Lived Experience Forum

[saltandpepper]

When I was in high school I often didn't pack a lunch. Partly laziness, partly nothing much there to eat. I'd chuck a couple of apples in my bag and a can of soft drink (which cost 50c back then) and then not eat the apples because bleh. But they were there if I got too hungry.

I was friends with a girl back then and she started noticing I didn't ever bring much food with me. She started out pretending like she wasn't going to eat all her lunch and share hers with me. Eventually she started just packing extra snacks--fruit buns I recall--for me to have. Wednesday's she'd buy her lunch from the canteen and she'd get me a hot chicken wrap. She mothered me a lot back then. She didn't have to, I didn't ask, no one told her to, she was just a really good person.

I think of her often, and I feel very grateful to her. She was always very kind and caring. I remember I started calling her "Mum" as a "joke". But it wasn't really. She took good care of me like mother's are meant to.

It makes me ache to think back on it now.

@BlueBay @TAB @MDT @Appleblossom @Bow @Powderfinger @NatureLover 

[TAB]

Nice story @saltandpepper  try not to be hard on yourself, smile and move on ?

I can remember when soft drinks also came in glass and cost 5c lol

I always felt was hard done by, but was fed and clothed  as I was told after grown up

[MDT]

I like that story @saltandpepper

Memories like that are what I like

I have a few as well.

HAve you heard of past authoring ?

[SJT63]

@saltandpepper 

delightful story. I hope you ache with fondness and not regret.

[saltandpepper]

Ah @TAB 5c soft drink, what a time to be alive. And here I was thinking getting 3 for 5c ghost drops was a ripper.

I'm not sure I will ever be able to smile and move on from the things that happened back then.

[saltandpepper]

Hey @MDT anything you wanna share? Would like to hear it if you're comfortable sharing.

Nah, haven't heard of it, what's past authoring?

[saltandpepper]

@SJT63 its a mixed bag of emotions. Fondness for the girl who took it upon herself to care for me, but a lot of pain there as well

[TAB]

not sure what ghost drops are @saltandpepper  I remember pies and and pasties being 12c lol, first time saw hotdogs were .20c, things are a lot cheaper these days relatively well except housing, just food is all gunk and fruit and veg just terrible Cigs were .40 cents a packet lol ok thats all early 70s re prices

[saltandpepper]

Ghost drops are lollies @TAB used to love em.

Fu*k me, 40c a pack?! The first time I bought a pack in years was at Christmas. Hadn't bought a pack since all the price hikes and they'd gone from $30 to $55. Didn't even realise how much they were til I got back to the car and thought, huh, how did I spend that much on a basket of junk food? Horrifying. 

[TAB]

that was for 20 , but came in packs of 10 as well, so kids could afford them lol @saltandpepper  but back then a lot of people earned like $50 a week so its all relative

interesting  though, a principal then earned 2x what a labourer did from memory, think 6x now depending on example