were considered a bit irresponsible. Word in Welsh was ciaradyms (which was borrowed from English "couldn't care a d**n"

And all families handed down clothes and made do with lots of stews and broths. Ours was called lobscows. which was a thin mutton stew. And lots and lots of horrible vegetables :-(

Hi Ann

I only know about Mum having to go back to work, because I was in school (I too was born in 1940), and usually went home for lunch.

This particular evening I was told to go to my grandmother's house at lunchtime the next day ............. grandparents just lived across the street from us, so it wasn't hard.


Of course, I got the wrong end of the stick, and told grandmother that I was to have lunch (dinner as we called it then) at her place .................. she thought I was just to wait for Mum to come home, but I was adamant. So she set a place at the table, and gave me some of the stew they were having.

Mum walked in about 5 or 10 minutes later!


I was also aware that the car had gone.


But I only really put it all together much later when I asked Dad about it.

It took him about 6 months to find work ...... and he was a fully qualified brass finisher.

The pay he got was lower than he had previously earned, and Mum found that she enjoyed working about ¾ time, so she continued with her job at a high class ladies and children's shop in town. It gave her an interest as well as providing some necessary extra money.


But like you, things were tight at home for much of my childhood. And, of course, it wasn't helped by the fact that Mum had to dress nicely for work. You can't sell expensive clothes when dressed poorly! She did get a percentage off clothes she bought from the store.

We lived in a cotton mill town, in one of the terraced row housing so prevalent in the north. The parents had bought the house when they married in 1928, but I have no idea as to whether they still had a mortgage.

I DO know that they owed a lot of money to the local GP ............... my older brother had heart trouble in about 1942/43. He ended up having to be on bed rest for about 6 months .............. bed rest including being able to come downstairs from his bedroom and lie on the horsehair couch we had then ...... remember horsehair padded chairs and couches??????

The doctor made house calls ................... and this was of course before the NHS came in, so he charged for everything.


I can remember the Doctor's Man, as we called him, calling every week to have an amount paid off the balance in the book. He called in to the 1950s ................ by which time of course, brother's doctor had retired and another doctor had taken over the practise.


I have no idea how much they owed in doctor's fees, but it must have been quite a bit!


We were unable to keep chickens ............... but I remember having horse meat stew, as that was one of the meats that was not rationed. We also ate rabbit.



I've never seen much written about the 1945-46/7 period ............... but the same thing had happened after WW1

No problem with straying from the original title/subject John, it all links in. Lack of cash has to be one reason people don't re-join, especially those who take out the more expensive options, and those who wish to also take out Ancestry subs. Can't do it all, but a shame for those of us left.

I agree with you sylvia, I thought it was going to improve when BS took over but it has been nothing but problems ever since because they seem to want to keep trying to upgrade the site without looking at what people actually wwant and without solving one problem before starting another change.

Re the problems post war. My father was invalided out (not with a war wound but with gastritis problems) in 1946. He was unable to find permanent work for several years. I have various references for him that he saved in a scrap book, all say they would love to keep in on but finances wouldn't allow it. He seemed to work for six months then lose the job then get another six months work, usually in a driving/commercial travellerr (rep) type job where he was given a vehicle. My Mum has told me how she cut down her own vests to make vests for me and we continued to keep chicken and grow veg. I was born in 1940 so was very young so probably wouldn't have realised the sacrifices they made. They also had a mortgage as they bought their own 3 bed bungalow in 1939 but they managed to keep going.

Sylvia

Did not know any of that history of the BS takeover and the problems with the boards. Nor did I know about the problems immediately after war. I did find out that Genes were producing my old comic Dandy and had managed to get circulation down to under 8,000pw. Dan must be extremely desperate these days.

I think our generation are fairly fortunate. We usually do have a pension pot, a house paid for and reasonably good health.

But children cannot buy a house and get started like we did. When we started on the housing ladder, we might be earning £2k a year and have some savings and the bank would lend you £5k and you were able to buy a little house. And you were on the ladder and working hard and feeling a little better off each year.

Five years ago in my Valley, you would be earnming typically £20K and would buy a terraced house for £80k - borrowing £70k from bank and £10k off parents. Now still earning about £20k (no real increases in that time) your house is worth £60k and you still owe about £60k to bank and parents have no chance of ever seeing their £10k.

So they have worked hard for 5 years and are now worse off in net worth terms.

You cannot move with your company for a promotion because you have no money to fund that move. And if you lose your job, it is only a matter of a few months before the dreaded 7 day notice is posted in the window.

Hope we are not straying too far from subject of "has the heart gone..." But financial worries are affecting us all, even my generation. I had a letter from a pension provider yesterday to say that they were underfunded and could not give me the usual increase this year. Only £100 a month pension, so not a tragedy. But I expected it to go up to about £103pm on the annual review.

Hi Ann
xxxx

and everyone


what an interesting discussion is starting!


I do, however, think that a lot of people have left GR since we started to have problems on the site when BS were eventually allowed to take it over by the Competitions Board.

Then the changes made beginning last August just increased the problems.


John may not have noticed them, as he was then working only with his tree

................... but those of us who used the Community Boards had major problems posting.

Remember????

Can't open My Threads

Can't move from thread to thread, or page to page

Can't submit a posting

Being thrown off the site

Having to keep signing in


on and on and on.



I certainly know several people who just gave up, and did not renew their memberships when it became time ................... because they were so frustrated by those problems, and GR seemed not to be interested in doing anything about them


Then came the tree fiasco ................

I'm in contact with some of them on other sites .................... and see still others on sites such as FTF


We're retired, and are lucky in that OH has a very good pension through his previous employment, so we have no real worries, except for the natural one of wanting to keep within a budget so we can continue to afford to do what we want to do


.............. mind you, he had to contribute large amounts (and I DO mean large) every month while he was working. Amounts that were large enough that we often struggled during many of those working years ........... even with 2 of us working, there was often some month left at the end of the money :-D


But I do have to say one thing ............

............ I'm older than you, John.

I was born after the start of WW2, and can remember the end of the war ...................... there was a mini depression after the end of the war. It lasted I think from late 1945 to about 1947. It is not often talked about, or even written about.


That was when the servicemen came home, war-related jobs ended ........ and both women and men were thrown out of jobs.


I remember that my Dad had been in restricted employment during the war, but was out of work by the end of 1945. He had to sell the car he had bought about 2 years before


and my Mum had to go back to work for the first time since they married in 1928.



and it is hard to realise that my daughter's generation, and her children, are going to be the first generation to have less than their parents.




must go



see you later





sylvia
xxx

True John, I find it so sad that many youngsters are leaving school with no hope and because they read of the lack of jobs they seem to lose any aspirations they may have had. I never thought I would feel grateful to know that two of my grandsons were fortunate to find jobs as pizza delivery drivers. One a graduate and the other at Uni.

Rose A religious twist to this thread - how lovely. That hymn revived by Mac Davis when you were in my class at school learning how to take legs off frogs correctly, was based on Luke 18 verses 9-14 (parable of Pharisee and publican). I don't drink or serve drink, but I am far-seeing, so I think I would be called a Far - ee - see.:-)

AnninGlos I went into a house last winter. A lovely young single mother (from across the border in England) in the dark with no heat - temp about 2C. No hot water, no TV, no nothing. No family local, no friends. Baby wrapped up like an eskimo. And this was in a South Wales valley in 2012.

She told me that she would get her giro the following day and would put a tenner in the gas and the leccy. I have little sympathy with many of these young single mothers, who often seem hard and calculating to me. But this girl and her plight really touched my heart.

And it is not very rare either. I know full well that it is not like the 30's. Fathers could not feed their families often. Children died in these coal mining villages and were put in communal unmarked graves. I did some research in one mining village in Northern England and it was so horrific. But suffice to say we don't yet know the meaning of poverty, and I just hope and pray that we never will know unless we visit third world countries and go well off the tourist trail..

But I cannot remember more struggling and less hope for the future than at any time in my life - born just after WW2.