THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

David, I'f forgotten that letter. That just about sizes it up! Thanks for posting it again!
P, that's a blast from the past. If you dig in the films you'll find my reply to him and the film I made on war at the BBC workshop in Wales.....
Daniel's archive has just been transferred from Birmingham to the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford so I'm in some impressive company!

[Stanley]

My mind goes back to the days when I was tramping for loads. You never knew where the next load would take you and the aim was to arrange things so that you passed home at regular intervals and could take a day off with the family. Xmas was such a time and usually the clearing houses were cooperative. However, sometimes there was no leeway and you got a load that had to be delivered on time, no delays were allowed. I was once faced with that on Xmas Eve, the load had to be delivered the following day as it was vital to the factory. No names, no pack drill but when I arrived there the following day they were shut down and I was told by security that I was expected to wait until someone turned up..... I think you can guess what my reaction was! I said bugger that they could expect me on the day after Boxing Day, I was off home.
I went back there on the 27th and nobody said a dicky bird, just unloaded me and we never heard a word about it. Someone somewhere had simply never given the driver a thought. It was a common attitude. I always said that one definition of a driver was a bloke who was always in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong load. It often felt like that!

[Stanley]

I used to deliver good hardwood for Gliksten's at Stratford East London and one load I had was to the Remploy furniture factory at I think it was Leicester. None of the bits of timber was big, I think they bought off-cuts cheap. All the employees turned out to help carry the wood indoors and it was fascinating and instructive to watch a stream of people, all severely disabled, carrying what they could into the factory.
The Remploy factories were a good idea and I think our caring government has closed them all down now. One has to wonder at times if anyone in politics really cares.....

[Bodger]

We had something similar here in Ireland, we used them for sorting multiple plastic pieces that had to be counted and bagged, it gave them an income and eased a production problem for us, another use i recall was in Alfreton in Derbyshire, there was a car washing service run by the local" rehab " that used workers to wash cars by hand, a bunch of them with hosepipes, buckets, and sponges would attack your car with gusto followed by another bunch with chamois and duster. again i thought it was a good idea giving the workers an income and an interest along with meeting other people to break their possible monotony of life.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Thinking about Remploy brought this to mind.
I remember being puzzled during the war by the fact that there were always men in Blue Uniforms which were not the usual armed services variety, walking arond in I think it was West Didsbury. Many years later I realised they were convalescent wounded service men and women who were recuperating in a large house there.
I've had a furtle and I think it was Lawnshurst at West Didsbury, run by the Red Cross it operated in WW1 as well. A further search confused matters as there is a Woodslawn Red Cross hospital mentioned as well in 1914. Could be the same place.

[Stanley]

I realise that Cancer can be a truly malignant and destructive disease, many of you will remember that we lost my youngest daughter Janet two years ago to it but as many of you now know, sometimes there can be a good outcome. I am delighted of course with my personal situation but I look back to years gone by.
In those days the very word was taboo, spoken of only in hushed tones. There was a good reason for this, it was almost certainly fatal. The main reason for this was of course that so little was known about the cause and even less about treatment. Even the early radio therapy treatments were to be feared, the side effects could be as bad as the disease.
Today we move into a different world where knowledge and treatments improve beyond recognition and survival from far worse attacks than mine has improved to the point where some of the fear of 'The Big 'C' is receding and people are less reticent in speaking about it. This is good and I am all in favour of it while still bearing in mind that some cases are still equally terrible and destructive. We should not forget them but at the same time realise that we are so much luckier than our forbears and many people in other countries who do not have the benefits of our wonderful NHS. I have a friend in Hawaii whose uncle committed suicide because he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and realised that it would bankrupt the family. Forget what idiot Trump says, we have a lot to be grateful for!

[Stanley]

Was there ever a more reliable or cheaper mode of urban transport? This Stockport tram ran from Hazel Grove to Manchester Piccadilly, reputed to be the longest regular tram route in the world at 10.1 miles. This was in about 1950.

[Stanley]

I'm listening to the latest proposals to cut down on the number of plastic bags and plastic wrapping for kid's packed lunches.
Whatever happened to the shopping basket and bag? Where did greaseproof paper go to for wrapping butties? Could it be that simply banning the use of plastic carrier bags and a campaign to bring back greaseproof paper would help? Can we revive the basket making craft?

[Big Kev]

Tin foil for butties and reusable heavy duty bags here...

[PanBiker]

Same here and within the largish hessian bag there are other bags within bags for when you need an extra one. Re-usable's in the car also for when we go to the supermarket.

[Tizer]

All those and we have the thin ones that fold up into their own pocket-shaped bag and can be conveniently carried in a pocket or handbag. They're often in lovely patterns and colours too!

I see there's a move to force supermarkets to charge 10p instead of 5p per plastic bag. I can't see that making any significant difference. Another suggestion was to bump it up to £1 and I guess that might help some change their minds!

[PanBiker]

Indeed, 5p, 10p neither here nor there. Minimum of £1.00 or better still just take them all away or replace with the big re-usable's. Most folk will get the drift pretty fast. While they are at it they could get rid of the self checkouts which are replacing peoples jobs. I don't pay for petrol at the pumps for the same reason.

[Stanley]

While they are at it they could get rid of the self checkouts which are replacing peoples jobs. I don't pay for petrol at the pumps for the same reason.
Hear Hear!!!! I agree totally with that attitude. The ideal would be to do away with shelf-stackers as well, get the customers to unload the delivery trucks. I love the human contact with the people in the Palace of Choice.....
All part of the fact that it's the customers who make retailing of any description difficult so you try to eliminate face to face contact. That's where the hight Street banks went. The inception of 'self-service' was a brilliant cost-cutting idea...
We near the logical conclusion of this insidious cost-cutting. AI and Robotics are gradually taking the skill out of so many jobs and eliminating many others. Not everyone is a software engineer or brain surgeon! We need lower grade jobs to give those less qualified some dignity. These are going fast and now the middle grade of clerks and office workers is vanishing. How long before McKinsey finds a way of replacing middle management?
The logic could be that eventually the computers might decide that the human race is inefficient and unpredictable so the business decision will be to do away with them altogether and head off into a joyless, sterile and people free future.

[Tizer]

We might want human contact but many of the younger generation don't want it. They prefer to engage with machines and computer gadgets as they've done during childhood. They start early too - I've noticed how often young children, some primary school age, are buying their own stuff at the supermarket till-less checkouts with no parents around. A report last week claimed that the average British child now spent only 15 minutes a day playing out; but another report claimed that children are spending 1 to 2 hours a day on their phones.

[PanBiker]

The ideal would be to do away with shelf-stackers as well, get the customers to unload the delivery trucks. I love the human contact with the people in the Palace of Choice.....

That also would be doing away with peoples jobs and you would have less people to interact with.

Not everyone is a software engineer or brain surgeon! We need lower grade jobs to give those less qualified some dignity.

This is precisely why we need shelf stacker's and folk on the checkouts, not machines, (or customers doing it themselves).

The modern supermarket employment model is that everyone muti-tasks hopping from job to job. Coop is trying but is not quite at the same level as Aldi who have the operation model off pat. No auto checkout's there and till streams open on demand as required but are abandoned just as quickly for other tasks when not required. Every operative has radio contact with the floor manager and is directed to the most productive task.

[Big Kev]

It is a slick operation at Aldi, it's not a bad shopping experience either as long as it's not too busy.

[Stanley]

Ian, Sorry, I thought it was obvious that customers unloading trucks and shelf stacking was the store's ideal. definitely not mine!
Does anyone remember when Player's cigarettes could be bought in tins of 50? Heavy foil seal on top which you cut with a blade incorporated in the lid. Very common in the army, perhaps they were packed that way for export.

[Tripps]

Yes - they used to give us such tins when I was in Singapore. They had been seized by the local Customs. We liked them because they were nice and dry, not subject to the local damp atmosphere.

I think there's a legal class action here somewhere when PPI finally runs out.

[Stanley]

Yes, I think it was export packaging.... Bit puzzled by the remark about PPI. Have I missed something?
My mate John Martinez smoked cigars and always bought them in cedar wood boxes. I have several in the shed, just the thing for groups of small tools.



Modern packaging doesn't compare......

[Tripps]

Bit puzzled by the remark about PPI. Have I missed something?

I've mentioned before that perhaps the payment of compensation for 'mis-sold' PPI has perhaps been tacitly encouraged by the Government, with the very willing cooperation of the legal profession . It happened during a long period of pay control / austerity, so provided quite a useful boost to the spending power of people who were likely to put the proceeds back into the economy fairly quickly.

I have no evidence for this whatever.

I think that maybe there is a huge untapped group of ex servicemen, who were actively encouraged to smoke - including being given free cigarettes - when the risks of smoking were well known. The PPI action ends next year - all those solicitors will need something else to do.

[Stanley]

Ah! Understood David. You are right, I can remember when Craven 'A' used the claim, 'Good for your throat' and I think they were one of the first to use what were known then as 'cork tips', they claimed they were good for you as well. Smoking then was seen as beneficial and rather like your theory about PPI being handy for the government (which I like) smoking was seen as essential for calming war time 'nerves'. That was another claim made for smoking. Woodbines were sold in packs of five to encourage the young and the poor. I can remember when we were hard up lads sharing fags and 'dimps'. A dimp was the fag end..... So don't vilify us old addicts, we were victims of circumstance.

[Tizer]

I think that maybe there is a huge untapped group of ex servicemen, who were actively encouraged to smoke - including being given free cigarettes - when the risks of smoking were well known. The PPI action ends next year - all those solicitors will need something else to do.

What about all the RN sailors who slept in bunks up against asbestos-covered bulkheads? One of our neighbours had me write up his experiences in the Navy in WW2 and he mentioned that.

[Stanley]

There are so many instances like that Tiz from those far off days. The staff at Airedale were astounded when I reeled off a list of horrifying substances that I know I have been exposed to. They had never heard of many of them including Phosgene, MCPA, 2.4D and DNOC. (Remember Agent Orange in Vietnam?) They vaguely remembered hearing about Cyclon 'B' somewhere but I had to remind them of the Holocaust..... Even so, they were all convinced that smoking was instant death!
I don't know what they would have made of 'Spinner's Cancer'. In case you are unaware of it this was testicular cancer that was noted as being very prevalent in mule spinners. Eventually it was worked out that it was due to the fine mist of light oil thrown off by the rapidly spinning spindles that were at groin height. I don't know what the oil was but they changed it, made the spinners aware of the necessity of not wearing oil soaked clothes and the incidence dropped to almost zero. There were many more situations in industry like that and it took many years to chase them down.

[Bodger]

When i started my apprenticeship 1951, one of the first instructions given to me was not to carry any oily cleaning waste / rags in my boiler suit side pockets for the same reason