"Scott L. Hadley" wrote in message
...

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
...
.
Just spent a couple of weeks in what once was "Great Britain".....would
not give tuppence for living there now....it aint what it used to be and
not by a long shot....I used to love to ride the trains to see the
beautiful looking gardens at the back of the houses along the railroad
tracks....no more....most of them looked ugly with huge weed patches and
broken down greenhouses etc....looks as tho the pride that once was there
has gone elsewhere.....walked around a couple of other weed patches that
the locals called 'allotments'. Perhaps one day it will rule the waves
again.

Sad. I spent two glorious weeks in southern and western England in
1990---most of us looked up to that land as a garden heaven---a place
where some of us US garden types got our inspiration. And learning. I
certainly did, before our trip and during. And I noticed the patches of
flowers in the most unlikely places, as you mention. To think things have
slid so far in the intervening 15 years---We'll be back again eventually.
Some things must have lasted---

The slide began with the introduction of the automobile to the
masses.....prior to around the late forties to early fifties the average
'working class person' had never even been in a private car...I remember
being based in Nuneaton as a lower deck rating and was the only lower deck
guy with a car and only a couple of the 'other types' had one.......the
working class found out the pleasures of owning and driving a car and thus
was the beginning of the decline in gardening interest...at least in my
humble opinion. ("Working class"...I hate that phrase...to me it sounds
belittling or inferior in a way....is not a doctor or a lawyer etc. a
working person...albeit a higher paid one than many others but neverless a
working man....I wonder when the "common folk" are going to stop being
'common' and become just plain old citizens.)

....I remember
being based in Nuneaton as a lower deck rating and was the only lower deck


Gamecock?

"Mike" wrote in message
...
...I remember
being based in Nuneaton as a lower deck rating and was the only lower
deck


Gamecock?...mine was in those days, how about yours?...I was at Gamecock
in 1955 in the photogrpahic section

Harold Walker wrote:

"Scott L. Hadley" wrote in message
news
Don't be too hard on him. The spelling of "fibers" (sic) guarantees this
wonderful piece of scare mongering comes from the other side of the pond
where lawyers make mega-bucks by flying in the face of common sense.

Over there the bottom of every milk bottle would have to be stamped "open
other end". And microwave ovens marked "not for drying pets".

You ought to try living here. Talk about being "once Great Britain"---try
putting up with living in what was once the freeest nation on earth. Don't
be too hard on us, though. Most of us love the UK side of the pond, and
the possiblilties for changing back 'round over here are limitless.

Just spent a couple of weeks in what once was "Great Britain".....would
not give tuppence for living there now....it aint what it used to be and
not by a long shot....I used to love to ride the trains to see the beautiful
looking gardens at the back of the houses along the railroad tracks....

I think your memory is playing tricks. Railway tracks in the UK for the
most part always go through the worst parts of town. A few may go past
allotments too, but no one wants to live trains shaking their house day
and night. Many allotments and school playing fields have been built on
or turned into US style out of town shopping malls

more....most of them looked ugly with huge weed patches and broken down
greenhouses etc....looks as tho the pride that once was there has gone
elsewhere.....walked around a couple of other weed patches that the locals
called 'allotments'. Perhaps one day it will rule the waves again.

I think you remember the past with Wratten 25 rose tinted glasses?

Allotments are not as popular as they once were, and in some cities the
value of land is now so high that developers are buying out the
allotment holders.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Harold Walker wrote:

"Scott L. Hadley" wrote in message
...

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
...

Just spent a couple of weeks in what once was "Great Britain".....would
not give tuppence for living there now....it aint what it used to be

Sad. I spent two glorious weeks in southern and western England in
1990---most of us looked up to that land as a garden heaven---a place
where some of us US garden types got our inspiration. And learning. I
certainly did, before our trip and during. And I noticed the patches of
flowers in the most unlikely places, as you mention. To think things have
slid so far in the intervening 15 years---We'll be back again eventually.
Some things must have lasted---

Most of it looks much the same as it ever did. Many city centres have
been improved in the last decade. Public parks once again have some funding.

The slide began with the introduction of the automobile to the
masses.....prior to around the late forties to early fifties the average
'working class person' had never even been in a private car...I remember
being based in Nuneaton as a lower deck rating and was the only lower deck
guy with a car and only a couple of the 'other types' had one......

Lower deck of what? Landlocked Nuneaton in Warwickshire seems a very odd
place for a lower deck rating to be based. Noted originally for its
castle, silk, mining and railway engineering.

..the
working class found out the pleasures of owning and driving a car and thus
was the beginning of the decline in gardening interest...at least in my
humble opinion.

You have some weird views unsupported by any evidence.

I reckon the slide started when these newfangled horseless carriages
were invented - no more free manure for your allotment left on the road.

Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Harold Walker wrote:

"Scott L. Hadley" wrote in message
news



I think your memory is playing tricks. Railway tracks in the UK for the
most part always go through the worst parts of town.//////perhaps they are
and were but nevertheless those 'poor folk' had some pride or need back in
those days.......


.. Many allotments and school playing fields have been built on
or turned into US style out of town shopping malls :///and by the looks of
things more shud go that way


I think you remember the past with Wratten 25 rose tinted
glasses?///////no sir...20/20 vision even without glasses and my memory
serves me well...very well indeed

Regards,
Martin Brown..and me...HW

Lower deck of what? Landlocked Nuneaton in Warwickshire seems a very odd
place for a lower deck rating to be based. Noted originally for its
castle, silk, mining and railway engineering.

HMS Gamecock....many a navy base was landlocked....or shud I say many a
Fleet Air Arm station was landlocked....in my days of old many a 'week-end
warrior' spent time there.....H

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
...

"Scott L. Hadley" wrote in message
...

"Harold Walker" wrote in message
...
.
Just spent a couple of weeks in what once was "Great
Britain".....would
not give tuppence for living there now....it aint what it used to be
and
not by a long shot....I used to love to ride the trains to see the
beautiful looking gardens at the back of the houses along the railroad
tracks....no more....most of them looked ugly with huge weed patches
and
broken down greenhouses etc....looks as tho the pride that once was
there
has gone elsewhere.....walked around a couple of other weed patches
that
the locals called 'allotments'. Perhaps one day it will rule the waves
again.

Sad. I spent two glorious weeks in southern and western England in
1990---most of us looked up to that land as a garden heaven---a place
where some of us US garden types got our inspiration. And learning. I
certainly did, before our trip and during. And I noticed the patches of
flowers in the most unlikely places, as you mention. To think things
have
slid so far in the intervening 15 years---We'll be back again
eventually.
Some things must have lasted---

The slide began with the introduction of the automobile to the
masses.....prior to around the late forties to early fifties the average
'working class person' had never even been in a private car...I remember
being based in Nuneaton as a lower deck rating and was the only lower deck
guy with a car and only a couple of the 'other types' had one.......the
working class found out the pleasures of owning and driving a car and thus
was the beginning of the decline in gardening interest...at least in my
humble opinion.

Nowadays, there is little either novel or pleasurable about owning or
driving a car in and around our towns and cities, and I doubt it diverts
many people away from gardening. Interesting you didn't mention other
changes which have occurred since the 1940s and 50s, including ubiquitous
televisions, videos, dvds, hi-fis, computers, games consoles, which may just
have taken up a little leisure time. Another change is that the sort of
people who used to live in houses backing on to urban railway lines in the
40s and 50s probably moved on decades ago. I suspect that if you were to
compare some city neighbourhoods in the USA of the 40s/50s with the same
areas today, you might notice a few changes, too.

("Working class"...I hate that phrase...to me it sounds
belittling or inferior in a way....is not a doctor or a lawyer etc. a
working person...albeit a higher paid one than many others but neverless a
working man....I wonder when the "common folk" are going to stop being
'common' and become just plain old citizens.)




'Working class', now that's a blast from the past, one seldom hears the
phrase nowadays, and, when one does, it's usually used by someone successful
wishing to stress how far they've come from their 'roots'. How many people
did you meet on your recent visit who, unprompted, referred to themselves as
'working class' or 'common folk', I wonder?

..
I suspect that if you were to
compare some city neighbourhoods in the USA of the 40s/50s with the same
areas today, you might notice a few changes, too./////in some places yes
but very unfortunately in too many places zero changes at all and they
were bad enough in that period



'Working class', now that's a blast from the past, one seldom hears the
phrase nowadays, and, when one does, it's usually used by someone
successful
wishing to stress how far they've come from their 'roots'. How many people
did you meet on your recent visit who, unprompted, referred to themselves
as
'working class' or 'common folk', I wonder?

But one or two but I periodically see it in the UK papers which I read on
the internet daily plus I have seen it on this web site on more than one
occasion.....I remember a sister-in-law who to her death about five years
ago still considerd herself to be 'working class'....and...she was quite
well eduacated and not without the "means" to have a very comfortable
life.....but....came from a 'working class background'....whatever that
is...

In article ,
"Harold Walker" writes:
|
| 'Working class', now that's a blast from the past, one seldom hears the
| phrase nowadays, and, when one does, it's usually used by someone
| successful
| wishing to stress how far they've come from their 'roots'. How many people
| did you meet on your recent visit who, unprompted, referred to themselves
| as
| 'working class' or 'common folk', I wonder?
|
| But one or two but I periodically see it in the UK papers which I read on
| the internet daily plus I have seen it on this web site on more than one
| occasion.....I remember a sister-in-law who to her death about five years
| ago still considerd herself to be 'working class'....and...she was quite
| well eduacated and not without the "means" to have a very comfortable
| life.....but....came from a 'working class background'....whatever that
| is...

An increasing number are using it to refer to what is more properly
called the underclass - i.e. the sort of people who are shown in
various of the soaps, complete with no education, no steady jobs,
no ambition, a record of petty crime and delinquency and so on.

I find that calling the class of people who are not capable of doing
a useful job, and not prepared to do one either, the "working class"
rather sticks in my gullet.

Still, to a great extent they were created when That Woman decided
that the middle classes needed people to look down on, so their
situation isn't entirely the fault of their class :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from "Scott L. Hadley" contains these words:

You ought to try living here. Talk about being "once Great Britain"---try
putting up with living in what was once the freeest nation on earth. Don't
be too hard on us, though. Most of us love the UK side of the pond, and the
possiblilties for changing back 'round over here are limitless.

We've got some spare Princes, if you want.

Janet.

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Scott L. Hadley" contains these words:


We've got some spare Princes, if you want.

Janet.

No thanks J.,...you can keep 'em all....we have a couple over here that
think they are and you can have them....one is Georgy Boy Bush

" I suggest you either see for yourself, or take your views from someone
who has been here for more than 'a couple of weeks'.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Suspect I saw more of the UK in a couple of weeks than most English folk see
in a year....from Lancahsire to Yorkshire to Bristol way and point in
between and then bcak over to the east coastal area before taking in the
south shore....H

In article , Harold Walker
writes

" I suggest you either see for yourself, or take your views from someone
who has been here for more than 'a couple of weeks'.

Suspect I saw more of the UK in a couple of weeks than most English folk see
in a year....from Lancahsire to Yorkshire to Bristol way and point in
between and then bcak over to the east coastal area before taking in the
south shore....H

I think you are confusing 'travelling a long way' with 'seeing a great
deal'.



--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Harold Walker
writes

" I suggest you either see for yourself, or take your views from someone
who has been here for more than 'a couple of weeks'.

Suspect I saw more of the UK in a couple of weeks than most English folk
see
in a year....from Lancahsire to Yorkshire to Bristol way and point in
between and then bcak over to the east coastal area before taking in the
south shore....H

I think you are confusing 'travelling a long way' with 'seeing a great
deal'.

Kay...do not forget that I have been to England every two years since 1951
so my two weeks this year just convinces me a little more re some
things.....I confuse not.....if you go back to my first post you will see
I was referring to that which I saw along the railroad tracks and a couple
of allotments and not England from shore to shore....others introduced
subjects and I responded...be that as it may Kay....I still maintain the
UK aint what it used to be....some, without a doubt a distinct improvement
over the past and some just the opposite....when I see some of the
renovations in York I wish that many places over here would see the same
improvements.....we have slums galore that had they been in England they
would have been torn down long ago.....those improvements I admire but not
the social system you have...how true it is I know not but someone told me
that some of the streets louts on assistance even get an allowance for the
dog with some even borrowing a dog to get extra lolly...now that may just
be gossip for an American ear.....even tho y'all have complaints about
your medical system it is much better than having none at all as is the
case with over 40 million over here.....I hear of complaints re your
railroad system....it may not be as good as it once was but it is one
helluva sight better than ours....pros and cons in life....take your
pick..H
--
Kay