Those were the days

I very much doubt that any reader of this blog will recall the dark days of the early months of 1974. I call those days dark because that is what they were for hours at a stretch. The coal miners had been working to rule and, as a result, the generation of electricity was severely limited. To conserve power, commercial users of electricity were limited to three specified days' consumption each week. In addition, power was cut for all users during certain hours. Back then I was in the habit of using an electric shaver so, as my effort to assist the country, I resolved to stop shaving for the duration. I never did bother to start again so my daughter (who was born a couple of years later) has never seen me clean-shaven.

Although we did have advance notice of when power would be cut, the cuts caused considerable inconvenience. We had two children aged three and one and getting them dressed and breakfasted on days when we had morning power cuts was quite an effort. Not that I had much to do with that side of things. I left my better half to deal with the children after I had gone to work.

Of course, offices and shops were also subject to power cuts. I was working in a bank and recall that when we lost power in the afternoons we had to resort to portable lamps of all descriptions. We also had to make alternative arrangements for doing the book-keeping as the accounting machines ran on electricity.

I seem to remember that the general population as a whole took all the inconvenience pretty well - but maybe those rose-tinted spectacles have something to do with that! Actually, it all reminds me of that old Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times.

Talking of interesting times, tomorrow sees the annual Brighton Lions fireworks display which commemorates the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in 1605. We are anxiously watching the weather forecasts. A few days ago - indeed, even last night - the forecast for tomorrow evening was intersting if not downright iffy. It's amazing that in my 25 years as a member of Brighton Lions the event has been cancelled only once because of inclement weather. This is our biggest fund-raiser of the year and we have £10,000-worth of fireworks ready to go so we are hoping for the best.