Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers.
The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to
the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most were
stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be legal
tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids had only paid 44p! In
the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire that was a
political scandal just waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a
hastily distributed instruction from the West Riding County Council
Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner Money register had to be
kept, in which it was to be recorded which kids had paid five
consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon the main
educational task was the distribution to these children of their one New
Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week there
was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair. Letters
soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, €œHe missed the
Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners, then
last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the
Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please?€� and €œHe was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? Its not my fault his
teeth are bad.€� These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this fiasco?

Bill

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:08:54 +0000, williamwright wrote:

Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers.
The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to
the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most were
stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be legal
tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids had only paid 44p! In
the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire that was a
political scandal just waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a
hastily distributed instruction from the West Riding County Council
Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner Money register had to be
kept, in which it was to be recorded which kids had paid five
consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon the main
educational task was the distribution to these children of their one New
Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week there
was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair. Letters
soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, €œHe missed the
Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners, then
last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the
Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please?€� and €œHe was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? Its not my fault his
teeth are bad.€� These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, I went
to the village hall for a talk by Enoch Powell.

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:08:54 +0000
williamwright wrote:

Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago
yesterday? (That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and
troublemakers. The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a
few kids had been to the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we
were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most
were stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would
be legal tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid
weekly: 1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In
New Money they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was
44p. But some parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday,
so they sent 9p dinner money on each day of the week when they had it
to send. This meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from
Monday to Friday they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids
had only paid 44p! In the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South
Yorkshire that was a political scandal just waiting to happen. So it
was decreed, in a hastily distributed instruction from the West
Riding County Council Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner
Money register had to be kept, in which it was to be recorded which
kids had paid five consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday
afternoon the main educational task was the distribution to these
children of their one New Penny change. If a child had only bought
four dinners that week there was no penny, and this was perceived as
being grossly unfair. Letters soon started to come from parents,
along the lines of, €œHe missed the Wednesday before last but then he
had Thursday and Friday dinners, then last week he had Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the Wednesday so there was
five in a row. So could you send the penny please?€� and €œHe was off
on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the other days so could you
send the penny please? Its not my fault his teeth are bad.€� These
matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head had little
sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

Not teaching, I was a university student, but I remember that then
first thing I bought with the new money was 6 faggots from our local
butcher, in Quorn, Leicestershire, for me and my two housemates.

--
Davey.

On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:


The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent.


I remember D-day (I was more a pupil than a teacher in '72,[only born
in '62]). The thing I remember most wasn't the faff with 'Dinner money'
(was on free meals so any monetary changes passed me by) it was more the
jingle that seemed to be everywhere :-
"use your old pennies in sixpenny lots"
as six old pennies were equivalent to 2 1/2 pence


Aside :-
I remember 5p could get me a third of a pint of milk (Thanks for making
us pay for this often gawping stuff[1][2] Maggie) and a packet of Tudor
crisps ( 2 1/2P ).

[1] Frozen then thawed in winter; left outside, for yonks, and curdling
in the spring/autumn.
[2] The Flouride mouthwash was gawping as well.

On 16 Feb 2021 at 13:18:22 GMT, "jon" wrote:

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:08:54 +0000, williamwright wrote:

Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers.
The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to
the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most were
stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be legal
tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids had only paid 44p! In
the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire that was a
political scandal just waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a
hastily distributed instruction from the West Riding County Council
Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner Money register had to be
kept, in which it was to be recorded which kids had paid five
consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon the main
educational task was the distribution to these children of their one New
Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week there
was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair. Letters
soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, €œHe missed the
Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners, then
last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the
Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please?€� and €œHe was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? Its not my fault his
teeth are bad.€� These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, I went
to the village hall for a talk by Enoch Powell.

Of course, unlike later bits of shopping metrication which were bitterly
contested, it could have been of no interest whatever to the Common Market
what we divided our Pounds into. But I remember it being sold as a
pro-European move, as I remember Powell, ever the opportunist, opposing it on
the same grounds.

--
Roger Hayter

On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this fiasco?

Couldn't the refund have been to the nearest 0.5p?

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Well I don't recall the details but the press and tv were full of these
oddities at the time and of course everyone thought that all the shops were
deliberately rounding up prices they had already adjusted beforehand to make
the maximum profit. Who says conspiracy theory and fake news is something
new?

Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"williamwright" wrote in message
...
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect dinner
money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers. The new
coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to the shops
and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using 'old money'.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been distributing
large quantities of the 'new money' in the form of (worthless) plastic
coins. These were for children and adults to practice with. Lots of these
coins went into the schools, and most were stolen and taken home, in the
belief that come D Day they would be legal tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per day,
and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly: 1/9d
times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money they now
paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some parents
couldn't afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p dinner
money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This meant that if
they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday they had sent a
total of 45p. But the 'rich' kids had only paid 44p! In the Proletarian
People's Republic of South Yorkshire that was a political scandal just
waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a hastily distributed instruction
from the West Riding County Council Education Dept that a separate Decimal
Dinner Money register had to be kept, in which it was to be recorded which
kids had paid five consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon
the main educational task was the distribution to these children of their
one New Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week
there was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair.
Letters soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, "He missed
the Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners,
then last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had
the Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please?" and "He was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? It's not my fault his
teeth are bad." These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

On Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 1:08:57 PM UTC, wrote:
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers.
The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to
the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most were
stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be legal
tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids had only paid 44p! In
the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire that was a
political scandal just waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a
hastily distributed instruction from the West Riding County Council
Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner Money register had to be
kept, in which it was to be recorded which kids had paid five
consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon the main
educational task was the distribution to these children of their one New
Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week there
was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair. Letters
soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, €œHe missed the
Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners, then
last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the
Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please?€� and €œHe was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? Its not my fault his
teeth are bad.€� These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this fiasco?


Don't remember a fiasco because at our school we paid daily; there was no weekly option that I can recall - if we'd turned up on a Monday with a week's worth of dinner money it would have been forcibly removed seconds after entering the school gates. I don't remember learning with plastic coins.

I do remember the teacher urging us to bring in a 2 shilling (or 10 pence) coin so that she could give us change in the form of a 1 new pence coin.

I've just realised it's ~12 months since I handled any coins...

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 14:52:41 +0000, Roger Hayter wrote:

On 16 Feb 2021 at 13:18:22 GMT, "jon" wrote:

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:08:54 +0000, williamwright wrote:

Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago
yesterday? (That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and
troublemakers. The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a
few kids had been to the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we
were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most
were stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would
be legal tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid
weekly: 1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In
New Money they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was
44p. But some parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday,
so they sent 9p dinner money on each day of the week when they had it
to send. This meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from
Monday to Friday they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids
had only paid 44p! In the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South
Yorkshire that was a political scandal just waiting to happen. So it
was decreed, in a hastily distributed instruction from the West
Riding County Council Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner
Money register had to be kept, in which it was to be recorded which
kids had paid five consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday
afternoon the main educational task was the distribution to these
children of their one New Penny change. If a child had only bought
four dinners that week there was no penny, and this was perceived as
being grossly unfair. Letters soon started to come from parents,
along the lines of, €œHe missed the Wednesday before last but then he
had Thursday and Friday dinners, then last week he had Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the Wednesday so there was
five in a row. So could you send the penny please?€� and €œHe was off
on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the other days so could you
send the penny please? Its not my fault his teeth are bad.€� These
matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head had little
sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, I
went to the village hall for a talk by Enoch Powell.

Of course, unlike later bits of shopping metrication which were bitterly
contested, it could have been of no interest whatever to the Common
Market what we divided our Pounds into. But I remember it being sold as
a pro-European move, as I remember Powell, ever the opportunist,
opposing it on the same grounds.

.....but as Enoch Powell predicted the Common Market was a smoke screen for
a federal europe with a common currency.

In article ,
williamwright wrote:
I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

But you couldn't give every kid a calculator if we had kept LSD?

--
*If at first you don't succeed, avoid skydiving.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
jon wrote:
....but as Enoch Powell predicted the Common Market was a smoke screen
for a federal europe with a common currency.

And he was wrong about that too, as with so much else?

Thanks for reminding us so many anti EU types are arch racists.

--
*Prepositions are not words to end sentences with *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 16/02/2021 15:52, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
jon wrote:
....but as Enoch Powell predicted the Common Market was a smoke screen
for a federal europe with a common currency.

And he was wrong about that too, as with so much else?

Thanks for reminding us so many anti EU types are arch racists.


I can never follow your logic. You seem to jump from one concept to
another as if there's causation when there isn't. It makes my head spin.

Bill

On 16/02/2021 15:23, alan_m wrote:
On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Couldn't the refund have been to the nearest 0.5p?

Someone on high said No. I don't know why.

Bill

On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)


At that time I was a London Bus Conductor. LT were well-prepared for
the event - not so the public. Plenty of arguments about the correct
conversion rate with passengers. Do you remember the clock-face
approach to converting?

In the long-term though, it meant less weight in my jacket pockets - but
the significant diminution of a particularly sweet revenge.

When a smartarse offered a pound note in payment of a twopenny fare,
note taken, £1 bag of old coinage taken out of jacket pocket, two
pennies extracted, remainder poured into the smartarse's lap.

Never as good with decimal currency...

PA

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 07:40:38 -0800 (PST), Halmyre
wrote:



I've just realised it's ~12 months since I handled any coins...

I've a few in my pocket, and a couple of notes, but I only got cash
out of an ATM twice last year.

And regarding decimalisation, shopkeepers got the new coins before
D-day - a got a few from the newsagent in advance (He didn't give them
to me, I swapped them for old ones.)

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
....
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base systems.


--
Colin Bignell

On 16/02/2021 15:50, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
williamwright wrote:
I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

But you couldn't give every kid a calculator if we had kept LSD?


Whats calculators got to do with Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)????

Anyway, Calculators didn't really become commonplace till about 1972 IIRC?
#
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/sinclair1.html

Think it was slate and chalk in those days wasn't it?

On 16/02/2021 14:52, Roger Hayter wrote:
Of course, unlike later bits of shopping metrication which were bitterly
contested, it could have been of no interest whatever to the Common Market
what we divided our Pounds into. But I remember it being sold as a
pro-European move, as I remember Powell, ever the opportunist, opposing it on
the same grounds

I understood it to be far more about computerization of the banking and
financial system


--
The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

Anon.

On 16/02/2021 15:28, Jethro_uk wrote:
The problem is, rightly or wrongly, almost every other country in the
world uses decimal money.

Almost. I am sure there is a minor Asian country that uses duodecimal


--
The lifetime of any political organisation is about three years before
its been subverted by the people it tried to warn you about.

Anon.

On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?


What is imperial?

On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Decimal works well with metric and metric is generally easier for
scientific and engineering calculations. So it probably makes sense to
decimalise money as well, so everything can be calculated using the
same, simple system.

However, while metric is good for such calculation, imperial has much
more everyday usable sized units and divides nicely in a variety of
different ways.

I just use both interchangeably, depending upon which suits better for
the circumstances.

On 16/02/2021 17:16, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:59:11 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 16/02/2021 15:28, Jethro_uk wrote:
The problem is, rightly or wrongly, almost every other country in the
world uses decimal money.

Almost. I am sure there is a minor Asian country that uses duodecimal

So reason enough to dump this decimal delusion and return to the Good Old
Days, eh ?

duodecimal works great if that is also your number base.
Its the number of finger joints on one hand, too



--
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a
kind word alone.

Al Capone

In article ,
S wrote:
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?


What is imperial?

pounds and ounces; pints and gallons; feet and inches, etc

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On 2021-02-16, williamwright wrote:
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and troublemakers.
The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a few kids had been to
the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we were using ???old money???.

surely 1971 ? some typo!

And at least, real, 5p and 10p and 50p had been in circulation for a while.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the ???new money??? in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most were
stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be legal
tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldn???t afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the ???rich??? kids had only paid 44p! In
the Proletarian People???s Republic of South Yorkshire that was a
political scandal just waiting to happen. So it was decreed, in a
hastily distributed instruction from the West Riding County Council
Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner Money register had to be
kept, in which it was to be recorded which kids had paid five
consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday afternoon the main
educational task was the distribution to these children of their one New
Penny change. If a child had only bought four dinners that week there
was no penny, and this was perceived as being grossly unfair. Letters
soon started to come from parents, along the lines of, ???He missed the
Wednesday before last but then he had Thursday and Friday dinners, then
last week he had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the
Wednesday so there was five in a row. So could you send the penny
please???? and ???He was off on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the
other days so could you send the penny please? It???s not my fault his
teeth are bad.??? These matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head
had little sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this fiasco?

Bill

On 2021-02-16, Steve Walker wrote:
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Decimal works well with metric and metric is generally easier for
scientific and engineering calculations. So it probably makes sense to
decimalise money as well, so everything can be calculated using the
same, simple system.

However, while metric is good for such calculation, imperial has much
more everyday usable sized units and divides nicely in a variety of
different ways.

I just use both interchangeably, depending upon which suits better for
the circumstances.

ditto - but I've completely lost any appreciation of degrees F - just
doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I don't like admitting this, but I
actually had to lookup what the boiling poinbt of water was in F !

On 2021-02-16, Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote:
Well I don't recall the details but the press and tv were full of these
oddities at the time and of course everyone thought that all the shops were
deliberately rounding up prices they had already adjusted beforehand to make
the maximum profit. Who says conspiracy theory and fake news is something
new?


Inflation went up from 1970 to 1971, then down in 1972, then rocketed, but
it was not just decimalisation.

see

https://www.macrotrends.net/countrie...ation-rate-cpi

and zoom in to the period. As you say at the time many people were
convinced that decimalisation had made prices rise quickly.

On 16/02/2021 18:00, charles wrote:
In article ,
S wrote:
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?


What is imperial?

pounds and ounces; pints and gallons; feet and inches, etc


British Thermal Units and Kilocycles per second to keep
Jim happy

In message , williamwright
writes
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most
were stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would be
legal tender.


My recollection was that we had them made out of card, and they were
printed/punched in such a way as to leave a margin down one side of the
coin (so slightly bigger).

I can't remember what happened regarding school dinners, other than the
(lack of) quality remaining constant.

Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "diy" with "news" and reverse the domain

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceieved SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

On 16/02/2021 14:00, soup wrote:
On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:


The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent.


Â*I remember D-day (I was more a pupil than a teacher in '72,[only born
in '62]).Â* The thing I remember most wasn't the faff with 'Dinner money'
(was on free meals so any monetary changes passed me by) it was more the
jingle that seemed to be everywhere :-
Â*"use your old pennies in sixpenny lots"
Â*as six old pennies were equivalent to 2 1/2 pence


Aside :-
I remember 5p could get me a third of a pint of milk

I remember being sent to school with a sixpence one day to buy milk, and
protesting that is not not proper money and they would not take it. Much
to my surprise, it was accepted without even a second glance. (I am
guessing this was about '76)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 16/02/2021 13:08, williamwright wrote:
Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago yesterday?
(That's assuming you were born.)

I was, but long enough before to understand money at that point.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid weekly:
1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In New Money
they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was 44p. But some
parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday, so they sent 9p
dinner money on each day of the week when they had it to send. This
meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from Monday to Friday
they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids had only paid 44p! In

Sounds a bit daft until you work out that 45p in '72 would be over £6 in
today's money!

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this fiasco?

I remember 1/2p ceasing to be legal tender, and the introduction of the
pound coin...


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

"Davey" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:08:54 +0000
williamwright wrote:

Off topic, but a bit of light relief

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Can you remember what you were doing exactly fifty years ago
yesterday? (That's assuming you were born.)

On the morning of February 16th 1972 I was attempting to collect
dinner money from a class of 35 assorted malcontents and
troublemakers. The new coins had only appeared that morning, and a
few kids had been to the shops and got them in change. Otherwise, we
were using €˜old money.

As an aside, for months before D Day the government had been
distributing large quantities of the €˜new money in the form of
(worthless) plastic coins. These were for children and adults to
practice with. Lots of these coins went into the schools, and most
were stolen and taken home, in the belief that come D Day they would
be legal tender.

The central problem with Dinner Money was that the price was 1/9d per
day, and there was no exact decimal equivalent. Most kids paid
weekly: 1/9d times five = 8/9d (eight shillings and nine pence). In
New Money they now paid the nearest equivalent to 8/9d, which was
44p. But some parents couldnt afford either 8/9d or 44p on a Monday,
so they sent 9p dinner money on each day of the week when they had it
to send. This meant that if they managed to send 9p every day from
Monday to Friday they had sent a total of 45p. But the €˜rich kids
had only paid 44p! In the Proletarian Peoples Republic of South
Yorkshire that was a political scandal just waiting to happen. So it
was decreed, in a hastily distributed instruction from the West
Riding County Council Education Dept that a separate Decimal Dinner
Money register had to be kept, in which it was to be recorded which
kids had paid five consecutive lots of 9p in the week. On Friday
afternoon the main educational task was the distribution to these
children of their one New Penny change. If a child had only bought
four dinners that week there was no penny, and this was perceived as
being grossly unfair. Letters soon started to come from parents,
along the lines of, €œHe missed the Wednesday before last but then he
had Thursday and Friday dinners, then last week he had Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday. I made sure he had the Wednesday so there was
five in a row. So could you send the penny please?€� and €œHe was off
on Tuesday for the dentist but he had all the other days so could you
send the penny please? Its not my fault his teeth are bad.€� These
matters had to go to arbitration. Luckily the Head had little
sympathy with these claimants and never paid up.

I wonder if anyone else who was teaching at the time remembers this
fiasco?

Bill

Not teaching, I was a university student, but I remember that then
first thing I bought with the new money was 6 faggots from our local
butcher, in Quorn, Leicestershire, for me and my two housemates.

I thought you faggots were illegal then ?

On Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:11:59 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH the trolling senile asshole's latest troll**** unread

In article ,
williamwright wrote:
On 16/02/2021 15:52, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
jon wrote:
....but as Enoch Powell predicted the Common Market was a smoke screen
for a federal europe with a common currency.

And he was wrong about that too, as with so much else?

Thanks for reminding us so many anti EU types are arch racists.


I can never follow your logic. You seem to jump from one concept to
another as if there's causation when there isn't. It makes my head spin.

You mean a bit like posting a totally off topic to a group about DIY, Bill?

--
*Is there another word for synonym?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Jethro_uk" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Certainly more time was wasted teaching that than the decimal system.

"S" wrote in message
...
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?


What is imperial?

Its when some king or queen swans around and arse lickers kiss their arse.

"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Decimal works well with metric and metric is generally easier for
scientific and engineering calculations. So it probably makes sense to
decimalise money as well, so everything can be calculated using the same,
simple system.

However, while metric is good for such calculation, imperial has much more
everyday usable sized units and divides nicely in a variety of different
ways.

I just use both interchangeably, depending upon which suits better for the
circumstances.

Trouble is kids dont have a clue what you mean with the imperial units.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 16/02/2021 17:16, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:59:11 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 16/02/2021 15:28, Jethro_uk wrote:
The problem is, rightly or wrongly, almost every other country in the
world uses decimal money.

Almost. I am sure there is a minor Asian country that uses duodecimal

So reason enough to dump this decimal delusion and return to the Good Old
Days, eh ?

duodecimal works great if that is also your number base.
Its the number of finger joints on one hand, too

Most of us dont actually use our fingers to count anymore.

"Jim Jackson" wrote in message
...
On 2021-02-16, Steve Walker wrote:
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Decimal works well with metric and metric is generally easier for
scientific and engineering calculations. So it probably makes sense to
decimalise money as well, so everything can be calculated using the
same, simple system.

However, while metric is good for such calculation, imperial has much
more everyday usable sized units and divides nicely in a variety of
different ways.

I just use both interchangeably, depending upon which suits better for
the circumstances.

ditto - but I've completely lost any appreciation of degrees F - just
doesn't mean anything to me anymore.

I still remember what 100F means comfort wise.

I don't like admitting this, but I actually had to
lookup what the boiling poinbt of water was in F !

That’s just the alzhiemers, nothing to worry about.

I still think of people's height in feet but not much else.
Don’t bother with imperial weights at all any more,
volume in spades.

On Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 6:18:08 PM UTC, Jim Jackson wrote:
On 2021-02-16, Steve Walker wrote:
On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ....

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

Decimal works well with metric and metric is generally easier for
scientific and engineering calculations. So it probably makes sense to
decimalise money as well, so everything can be calculated using the
same, simple system.

However, while metric is good for such calculation, imperial has much
more everyday usable sized units and divides nicely in a variety of
different ways.

I just use both interchangeably, depending upon which suits better for
the circumstances.
ditto - but I've completely lost any appreciation of degrees F - just
doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I don't like admitting this, but I
actually had to lookup what the boiling poinbt of water was in F !

When looking at the weather forecast I think in an unholy mix of Celsius/Fahrenheit, so anything around zero degrees C is cold and icy, whereas around 70 degrees F is a nice warm day.

After I've bought X litres of diesel, I then work out my fuel consumption in MPG.

I know that 200g of pasta is enough for two people, but when measuring rice I revert to ounces.

And so on.

Imperial and £sd has/had a certain charm but if I'd never had to deal with either I wouldn't weep over it.

On 16/02/2021 17:20, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:54:41 +0000, nightjar wrote:

On 16/02/2021 13:18, jon wrote:
...
Yes I remember this was a pre-cursor to joining the Common Market, ...

I don't. I recall it being sold as being easier to teach to children.
Apparently learning base 10 was easier than learning multiple base
systems.

Which also sounds like a crock. Were British schoolchildren peculiarly
disadvantaged by having to learn Lsd - especially on top of imperial ?

I think we were overall better at doing maths because of it

Let's face it the natural world is not a decimal system

Time was never decimal.

Time still is not decimal.

I remember my father teaching me rapid imperial to decimal conversion
that he used daily in his bank job.

It was based on the simple fact that 960 farthings to the pound was
nearly one thousand, and a shilling was one twentieth of a pound

so 5'/3½d would be 5x.05 = .25 plus 3x4 plus 2 = 14 farthings, so you
could simply add 14 and get £0.264 and be extremely close. Since there
were 48 farthings in a shilling a farthing was a tad bigger so you added
in .001 if it was over thruppence and .002 if it were over ninepence to
roughly get close. Thruppence halfpenny being more than 3d, £0.265 is
correct to three decimal places.

0.264583333... is the correct value...


--
"When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics."

Josef Stalin