Ah yes, I'd often wear a hat
M.
All those wonderfully 'irresponsible' things you used to do after school?
Imagine some of that on youtube today.
Small wonder our youths suffer a multitude of behavioral problems and/or turn to drugs.
Not enough.
It is quite easy to source where the upload came from and not all that easy to really prevent that.
Over here a bloke made some impressive wheelies and stoppies with his moped which his friends put on youtube. They were made to identify him or charged with obstruction of justice. Sadly for him the bloke was 18 and can kiss many a career goodby.
A brave new world indeed.
throwing water bombs at cars/pedestrians out of our 3rd floor flat. Throwing snowballs (sometimes with gravel in, not deliberately of course) at lorries driving by (not just from the back either).
Good times.
Silliness involving crow-scarers purchased from the local farmers' supply shop...
The worst I even did to third parties was the potato in the exhaust and nicking balancing lead from car wheels to cast things.
My stuff was more in crossfielding, holding on rear bumpers over snowed roads, climbing on roof tops just for the fun of the chase by the cops, minting coins on the train rails, racing carts down the local hill, building all sorts of motorized 'vehicles' and drive them around town, shooting with the pellet gun, climbing as high op as possible narrow pages between buildings etc.
I also still remember the VERY distinct sound of the Heinkel 4 strokes scooters the police rode. We were chased a lot for playing harmless kids ball games. There was always SOME neighbor calling because the ball MIGHT hit his car or her flower bed. We knew who the spoilsports were, but were strictly forbidden to pull jokes on them by our parents. Probably because one was the landlord of just about the whole street.
He never had balanced wheels though...
In my day doing those wonderful things - nah, my dad was always waiting, as dads should be...
The things we used to do, looking back you wouldn't do now as you'd probably end up in trouble with the police.
Walking around the village with air rifles and pistols as we went shooting rabbits.
Firing nuts and bolts out of catapults many a time we heard a smash.
Walking on people's hedges.
Battles between gangs of kids bashing the crap out of each other with sticks, pipes and anything else we could lay our hands on.
using camera flash units to flash at cars.
fond memories, but if I caught my boy doing any of them I wouldn't be happy.
Childhood was brilliant for me... 2.5 mile walk along the clifftops to school at Saltburn called for David Coverdale and walked to school with him (WhiteSnake fame), the beach... climbing cliffs, or cycling for miles... no maps, just remembering our route. Building tree dens in the woods, fighting the gangs from nearby village. Canoeing in the North sea... just used to ask the games teacher, walk over the road onto the beach... no supervision! We were very lucky but sometimes stupid when I look back.
My daughter has two boys 7 & 9 ... They can't even play out on the drive unsupervised... sad.
Ah yes, back then there was no annoying prat banging drums telling people how wrong their buying choices were, ah those were the days.
Bicycled to school unaccompanied from age 8, afternoons with the air rifle, catapult, improvised longbow. Climbed every tree within miles of home and built dens and treehouses.
Also did chores around the house and garden for pocket money from age 7, worked on my uncles allotment at 9 and with Grandad on the farm by 10. First proper summer job at the local brewery by 15, my first weeks wage was 147 pounds before tax:) I briefly thought it was the best job ever because of all the free ale.
When I was young, no one used drugs of any kind for recreational purposes. Indeed, they hadn't even been invented yet. Not alcohol. Not pot. Not speed. Not downers. Not LSD. Not magic mushrooms. Not mescaline. Not coke. Not heroin. And so on.
No behaviour problems then, of course, he says, absolutely refusing to say anything at all about various things concerning his youth.
There is a difference in that it isn't all recorded. And that truly is a big difference.
As an aside. It is interesting to consider some important event in your youth, consider the distance in time between it and now, and the distance in time between it and some previous event. For example, I joined the USCG in 1974. My joining the USCG is closer to the beginning of WWII than it is to now. ;)
Best wishes,
Bob
PS The movement of the watch I standardly wear at work was made closer to the turn of the 19th/20th century than to the turn of the 20th/21st century. :)
RLF
Last edited by rfrazier; 9th January 2015 at 12:59.
Ah yes, when a Rolex chronograph cost less than a Seiko digital one. Yet there were WAY more of those Seikos sold because they were not told about the Rolex superlativity theory ;-)
Ok, so now we had that bout so back on topic?
About my son Bloater I am not so sure. It may appear comfortably safe NOW but I often wish my son could/would be a bit more adventurous/mischievous as he would thus learn about boundaries without immediately cutting deep.
As it is I am having heaps of trouble to get him to learn to drive a car. The argument that on our own land this is not illegal is only half accepted. The Hole Rule Book and all is not helping our youths to learn how to live imo.
Quite.
In several ways. Media coverage/demagogy included.
We did live for a large part in blissful ignorance whereas now we are just about governed by fear.
Looking at my own childhood at that of my son I notice a huge difference in being able to be a carefree kid.
Despite all the protectiveness of today I have no doubt that I felt way more secure.
And that is me growing up in the outskirt of a medium sized Dutch city and my son growing up on farm in the Andalucian heartland where he can still walk about with his air gun.
When was that exactly? Please provide evidence of this.
I bought my first proper watch in 1980 - a very recently launched Seiko mulit-function digital watch. It was on sale, reduced from about £140 to about £110, I remember buying it like it was yesterday. Out of curiosity I've just checked the price of a Cosmograph in 1980 - it was around £550.
Looks like you were talking crap. Again. No surprise there.
I think the idea that we are governed by fear is a bit over the top. I see college age people with pretty high expectations all the time. They've been brought up with this social media stuff, and have a better handle on it than you might think. (There are always outliers, of course.) Indeed, the young people I see now aren't so different from the young people I saw 20 or 30 years ago.
Best wishes,
Bob
When Seiko came with the 0634 the Rolex chrono was not all that popular at all. And that is an understatement.
Done the evidence providing several times already. Does not make a difference. So do your own homework and if you can't be arsed or don't want to because you prefer to think crap, then so be it. Tant pis.
Meanwhile I was pondering about family. When I was my son's age there was hardly a kid in my class with a single parent or 'broken' family. In my son's class about a quarter is not.
Whether the social reason/structure was/is better is open for discussion, but it sure does not add up to more stability for the kids.
I don't think my sons are all that different from me when I was their age. I had no interest in drugs when I was a teenager, as they weren't readily available, didn't smoke as it wasn't 'cool' amongst my mates, in fact to be honest I was quite a good kid as my parents kept me in line. I think the fact I grew up in London restricted the tearaway a bit - you certainly couldn't wander about with an airgun or do anything really daft without getting caught. When I talk to my mates, the ones who had the most lively childhoods seem to be those who grew up in rural areas and it sounds like things have changed a lot more for them than city dwellers. I would say my boys seem to go out less but have far superior video games and their female friends seem to dress a little more provocatively than when I was their age - glad I have boys tbh
Times have changed since the 70s / 80s when I were a lad ... fun times in the park with a Black Widow catapult and a double edged "Commando" knife that I bought myself from the pet / gun / knife shop in Sunderland. Riding through to Durham on my bike down the A690 and overtaking cars coming down Houghton Cut (my friend at the time, Jeffery, had a speedo on his Raleigh racer and we were touching 40mph with no helmets or pads ... just screams of delight to be going that fast). I remember whole days during the holidays of getting up early, meeting my best pal and then disappearing off on bicycles with a bag of sandwiches just hoping to avoid any kids from the rival schools. Then into my teenage years with the odd bottle of Woodpecker and hopefully a hand in some young ladies blouse :-D
Great times ... then I became an adult
It may be one of 'rose-tinted glasses' things but I do think I had more fun as a kid than my kids, or later generations.
That may be because much of my childhood and adolescence was spent in a rural environment and so we could run around with few boundaries, physical or geographical (apart from how far we could get on our bikes).
Sure we had airguns, sheath knives and axes but we were taught how to use them responsibly (most of the time), excluding those occasions when we used to find an undischarged shotgun cartridge and would shoot at the cap with an airgun to set it off. We also made bolt bombs with toy gun caps in a nut between two bolts.
In addition to we would ride around the fields and village on motorbikes with little fear of being dobbed in or stopped by the local bobby, largely because we weren't being troublesome or dangerous.
Before we moved to the village I used to live in Stockport and can recall playing in derelict buildings, on rail lines and running around the locality collecting empty beer bottles to take back to a pub for some pocket money. I can also remember being challenged at school as to whether I was a Mod or Rocker and getting smacked if I said the wrong thing - getting kicked in the nads was never a pleasant experience!
Great times...now I ride a motorbike and shoot things legally :)
Imo there is a fundamental cause and effect there.
Nowadays the Hole Rule Book and busybodies reporting on infractions castrate all fun.
Try make a tree hut and an environmentalist tree hugger has the police throw the book at you to name but one example. Never mind a not homologated, not insured motorised vehicle on an unused lot, regardless of neither troublesome nor dangerous.
By Jove man, go round a roundabout twice just for the fun of it today and you risk your vehicle being (temporarily) impounded on the grounds of reckless driving or suspect behavior. Oh and don't protest either!
Well if you've provided the evidence several times before it should not be too difficult to provide again, after all you seem to want to educate us on so many subjects these days and here's the perfect opportunity to either share part of this vast knowledge, or perhaps not for the first time you have been economical with the truth, then run like a scalded cat when asked to back up your bs.
Knock down ginger. The thrill of it........
The point is that it is pointless: If you would want to know you would have found it very easily indeed.
So; I already know and you don't want to. I am ok with that :-)
It is just a bit of a pity that because you refuse to accept that the Rolex chrono was cheaper than the 0643, you miss the crux of the collapse of the Swiss watch industry in favor of the Japanese one: The US let go of the gold standard and the US$ devaluated sharply.
The Swiss watches became a third more expensive almost 'overnight' whereas the Yen was coupled to the US$ meaning that their watches became cheaper because of ditto almost overnight increased demand thus production numbers and quartz tech evolving.
Not that you will believe this or look it up for yourself, but tant pis.
Meanwhile we over here had a great time reflecting on our childhoods.
That was also an important theme when I was in England for New Year too. My love took me to where she grew up. Although it had not changed much physically, society has and she would not have such a wonderful free and adventurous childhood now.
See what I mean with it being pointless?
I have even given the details of books that explain it all with all the references you could want. The latter being crucial.
It is very simple; I know and you don't want to know. I am ok with that :-)
A bit like childhoods.
Meanwhile had a Brit ex pat lady come by with some stuff for one of my mares. She had he 9 y.o. son with her. They are going to order the Richard Middleton book about DIY shooting stuff too.
They too have a bit of fairly privately located land where they can still get away with a lot too and their granddad is a real right old rascal. I bet those three boys will have an awful lot of fun coming THREE MONTHS! of summer holidays.
I've no idea what you are referring to. However, you made a claim that some time ago Seiko chronographs were more expensive than Rolex Daytonas, can you point to this reference? as all I can find points to more Cilla BS, either you can point to the info. or you can't.
Seiko 0634-5009 Movement
Does anyone know where I can find a replacement good condition movement and display module for my Seiko Quartz LC Chronograph 0634-5009 please?
Answer:
I have had this watch since I bought it new in 1976 - list price was about £145 and I paid £110 (probably equivalent to about £1,000 now). In the first year it kept perfect time and did not alter by 1 second then after that it gradually became slower until it was losing about 1 sec/month. This movement is adjustable so could be set up again.
Now I am so annoyed that there are no watches available with a similar performance. If it was possible 30 years ago it should be possible now.
Norry Seiko enthusiast
Oh dear, the Rolex is more expensive............
http://www.minus4plus6.com/PriceEvolution.htm
Last edited by Captainhowdy; 10th January 2015 at 18:41.
I'm never a fan of those 'society was much better back then' themes. In the 'good old days' society thought fit to murder 8 million Jews, segregate black people on public transport and nearly blow up the entire planet several times over over political ideology. Women were also far more marginalised in society a d the workplace. And as for the usual 'back in my day we would leave the front door unlocked'. Well that's probably because you had feck all worth nicking and would-be thieves knew it - modern society has allowed far more people to step out of poverty.
Society is IMHO much better today, we are more tolerant of other cultures, we have access to much more data and facts to broaden our knowledge, and of course we have Co-Axial movements and ceramic bezels to prolong the usefulness of our timepieces.....
Well, it is just through which looking glass you peek.
My childhood was in The Netherlands during the sixties and early seventies.
Free love, womens lib, ban the bomb, 'pirate' radio & tv, and also WAY more tolerance to other cultures.
Squatting and the white bicycle plan were born too.
Our present day society has regressed QUITE abit is just about ALL aspects. Labor rights to womens rights and freedom of religion are all shadow of those years with socalled tolerances to other cultures being a hypocrite JOKE.
The poverty is back and the food banks serve more meals to destitute roofless than ever. Crime to survive is back too just like during the Industrial Revolution, the 19th C. THAT is how far we have regressed.
The wealth gap has not been this huge in modern history.
Now 'we' see fit to bomb Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestines and then still get brainwashed to hate those being bombed.
Oh and what about privacy? No, society is IMO a disgrace.
This has made me think. One of my and my friends teenage hobbies was chemistry with a particular interest in combinations that would go bang. Today I guess that would lead to rather a lot of trouble rather quickly. Indeed today I find myself hesitant to provide any more details of the mixtures we played with.
Looking back I think we were lucky to escape injuring ourselves (and that when we set fire to my friends kitchen we were able to put it out before it took hold)
Yeah, yeah, weedkiller and sugar. We all did it.
Perception is reality my dear Captain.
My reality is greatly enjoyable, thanks for your contributons :-)
As to the topic: We parked at the beach yesterday and the ticket machine wanted my gf to enter her cars' registration number. She was FURIOUS!! so we came up with a workaround.
Again a stark contrast to parking when I went to the beach with a charming female on the back of my first motorcycle.
I'm sure you had a great time, but I'm not remotely interested in your trip to the beach with some old tart, so we can dispense with the Eric Cantona bs and return to the question, which was do you have any facts or evidence to back up your wild claims that the 1976 Seiko lc quartz chronos were more expensive than those Daytonas offered by Rolex?
Diana Ross.
Ah yes...vanishing in the morning with your mates and roaming the woods till it got dark or you got hungry. Climbing electricity pylons and occasionally falling of them....playing football and coming home covered in dog shite....discovering the best places to stick various fireworks in order to achieve most chaos...learning the secrets of women via Penthouse,Playboy and Razzle....inventing new games such as golf chicken *......being able to have a bottle of orange Corona and some lard on toast without the diet nazis getting hot under the collar etc etc etc
* golf chicken - simple really. Two kids,one golfball. Toss a coin for first throw.Stand about a tennis court length apart and lob ball as hard as you can at each other's heads. First person to dive out of the way loses.
I don't know why I care,but for Effin' sake why? What's the issue here?
Last edited by village; 16th January 2015 at 14:36.
I once had a lager top instead of a shandy. Only once, mind.
I seem to be in a minority here in thinking that perhaps things are better for youngsters now in many ways than they were 25 years ago when I was a teenager.
Lots of people reminiscing about care free rumbles with kids from the next village ect.
When I was 15 I moved house from my little patch to the next little patch along and one of the first things that happened was I was badly beaten up and received a broken nose, broken bones in my hand, two cracked ribs, two black eyes and most of my front teeth were broken though surprisingly none knocked out. At one point two of the assaillants were trying to pull me apart from the foetal position so that a third could take a running kick at my head. All this on a busy road near a very busy local shop.
Within 12 months of that most of my friends ended up on heroin with my best friend, who I loved like a brother and still miss, dying of an overdose and a lot of my other friends either ending up in and out of prison or going through residential rehab and moving away at the end of it.
I still live in the same area now and my children lead very different lives than I did. They are much more content to stay at home and chat with me or Skype their friends and sometimes I wish they mixed with their friends more in the evenings, especially in summer, but then I remember the reality of my childhood and not the rose tinted version of it and I'm glad they're a pair of what we would have scornfully termed "home eggs".