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No Politics or swearing and No derogatory remarks about ex Teachers etc.

Missed “opportunities” in your working life

Posted by Allan Campbell on November 30, 2019, 8:08 pm

The one that springs to mind is regarding Computing.

When I moved to work in Harrogate there was an Olivetti magnetic card reading computer. There were 3 or 4 design programmes that we used written by Olivetti. I found that they were a bit limited.

Up to that point the only computer that I had seen was one of those big things with valves etc. From I think the 50’s. It was not longer used just left unused in the basement where we played table football at lunch time.

The Olivetti seemed a bit easy to programme so muggings here had a go after working hours.

So I wrote some programmes for myself that speeded up part of my work. Then others were able to use them. Other departments then came to me to write programmes for them.

As most were just adaptions of what I had already written “no problem”. The Olivetti had its limits however so no further improvement in programming skills required by me.

However this and the death of a chap in a car crash had me “ promoted into another department which involved a lot of writing up tender and other documents ALL BY HAND..

Then the secretary was given a word processor to use. For few months we continued to work as before by hand.

I had found all this writing part of my job a bore (lazy). So I talked with my wife Ann who used one where she worked.
End result I managed to shorten the writing process by 75% using “adaptable standard” forms.

Then the. Company bought an up to date Olivetti computer to help us, with me helping their programmers to write the programmes for it.

This computer could run a forerunner of Excel, Lotus 123. It ended up that I was the only one that could write programmes for it ( spreadsheets) in the company.

This is the point of missed opportunity for me. I had the chance of switching to computer programming but I didn’t take it.
Why ? Loved my job which had extended into the cut and thrust of contract claims.

Not wishing to move due to,children at school.

Also I felt that I was a few years too late. Missed the bus.

The crunch thing I think was that I would have had to give up my sport of Scuba Diving which had be come my passion.

Was it a missed opportunity? I think not with hindsight, just wonder “What If”.

On some other things, I wonder “What If” ?

Allan C.

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life

Posted by Joseph on November 30, 2019, 9:10 pm, in reply to "Missed “opportunities” in your working life"

Very well written, if only.

Re: Missed 'opportunities' in your working life

Posted by BJC on November 30, 2019, 11:59 pm, in reply to "Missed “opportunities” in your working life"
Edited by administrator Admin3 December 1, 2019, 7:33 am

Hello Allan,

You're a very clever man.

Some business folk might have regretted not being able to afford a once-in-a-lifetime trip on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, and sailing to America to 'make it big', but didn't feel any regret once they heard that it had sunk soon afterwards.

I believe that the only way not to regret our past decisions is to know how they would have turned out, and it's the not knowing that hurts the most.

Decca's Dick Rowe, happily turned down The Beetles, only feeling regret once he saw how big they became.
When folk have regrets about lost opportunities, they only look at what the positives might have been... that's understandable... but what about the negatives?

Allan, you might have went on to great things in Computer Programming, with untold wealth and esteem, but you might have become so expansive that your love of your job might have taken a turn for the worse, and you might have become miserable and lonely, travelling the world and missing out on your family and friends and all the hobbies and other things you love and have done in your career.

Some famous singers and actors have said that they'd swap all of their wealth if they could just have the time back that they missed with their children.

Allan, never say never at any age - you can have your cake and it. You've had a great life getting to where you are now, family, friends, scuba diving, family history, cycling and caravan touring, etc., and you still have an opportunity to once again delve into Computer Programming, with Online courses, that cater for beginners and advanced students... you're the same man with the same brain... if you try it, you'll see how thing WILL turn out, with no regrets... because you tried it.

Cheers,
Barry.

Re: Missed 'opportunities' in your working life

Posted by fhead on December 1, 2019, 1:10 am, in reply to "Re: Missed 'opportunities' in your working life"

Learned computer programming in the 70s couldn't stand it to much work for little output used Basic COBOL Fortran etc What I would have like to have been was a Astro Physicist, have studied quantum physics and the cosmos still is something that excites me,if only

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by Allan Campbell on December 1, 2019, 10:16 am, in reply to "Missed “opportunities” in your working life"

With the benefit of Hindsight I knew a some years after all that occurred the I had made to correct choice. I was too old at 35 and my mind was already “locked in” to my type of work. It was a young mans game. Just like today your grandchildren will run rings around you on tech. Equipment.

What follows could have been me ( sort of)

I had bought a computer for home use. I got on canny with it.
We had moved house in 1980 and had a spare room for an office. In 1984 a chap and his family moved in next door.

He had started out repairing video machines. His work in the late 80’s was building data storage machines for the likes of BT. Mail order companies etc.. These machines cost between £1M and £5M some were the size of a sports hall and built with a team of 4 or 5 men.

Today a up to date mobile phone has more capacity than the machines he used to build.

Over the next 5 -10 years the size of the machines reduced in size dramatically and capacity vastly increased. Two men could install one in a day or so.
This reduction in size and increase in capacity continued. This resulted in his job being redundant.
He managed to swap over to the management of the computers used by the catalogue firms in Bradford I think.

About 5-6/years ago he was pushed out by new kids on the block as technology has improved so that all his work could be done remotely from elsewhere.

To make ends meet he was able via his son to get a job as a car service manager. As far as I can gather, his income dropped from £40,000+ to near the minimum wage.

He would have had over the years about 2 to 3 x my salary but made various errors £ wise in not building up for a Rainey day. Expensive holidays, top end cars etc. I had warned him !

He has just last month put in his notice to retire at end of Dec. He is going to stay on working 2 days a week collecting customers cars for service etc. Just to get out of the house for a few years.

We go to the pub every Wed. Night. And go out for meals with our wives every month if poss.

Allan C.

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by Mac Cummings on December 1, 2019, 12:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

Allan
I took all opportunities offered to me by leaving Tyneside.
Did I want to? No!
Am I glad I did? Yes? Unequivocally!
In my experience the lack of mobility in labour has held back many really capable men and women who could have put their real talents to use on a bigger stage.

Re for Mac

Posted by Allan Campbell on December 1, 2019, 1:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

It always appeared to me that it was frowned on to move very far from the family way back. It started to change when all the new council housing was being built.

Moving for work was more tolerated.

When I got a job down here in Harrogate in late 1968. I was surprised with the reaction of our parents. My mum upset at her grandchild been taken away. Dad calmed her down, “we have a car and it’s only 80 miles away”. And of course we now had telephones at home.

Ann’s Mum & Dad were not phased at all as they had 4 other daughters still on Tyneside and they themselves had moved down from Perth in the late 20’s.

Until I started to look into my families history did I realise that a lot of people moved around and that my thinking had been wrong. I assume it was because most of the family lived within easy walking distance of St. Rollox St. where 3 Aunts lived.

I was surprised to find out that my Grandfather Campbell loved to travel even taking my Dad and Sister to Belgium for a holiday in the late 20’s early 30’s. How he had the money to do that ??. I later found out that he and Dad would often go up to Glasgow Ibrox and meet up,with great uncle Willie for international and Rangers Celtic matches.

BothnAnn &I have been used to travel. Me taken camping from an early age, usually 4-6 families of Reyrolle men.

Ann would be taken up to Perth & Montrose to visit relations.

I think that has left us both with the travel bug, hence a caravan.

Allan C.

Re: Missed "Opportunities"

Posted by John Shearer on December 1, 2019, 4:13 pm, in reply to "Re for Mac"

Allan you have hit on a subject that takes me back to my early years in Computing, which, was mainly for my children to advance in the NEW technology. They were all very young at the time but knew that it had to come sooner rather than later. At the time (Late 80's) their school had only one computer for the whole school and were learning absolutely nothing. I was working in Qatar at the time and knew I had to invest in their future so on a trip home, I bought an £800. 8Bit Amstrad 1640 with 2 x 3 1/2" floppy drives that contained the DR (Digital Research) operating System (No Hard drive). This proved very difficult at the time but the bees knees in home computing. However, really useless for learning anything, I then decided to sit down to study both Basic and Turbo Basic at work, in doing so I realised that I needed a Hard drive to do anything with computing so bought a £400 30Mb HD and installed it in the Amstrad 1640 but, that's where the fun really stared. My first task was to obtain a copy of DOS 3.3. Format the HD to accept it and debug my copy of DOS 3.3 (KeyB) to KeyBuk33) Easier said than done but got there in the end and stared to programme and write a menu system so my children could use it with much more ease. It didn't cost much to load all the various programmes needed because we could get anything for pennies in the middle East. Soon after this my company started working with Apple Mac's, which were Light years ahead of DOS (Disk Operating System) PC's
My wife and All my children now use Mac's.

Re: Missed "Opportunities" John S

Posted by Allan C. on December 1, 2019, 6:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed "Opportunities" "

By that brought back memories Floppy discs I think that there was someting like 13 or so floppies for Lotus 1,2,3 plus another 9 more for something else.

The difference between then and now “ light years”. Where will it all go. I don’t think that we can envisage what the next ten years will bring. Hope I’m still around to see it (and comprehend it).

Allan C.

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by fhead on December 1, 2019, 4:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

That's fine for some people to mobilise,but for a lot of people the ability to do that is restricted through circumstances Personally have been all over the world,I'm grateful that I haven't had to shift to far from little old Hebburn and the people who live there

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by Mac Cummings on December 3, 2019, 10:12 am, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

I agree fhead that some are restricted (sickness, disability,carer) but many more just don't seem to want to bother to find work or better work if they move away.
I always remember a TV programme late one evening probably in the early 70's which featured an audience from Jarrow talking about job opportunities in the area. One lady asked "Why should my lad go all the way to Newcastle for a job" . That summed it up for me

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by john (doncaster) on December 2, 2019, 10:19 am, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

I left the NE at the age of 44 and like Mac I didn't want to go but I'm glad I did. I also agree with much of what Mac says about mobility. I moved due to the contraction of the mining industry and transferred to South Yorkshire and later to B Coal Technical HQ at Bretby, Burton -upon- Trent although I didn't move house in the latter case. I found 'fear of moving' to be all in the head'. What did strike me was that the working grades were about two grades higher than in the NE (familiar story?)

Moving was made a bit easier for me as I was transferring to a substantive post at a higher salary.

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by Allan Campbell on December 3, 2019, 10:54 am, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

Maybe By the time that I came out of my apprenticeship at Hebburn Palmers, I was more worldly.

First as Dad had a car and we would go on holiday in U.K. as far as Lands End etc.
Palmers sent me to night school and day release up in N/cle so I got to know a lot of other lads from around the NE, all in the same trade.

After I passed my driving test at 17 Dad bought me a car early 1960. I sold that to put money towards an engagement ring.

With that car we would travel around the NE one day at the weekend if I had enough money for say a gallon of petrol.

By 1965 Dad had a caravan near Gilsland which we often visited.

So in a way my upbringing etc. ment that I was used to moving around. Also going away to Wales etc. With the Scouts helped.

Back in the mid 60’s once you finished your apprenticeship you could expect to be finished, that practice was in decline though. However a lot of the Lads in Palmers did move to other firms and consulting engineers.

So it was always on the cards that I would move to XYZ. ? Just how far?

Allan C.

Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not.

Posted by Liz Dance on December 3, 2019, 12:01 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

I left the NE in late 1970, had a job already arranged down in a London, it was a wrench leaving home but I felt it had to be done as I wanted more from life than the NE, at that time, could offer me. I love going back to the NE and maybe my husband and I will return on a more permanent basis. The opportunities given to me during my working life down South were much greater than in the NE, also being female it was easier to get on in life in London than it would have been living in the NE when, in those days, females didn’t have a career they were expected to get married and take care of the home, don’t get me wrong that works well for some people but it would never have worked for me.

My working life from late 1970 until about 3 years ago was spent in central London towards the end I hated London couldn’t wait to finally move away. To be honest if I was starting again I don’t really know if I would enjoy London now, it has changed over the years and certainly not for the better, I believe the NE has better opportunities now than in the late ‘60’s but you have to look to find them.

Re: Moving back up North ?

Posted by Allan Campbell on December 3, 2019, 5:50 pm, in reply to "Re: Missed “opportunities” in your working life or not."

That is a moot question. Where would I like to live ?

Somewhere in Northumberland, I think. Alnwick area to the coast.

However at our age it’s out of the question, lack of medical attention( distance) and too costly in fuel to get to supermarkets etc.

Best bet somewhere close to the metro line near the coast say 20 min walk to station and coast or the river.

The one big difference is outside temperature. Here in Harrogate it’s something like 2-5 degrees warmer than Tyneside so the difference between London and Tyneside will be quite marked.

But a big Plus is housing is far cheaper than down South.

Allan C.

Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Mac Cummings on December 3, 2019, 7:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Moving back up North ?"
Edited by administrator Admin2 December 3, 2019, 7:22 pm

I first left my NE nest in 1965. I been back and forth all over the country, all over the years but in '81 I moved to the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border where I now am "at home"
It was hard at first leaving my Mum and Dad, Jean's Mum and Dad, Nana, Uncles and our closer relatives behind. Almost without exception they lived in Jarrow and Hebburn!
But as life wore on my own family found themselves in Derbyshire,. They married here. They had kids here.
So it's a no-brainer now. Home is where my family is. Where my heart is.
I still miss my Robinson cousins in Jarrow and Hebburn of course but all those originally closer to me are gone.
C'est la vie.
Mac
PS Liz. I agree about London I was in Hampstead from age 21 to 24. Great at that age but I was always skint. However I really couldn't have seen myself living there in adulthood.......but who knows if the cookie had crumbled that way I would probably have found it OK.
I have no grumbles about any of the life decisions I made.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Liz Dance on December 3, 2019, 8:23 pm, in reply to "Home is where the heart is!"

Mac, I lived in London from arrival end 1970 starting in Bayswater, then moved to Chiswick, then Ealing, you get the drift moving further out of the centre, from Ealing then to Chorleywood followed by Great Missenden, eventually outside of the London commuting area altogether by moving to Herefordshire on 2015. It has been a journey of discovery but I do not miss London at all, as already said home will always be the NE, Bill Quay, thoroughly enjoy my return visits, which to be honest are more frequent now.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Mac Cummings on December 4, 2019, 10:11 am, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

A very determined distancing programme if I may say so Liz.
I confess that when I refer to "Home" as where I originated it is Jarrow but in reality Derbyshire is home!
I'm not particularly dewy eyed about South Tyneside but oddly when I am in the area I always drive down through Bill Quay, Hebburn, Jarrow and along the front at Shields for old times sake.
Would I move back. A resounding "NO" I'm afraid.

All the world’s a stage…

Posted by BJC on December 4, 2019, 10:29 am, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

All the world’s a stage…

Posted by Barry Cram on January 12, 2018, 9:04 am
I was thinking that if all the old Hebburn houses that have been demolished, were rebuilt in the same locations, it just wouldn’t feel right – the stage might be the same, but the characters have moved on.
For example, imagine if The Three Streets reappeared, in situ, in the Colliery: Arthur, Harvey and Frederick, it would be
lovely - but I doubt that the original occupants of earlier years would want to move back into them (would you?), as that moment in history has passed and that stage of play is over.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
The curtains have closed.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Sheila on December 4, 2019, 12:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

Liz, my daughter used to live in Chiswick then moved to Old Hanwell. I wonder, did you ever see Roald Dahl when you lived in Great Missenden. We moved in 1971 first to Somerset, then Kent, both for my my husbands job. Eventually in 1978 to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, where I don’t think I would have the energy to move now.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Liz Dance on December 4, 2019, 12:36 pm, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

Hello Sheila, unfortunately by the time we moved to a Great Missenden Roald Dahl had died, his museum opened whilst we were living in Great Missenden it was always crowded especially school holidays.
Chiswick was a lovely place to live as it was nice to be able to walk to the riverside pubs, Chiswick High Street was always entertaining, good for shopping and always good for people watching, lots of famous people lived in Chiswick they frequented the cafes and coffee shops.
I must say I do agree with you finding the energy to move is not something that I relish so hopefully it is not something that has to be done soon.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Mac Cummings on December 4, 2019, 4:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

Liz
I downsized 6 months ago. Even with full removal company packing and family support it was tough.
I hope it is my last house move.

Re: Home is where the heart is!

Posted by Liz Dance on December 4, 2019, 4:37 pm, in reply to "Re: Home is where the heart is!"

We last moved just over 5 years ago we hope that we don’t have to move for a good few years yet, so long as we can drive it should not be a problem when we can no longer drive then it will be a requirement to move - I really don’t want to think about down sizing as I feel it will be very traumatic.

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