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Despite my youthful view on life I… nah, OK – I can already hear the hilarity that sentence would cause in my family. How about despite being young in spirit? Any good? No? Oh well – forget it. I have, now, to be considered a member of ‘older people’. Not – I hasten to add, quite yet an ‘old fart’ but… oh come on – let me at least have that one! How about on the threshold of ‘old fart’?
When young people are around and an old fart starts a sentence with something like ‘when I was a kid’ there is usually a collective groan and often a turning off of the capacity to hear. It means that the old fart is about to talk about the times when – as my younger son so imaginatively puts it – things were in black and white! So i am not going to use that intro. Instead, I will use ‘once upon a time….’
Our rubbish was collected punctually every week by a group of people known as ‘dustmen’. They came onto the property in search of the bin – took it outside and emptied it and then bought the empty bin back! They even closed the garden gate when they left.
There were Park Attendants in city and town parks. They would keep an eye on things, help keep the park tidy, intervene in any acts of vandalism or hooliganism and wear a watch so they could always tell you the time.
People collectively known as ‘Road Sweepers’, would, er, sweep the roads and gutters of debris and discarded rubbish. They would keep the pavements clean and remove broken glass and empty the rubbish bins.
School class sizes were about 30 pupils and there were always enough teachers to go round. Later – if you didn’t have much money – generous grants were available from public funds to attend college or university. Even for those with money, higher education was free for all.
Hospitals were run by Matrons who may have been downright scary but kept the place running like clockwork and made sure everything was as it should be. And if you needed medication – you didn’t pay for it. You didn’t need to pay for dentistry either.
It was a common sight to see policeman strolling the streets – keeping an eye on the area – watching out for trouble – there for you if you needed help.
I could, of course, go on and on. The point is that you felt like you got something back for the tax you paid. And in real terms we all pay a lot more tax today than we used to even if most of it is indirect – and I don’t know about you, but this old fart feels like we get bugger all back worth having.
Still – at least life is in colour these days.
My rather younger wife never believes me that life was once lived in black and white…I will now cite you.
Thuds last blog post..True Brit 11
Thud- I believe this to be true too. I also believe there was a brief but shining moment of technicolour before everything turned to the depressing shades of grey we all live with nowadays.
Here’s one for the ol’ farts: 41-year-old Dara Torres wins 100 free, headed to Beijing for her fifth Olympics
(http://www.startribune.com/sports/olympics/23289884.html)
Of course, 41 is not usually ol’ fart territory, but I spoze it’s all relative. You’re a veritable spring chicken, Andy, compared to some I know.
fractiverse is me, Nelson, Andy, in case it’s a confusion.
@fractiverse: That is excellent.
@fractiverse: Oh no – I didn’t know of course. Nice of you to drop by. I wish I had arranged to spend a little longer around Carmel. It was a shame we had to rush off. Next time maybe – after all I still have that coastal road to drive up!
@Jeni: Ah yes – I remember those mind-expanding technicolor moments
I could cite my own examples from here in America.
What I don’t understand about you lot is how they cannot pick up trash several times a week! I’ve read the horror stories of trash pickups there and fines for bins stuffed. We have garbage pickup *twice a week* here in America (OK, here in part of NYC, America). We’d be up to our nose in it otherwise — and have been in the 1970s and 1980s when Sanitation went on strike!!
Mike Canes last blog post..Speakers UP!: Nobarbies
@Mike Cane: I read the horror story about the fine when I was in San Francisco. To the best of my knowledge there has only been the one though and that is being challenged I believe. Case of an anal rntentive over-zealous official!
The move to less collections – while deplorable and while, almost certainly REALLY done to save money, is also an encouragement to people to review their disposal of rubbish. We are a very small island and have almost run out of landfill sites. The move is to recycle more and bury less.
My argument against this of course – apart from one of basic hygiene – is that the REAL aggressive push should be towards reducing the disgraceful and unwarranted volume of packaging material that comes with every shop – food or otherwise.
As to the States – do you not pay to have your garbage removed? B y that I mean independently of your taxes…
Actually, apropos of all things garbage, here’s an interesting item: http://snipurl.com/microwaveoil
Seems it’s possible with a sophisticated tunable array of microwave frequencies to convert plastic waste into oil with a carbon black bi-product. With the amount of wasted plastic (i.e., landfill) we have on this planet at this point, this would be pretty close to a perpetual motion machine, I’d say. Essentially it’s recapturing the energy that is stored in the waste plastic. Seems pretty brilliant to me.
@fractiverse: Thanks for this. I have used it: here