I completely agree, but that doesn't matter for the numbers this quarter.
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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
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Yes I remember those. You stood with your feet under the base of a tall column and peered down at a screen mounted in the top. They disappeared quite suddenly so it must have been a health scare.
Killingworth
Established Member
X-rays!
Yes I know that, but I was referring to the speed at which they disappeared.
Oh yes. Scared the b-jeesus out of me aged about three!
Always thought it would crush my feet if it didnt stop!
Had a light display thingy to see what shoe size you were were, that's the thing you looked at whilst hearing the whirring sounds and the feeling of metal against your socks.
Killingworth
Established Member
GusB
Established Member
Is the machine in the photo I've linked to the same as the one you remember?
I remember having my feet measured by a machine when I was quite small and I also remember feeling quite anxious about it!
Is the machine in the photo I've linked to the same as the one you remember?
I remember having my feet measured by a machine when I was quite small and I also remember feeling quite anxious about it!
Yes thats it, or something very like it.
dangie
Established Member
Schools remaining open whatever the weather.
Note: Not that you would have known if it was closed until you got there! Which of course it never was.
Note: Not that you would have known if it was closed until you got there! Which of course it never was.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Indeed; the senior school I attended didn't miss a beat during the early 1963 big freeze - for younger readers, the temperature then didn't rise above freezing from the 1st Jan to about mid-March; temperatures down to the magic 0 degrees Fahrenheit . There were no school buses then, but the service buses I used ran - to time! - every day, too. Mind, the open platform buses with no heaters (the entire Corporation fleet!) had a very thick layer of ice on the inside of the windows by the end of February.
A sad consequence of our over-zealous Health & Safety culture. I was schooled during the 80s and 90s, and can't remember the school ever closing due to snow or bad weather. I don't know how parents today cope with it, if they're in a job that can't be done from home (eg mechanic or shop worker). If they have to suddenly take a day off to look after the kids, then the shop they work at might have to close for the day due to lack of staff cover!
Is it really overzealous? I rather like the idea that people can go to work and have a reasonable expectation that they'll come home at the end of the day, even more if they do so with as many limbs, digits and appendages as they left with.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of "It's Health and Safety, innit?" examples that get batted around have nothing to do with either occupational health legislation, nor the Health and Safety Executive. Do an Internet search for "Health and safety myths" and see how many of the oft-quoted examples come up in the results.
I was 70s and 80s, and definitely remember my school(s) closing for bad weather, usually heavy snow but occasionally storms (Oct 87 and Jan 90). School closures were announced on local radio that morning. More than once it was because the heating had failed.
To my shame I also remember persuading a friend to slide down a ramp that was covered in icy snow at school one day in about 1985 - a few of us were doing it, but he was too scared. Eventually I persuaded him, and on his first go went over and broke his wrist. I still feel guilty now.
The only thing that I remember happening during bad winter weather with my school (in Manchester) is that the Whaley Bridge pupils sometimes couldn’t make it. I don’t recall the school being closed or those of us from Cheshire being unable to make it. I also recall that closure didn’t seem to be considered, just as fathers never took time off work during school holidays explicitly, they were different times.
That's the one! The screen had lights on it like a ruler to show your shoe size. whirrrr. clunk. whirrr. clunk.
I cannot remember when it was, but the class 55s were still running and there was a really heavy snowfall. Took me ages to get to high school (or secondary school - as it was then). I made the effort to go to school (as I loved it) and walked the 2 1/2 miles in treacherous conditions (with my Docs and winter coat, and scarf on). About 30 of about 450 turned up, 2 teachers as well, who live nearby. The problem was with the headmaster as he said in assembly the day before: 'Due to heavy snowfall tomorrow, do your best to get in' so pupils didn't bother. I was asked where I had come from and what route did I take by a teacher. I wasn't identified, but the headmaster said to people who lived near me, 'Well, Trackman walked here - why couldn't you?. Anyway they sent us home at lunchtime, as no-one had prepped lunch as no-one was in, plus we were doing bugger all, I went with my friend to the local chippy and back to his place and played on his Atari console for the afternoon before drudging back home.
Primary school in Perth one gloomy afternoon in the winter of 1963. The snow outside the classroom windows got heavier and heavier and eventually the message went out to abandon ship. By this time all transport had gone off so I had to walk home a couple of miles through rapidly deepening drifts till eventually I was wading. The snow was up to my shorts (we wore shorts all year round in those hardy days) and I lost my school cap somewhere. The circulation to my shins took a beating.The ferocious freeze mercifully put paid to the school pipes and we did indeed have a holiday thereafter out of sheer necessity. But the school closing was very rare indeed: even the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't get us home early.
gg1
Established Member
I remember my schools, senior and primary, closing due to cold weather a number of times in the 80s. Local radio would broadcast a list of all schools closed in the morning, between and 7 and 8am IIRC.
I think a major issue nowadays is the sheer distances that many staff commute to their schools, which can be treacherous in the snow and ice. Plus staff having to look after their own children because their school is closed (with their staff probably making the opposite commute.....!)
Not just the staff. Lots of children travel further to get to school now than in years gone by.
That's the only time that I remember my (secondary) school sending everbody home early, - it was when there was continuous freezing fog where we didn't see the sky for a couple of weeks.
dangie
Established Member
I really can’t accept that as winter comes every year, whenever a bit of inclement weather comes the country shuts down. It’s not as though we have severe winter weather, we don’t. If the will is there to get to work/school then people would get there. Problem is, we look for reasons not to go.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
When I was a schoolboy , if you passed the 11 plus you went to the 'County' school, the other name for the Grammar School . The clue is in the name, and some of my fellow pupils had quite lengthy journeys and there were no 'school' buses, you had to use service buses. Difficult when the drivers of U.C.O.C. had a 'lightning' strike at 4 p.m., not uncommon in the 1960s. Most parents didn't have cars either, so walking was the only way Probably explains why I don't remember any of my colleagues being 'obese'
In the 1950s it was more the smogs that caused travel problems. In 1957 I moved to a secondary technical school half a mile from St John's railway station, although I used buses from my home some six miles away. On the day of the Lewisham train disaster we were sent home two hours early. Now it usually took about 30-40 minutes using service buses to make the trip including walking to and from the bus stops. That day the journey home was well over two hours!