[2106]
SOCIAL CHANGES
This view of the collection directly chronicles, in particular, the social changes I was involved in over the last half century or so of the 20th century. If we include my inheritance of a very strong oral tradition which transmitted to me the experiences of my forebears in earlier decades and centuries, the actual span is though much wider than this,.
Thus, in terms of oral history, it starts with:
0020 My Grandfather
(0020T*) -1877-1961, whose life was shaped a century or more ago at the
end of the Victorian era
0038 Nana Lane
(0038T*)- 1895 1955, as was that of his wife who was a traditional
Yorkshire housewife
9244 My Father's Family and much the same was true of those on my fathers side
The lives of the next generation, including my mother and father, were however shaped in the interwar years; though even that now seems almost like pre-history.
0019 Ma Leeds/Liverpool/Bromborough Pool
(0019T*)
the story, as dictated by Ma, of her christening in Leeds, in 1921, and then her
move to Liverpool and Bromborough Pool village
9303 Extended Family & Proximity
(9303T*) but, even in my childhood, the
extended families - the Lanes and the Mercers still had the major
social impact on me.
On the other hand, for all of them - at the time when my memories start - by far the most important factor was still the Second World War.
9265 The Homeguard (9265T*) though, paradoxically, this was the fun time of my fathers life
In particular, it also formed the basis for the many war stories told by my uncle Sid, and shaped his and ultimately my views about such things.
2002 War Diary and these are included as the extensive diary entries made by Sid during the war
My own memories of the war are at best sketchy, as even are those immediately after the war and up to around 1947.
0059 Birth 1940
(0059T*) this reports what little I can remember about my very early years, and the
blitz on Merseyside, in 1940-1942
0044 Early Memories
(0044T*) and then, from1943 to 1945, my wartime life
at Croft Avenue
0017 War End
(0017T*) and the eventual peace, and peacetime life, in Croft
Avenue.
By 1947, however, the worst elements of wartime living (but not the rationing) were behind us. It is at about this time that my detailed memories start. It was, however, a society which still looked to the pre-war years for its values, though the new Labour government was about to change all that.
0043 The House at Bromborough Pool
(0043T*) - and we had moved to a different house, a Georgian mansion on
a factory village together with its
0056 Our Corner Shop, 1945 to 1951
(0056T*)
9214 Post War Food -
but surviving on post-war
rationing was tough
0066 Family Life
(0066T*) - this is a description of family life
and especially of the family festival of Christmas.
In the absence of other modes of entertainment, and long before TV invaded our lives, much of my life was lived in books and hence in my imagination.
0051 Early Book Reading
9195 Childrens Radio in the 1940s though there were other diversions, but with no
graphic pictures these also exercised my imagination,
and as such were much more potent than modern, explicit television images.
At the same time, however, I was exposed to the subsistence agriculture of much earlier times:
0010 Haymaking at the Cottage
(0010T*)
0065 The Cottage
(0065T*)
0004 A Welsh Hill Farm
(0004T*)
While I was protected from the worst excesses of deprivation, not least in schooling, others were not so lucky:
0083 Local Schools including those in these educational dustbins to which most of my contemporaries were consigned. Fortunately I did not suffer this fate, since I went to a public school, but those who hanker after selective schooling should remember that up to 90% of children did suffer this fate!
I suppose society did slowly change over the 1950s, and in particular I was one of the generation that first discovered what teens should be about (not least rock & roll), but this was not obvious at the time and all I seem to remember were my hobbies at the time - which, though much the same as my middle-class peers, were very different to those of modern teenagers.
9193 Stamps, Cards, Photography, Marquetry
It was in the 1960s that life really changed. My focus for these changes was political life at university which ultimately led to the 1960s experience in the wider population which was so influential.
0180 International Relations Club
0147 Anti-Apartheid
My sexual activities at the time were also somewhat ahead of the time - perhaps more typical of those about to emerge over the next decade and were very different from the strict moral values which had held up to that time.
0119 Pat at Imperial College
(0119T*)
0124 Sex and Single Man
Though our wedding was much more conventional:
0116 Wedding
(0116T*)
0130 Honeymoon
(0130T*)
As was our home life, moving around London, after the
children were born.
0192 Hampstead and Chelsea
(0192T*)
9284 Our First House, at Chalvey
(9284T*) - and then at Slough
Once my working life began, however, the context for my life was largely set by that. Indeed, even my social life was put at the leading edge of developments in society by my contacts at FCB:
0168 FCB Stories
(0168T*)
0139 Peter Bartlett - my entree to high society
9201 - U3A Creative - The Bet
- as this story relates
The next job, at PST had less impact on me socially, though its management style (and demands) were decades ahead of its time.
9268 PST - Phillips Scott and Turner
(9268T*)
0157 Brand Management at PST - especially in terms of being at the leading
edge of marketing
The one that followed, at Gallagher's, was in contrast a throwback to earlier times (at least when I started).
0111 Gallahers training
0190 Gallaher leaf
At the same time, my home life was perhaps ahead of the new trend for my peers - set by the various house moves I was forced to make.
0171 Move to the North
0166 Knutsford
(0166T*)
0109 Burton
(0109T*)
My subsequent job with IBM was, however, set in a very different culture. Although American, it was one where the values were a century ahead of their time; as I describe in my book about it:
In particular, it gave me an insight into the sales culture which was to become so important to large parts of the population over the coming decades.
0162 Sales Enthusiasm & Learning
0138 Idiosyncratic Selling
0172 Sales Prioritisation
0114 Sales Detective Work
0117 Reference Visits
0199 Presentations
0165 Account Management
9267 Sales Territories
0104 Competitor Salesmen
The main impact on our private lives in the 1970s was, though, moving back to London, to Molesey. This was to become the most settled part of our family life. It was largely a time of middle class pursuits.
0141 Molesey - the move
(0141T*)
0238 Hurst Park Social Activities
9173 - Entertaining - Parties
9184 Entertaining 2 Food
9163 Entertaining3 Wine
Most important, we put down roots which typically centred around our children, with their school (especially their first school) becoming the focus of our lives.
9266 Hurst Park School
0159 Hurst Park Friends
(0159T*)
0218 Managing Children
(0218T*)
0300 Molesey Secondary Schools
0202 School Exchanges
9988 Girl Guides
After the stability offered in the 1970s, by my work with IBM and family life at Molesey, the 1980s were much more insecure. In terms of home life Sarah, following the pattern of her peer group, disappeared off to university and never really came back.
The children having left the nest, I did what many others did at the time; I formed my own business which, also typical of my luck or more likely my judgment at the time, then went bust.
0261 Setting Up Computerland
0222 Computerland - the Road to Bankruptcy
My move to the culture of the future was completed when I joined the Open University, whose collegial approach to life was, and still may be, a model for future employment in the knowledge age(s).
9180 OU 1 - Starting at the Open University
9124 OU4 - The OBS Family
(9124T*)
9179 OU14 - Head of Centre -- Strategy and Policy
(9179T*)
At this time, although I was ultimately unsuccessful in putting together a consortium to fund my model of a web portal, I still think it had much of value to say about this approach to future society.
0384 Virgin Portal Proposal (the final version)
0362 Virgin Portal Proposal Appendix
As did, at a more mundane level, my stand-alone comments on retail therapy:
0205 Local Shopping
0262 Town Shopping
Along with the description of the house we first lived in at Milton Keynes and that we later moved to:
9170 House at Woodley Headland
9448 Bungalow
My final footnote on the future must, though, be the two books I wrote about such developments in general:
6059 Chapter 1 - Revolutionary Times
9068 εvolution (unpublished)
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