Wallace E. Briggs's Blog: Wall's wall.

Yesterday I spent 'hours' searching for a file I had lost on my laptop. It wasn't on my rarely used desk top. It wasn't on my 1TB memory extension file. But I did find something and I think it is worth regurgitating. Here goes:
WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, and even the early 60's!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses containing lots of asbestos sheeting. Coal gas was piped into houses to provide lighting via gas mantles. They took aspirin, ate raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, spam and corned beef, tuna from an unlined tin cans, and they never got tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. There were no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.
As children, if we were lucky, we rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from the garden hose or the kitchen tap and NOT from a bottle. Take-away food was limited to fish and chips; no pizza shops, no McDonald's, no KFC, Subway or Nandos or Indians.
Even though the shops closed at 6.00pm most nights and midday on Saturdays and did not open at all on Sundays - somehow we didn't starve to death!
We would share one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle. No straws – we simply wiped the neck on our shirt sleeve before putting it in our mouth and NO ONE died. We could collect empty drink bottles and cash them in at the corner shop to buy Toffees, colour changing Gobstoppers or additive laden Bubble Gum .
We ate white bread and margarine ( butter remained a luxury for many years) and we drank soft drinks with heaps of sugar in them, but we weren't overweight because.....WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then would ride them down the hill, only to find out we had no brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in rivers that also carried sewage.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, or video games. For many years few homes had a TV -with three B&W channels not hundreds on SKY; no video or dvd films. Most families relied on radios, powered by lead/acid batteries The only time we saw coloured moving images was in cartoons at the Saturday morning matinee cinema. Some of us even remember the pianist accompanying silent B&W films.
We had no mobile phones (very few of us had telephones at home – phones could be several hundred yards away, or more, in red glass fronted boxes). There were no personal computers, no tablets, no Internet or Chat rooms..........WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to find them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears and no-one had a pierced nose!
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time.
We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or just yelled for them!
Mums mainly stayed at home and cared for their family.
FOOTBALL, RUGBY and CRICKET had try-outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT
Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL !
And if YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

There must times in every writer's life when morale takes a hit; when your very best efforts are not being considered by a wider audience; when the writer in you weeps.
And then - you get a few comments like this (from Northern Gravy - an Arts funded literature orientated publication)
"We are writing to congratulate you. Of all the wonderful submissions we received, yours stood out among them and it gives us great pleasure to inform you that it has made our longlist selection.
Congratulations and a heartfelt thank you for entrusting us with your outstanding work. We have enjoyed reading it immensely, and the task of picking both a shortlist and eventual pieces for publication is a daunting one."
My heart soared. Someone believes.
www.wallaceebriggs.com

One very cold winter’s morning, many years ago, my first car, a Mark I Cortina, refused to start. I rang into work to advise my boss about the situation and apologised that I was going to be an hour or two late.
No problem, as I had a battery charger. Because the garage had no power and was twenty yards away across a busy road, I had to disconnect the battery to carry it into the house to get some charge into it.
Suitable spanners in hand, I began the task of loosening the retaining nuts/bolts. Unfortunately, they were immovable. Not to worry ‘cos I had a can of WD40. Sprayed the nuts and left to soak for a few minutes. I returned to complete the job. The nut was still a bit stiff so I employed a bit of oomph! Not a good idea as the battery terminal sheared off. The other terminal disconnected easily.
I purchased new battery at,HAlfords. I was assured the new battery had a bit of charge in it, sufficient to get a vehicle to start up. Got it home, reconnected the connectors, turned on the ignition and after the first whirrrrrrr ... nothing. Disconnected again and carried battery over the road to home to put on charge for an hour or so. Telephoned boss and explained further delay.
Two hours later with the battery now charged and reconnected, turned on the ignition and the engine fired and swung into life. Success!
Got out to retrieve tools and drop the bonnet. Just as I closed the car door there was an enormous clashing sound over the sound of the still-running engine. What the hell???
At first, I couldn’t work it out. Where were my spanners? Found them on the ground under the front of the engine. As I reached under the bumper felt water dripping onto the back of my hand. I retrieved the spanner and searched for the leak. I wondered about switching the engine off, but would it start again? Then I spotted where the water was coming from. There was a hole in the back of the radiator. So, I switched the engine off. Only then did I spot the damage to the fan blade. There was a chunk of metal missing from its leading edge.
The vibrating engine block had dislodged the spanners from the top of the radiator. They had dropped onto the rotating fan. One of the spanners had hit the fan and was projected at force into the radiator.
I telephoned my boss again. His response was, “Come and see me in a day or two’s time when you get things sorted.”
So, after buying a new battery, having the car recovered to a garage, it was fitted with a new radiator and fan. I collected it two days later and was operational again.
“Another time,” my boss said, “please call out the AA.”

Which is why I’ll attempt to repair anything except a car.