Now, I was reading Lanie’s journal, and a while ago she’d been wondering about some Briticisms, like what South West 6 was, and so on. Anyway, I sent her an appallingly long and boring email to her about these things, and when I was down visiting the parents (and going to the 4*m gig) earlier this week, I mentioned it to them. And as if often the case when I mention things I know some-stuff about to my parents, I learned a lot more. Did you know that the Tube and the Underground aren’t the same thing? Maybe it’s just me that didn’t realise – the terms are interchanged pretty much, and it’s all the ‘London Underground’. But the Tube trains are the lower, squatter, more rounded ones, like on the Northern line, and the Underground trains are the slightly taller, flat-sided ones, like on the District line. So there you go. And another thing I didn’t know – postcodes only started being used in this country in the 70’s. But in London, the postal districts (like SW6, etc) have been used much longer (they were extended to full postcodes in the 70’s) – when my Dad’s family moved to England (and London) in the 30’s, they were in use as far as he remembers. He actually lived in SW6 – Fulham. Heh.
All this reminds me of another story Dad told me. In the war, he and one of his sisters were evacuated (his brother was in the RAF, and the twins would have just about left school, and were probably doing something war-effort-y – must ask them some time) to Banbury (I think). Dad was about 5 or 6 years old, and thought that London was bigger and better than the country, and apparantly said so quite a lot *g*. He says he particularly remembers declaring that in London even the pints of milk were much bigger. In later years, he realised that of course, this was because the “pints” of milk they had at home were actually quarts. Heheheh. [/boring history ramble]
Oh, and Lanie, before I started rambling there, I meant to say, bummer about your car getting broken into. :-( Moronic bastards. Had a similar thing happen to me once – I was driving Mum’s car, parked it for half-an-hour to go to a quick rehersal, and when I came back, the window was smashed, and they’d stolen the tax disk. Lovely. So *hugs* – it’s such a horrible feeling when that kind of thing happens.
