ditto the above.

I am glad you had the resiliency to become the person you are today.

...and this is why I WILL NOT drink any tea but PG tips :D

with real milk :D :D :D

Dana is amazing.

Really, girl, you are.

Quite fucking right.

Thanks all :)

It certainly wasn't a bad one. He was a maintenance electrician, in charge of the night sparks at a medium sized bakery. Decent money when you're ok working unsociable hours. And he always saved. Plus mum had a part-time job on top. By no means were we well-off, but we didn't go without either.

Your folks were getting by OK, at a time when most everyone who wanted to could get by OK, and put a little away for emergencies, kids education, or retirement. The ones that managed to put some away for retirement couldn't foresee that new car they bought for $2000 would become $22,000.

Them's my kind of hours, the unsociable ones. My choices were;
1st shift = 8.5 hours including unpaid lunch X 5 days = 40hrs = 40hrs pay
2nd shift = 8.5 hours including unpaid lunch X 5 days = 40hrs = 40hrs pay + 10%
3rd shift = 7.0 hours including paid lunch X 5 days = 32.5hrs = 40hrs pay + 8% but little chance of overtime.

Whoo Whoo, who's a night owl baby? :D

Yeah man. One parent a full time skilled worker, with either nighttime rates or overtime, plus another with a part-time wage was enough for a family of four to have a pretty comfortable life. We were never big spenders, mind - didn't go on holiday every year, and when we did go it tended to be little caravan parks in yorkhire or wales, almost out of season at the end of september :p I don't recall that feeling like much of a hardship though - there was always plenty of other stuff to do of a summer.