The Old Coots Club

[Guest]

Hi Roger

 

You mentioned you are writing a book.  Tell us about it please.  You know, just general subject matter.

 

I'm interested because I have written books myself, six of which have been published and are still around on Amazon even though they don't sell much these days.

 

John

[Rodger Pettichord]

Hi John. Thanks for asking. Two friends and I wrote our first novel just for the fun of it. We sent it out one chapter at a time to friends. It followed a covert unit of B-25 crews through the major events of the war. Right now, we are nine chapters into a second novel that follows the same crews into the Cold War, this time flying a variety of planes in a variety of Cold War settings. Lots of fun for us, and our friends like it--kind of like enjoying the old Saturday Matinee movie series where each month you get a new episode. 

 

Fair is fair---tell us about your books!

[Guest]

My books are romances - in the broadest sense;

 

My first,  'Ilena' is a love story about an ordinary man who finds himself living in a mansion with an exiled Princess from  Armenia.

 

Others are entitled;  The 'National Serviceman', In and out of the service  'Teenagers', Obvious and now historical, 'When Paul Came Home' ex army, 'The Man Who Never Did', 'Keif and Kev'  sequel to TMWND both about the same family.

 

They can all be found for reading on Amazon Kindle.

 

John

[Gypsy Pilot]

On 6/7/2018 at 9:22 AM, JohnY said:

So what other freebies come with just being old?

 

Just remembered what else you get from being old.  Well, what I get satisfaction from is being able to call a spade a spade and the ability to ignore people I don't like.  Couldn't do that while I was working.  And we did have, err, some I wouldn't have passed the time of day with if I could avoid it.

 

I should explain I worked as Property Manager for UK branch of an international hair cosmetic manufacturer.  We had a massive four storey office and several distribution warehouses and hairdressing tuition and demonstration studios throughout the UK.  And believe me, did we have some shall we say personalities.  Often it was difficult to know what gender they were! 

 

Difficult.

 

John

 

Isn't it wonderful?

Dale

[Rodger Pettichord]

John. Thanks. Off to Kindle I go. 

 

Dale and Gypsy--couldn't agree more!

[Triplane]

On 6/3/2018 at 4:50 AM, Fizzelle said:

 

Nice to reflect on marriage sometimes. My first wife would say to me (in the days of early flight sim), "I wish you'd stop playing those silly games and do some jobs around the house". While my current wife says "Oh that's lovely scenery, we'll have to go there!"

 

Well done ORBX. You made a girl very happy, which means a nice quiet and peaceful life for me!

Lucky man.....................

[Ken Terry]

Here is a gem I received from an old friend in Australia recently.  Cheers  Ken

I was asked the following question the other day, 'What was your favourite  'fast food' when you were growing up?' 'We  didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I  informed him. 'All the food was slow.' 'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you  eat?'  'It  was a place called 'home,'' I explained.  ! 'Mum cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table,   And if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.' By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd  figured his system could have handled it: Some parents NEVER , wore jeans,  set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card. My parents never drove me to school ... I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed(slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10. It was, of course, black and white,  and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it  came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local  people... Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a  week. He had to get up at 6 every morning. Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least,  they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly  produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive. If  you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.  Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it? MEMORIES from a friend: My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died recently) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with small holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought  they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons.  Boy, am I old. How  many do you remember?  Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car. Ignition switches on the dashboard. Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner. Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators. Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.. 1.     Sweet cigarettes 2.     Coffee shops with juke  boxes 3.     Home milk delivery in glass bottles 4.     Party lines on  the telephone 5.     Newsreels before the movie  6.     TV Test patterns came on after the last show and were there until TV started again in the morning. There were 2 Channels  7.     Peashooters 8.     33 rpm  records 9.     45 RPM records 10.   Hi-fi's 11.   Metal ice trays with  levers 12.   Blue flashbulb 13.   Cork popguns 14.   Wash  tub wringers If  you remembered 0-3 = You're still young If  you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older If  you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age If  you remembered 11-14 = You're positively  ancient!  I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. (PS. I used a large type face so you could read it )

[flyingleaf]

Oh boy Ken. I do remember most of them

[Rodger Pettichord]

GOT 'EM ALL, KEN. SHOULD WE BE PROUD---OR SOBERED?

[Ken Q]

Twelve out of the fourteen.  Don't have a clew about the "Sweet Cigarettes".  I don't remember "Party Lines" in my area, but that may be because as a tyke I was never, ever, allowed to use the telephone.  A telephone call cost 10 cents, a letter only three, and besides, anyone I'd want to call, I'd just walk over to their house and knock on the back door. I do remember when we got a dial telephone; not that I could use it, but I remember Grandma making a fuss over the fact that she could now call Grandpa at his shop without going through the operator.  This was about 1954, I think.  Wash-tub wringers were pretty dated when I was a kid, but my aunt had one, and I found it fascinating.  Our house was "modern", we had a washer with a spin cycle, AND a dryer!.. We had MADE IT!

 

Ken

[macca22au]

Only missed one:  sweet cigarettes.  Maybe because during my childhood my parents were heavy smokers and we children hated it.  So there might have been, probably were, the sweet cigarettes but we never tried it.  PS my parents gave up cold after they attended the first illustrated public lectures on smoking damage......

[Triplane]

7 hours ago, Rodger Pettichord said:

GOT 'EM ALL, KEN. SHOULD WE BE PROUD---OR SOBERED?

I got 'em all too. I'm neither proud nor sobered.....I'm just scared.....

[Ken Terry]

I think the sweet cigarettes were a confectionery item like jelly beans.    They were for kids to pretend to be smokers.

Here are a few Google images 

https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1302&bih=637&ei=MPAcW8jHMcbS0ATr0LKQAQ&q=sweet+cigatettes&oq=sweet+cigatettes&gs_l=img.12...1284.8344.0.12580.16.9.0.7.7.0.279.1980.0j1j8.9.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.10.2000...0.0.lVfKbYDd4xM

Ken

[Guest]

I had sweet cigarette's occasionally.  Made from hard icing sugar simehow.  Didn't like them much.  Both my parents smoked, my father making his own roll-ups.  When we were about 12 years old, the girl next door and I decided we should smoke so we saved up our pocket money and I went round to the corner shop and bought a packet of 5, I think it was called 'surf' a cheap variety of Players Wates. 

 

We proceeded to the 3/4 buried Anderson air raid shelter at the bottom of my garden and proceed to experience our first taste of cigarettes.  After the toss to decide  who should suck first, we each put one between our lips. I struck the match and put it to the end of Joan's cigarette which she immediately sucked strongly, then her eyes goggled and she coughed the lighted cigarette out straight on to the dried bedding my Mum kept in there.

 

Joan screamed with laughter and scrambled up out of the shelter with me failing to grab her back.  When I turned round the bedding was smouldering merrily trying to burst into flames.  No water was around so I did the only thing a guy could possibly do in the circumstances.  Making sure the beginnings of the fire was definitely out, I slunk out of the shelter and went about my business as if nothing had happened.

 

A few days later I heard my Mum talking to our next door neighbour;  'Ere Flo' You'll never guess what I found when I went down to the shelter the other day to get our spare blanketsm  Some bugger's been down there and only set it on fire.  Bert'll do 'is nut in when I tell 'im we've got to buy some more bedding.  We've only just got over 'avin' to buy John's new school uniform an' ev'ry thin'.  He keeps growin' out of the stuff.  Anyway, I reckon it was some tramps comin' in of that grass bank be'ind the gardens.

 

I'd got away with my first attempt at smoking!

 

Some time later, being abroad in the army on active service we were each given a tin of fifty either 'Players Senior Service' or 'Churchmans' every week!  And thoroughly enjoyed them.

 

John

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2018 by JohnY
spelling

[Guest]

Oh, and Ken, I do remember all of them.  It's an hour ago I have trouble with!

 

John

[Triplane]

Back where I grew up we called them candy cigarettes. By the time I was 5-6 years old I had a three-pack-a-day habit..........

[Gypsy Pilot]

I remember them all.

A Thought,  

When the last of us are gone will these things cease to exist in the common memory only to be found in museums of ancient history? 

 

Dale

[Triplane]

You're so right Dale. I remember not long ago I told my oldest son (he's 50 now) that when I was a kid we didn't have TV. He gave this questioning look and said.....couldn't you just watch the TV programs on the computer....................

[Fizzelle]

1 hour ago, Triplane said:

You're so right Dale. I remember not long ago I told my oldest son (he's 50 now) that when I was a kid we didn't have TV. He gave this questioning look and said.....couldn't you just watch the TV programs on the computer....................

 

Which reminds me of a story in the music paper "New Musical Express" in the 1970s over here in the UK. A journalist spent all day in a record shop because he wanted to see how many people were still buying Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" - it had been number one for over a year. Anyway two teenage girls came in and one of them picked up an old Beatles album and was busy looking at the sleeve notes. She exclaimed to her friend, "Oh look! I didn't know Paul McCartney had left Wings".

 

Ah the innocence of youth sometimes!

[Triplane]

Indeed.........................

[Patrick Cox]

Remember them all too. In the 50s I lived on a farm and we had neither electricity or phone. In about 1959 my parents purchased a washing machine with a Villiers petrol motor with levers on the side for the washing cycle and for emptying it. Another lever was for the wringer which had a handle on the top to adjust the amount of pressure to use to squeeze the water out of the clothes.

[ArGee]

1 hour ago, Pat Cox (Aussieman) said:

Remember them all too. In the 50s I lived on a farm and we had neither electricity or phone. In about 1959 my parents purchased a washing machine with a Villiers petrol motor with levers on the side for the washing cycle and for emptying it. Another lever was for the wringer which had a handle on the top to adjust the amount of pressure to use to squeeze the water out of the clothes.

Yeah, I can remember all of them. My parents bought their 1st washing machine in the mid 50's. Similar wringer on top (just watch out for your hand or fingers going through the wringer). Before that it was an old concrete wash trough with a hand cranked wringer clamped on top.

[flyingleaf]

16 hours ago, Ken Terry said:

I think the sweet cigarettes were a confectionery item like jelly beans.    They were for kids to pretend to be smokers.

Here are a few Google images 

https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1302&bih=637&ei=MPAcW8jHMcbS0ATr0LKQAQ&q=sweet+cigatettes&oq=sweet+cigatettes&gs_l=img.12...1284.8344.0.12580.16.9.0.7.7.0.279.1980.0j1j8.9.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.10.2000...0.0.lVfKbYDd4xM

Ken

They were filled with chocolates or hard candy. 

[Guest]

Someone's just reminded me.   Who remembers making aeroplanes out of balsa wood, and tissu that you painted with dope?  I was hooked on that smell before even becoming hooked was popular!  Having several strands of 1/4"  elastic for a motor you wound it up with a propellor.   It flew without control, and when the elastic unwound it it crashed. Then you repaired it again and again and again until it resembled a patchwork quilt....I had a big one once with a 6' wing span (that's just under 2 metres for some of you) and it really flew well in the local park but I was a rotten kid and shot at it with my airgun.  I'm not sure I ever hit it but its the only one I had that would glide down to land properly.

 

John

 

 

 

 

[teecee]

Made a few of those as a littley, but never truly happy with the results..Last one I made was in The Alice for my eldest son (in the early seventies), a pricey thing with a fuel motor..Took it to the park to fly.. crashed and burned..Strangely neither he nor any of the others ever asked me to make another. Teecee.

[Gypsy Pilot]

On 6/10/2018 at 11:57 AM, Triplane said:

You're so right Dale. I remember not long ago I told my oldest son (he's 50 now) that when I was a kid we didn't have TV. He gave this questioning look and said.....couldn't you just watch the TV programs on the computer....................

 

And all you can do is stand there and think, my God, I am not an idiot, what happened to him? 

 

Then you remember that you grew up before how many Followers and Likes you have and you spent your time learning about the really important things.

 

Social Media and the Smart Phone have corrupted an entire generation by diverting their attention to the truly unimportant aspect of life.

 

Dale 

[teecee]

" Social Media and the Smart Phone have corrupted an entire generation"  Every generation say the same thing.. "goodness, what is the world coming to?" be it the intro of the spinning jenny, or the steam engine or the motor car, but in our case I believe the computer, the smart phone or any of these small devices could well be the end of the intelligent use of our minds..currently communication on a smart  phone consists of symbols, abbreviations, and pre set sentences.. in time, in my opinion, people will lose the ability to communicate properly, and will lose the ability to read and write... Teecee.

[Rodger Pettichord]

teecee's comment makes me think of the generation that was old when we were kids. In my small rural community, we had American Civil War veterans who could compare the old muzzle-loaders with the new cartridge rifles.. My dad fondly remembered his brother's ability to drive a large team of horses or mules before a cargo wagon or a reaper. Our town blacksmith used to swear that the new gas-powered forges weren't half as sensitive as the old (was it charcoal?) versions. Some of the old guys were thrilled to death by the new reel lawn mowers--before that you just let the grass grow until you could cut it by scythe.And so forth.  Why, I'd have to say that nostalgia isn't half as poignant today as it was back then. 

[Triplane]

There are two things I believe.....the year 1968 changed the fabric of America forever and.....the iPhone and Facebook have changed the fabric of the world. When the history books are written (long past my lifetime) Steve Jobs and Mark Zukerberg will be noted as two of the major influences of our time. Whether for better or for worse is not for me to say but, for sure, they have changed the world.............Doug

 

PS: Does anybody remember the days when we used to come home from school and play outside with our friends until dinner time? 

[Ken Terry]

JohnY, I remember my brother and I made a bulsa wood aeroplane about 12" long with a long rubber band as the driving motor but we wound it too tight and the tension collapsed the plane so the tail finished up in the cockpit.   Now I regret not using my Box Kodak camera to record the mess.

Cheers

Ken

[Guest]

Oh, the box Kodak Ken.  What a machine that was!  When we were first married my wife and I nearly desestoyed my Mum's kitchen cabinet when developing and printing photos in the scullery as it was known in those days.

 

John

[Dadtom65]

On 6/12/2018 at 1:27 AM, Triplane said:

There are two things I believe.....the year 1968 changed the fabric of America forever and.....the iPhone and Facebook have changed the fabric of the world. When the history books are written (long past my lifetime) Steve Jobs and Mark Zukerberg will be noted as two of the major influences of our time. Whether for better or for worse is not for me to say but, for sure, they have changed the world.............Doug

 

PS: Does anybody remember the days when we used to come home from school and play outside with our friends until dinner time? 

Those were the days you could walk for miles and the countryside was quite close years ago.  We used to play cowboys and Indians and army games and go scrumpping, that’s Nicking apples or what ever of people’s trees for our American friends, and then running away with your loot. God those were happy times. All changed in this day and age now. You see these films about desolate countries and now this business about the amount of plastic in the world and you think what is the world going to come to say in ten or twenty years time. Derek.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dadtom65

[Guest]

Hm' Every era presents its own challenges.  I don't even recognise the days you mention Derek.  Those days, for me in East London, seemed to be dominated by the war and its aftermath and frankly weren't the happiest.  At sixteen, I was looking for work, anything would do since National Service was looming when I reached eighteen.  Then, for me, it was the so called 'Emergency' in Malaya, then coming home with malnutrition and a duodenal ulcer. 

 

For my wife, it was even worse.  At four years old she was taken with her parents into a Japanese prison camp in 1938 and didn't get out until 1946.  They came to England and her Father had to get any job he could get.  He went as a night watchman in Chatham Dockyard and then landed a job with Hornimans Museum until he retired with bad health at 65.  My wife's Mum, having lost two of her children in the camp and not being able to read and write in English managed to land a job in a biscuit factory.  How she managed that is a complete mystery to us.

 

So life was a struggle.

 

Things slowly got better.  Mainly from the time I got out of the army.   We were all working.  Sheila and I got married and we managed to get a small house in Crawley New Town. 

 

Since then, life happened.  We have two grown up children a boy and a girl and they're reasonably successful in their own fields.  So all in all, at 85, from bad beginnings we've had mainly good....ish up and down lives.  Like most I suppose.

 

John

 

Edited June 13, 2018 by JohnY
spelling

[Triplane]

John - I can't even imagine what you've been through. For me life was an easy road. I've never experienced any thing like problems you've encountered. May God bless you and yours. The incredible courage of the English people will never  be forgotten.,,,,,,,,,Doug

[Guest]

You are posh teecee.  With a MOTOR!  

I must admit to being a bit jealous

[Guest]

Thanks Doug.

If I was a believer, I would say the same to you.

So, I'll just say, 'All the best'.

John

[Guest]

Totally agree Teecee.

 

Goodness me,  life is busy.  Wrote a short goodbye speech this morning to a colleage leaving the board of a company I'm a director for.  Just finished a long flight the lenth of Britain from Sumburgh, Shetland Isles to Exeter in the  in the South West.

 

Now I'm off to the lounge to watch the U.S.Open and read some more of Rodgers book.  While I'm doing that, I have to fit in time for the lovely dinner my wife always cook's for us.

 

Its all go and  pleasure.........Wonderful.

 

Oh, and on memory lane;  who remembers playing marbles, cigarette cards and marbles.  Brilliant games all.

 

John

 

 

Edited June 14, 2018 by JohnY

[Guest]

So far, I seem to be the oldest -  85 from last March.   I think I've still got all my 'marbles' but I've forgotten where they are.   Perhaps it's probably sad to record that I don't care.

 

I can't walk far, even with a stick but I still drive, (my optician says I don't need to wear glasses), not too long distances, say 60 miles or so is my limit and I'm a couple of stone (28-lbs) overweight because we eat too well.   And its some six months since I last visited the Doctor about a stubborn itch she couldn't do anything about!

 

So I consider myself to be one of the very lucky ones especially because so many of my generation due to war and illness lost their lives when young.

 

So, most of you can look forward (I hope) to having quite a way to go and I hope you'll enjoy your lives as much as I  still do.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rodger Pettichord]

John neglected to say that he also writes some pretty good novels. I've read two of them and enjoyed them. His marbles seem to be still well in place.

[Gypsy Pilot]

John, you are like the Energizer Bunny, you just keep going on and on and on.  You give us youngsters hope.

 

One of the things that I hate most about being 81, and there is a long list, is that everyone that I grew up with has Flown West including both of my wives.  Number 1 at 42 years and number 2 at 17 years.

 

I get much comfort from the Old Coots Club because they remind me that I am not alone on this final flight.

 

Dale