My wife and I go out rarely compared to 30 years ago, when we do it's usually to somewhere "nice". There was a time when the experience of fine dining was as much for the experience as the food. Lately paying $200+ for the experience is just not worth it.
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Going out with my wife isn't what it use to be
- Thread starter Janderso
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2021
- Messages
- 895
There's a comedian coming into town that my wife likes (we're pretty far away from this kind of stuff normally, so this is unusual). She bought tickets immediately, for us and another couple who are friends of ours. $160 for four general seating tickets. It's a special occasion, so whatever.
It will be our first time out to see a show since before covid. We've eaten out twice since 2020 that wasn't take out, so that'll probably make it the third time.
It will be our first time out to see a show since before covid. We've eaten out twice since 2020 that wasn't take out, so that'll probably make it the third time.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,747
I suppose we sound like a bunch of old fogies Complaining about how much better it used to be. On the other hand, some things are way better…we can watch so many great movies and series for peanuts, stay in touch with friends and family with pictures and video, air travel cost is down, HF tools are still cheap but quality is up, if you own your home and some rental property you’re raking it in, skills can be acquired just by clicking on a link, this website exists, gold is way up, people call to help with your car extended warranty…ok, help me out here. It’s not all bad.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
- Messages
- 287
Very true. On a personal note, my alarm clock doesn't go off at 5:30 am anymore and I think about the stress and strains of the old job less and less. And for sure everyone has to admit the "Information Superhighway" is much better than Britannica. Also, I'd be willing to bet most folks on here have a lathe and mill with a to do list as long as your arm. Not bad!
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2014
- Messages
- 3,187
Some of us may be curmudgeons and see some of the things you mentioned in a bit different light.
"we can watch so many great movies and series for peanuts"
We have over 250 channels on cable TV and struggle to find anything worth watching. How many knife channels and shopping channels are really necessary?
"stay in touch with friends and family with pictures and video"
Obviously, you enjoy your relatives' company more than I do. We are continually getting e mails from one family member who thinks it's his duty to tell us how to save the world, and how complicit we are in its destruction. He's similar to many politicians in that he's more than willing to tell us what we're doing wrong while doing nothing himself to improve the situation.
"air travel cost is down"
I traveled for business as much as 280 days a year for over 20 years. The normal routine was going to the airport on a Monday, fly to the destination, stay anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, and return. There was a time when I had so many frequent flyer miles, I was giving away free flights to family members. Now days I avoid flying whenever possible.
"HF tools are still cheap, but quality is up."
I'm halfway in agreement with you here. HF tools are still cheap.
"skills can be acquired just by clicking on a link"
The information is certainly available. However, looking at some of the videos the skills are not nearly so apparent.
Now that I've given my analysis of some of the subjects you've touched on was it really any help, or have I just overwhelmingly identified myself as a curmudgeon?
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,747
Wow, that’s a great price!
Yes, I now realize that life really sucks.
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- Aug 22, 2012
- Messages
- 4,131
This is how good it was in the old days.
I've been writing this just to show my kids and maybe send to the current owners.
For some strange reason I googled my old house the other week and found it was still there looking almost the same as when I was a child except it wasnt white in those days but more creamy looking from the pebbledash coating.
As I continued looking it bought back a heap of memories of those far away times. This google earth picture is around a year old and shows three houses, ours was the middle one.
My grand parents lived there. it was a council rental property and he had to sign a guarantee that he could pay the twelve shillings and six pence a week rent.
His father owned a farm roughly where part of the airport is now but the government compulsory purchased it for a pittance and he died a pauper which is why my grandfather (mothers side) had to live in a rental property after being on a farm with 6 tied cottages.
I was born there and lived there for the first five years of my life from 1948 until 1953 and can remember it well because until his death in the mid 60’s I would continue to stay there most weekends.
I will give a brief description of the house as I remember it as its difficult to believe how primitive things were in those days so I’m assuming it has been bought up to current standards with little remaining of how it used to be.
The front yard was a small lawn with a border of huge chrysanthemums , the privet hedge which is still there on next doors property followed along to the gate with the pathway straight to the alleyway.
I used to hate that pebble dashing in that alleyway as when I was learning to ride a bike at around 5–6 years old I crashed in the alley and really skinned my knuckles badly.
In those early years there was no electricity, no indoor toilet or bathroom and no hot water so a wash was either with cold water or if hot was wanted it had to be boiled in pans on the gas cooker.Washing took place at the kitchen sink.
A bath was virtually unheard of and required lugging in an old tin bath from the coal shed door where it hung and placing it in front of the dining room fire.
Eventually he upgraded to a real bath, placed in the kitchen and covered it with a hinged lid that was used as the work table for most of the time. This was a huge advance as it had a cold tap but thats a lot of pots on the stove to get enough hot water for a bath so it was never a nice soak in a deep bath.
With no electricity lighting was by gas lights in every room or by candles, the hissing of the gas lights would scare me and prevent me from falling asleep for quite a while.
The large front step was white and every week my grandmother along with all the other women in the street in their houses would scrub them and apply some kind of whitening. I remember it seeming much larger than it looks on google earth.
As you went in through the front door that by the way was always open the stairs were on the left and wound up to a small room half way up also on the left, then they turned right to the small landing.
The first room at the top of the stairs was used as a store room where he dried then cured his own tobacco which he grew on an allotment on the corner of Hatton road and Stanwell road.
The cured tobacco leaves were pressed into foot square blocks and stored in the tiny room half way up the stairs.
I remember the aroma of cured tobacco pervading the whole house when that was happening.
I do not remember him ever smoking it but when I was around 8 or 9 I would peel a few leaves and roll into tiny cigars which a friend and myself would try to smoke. This tobacco was incredibly smooth as I found out in later years when I tried real cigarettes and couldn't smoke them.
The bedroom overlooking the back yard was grandma’s and granddad's with the bedroom overlooking the front for my mother, father and myself.
Remember, there was no indoor toilet or plumbing so each room had a chamber pot under the bed in case it was needed during the night similar to this one.
I dont remember much about the bedrooms other than the hissing noise from the gas lights, a jug of water and large china wash bowel on each dresser similar to the one above.
Also that I was very wary of the banister rail along the landing seeming too flimsy to prevent anyone from falling over into the stairwell.
For the whole time I lived and visited there the back garden ended at the edge of a huge field bordered on the right hand side by a block of 2 story flats that I must say look way nicer today than they did in those days when they were filled with homeless from the London Blitz. There were no other buildings right up to the Great South West Road.
Going back to the entrance downstairs there was a sort of space under the stairs with a small chaise lounge and hooks for hats and coats plus granddad’s wet motor cycling gear. In the winter months there was always a paraffin stove kept alight to give a bit of heat to dry the coats etc.
Continuing on to the tiny backroom that had an open fire, two armchairs, a small sofa and a small sideboard with decorative glass bowels and ornaments. This room was only ever used when important guests visited.
The fireplace surround had for as long as I can remember two Dresden china figurines and a Dresden china clock that didnt work. Similar to these but we do not know what happened to the originals.
Granddad called it his visitors clock, when he thought someone had outstayed their welcome he would bring it out and make a big thing of replacing the clock that did go on the mantle shelf with this one. The visitor would always ask what it was to which he replied “Its my visitors clock, it doesn’t go.”
This makes him sound like an impatient man but in reality he was very kind and patient so it always got a laugh.
Back to the front door and turning right took you into the dining room as it was called.
This was the room we lived in most of the time.
The 4 seat dining table under the window and a lovely wooden sideboard along the back wall, two small arm chairs and a larger one set right in front of the fire for granddad. No one else was allowed to sit in that.
The main feature was the open coal fire where two brass long handled forks were hung and a mantle clock over the centre.
I still have the brass forks which in those days were used for toasting bread and crumpets in the winter over the open fire.
Just like in Dickens movies we had a muffin man walk around balancing a tray of fresh crumpets on his head ringing a hand bell and we would rush out to buy the often still warm fresh crumpets.
Sunday tea was always dainty sandwiches and some type of shellfish, in this instance bought from a horse drawn cart. Usually winkles were the shell fish of choice with the ceremonial hat pins placed around the table to “winkle” your meat out of the shell but sometimes if there was enough money then prawns were the shell fish of choice particularly on special occasions. Granddad and my father always had whelks as well but these were considered too coarse for ladies and children so they had to eat them in the kitchen before we all sat down for tea.
There was a large alcove on the right hand side of the fire place that was a floor to ceiling set of cupboards where some of my toys were stored including a couple of boxes of large wooden jigsaws. For some reason it didnt matter that you had assembled them before it was always fun to do it again.
The alcove on the left hand side of the fireplace contained a large wooden radio, powered by a 90V dry cell battery and a 1.5V glass jar lead acid battery or as it was called in those days an accumulator. Once a week the accumulator man would exchange it for a fresh charged one. The 90 Volt battery drove the guts of the radio and the accumulator drove the heaters for all the valves it used.
This was our major form of entertainment for many many years until electricity was installed and a TV materialised. That was the start of an amazing period laying in front of the fire in the “posh” room watching the first episodes of Dr Who.
There were two doors coming off the wall opposite the window, one to the “larder” that was just a small room with shelves for everything and the other into the small kitchen.
Mum always had around two dozen bottles of ginger beer sitting in there with a ginger beer plant on the kitchen window sill that was fed every week with half being given to anyone who wanted it so they could also start a ginger beer system.
Mum always swore she never knew it was alcoholic until she came home one day to my friend and I rolling around drunk after quaffing a couple of bottles.
In the kitchen was a bare essentials 2 ring gas cooker with an oven and grill and a small shelf over it to hold the few pots and pans and plates. It was identical to this one was on the right beside the door as you entered.
Next to it was a set of cupboards but I cannot remember what was stored in them.
The bath with the covered top was next to the stove against the wall with the tap end situated under the wooden drainer that came off the sink.
Again, there was only a cold tap for the sink but it did have wooden draining boards on both sides.
The window over the sink looked out onto an enclosed small yard that contained the coal shed, outside toilet that was absolutely freezing in winter. Imagine having to dress up in warm clothes and a thick coat just to relieve your self.
Against the back wall of this enclosed space was a large aviary where granddad bred budgerigars for many years.
Right outside the window against the right hand side was a covered alcove that had the gas fired “boiler” sometimes called the copper where the washing was done once a week which for some reason was always a Monday, accompanied by a wringer or “mangle” to squeeze most of the water from the clothes.
Every Christmas granddad would scrub and clean the boiler to a pristine condition so he could cook the leg of ham as we never had a pot large enough. This became a tradition at Christmas in our house for many many years and to this day I follow it but use a proper stock pot on the stove now.
To the left of the sink was the back door which opened onto a small sort of porch and some steps to the enclosed yard.
Behind the aviary was a small wooden shed where granddad parked his motorcycle and kept his tools from when he was a wheelwright and cabinet maker.
Then came the vegetable garden of mostly potatoes and beans.
Outside the window of the posh room was the path bordered by a high trellis smothered in climbing roses that gave a wonderful perfume when in bloom.
Then the back lawn that went down to the two large (to me at that age) greenhouses where grandad grew many things to eat including wonderful tasty tomatoes.
I believe we were very lucky to have that house as according to granddad during the war a flying bomb was passing overhead when the engine cut out, usually this would put the bomb into a vertical dive which would have devastated the whole area but instead it kept gliding and landed way over the other side of the Great South West Road into empty farm land.
Eventually of course electricity was installed along with the change from a coal fire to a coke fire with a back boiler to provide hot water but no inside toilet.
I cannot remember when this occurred but do remember that the gas lights remained in place for quite a long time and may even still be hidden behind the walls in some rooms.
We never thought those days were hard because we didnt know any better. Looking back we made do with what we had.
I hope you enjoy the read.
I've been writing this just to show my kids and maybe send to the current owners.
For some strange reason I googled my old house the other week and found it was still there looking almost the same as when I was a child except it wasnt white in those days but more creamy looking from the pebbledash coating.
As I continued looking it bought back a heap of memories of those far away times. This google earth picture is around a year old and shows three houses, ours was the middle one.
My grand parents lived there. it was a council rental property and he had to sign a guarantee that he could pay the twelve shillings and six pence a week rent.
His father owned a farm roughly where part of the airport is now but the government compulsory purchased it for a pittance and he died a pauper which is why my grandfather (mothers side) had to live in a rental property after being on a farm with 6 tied cottages.
I was born there and lived there for the first five years of my life from 1948 until 1953 and can remember it well because until his death in the mid 60’s I would continue to stay there most weekends.
I will give a brief description of the house as I remember it as its difficult to believe how primitive things were in those days so I’m assuming it has been bought up to current standards with little remaining of how it used to be.
The front yard was a small lawn with a border of huge chrysanthemums , the privet hedge which is still there on next doors property followed along to the gate with the pathway straight to the alleyway.
I used to hate that pebble dashing in that alleyway as when I was learning to ride a bike at around 5–6 years old I crashed in the alley and really skinned my knuckles badly.
In those early years there was no electricity, no indoor toilet or bathroom and no hot water so a wash was either with cold water or if hot was wanted it had to be boiled in pans on the gas cooker.Washing took place at the kitchen sink.
A bath was virtually unheard of and required lugging in an old tin bath from the coal shed door where it hung and placing it in front of the dining room fire.
Eventually he upgraded to a real bath, placed in the kitchen and covered it with a hinged lid that was used as the work table for most of the time. This was a huge advance as it had a cold tap but thats a lot of pots on the stove to get enough hot water for a bath so it was never a nice soak in a deep bath.
With no electricity lighting was by gas lights in every room or by candles, the hissing of the gas lights would scare me and prevent me from falling asleep for quite a while.
The large front step was white and every week my grandmother along with all the other women in the street in their houses would scrub them and apply some kind of whitening. I remember it seeming much larger than it looks on google earth.
As you went in through the front door that by the way was always open the stairs were on the left and wound up to a small room half way up also on the left, then they turned right to the small landing.
The first room at the top of the stairs was used as a store room where he dried then cured his own tobacco which he grew on an allotment on the corner of Hatton road and Stanwell road.
The cured tobacco leaves were pressed into foot square blocks and stored in the tiny room half way up the stairs.
I remember the aroma of cured tobacco pervading the whole house when that was happening.
I do not remember him ever smoking it but when I was around 8 or 9 I would peel a few leaves and roll into tiny cigars which a friend and myself would try to smoke. This tobacco was incredibly smooth as I found out in later years when I tried real cigarettes and couldn't smoke them.
The bedroom overlooking the back yard was grandma’s and granddad's with the bedroom overlooking the front for my mother, father and myself.
Remember, there was no indoor toilet or plumbing so each room had a chamber pot under the bed in case it was needed during the night similar to this one.
I dont remember much about the bedrooms other than the hissing noise from the gas lights, a jug of water and large china wash bowel on each dresser similar to the one above.
Also that I was very wary of the banister rail along the landing seeming too flimsy to prevent anyone from falling over into the stairwell.
For the whole time I lived and visited there the back garden ended at the edge of a huge field bordered on the right hand side by a block of 2 story flats that I must say look way nicer today than they did in those days when they were filled with homeless from the London Blitz. There were no other buildings right up to the Great South West Road.
Going back to the entrance downstairs there was a sort of space under the stairs with a small chaise lounge and hooks for hats and coats plus granddad’s wet motor cycling gear. In the winter months there was always a paraffin stove kept alight to give a bit of heat to dry the coats etc.
Continuing on to the tiny backroom that had an open fire, two armchairs, a small sofa and a small sideboard with decorative glass bowels and ornaments. This room was only ever used when important guests visited.
The fireplace surround had for as long as I can remember two Dresden china figurines and a Dresden china clock that didnt work. Similar to these but we do not know what happened to the originals.
Granddad called it his visitors clock, when he thought someone had outstayed their welcome he would bring it out and make a big thing of replacing the clock that did go on the mantle shelf with this one. The visitor would always ask what it was to which he replied “Its my visitors clock, it doesn’t go.”
This makes him sound like an impatient man but in reality he was very kind and patient so it always got a laugh.
Back to the front door and turning right took you into the dining room as it was called.
This was the room we lived in most of the time.
The 4 seat dining table under the window and a lovely wooden sideboard along the back wall, two small arm chairs and a larger one set right in front of the fire for granddad. No one else was allowed to sit in that.
The main feature was the open coal fire where two brass long handled forks were hung and a mantle clock over the centre.
I still have the brass forks which in those days were used for toasting bread and crumpets in the winter over the open fire.
Just like in Dickens movies we had a muffin man walk around balancing a tray of fresh crumpets on his head ringing a hand bell and we would rush out to buy the often still warm fresh crumpets.
Sunday tea was always dainty sandwiches and some type of shellfish, in this instance bought from a horse drawn cart. Usually winkles were the shell fish of choice with the ceremonial hat pins placed around the table to “winkle” your meat out of the shell but sometimes if there was enough money then prawns were the shell fish of choice particularly on special occasions. Granddad and my father always had whelks as well but these were considered too coarse for ladies and children so they had to eat them in the kitchen before we all sat down for tea.
There was a large alcove on the right hand side of the fire place that was a floor to ceiling set of cupboards where some of my toys were stored including a couple of boxes of large wooden jigsaws. For some reason it didnt matter that you had assembled them before it was always fun to do it again.
The alcove on the left hand side of the fireplace contained a large wooden radio, powered by a 90V dry cell battery and a 1.5V glass jar lead acid battery or as it was called in those days an accumulator. Once a week the accumulator man would exchange it for a fresh charged one. The 90 Volt battery drove the guts of the radio and the accumulator drove the heaters for all the valves it used.
This was our major form of entertainment for many many years until electricity was installed and a TV materialised. That was the start of an amazing period laying in front of the fire in the “posh” room watching the first episodes of Dr Who.
There were two doors coming off the wall opposite the window, one to the “larder” that was just a small room with shelves for everything and the other into the small kitchen.
Mum always had around two dozen bottles of ginger beer sitting in there with a ginger beer plant on the kitchen window sill that was fed every week with half being given to anyone who wanted it so they could also start a ginger beer system.
Mum always swore she never knew it was alcoholic until she came home one day to my friend and I rolling around drunk after quaffing a couple of bottles.
In the kitchen was a bare essentials 2 ring gas cooker with an oven and grill and a small shelf over it to hold the few pots and pans and plates. It was identical to this one was on the right beside the door as you entered.
Next to it was a set of cupboards but I cannot remember what was stored in them.
The bath with the covered top was next to the stove against the wall with the tap end situated under the wooden drainer that came off the sink.
Again, there was only a cold tap for the sink but it did have wooden draining boards on both sides.
The window over the sink looked out onto an enclosed small yard that contained the coal shed, outside toilet that was absolutely freezing in winter. Imagine having to dress up in warm clothes and a thick coat just to relieve your self.
Against the back wall of this enclosed space was a large aviary where granddad bred budgerigars for many years.
Right outside the window against the right hand side was a covered alcove that had the gas fired “boiler” sometimes called the copper where the washing was done once a week which for some reason was always a Monday, accompanied by a wringer or “mangle” to squeeze most of the water from the clothes.
Every Christmas granddad would scrub and clean the boiler to a pristine condition so he could cook the leg of ham as we never had a pot large enough. This became a tradition at Christmas in our house for many many years and to this day I follow it but use a proper stock pot on the stove now.
To the left of the sink was the back door which opened onto a small sort of porch and some steps to the enclosed yard.
Behind the aviary was a small wooden shed where granddad parked his motorcycle and kept his tools from when he was a wheelwright and cabinet maker.
Then came the vegetable garden of mostly potatoes and beans.
Outside the window of the posh room was the path bordered by a high trellis smothered in climbing roses that gave a wonderful perfume when in bloom.
Then the back lawn that went down to the two large (to me at that age) greenhouses where grandad grew many things to eat including wonderful tasty tomatoes.
I believe we were very lucky to have that house as according to granddad during the war a flying bomb was passing overhead when the engine cut out, usually this would put the bomb into a vertical dive which would have devastated the whole area but instead it kept gliding and landed way over the other side of the Great South West Road into empty farm land.
Eventually of course electricity was installed along with the change from a coal fire to a coke fire with a back boiler to provide hot water but no inside toilet.
I cannot remember when this occurred but do remember that the gas lights remained in place for quite a long time and may even still be hidden behind the walls in some rooms.
We never thought those days were hard because we didnt know any better. Looking back we made do with what we had.
I hope you enjoy the read.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2016
- Messages
- 3,291
Of course, that is your experience, but @Winegrower was making a point of the possibilities that exist in our society. I'm sure you already knew that.
The skills that can be acquired online, to me, are huge. Do you want to learn Solidworks? There are classes for that. How about Calculus? Yep, that too. How to cook Panna Cotta? Yep, that too. The possibilities are endless.
I am deep in the throes of reading about our early space program, including Apollo. Last night I discovered a website with Apollo missions 11, 13, and 17 stored in real-time with transcripts, video, and more data than one could comprehend. I can now correlate my book to what was actually happening. Is that awesome or what?! https://apolloinrealtime.org/
The one caveat to "technology" I have is Twitter and Facebook. They have brought more harm to our country than any possible good.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2020
- Messages
- 2,117
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
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Amen, brother.