The way things used to be .

[Guest]

On 23/06/2023 at 21:16, Runningman said:

The sound of the Boys Brigade Band marching along Abbeydale Road on a Sunday morning, then around dinner time the Sally Army band stood on our road playing and then a Sally Army member coming round with a collection tin.

That's more nostalgic thoughts stirred up.  Such a shame that so many things have died out.

My mum had really good hearing  and could hear them even before they set off,  so she would say "band's coming" and all us kids ran down to the street in excitement.

As a little un, I couldn't wait to be old enough to join and then ensued, many, many proud marches, right in front of our cottages with the really big ones,  being on whit Monday.

Even my poor kids,  didn't have this regular pleasure after we moved to a suburban estate.

The sounds of the church bells ringing,  every Sunday morning,  was  another thing I Ioved,  and never heard again after leaving Heeley.

[harvey19]

On 23/06/2023 at 21:16, Runningman said:

The sound of the Boys Brigade Band marching along Abbeydale Road on a Sunday morning, then around dinner time the Sally Army band stood on our road playing and then a Sally Army member coming round with a collection tin.

Used to be the Sea Cadets from Loxley H ouse that we used to hear. I joined the Royal Marine cadets but never played in the band.

Whitsuntide we got new clothes and visited our relatives to show off and they always gave us some money.

[cuttsie]

1 hour ago, Organgrinder said:

That's more nostalgic thoughts stirred up.  Such a shame that so many things have died out.

My mum had really good hearing  and could hear them even before they set off,  so she would say "band's coming" and all us kids ran down to the street in excitement.

As a little un, I couldn't wait to be old enough to join and then ensued, many, many proud marches, right in front of our cottages with the really big ones,  being on whit Monday.

Even my poor kids,  didn't have this regular pleasure after we moved to a suburban estate.

The sounds of the church bells ringing,  every Sunday morning,  was  another thing I Ioved,  and never heard again after leaving Heeley.

No bells on Sunday . Rachel Roberts .

[vmam]

I used to love the Salvation Army band coming round on the Manor estate, playing games in the street without fear of traffic . Happy days.

[Padders]

Every week we are presented with supposedly conclusive proof that Britain is broken.

Every summer we get riots and protesters, you get five minutes in jail for murdering a baby, our education system is worse than Slovenia's, and were told that it's perfectly natural and traditional for travelling people to keep a handful of slaves...

Meanwhile, 

Your village bobby can neither read nor write, your MP is an imbecile, burglaries aren't investigated, the banks are living in cloud cuckoo land, and the rivers are all full of excrement.

Swim down the Thames these days and you really will be "Going through the Motions"

 

Those who seek to make gloom and doom from all of this, say that Britain was much better when everything was in black and white,

And we had the reassuring spectacle of "Dixon of Dock Green"

But this is rubbish!

Back then everyone died of pneumoconiosis when they were twelve, immigrants were routinely poked with sticks, tea was considered exotic, and Ronnie and Reggie Kray were running amok in the capital, nailing peoples heads to the floor.

 

If you developed cancer in 1956, you'd had it and would welcome deaths cold embrace with open arms because it was a ticket out of the grime and misery and the unfunny television shows and the soot and socialism.

The fact, then, is this, life's better now than at any point in human history.  

It's better than it was ten years ago, it's better than it was yesterday morning.

Except for one thing, THE INTERNET.

I hate it.

People take it upon themselves to put unkind messages on it.

We get tragedy's like the "Titan Sub" and people make fun, it's impossible to conceive how much anguish this can cause to families.

A while back a newspaper had photo's of an actress who had been knocked down by a car, people in their droves left unbelievable unkind comments about her face and her children.

Katie Price is often described as "ugly" "Fat" and a "spoilt rude cow"

Elsewhere, Elton John was "greedy" the Duchess of York "lazy" and Simon Cowell's legs are "too short"

 

If you plunge even more deeply into the darkest corners of cyberspace, you will find people with severed arms  searching for the heads of their loved ones on the hard shoulder.

People being eaten by Tigers, People after they've jumped from the top of a skyscraper, and each is accompanied by amusing observations from the folk at home.

If you are about to die, you'd better make sure no one has a camera, because if they do, the event is almost certain to end up on the web.

The internet is now just a receptacle for vitriol.

It's malice in wonderland.

It's a good example of the sick society we've created.

But is it?

Own up, did you have a vile streak long before the internet.

Did you sit in the safety of your car, muttering abuse at other drivers, which amounts to exactly the same as muttering cyberspace abuse at Amanda Holden's hair (aimed at Mr. Presley)

And even before people had windscreen's to hide behind they would go home after a hard day down the pit and mumble about the shortcomings of their neighbours, their colleagues, their bosses, the government.

This is the way we are, it's just that now the internet lets us grumble in public.

 

Have you ever met one of your relations newborn baby, I have, and I've wanted to say "Holy cow it looks like a smashed ape) but I've been forced by my frontal lobes to "um" and "ah" until I can find a compliment of some kind, it's usually about the pram.

In her latter years my grandmother lost the brake on her brain and would spend her days in the local dress shop, howling with laughter at everyone who came out of the changing rooms, secretly, I've always wanted to do the same, I bet you have too.

 

Well, now the internet lets you. No longer do you have to sit in a fog of impotence during a television show that you dislike, you can get on your phone or computer and let the World know..

The internet hasn't caused any of this, it isn't, as some would have you believe, another example of Broken Britain and a fractured society. No, the internet is just a tool, which has demonstrated that behind our smiles and our cleverness, human beings, actually, are fairly terrible...

 

 

[cuttsie]

8 minutes ago, Padders said:

Every week we are presented with supposedly conclusive proof that Britain is broken.

Every summer we get riots and protesters, you get five minutes in jail for murdering a baby, our education system is worse than Slovenia's, and were told that it's perfectly natural and traditional for travelling people to keep a handful of slaves...

Meanwhile, 

Your village bobby can neither read nor write, your MP is an imbecile, burglaries aren't investigated, the banks are living in cloud cuckoo land, and the rivers are all full of excrement.

Swim down the Thames these days and you really will be "Going through the Motions"

 

Those who seek to make gloom and doom from all of this, say that Britain was much better when everything was in black and white,

And we had the reassuring spectacle of "Dixon of Dock Green"

But this is rubbish!

Back then everyone died of pneumoconiosis when they were twelve, immigrants were routinely poked with sticks, tea was considered exotic, and Ronnie and Reggie Kray were running amok in the capital, nailing peoples heads to the floor.

 

If you developed cancer in 1956, you'd had it and would welcome deaths cold embrace with open arms because it was a ticket out of the grime and misery and the unfunny television shows and the soot and socialism.

The fact, then, is this, life's better now than at any point in human history.  

It's better than it was ten years ago, it's better than it was yesterday morning.

Except for one thing, THE INTERNET.

I hate it.

People take it upon themselves to put unkind messages on it.

We get tragedy's like the "Titan Sub" and people make fun, it's impossible to conceive how much anguish this can cause to families.

A while back a newspaper had photo's of an actress who had been knocked down by a car, people in their droves left unbelievable unkind comments about her face and her children.

Katie Price is often described as "ugly" "Fat" and a "spoilt rude cow"

Elsewhere, Elton John was "greedy" the Duchess of York "lazy" and Simon Cowell's legs are "too short"

 

If you plunge even more deeply into the darkest corners of cyberspace, you will find people with severed arms  searching for the heads of their loved ones on the hard shoulder.

People being eaten by Tigers, People after they've jumped from the top of a skyscraper, and each is accompanied by amusing observations from the folk at home.

If you are about to die, you'd better make sure no one has a camera, because if they do, the event is almost certain to end up on the web.

The internet is now just a receptacle for vitriol.

It's malice in wonderland.

It's a good example of the sick society we've created.

But is it?

Own up, did you have a vile streak long before the internet.

Did you sit in the safety of your car, muttering abuse at other drivers, which amounts to exactly the same as muttering cyberspace abuse at Amanda Holden's hair (aimed at Mr. Presley)

And even before people had windscreen's to hide behind they would go home after a hard day down the pit and mumble about the shortcomings of their neighbours, their colleagues, their bosses, the government.

This is the way we are, it's just that now the internet lets us grumble in public.

 

Have you ever met one of your relations newborn baby, I have, and I've wanted to say "Holy cow it looks like a smashed ape) but I've been forced by my frontal lobes to "um" and "ah" until I can find a compliment of some kind, it's usually about the pram.

In her latter years my grandmother lost the brake on her brain and would spend her days in the local dress shop, howling with laughter at everyone who came out of the changing rooms, secretly, I've always wanted to do the same, I bet you have too.

 

Well, now the internet lets you. No longer do you have to sit in a fog of impotence during a television show that you dislike, you can get on your phone or computer and let the World know..

The internet hasn't caused any of this, it isn't, as some would have you believe, another example of Broken Britain and a fractured society. No, the internet is just a tool, which has demonstrated that behind our smiles and our cleverness, human beings, actually, are fairly terrible...

 

 

So you are coming out ??????????. 

[hackey lad]

1 hour ago, Padders said:

Every week we are presented with supposedly conclusive proof that Britain is broken.

Every summer we get riots and protesters, you get five minutes in jail for murdering a baby, our education system is worse than Slovenia's, and were told that it's perfectly natural and traditional for travelling people to keep a handful of slaves...

Meanwhile, 

Your village bobby can neither read nor write, your MP is an imbecile, burglaries aren't investigated, the banks are living in cloud cuckoo land, and the rivers are all full of excrement.

Swim down the Thames these days and you really will be "Going through the Motions"

 

Those who seek to make gloom and doom from all of this, say that Britain was much better when everything was in black and white,

And we had the reassuring spectacle of "Dixon of Dock Green"

But this is rubbish!

Back then everyone died of pneumoconiosis when they were twelve, immigrants were routinely poked with sticks, tea was considered exotic, and Ronnie and Reggie Kray were running amok in the capital, nailing peoples heads to the floor.

 

If you developed cancer in 1956, you'd had it and would welcome deaths cold embrace with open arms because it was a ticket out of the grime and misery and the unfunny television shows and the soot and socialism.

The fact, then, is this, life's better now than at any point in human history.  

It's better than it was ten years ago, it's better than it was yesterday morning.

Except for one thing, THE INTERNET.

I hate it.

People take it upon themselves to put unkind messages on it.

We get tragedy's like the "Titan Sub" and people make fun, it's impossible to conceive how much anguish this can cause to families.

A while back a newspaper had photo's of an actress who had been knocked down by a car, people in their droves left unbelievable unkind comments about her face and her children.

Katie Price is often described as "ugly" "Fat" and a "spoilt rude cow"

Elsewhere, Elton John was "greedy" the Duchess of York "lazy" and Simon Cowell's legs are "too short"

 

If you plunge even more deeply into the darkest corners of cyberspace, you will find people with severed arms  searching for the heads of their loved ones on the hard shoulder.

People being eaten by Tigers, People after they've jumped from the top of a skyscraper, and each is accompanied by amusing observations from the folk at home.

If you are about to die, you'd better make sure no one has a camera, because if they do, the event is almost certain to end up on the web.

The internet is now just a receptacle for vitriol.

It's malice in wonderland.

It's a good example of the sick society we've created.

But is it?

Own up, did you have a vile streak long before the internet.

Did you sit in the safety of your car, muttering abuse at other drivers, which amounts to exactly the same as muttering cyberspace abuse at Amanda Holden's hair (aimed at Mr. Presley)

And even before people had windscreen's to hide behind they would go home after a hard day down the pit and mumble about the shortcomings of their neighbours, their colleagues, their bosses, the government.

This is the way we are, it's just that now the internet lets us grumble in public.

 

Have you ever met one of your relations newborn baby, I have, and I've wanted to say "Holy cow it looks like a smashed ape) but I've been forced by my frontal lobes to "um" and "ah" until I can find a compliment of some kind, it's usually about the pram.

In her latter years my grandmother lost the brake on her brain and would spend her days in the local dress shop, howling with laughter at everyone who came out of the changing rooms, secretly, I've always wanted to do the same, I bet you have too.

 

Well, now the internet lets you. No longer do you have to sit in a fog of impotence during a television show that you dislike, you can get on your phone or computer and let the World know..

The internet hasn't caused any of this, it isn't, as some would have you believe, another example of Broken Britain and a fractured society. No, the internet is just a tool, which has demonstrated that behind our smiles and our cleverness, human beings, actually, are fairly terrible...

 

 

Say again 😀

[Alextopman]

8 Black Jacks or Fruit Salads for one old penny.

[Mr Bloke]

2 hours ago, Padders said:

Every week we are presented with supposedly conclusive proof that Britain is broken.

Every summer we get riots and protesters, you get five minutes in jail for murdering a baby, our education system is worse than Slovenia's, and were told that it's perfectly natural and traditional for travelling people to keep a handful of slaves...

Meanwhile, 

Your village bobby can neither read nor write, your MP is an imbecile, burglaries aren't investigated, the banks are living in cloud cuckoo land, and the rivers are all full of excrement.

Swim down the Thames these days and you really will be "Going through the Motions"

 

Those who seek to make gloom and doom from all of this, say that Britain was much better when everything was in black and white,

And we had the reassuring spectacle of "Dixon of Dock Green"

But this is rubbish!

Back then everyone died of pneumoconiosis when they were twelve, immigrants were routinely poked with sticks, tea was considered exotic, and Ronnie and Reggie Kray were running amok in the capital, nailing peoples heads to the floor.

 

If you developed cancer in 1956, you'd had it and would welcome deaths cold embrace with open arms because it was a ticket out of the grime and misery and the unfunny television shows and the soot and socialism.

The fact, then, is this, life's better now than at any point in human history.  

It's better than it was ten years ago, it's better than it was yesterday morning.

Except for one thing, THE INTERNET.

I hate it.

People take it upon themselves to put unkind messages on it.

We get tragedy's like the "Titan Sub" and people make fun, it's impossible to conceive how much anguish this can cause to families.

A while back a newspaper had photo's of an actress who had been knocked down by a car, people in their droves left unbelievable unkind comments about her face and her children.

Katie Price is often described as "ugly" "Fat" and a "spoilt rude cow"

Elsewhere, Elton John was "greedy" the Duchess of York "lazy" and Simon Cowell's legs are "too short"

 

If you plunge even more deeply into the darkest corners of cyberspace, you will find people with severed arms  searching for the heads of their loved ones on the hard shoulder.

People being eaten by Tigers, People after they've jumped from the top of a skyscraper, and each is accompanied by amusing observations from the folk at home.

If you are about to die, you'd better make sure no one has a camera, because if they do, the event is almost certain to end up on the web.

The internet is now just a receptacle for vitriol.

It's malice in wonderland.

It's a good example of the sick society we've created.

But is it?

Own up, did you have a vile streak long before the internet.

Did you sit in the safety of your car, muttering abuse at other drivers, which amounts to exactly the same as muttering cyberspace abuse at Amanda Holden's hair (aimed at Mr. Presley)

And even before people had windscreen's to hide behind they would go home after a hard day down the pit and mumble about the shortcomings of their neighbours, their colleagues, their bosses, the government.

This is the way we are, it's just that now the internet lets us grumble in public.

 

Have you ever met one of your relations newborn baby, I have, and I've wanted to say "Holy cow it looks like a smashed ape) but I've been forced by my frontal lobes to "um" and "ah" until I can find a compliment of some kind, it's usually about the pram.

In her latter years my grandmother lost the brake on her brain and would spend her days in the local dress shop, howling with laughter at everyone who came out of the changing rooms, secretly, I've always wanted to do the same, I bet you have too.

 

Well, now the internet lets you. No longer do you have to sit in a fog of impotence during a television show that you dislike, you can get on your phone or computer and let the World know..

The internet hasn't caused any of this, it isn't, as some would have you believe, another example of Broken Britain and a fractured society. No, the internet is just a tool, which has demonstrated that behind our smiles and our cleverness, human beings, actually, are fairly terrible...

 

 

Hmmm...

What an excellent post, Mr Padders!

It's nice to see that someone on here still has the ability to make a post longer than a single sentence that doesn't send you to sleep at the first (usually incorrectly positioned) comma!

I was so impressed by your obvious talents at highlighting all that is wrong with social media these days...
... that I would like to invite you to be the very first member of my new protest group - "Just Stop Trolls!"

Membership will include special discounted rates for tickets to all the top sporting events in the country.

Obviously, to maintain the credibility of our exclusive little group, this will mean that you would have to publicly denounce any existing allegiances you may currently have with any known perpetrators...
... which I understand, may be just too much of a price to pay!

Anyhow, the offer will remain open indefinitely... should you decide that you've finally had enough of how things are!  

Until then, I will battle on single-handedly highlighting all that is wrong with the interwebs.

To paraphrase the great Charles Hawtrey...
... I'll carry on regardless!

Righty-ho!

I'm off - there's lots of lurking to be done!

[Padders]

46 minutes ago, Mr Bloke said:

Hmmm...

What an excellent post, Mr Padders!

... that I would like to invite you to be the very first member of my new protest group - "Just Stop Trolls!"

Membership will include special discounted rates for tickets to all the top sporting events in the country.

Obviously, to maintain the credibility of our exclusive little group, this will mean that you would have to publicly denounce any existing allegiances you may currently have with any known perpetrators...
... which I understand, may be just too much of a price to pay!

Anyhow, the offer will remain open indefinitely... should you decide that you've finally had enough of how things are!  

 

To paraphrase the great Charles Hawtrey...
... I'll carry on regardless!

 

I'm thinking of " From little acorns, mighty oaks grow"

 

I can't tell you how pleased I am to be invited to join your new organization "Just stop trolls"

Of course, as you know, I've already pledged my allegiance to a certain perpetrator.

But the prospect of tickets to all major sporting events is rather tempting.

At the moment all I've got is a skanky old T-Shirt which I may pop into a large envelope with the words "Return to Sender"

The problem is, I don't want to vent his fury, and become a victim of his wrath.

I shall certainly reconsider all options in this matter.

Is there any possibility that you can get the "Baubles" on board, this would spread the message World wide and make any final decision on my part much easier...

In the meantime, I wish you luck in your mission.