only1billybonds 6:37 Sat Aug 8
Life before H&S
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H&S of course being health and safety.
The ice cream thread got me thinking back about some things that these days would be deemed illegal and totally bonkers.
Used to have a bloke come round and sharpen Mum's carving knife on a Sunday lunchtime,it wasnt uncommon to see half a dozen or so 7 year old lads tear arseing down the street yielding the said weaponary. All you'd get is a 'dont run' which was ignored then off you'd go,legging it for all you were worth,clutching Sheffields finest in your mitt.
Seems insane now but was common practise at one time.
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Replies - In Chronological Order ( Show Newest Messages First)
Far Cough
7:07 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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Don't run with a pair of scissors or you'll catch a death of cold,.....or summat
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Hermit Road
7:15 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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Being sent down the shop by any woman in the street to buy Embassy number 5 when we were about 6 years old.
Not that dangerous I suppose.
Wouldn’t happen now though.
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Westham67
7:24 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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The 87 hurricane stoned and slept through it. I was working as a ground worker building a tarmac plant at the end of river road right on the Thames
The general foreman and foreman and the rest of the gang came in from Hastings. Just me and my mate on site . 11am in the Ship and shovel a few beers and a few joints. Then the paddy shuttering chippys on price came in and said the concrete has been ordered
We didn't bat an eyelid pouring a 40ft wall, standing on the form work catching a concrete skip being craned in next the Thames the day after a hurricane
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mashed in maryland
7:58 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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That hurricane almost killed a baby me apparently
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mashed in maryland
8:02 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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On the subject of building sites, there are definitely huge differences between now and even 10-15 years ago.
Hard to pin down anything proper specific, just everything now seems a lot more regimented.
Random example come to mind, back then backwards hard hats and blokes (scaffs especially) wearing trainers unchallenged was pretty common, would be unthinkable now (seen lads chucked off site for wearing SHORTS ffs)
Also liquid lunches (as in very liquid) were a lot more common. Maybe varies geographically but seem quite rare now.
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mashed in maryland
8:04 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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keep in mind how much blokes back then would have said about how sanitised it was compared to 10-15yrs before that, and building sites now and 30+ yrs ago would be literally different worlds.
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joe royal
8:32 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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Hermit Road 7:15 Sat Aug 8
Players no 6 you mean?
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yogib
8:36 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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First job 1983-1991 I was an apprentice / engineer just off the A13 opposite Barking Firestation - thought nothing of going to either The Brittania, Volounteer, Thatched House or many other pubs, drinking 2-3 pints at lunchtime then programming CNC Milling Machines, Lathes, Grinding machines etc - utter madness really
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Cheezey Bell-End
8:38 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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In the 80s when trains were all slam door type, if I was running late for work, which I usually am, I would often chase the train down the platform and jump on. Never occurred to me that I could have easily fallen under. These days I wouldn't even run, let alone jump on.
Currently I'm temporarily resident in Thailand where disregard for H&S is on another level.
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yngwies Cat
8:41 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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Blue Peter's 'Advent Crown' was the Towering Inferno.
What could possibly go wrong with a couple of Coat hangers, Woolworths, cheapest tinsil some plastic and 4 naked candles suspended from the ceiling.
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Iron Duke
9:46 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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My uncle had an estate car, and my cousin and I would beg to lie down at the back so that we could wave at the cars behind. No one even thought about putting seat belts on.
Does anyone remember the Rocket at Seven Kings Park? Lethal.
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Hermit Road
9:52 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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Standing on the back of the neighbours scrap metal lorry and holding on to the bar in fear of your life while the lunatic sped round corners.
I was about 6.
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Hermit Road
9:53 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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joe royal 8:32 Sat Aug 8
I think the Laydeeeez in my street preferred Embassy number 5.
They were a more genteel way of fucking up your lungs.
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gph
11:08 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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How i long for the days when asbestos was just a way of proving how hard you were.
Er, not at all.
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Cheezey Bell-End
11:22 Sat Aug 8
Re: Life before H&S
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I regularly see people crammed onto the back off a pickup. And the rubbish trucks go round with the dustmen sitting on the roof when not picking up.
Plus whole families on one motorbike with no helmets. Dad riding with kid in lap. Mum behind holding a baby and with another kid standing on the seat behind holding her collar. Hate it, but it's common.
I often see workers on building and demolition sites in shorts and sandals. And it seems normal here to weld with no eye protection, often while high up on scaffolding leaning out and holding on with one hand. They must do a lot of whip rounds for widows here.
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Alfs
12:31 Sun Aug 9
Re: Life before H&S
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There was, and probably still is, a rain drain tunnel which you could walk up in the River Roding. I was about 7 and me and my mates were only brave enough to go as far as the first bend.
I was down there one day and a group of bigger boys turned up 10/11) armed with torches and determined to get to the end. I tagged along and off we went. It felt like miles and we counted all of the manholes we passed. When we reached the end I was so proud, bursting to tell my mates.
It was a fucking great day and one that no child will ever be able to enjoy again.
I also nearly drowned in mud in some field Ilford way when I was 6. I was trying to reach an electricity pylon. Sounds ridiculous but it's true. And they're both very fond memories of danger and discovery.
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charleyfarley
1:02 Sun Aug 9
Re: Life before H&S
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Being able to jump off the back of a moving bus wherever you liked.
No waiting for the driver to stop and open the doors at a designated stop.
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chim chim cha boo
1:21 Sun Aug 9
Re: Life before H&S
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Ducking behind a car and having a Roman Candle firefight with a pal on the other side of the road.
Sticking a banger through a letterbox, ringing the bell and running away.
Putting a rocket on the end of a copper pole, carefully aiming it down the barrel and firing it at the tower block we'd convinced ourselves were 'the flats the police live in'.
When I was very little we had an outside toilet and on bonfire night my uncle Billy chucked a Jumping Jack (the world's most dangerous and unpredictable firework) over the door that made aunty Carol come running out of the bog screaming with her knickers round her ankles much to the merriment of my entire family.
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chim chim cha boo
1:27 Sun Aug 9
Re: Life before H&S
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Playing 'war' on 'the dumps' which were bombed out houses from WW2 with old rusty corrugated iron fences that we'd prise apart and get in.
'War' usually entailed throwing stones and bricks at one another while defending yourself with a dustbin lid.
A lot of those games ended with an ambulance taking a pal away who you never saw again, like when Freddy fell off of the climbing frame in the playground and smashed his head open on the concrete in front of 50 gawping 8 year-olds.
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Hermit Road
1:48 Sun Aug 9
Re: Life before H&S
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We used to call them the debris. I’ve got a decent scar from a misadventure on one.
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