Gran
Kev: 'You know that psychopath in Chorlton?'
Kaz: ..... erm ... no.
It turned out that he'd said 'Cycle path' - not 'psychopath'.
OK - So I admit I'm a bit deaf.
I blame it on Ritchie Blackmore - we shortarses always get to stand nearest to the massive speakers.
There's a great deal of concern that many MP3 users will face hearing loss at an even earlier age.
My Grandma, along with most of her generation in Lancashire, was made deaf by the ear-splitting noise of the looms in t'mill. There she is above (before I was born) taking a photograph of her lovely Scotty called (imaginatively) Jock.
I don’t really remember her until much later with immaculate white hair decorated by a Capstan Full Strength streak on the front.
Gran was a farmer's daughter and had to plough a furrow both on t'way to t'mill in the morning and on t'way back in the evening. She was very proud of her weaving skills.
It was some consolation that they had all learned to lip read in t'mill as making yourself heard above the noise was impossible.
It skipped a generation.
Mum wasn't deaf.
She just had Dance Bands ...
.. and Comptometers.
KAZLabels: comptometer, deafness, Nat Gonella.
posted by KAZ at 7:00 am
26 Comments:
WHAT...
Both my mum and dad worked in the mills around Hyde. Both suffered hearing loss... I'm 50 this year and my earing as got worse the last few years... that is through working in Night Clubs in the 80s, I can't stand 80s music now... or mores the point hear it ha!
I liked these picture by the way Kaz.
I always get psychopaths and cyclepaths confused - you wouldn't believe how much trouble it's gotten me into. And I didn't even work in t'mill or dance to dance bands. Nor do I own an MP3 yet!)
Lovely piccie of your gran. They don't make 'em like that any more. I wish I have more of the yore generations' toughness.
Pardon? A psycopath called Jock you say?
If you got too close to those Dance Bands the slide trombone risk was lethal.
And isn't Alan Sugar still trying to sell those machines?
If Jock got fleas, would he have jock itch?
My nan put knitting needles in her ears to get the wax out. Or something like that. It was her own fault she went deaf.
My dad went to see Ted Heath (the bandleader). He wasn't deaf but he was colour blind. My dad, that is, not Ted Heath. Probably because Ted Heath was in black and white.
Ah yes, cycle path/psychopath confusion...catches me out too all the time. I can't blame Mr.Blackmore (or even Mr.Strummer, I was half-deaf long before I was a punk), I blame an infection.
Did Glen Miller play at t'mill? Was that where he wrote his hit "Accrington 6-5-thousand". It all makes sense now.
There must have been a fashion for white hair with a Capstan streak at the front - my granma had one too! Did your Gran have the weakness for Guinness as well?
... and Nat Gonella sounds as if it might need antibiotics ...
T/Wom:
'In the mills'?
Excuse me but don't you mean in t'mills - or are you all dead posh round Hyde?
I bet you still strut your stuff to Kajagoogoo.
Laura:
We should form an encounter group.
Glad you like the pic - they were tough and knew how to have fun as well.
Murph:
No Jock was a nice doggie - he didn't call his bipeds names on his blog.
My first word processor was an Amstrad. I helped to make him what he is today.... exactly what is he today?
mj:
That's why he had to wear the kilt.
Geoff:
'Never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow'. Probably too late to tell your Gran now.
Didn't Betty used to sing with Ted Heath?
Driver that is.
NiC:
It's obviously a common misunderstanding.
Ah yes Accrington. I believe Glen was a Stanley fan.
My Gran's cousin came from Accrington. He emigrated to the States where he met his wife to be - from Oswaldtwistle.
Stitch:
I'm sure Gran was no stranger to the Guinness - but her favourite was a King's ale - small but deadly.
Stitch:
Ha Ha - too true.
I took mum to see him and his band in a pub in West Didsbury - it was probably in the early eighties.
I know all about the lip readers in t'mills and I had heard of comptometers but had never actually seen one until this picture you show here.
Your gran looks lovely
I work with a guy who is deaf when he takes his hearing aids (yes plural) out. He takes them out when he arrives in the morning and puts them back in when he leaves.
Makes work so much better not having to answer the phones all day.
pyschopath? how your mind works!!
Gerald:
My mum was one of the early comptometer operators. She worked in the office at Leyland Motors in Chorley.
Cyberpete:
Well - what do you expect if you insist on playing your Kylie records at full volume all day long?
Pete:
Worrying isn't it?
Today, I thought he said 'Rabbits eat rats'.
He really said 'Rabbits eat grass'.
Glad we sorted that one out.
Comptometers, I had forgotten all about them. You made an old auditor very happy.
If one must have blame assigned, there can be much worse cause for one's diminished aural capacity than Messrs. Blackmore and Co.
Better that than those damnable earbuds (feck off earbuds!)
I'll try to speak loudly and enunciate better whilst visiting your lovely blog home.
Birdwatcher:
Comptometers are museum pieces now - along with electric ringers and Betamax videos.
Auditor? That's the person who gets everyone nervous isn't it?
Rimshot:
Yes - let's look on the bright side.
Its not decibels it's definitely 'enunciation'.
Mancunians don't enunciate - all those glottal stops.
I guess being fabulous does have a price
one I'm willing to pay anytime of the week
In our Shopping Malls the management plays "mosquito Music' to drive away Teenagers, whom we all intensely despise...
(we're insanely jealous s'all)
Apparently we lose the upper high pitched whining range once we get past 30 and so these recordings are only audible to those tedious little twats...
they are supposed to be driven satrk, raving, mad by this sound and go somewhere else to loiter...
my question is, how can you tell if a teenager has 'gone' mad?
That being said, since those little monsters all seem to listen to their MP3s with the volume set at '11', they are all completely f*cking deaf anyway, so it's back to the drawing board.
A Spring Cull has been organised for Mother's Day..
that should be fun.
Pete:
I know, I know - you can see from my avatar that I'm 'Absolutely Fabulous'.
Don:
I know you love 'em really.
Daft as it is - when I first heard about this (we now have it here as well) I felt jealous and excluded.
I want to be driven stark, raving mad as well.
You sure are, although I'm in my right mind to take the bottle away from you as you don't recognise every hour is cocktail hour.
Oh and I don't have my iPod at 11 it's at 5 or 6 tops
'T'mill'
Being a southerner south of Watford, it was good to read Pie and Prejudice about life up north and 't'mills etc .. Good read.
CyberPoof only has Kylie tunes on his iPod.
She Worked in Cotton Mills yea? Much the same on this side of The Pennines in The Woollen Mills.Wherever Money happens so does Noise i guess?
Neil Young on headphones was what done for me! Although last year i wandered into The Mosh-Pit @ a Charlatans gig in Halifax which made matters worse......!
Pete:
I must try harder - maybe 5.30 is better.
Eamon:
I love Stuart Maconie - but even I thought he was a bit hard on Southerners in that book.
mj:
Oh I'm not too sure - what about 'Jump in my Car'?
Tony:
You 'wandered in' to the Mosh - Pit - are you partially sighted as well?
MJ: I don't! There is loads of PSB too
Kaz: it's a start
Pete:
I love PSB.
Maybe 5.29 tonight.
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