Just had a call from my 19 year old nephew. He needs to get to his grandma’s which is 2 miles away and he’s asking for the money for a taxi!

Why don’t you use the bike I gave you?
It’s got a puncture.

Why not fix the puncture? It’s got a puncture outfit in the saddle bag.
I don’t know how to.

Ever heard of youtube?
Yeah maybe I could but I’d rather get a taxi.

But you don’t have the money for a taxi. Fix the friggin thing or walk. I bet I was 16/17 before I ever set foot in a taxi.

Doesn't know how to mend a puncture? I built a bike when I was 17.
You'll be the one to mend the puncture, I'll bet.
Shorts, T shirt and trainers and he should be able to run it in no time.
God help us if his generation have to defend us.

A whole 2 miles!! That would be a whole 30 minute walk!! Each way!! And he's ONLY 19!!

Pretty sure most on here walked at least that far daily to and from school.

i could fix a puncture when I was 6/7 years old. back them you fixed your own stuff.

I blame the parents, Not the grandparents, Or the Uncles/Aunts

A lot of Youngsters nowadays are seriously thick…and surprisingly reluctant to get dirty.

Buy him some solid tyres and fit them yourself without his knowledge.
Then when you get the same story again point the fact out.

The biggest missing link is common sense. When we were kids we knew from 5 yrs on how to fix bikes how to travel alone on buses and knew our way around the town. We walked long distances to school in all sorts of bad weather with majority of us under dressed for the occasion.
We could stand up for our selves and knew instinctively not to do dangerous stuff. At 5 year old we were savvy and took life in our stride. But remember common sense is no longer common.

We had three cocky lads at work to paint the warehouse floor told them how to do it and left them to get on with it got a phone call a couple of hours later and when we got back they’d painted all the floor but were marooned in the middle …but best of all, .they’d done it for a joke
Told them that’d have to walk out over the paint, but didn’t want to get it on their boots….short of us taking the roof of and getting a helicopter, they were getting paint on their new boots.
They were fuming when they came out, but fuming even more when I scattered them back to where they came from….especially as I had two days to get the place ready for the surveyor as the lease was up to avoid costs.

Plus you improvised as well.

The cutlery draw in our house and, my Grandparents was littered with bent forks and mishaped spoon handles...


You think Uri Geller had had been round.

You also learned first aid skills, when said implements slipped, and hands and fingers hit spokes and rims.

plus we could wipe our own arses and didn,t expect it to be any other way. now its opening the haynes manual of excuses not to behave like we did.

my lad in his early teens had a good business where i bought disguarded bikes from the tip. he fixed em up, sold them on. then he got into small throw away 50cc type of motor bikes, did the same and eventually bought his own car. he respected that car even if it was a talbot samba more than he would have done me buying the thing.

Oh aye, bent spoons. every house was full of them along with fuming mams.

Come to think of it, the only thing that made my mother more angry was when I discovered that weedkiller (NaClO3) and sugar made a good explosive. Sodium Chlorate to be precise. Cue constantly empty sugar bowls.

This was a result of a conversation with Kenny Fawcett if anyone remembers the greatest chemistry teacher the town has ever known.

Our history teacher, who served in Burma during the war, as a special treat at Xmas. showed us the dynamics of how to make your own Dum Dum bullet.

Was he a muslim?

I can safely say there was no possible way of describing him as Muslim.
A Geordie, but naturalised Poolie.

Mr Elliott was our science teacher, 1 of the very few teachers i had time for.

Anyone who went to Henry's early 80s.
Will remember Scruffy Sanderson. Used to piss himself n fall asleep regularly.
What a beauty Maths Teacher he was.

Also anutha Maths teacher Sefna who was the hardest Caner in the school with cello tape wrapped around the cane.
The little bastad got me a few times.

teachers back in the day were either suger or shit. had obvious favourites and made no excuses for that. must admit i had a few who took to me but others didn,t. Had one who was an obvious miss who brought her own books in for me to read because i was interested in her subject which was history.

I left school in 69…one of our teachers had a strap he made himself from a car tyre, those teachers doing technical subjects were always more inventive in ‘improving’ the effect of their weapon of choice…..and a lot less patient.

Something weird about hitting children, makes you wonder about the people who did it

Short-sharp shock works in some cases.

The Head who gave me the strap quite regularly was great away from school with me as his son was in the same swimming club as me. What happened in school was never discussed at the swimming pool where he was just another parent.

If I ever complained to my Mother about the teacher punishing me her reply was I must have deserved it. Nowadays whilst I condone a teacher dishing out punishment kids know they can do what they like and there is nothing the teacher can do about it apart from sending a report to the parents.

We used to laugh at Sefna and his mate Ali. Sefna had a horrible habit of thumbing the black board to get attention. Me and my mate got asked by the headteacher one lunchtime to take 6 desks over to his portacabin class across the yard. We obviously had the keys so after the job was done we tightened the lose screws on the desks then decided to take all but two screws out of his blackbard ( it was a extra long board ) and left the two very lose. It was our first class after lunch and most knew what we had done ..then thump thump thump on his board down came the full blackboard and it landed on his foot. It was funny as fook watching him balling and shouting while hopping and holding his foot. He ended up with a badly bruised foot and ankle and a week off School to recover. And we got 6 of the best by Barnsey the very person who give us the job.

The best teacher by a country mile was Mr.Lancaster a proper sound teacher who really respected those who respected him. I also liked Pouty & Mrs Ellison she used to give us a fag at lunch time in Freers chemistry class at the back in that little room. Bestie was OK most of the time. The very very worst so called teacher was Potts complete evil barsteward in ever way. A little skinny old man who tried bully me for a full 5 years but got absolutely nowhere. Hated the twat....

Aye, I remember Prince William and Harry telling how Queenie used to give them a clip round the head when they were naughty.

still can remember the day when my ex took our lad round the back of an arcade on holiday and gave him a real good hiding. he was winding us both up on full grumpy mode where nothing suggested was answered but just got a moody shrug out of him. that changed him for life and went on to be a good son from the wretch he was. he remembers that day also and admitted that it did change him.