# You used to do what.



## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I was just wondering if as tech advances into the future young people will talk about classic cars and be astounded, and say, what! You used to have to plug them in?


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Most people are very surprised I used to deliver up to 35 washing machines around London on my own and be home planning the next days load by 3pm.

Ray.


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## Relyat (Oct 6, 2020)

Son, who until recently was a chef, was moaning about carting sacks of veg about. I don't think he believed me when I told him of handballing 50kg sacks of flour.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Walking fridges up 4 flights of stairs balanced on one's thighs is another good one.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I was a window cleaner in the 70s and again in the 80s fit as then but not now.


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Lots of foodstuffs used to come to farms in hundredweight and a quarter bags. 64Kg buggered up many backs. Builders these day don't know they are born with half hundredweight bags of cement


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Most have never even heard of a Cwt y first van was 35cwt.

I just watched men throw a 56lb weigh over a 15 foot high bar, the winner had it raised to 16 feet and cleared it.


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## Camion (Jul 22, 2021)

Almost unbelievably I used to push an H grade pencil around a drawing board, really heavy grafting. With the passing of the years it got too much, had to resort to an HB. Finally gave up and retired when I found it beyond me to make much of a mark with a 6B.
Young people these days, just don't seem to comprehend the struggle some of us have had.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Chris talks of running up stairs with a cast iron bath on his back like a turtle shell!

Me? One end of a, sedated, St Bernard was pretty heavy to get on the operating table!


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

raynipper said:


> Most people are very surprised I used to deliver up to 35 washing machines around London on my own and be home planning the next days load by 3pm.
> 
> Ray.


I used to do removals on my own, top floor flats or wherever.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Pudsey_Bear said:


> I just watched men throw a 56lb weigh over a 15 foot high bar, the winner had it raised to 16 feet and cleared it.


They're surely not still using feet n pounds up there Kev?!? It's several decades since I left school having worked in feet n inches etc but started teaching in the gloriously simple metric system!


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

jiwawa said:


> They're surely not still using feet n pounds up there Kev?!? It's several decades since I left school having worked in feet n inches etc but started teaching in the *gloriously simple* metric system!


Till you want to divide by three or other prime numbers.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

jiwawa said:


> They're surely not still using feet n pounds up there Kev?!? It's several decades since I left school having worked in feet n inches etc but started teaching in the gloriously simple metric system!


Its historic Jean 56lbs is just that, you could do it in kilogrammes of course but thats nonsensical as you would have to edit the records and Geoff Capes etc didn't lift any Kilogrammes.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

Milk men!

Are they still a 'thing'?


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

They are around this part of Norfolk. 
Several years ago a colleague left teaching to become a milkman: much simpler life and better pay!

Gordon


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Not as much as before but yes and coalmen too, you even see the odd rag n bone mand and knife/shears sharpeners.


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

9


GMJ said:


> Milk men!
> 
> Are they still a 'thing'?


Both my daughters use their milk men in their different parts of the SE. Glass bottles with reusable plastic tops, also, yogurts, fruit juices and bread. One even gives a sourdough choice.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Remember coal men? One cwt coal is bloody heavy. I prefer a cwt of coke as it's lighter. 

Ray.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

Yes the coalmen! It was my job as a nipper to clean up after them as they dropped loads of it in our side passage en route to the coal hole!


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Remember the Corona lorry once a week selling all the fizzy drinks including Cream Soda - ideal for Ice Cream Soda in the summer 🙃 ?


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Penquin said:


> Remember the Corona lorry once a week selling all the fizzy drinks including Cream Soda - ideal for Ice Cream Soda in the summer 🙃 ?


My sister worked at Corona alongside Des o Connor and so did i later in my teens.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

If you want you milk delivered in glass bottles then look up "Milk and More" Milk & More | Online Food Shopping | Food Shop Online


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## EJB (Aug 25, 2007)

I used to lie on my back with a rawlplug bit in my left hand and a large hammer in my right and make holes in the roofs of new concrete runs under new factories. Half of the the work required holes in the walls which was much easier!
This enabled trunking and metal shelving to be fitted to support electrical cables.
At £1 2s 6d a week I decided to leave after a year or two!
Those really were the days!


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

My first job was as a apprentice tool room fitter drilling pit props all day.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

I know just what you mean Ted. An Electrician apprentice was just cheap labour at £1.19 a week.

Ray.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Ah yes but you might have several house and cars by now at Current (geddit ) rates


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

My first job (after my paper round that is) was at Barry Island Pleasure Park working on the side shows. After 2 weeks I was promoted to run the sideshows! 

I made a lot of money that summer...some of it legally


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I never saw the sense in a paper round but I couldn't find a proper one.


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

After my paper round, aged 13, I worked for a greengrocer Friday evening and Saturday, aged 15, then as a lifeguard in the brand new swimming pool, aged18.

That was the cosiest job, yes, some cleaning, but lots of time stood on the side watching…..

I will not say what the main object of watching was but suffice it to say, all the lifeguards were male, many of the swimmers not….l.

Double pay Saturday afternoon and Sunday and TRIPLE pay on Bank Holidays, all tax free as I was a student ! I earned more in that job than at any time in my life hour for hour…. I even worked there for Easter holidays, just because they wanted me to go back in the summer.

The summer we got married I worked as a lifeguard in a brand new open air swimming g pool at Sandy Bay holiday village, I had more of a suntan in the wedding photos than at any other time. Our honeymoon was in Malta, the holiday company (Thompsons) had a swimming competition twice a week to welcome newcomers…. The winner of each event won a bottle of wine….. The first morning I won 8, my wife 7 as they had one less event.

After two such galas they gave me free wine for the whole time on condition that I did not enter again as no-one else had won anything - I had won all the male events, my wife all the female ! Quite good wine in those days!


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

If we are going back that far.... I used to muck out stables, groom and tack up horses, lead them out for clients, help with the lessons, feed and water horses, untack, groom and turn out any that were not stabled, all for the princely sum of a "free ride" on a knackered horse  I did get promoted to earn real money at £2 for the whole weekend. All my mates were still working for a free ride but he, the owner, considered me more committed and diligent than them


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yes, lots of odd jobs while still at school. Paper rounds, lugging laundry hampers to Harrods, stacking shelves and learning the grocery trade, etc.

Ray.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

After my one season at the Pleasure Park on Barry Island, I then got a job with the Council for the next 4 years. I was renting deck chairs out; working in the car parks; and working the crazy golf. It was a great job - the plum one to get on the Island. We had union rates for pay with enhanced rates for overtime plus triple time on BH's. 

Some weeks I use to take home over £200 a week...which was huge back in the day!

We also got to sit around most of the day working on our tans and watching the girls go by!

...and occasionally more


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

because they wanted me to go back in the summer.

The summer we got married I worked as a lifeguard in a brand new open air swimming g pool at Sandy Bay holiday village, I had more of a suntan in the wedding photos than at any other time. Our honeymoon was in Malta, the holiday company (Thompsons) had a swimming competition twice a week to welcome newcomers…. The winner of each event won a bottle of wine….. The first morning I won 8, my wife 7 as they had one less event.

*After two such galas they gave me free wine for the whole time on condition that I did not enter again as no-one else had won anything - I had won all the male events, my wife all the female ! Quite good wine in those days!*
[/QUOTE]

I really like that bit Dave.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

In the 70s I ended up in Blackpool for the season, worked on a few coffee bars, Glasgow and Edinburgh Holidays were an education I wouldn't want to repeat, I never saw so many knives and other weapons.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

My 1st paying job was in Woolworth's, 15/- for a Saturday.


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

You two obviously had it easy! My job (for half a crown) was to shovel the coal through the coal hole which was approximately 4 feet above the road, regularly going round to place another plank inside the door frame to stop it falling out at the front.

As an NCB welder , Dad got 10cwt?every month, as did most residents of the street. Sometimes I would shift 3 or 4 loads in an evening after school.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Once when I was still a Cub Scout doing Bob-a-job a lady asked me to sift 1/2 ton of nutty slack in her cellar.

I got just a 'Bob' - and a cough


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

My worst Bob-a-job ? Trying to polish a rusty old bike so it looked like new, took me a day and a half and she still was not satisfied so I said I was not going back and I would explain how she had treated me - turned out my experience was far from unique with her. I don’t think any cub scouts ever went back - the bike probably still looks the same, rusty ! Maybe I should have oiled the brakes….


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