It's more than enough to make you weep ...

[ChrisGreaves]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jml39FZ4yns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz6WOZLGKxo

Well, it made me weep (a bit ) anyway.
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

Thanks, Chris!

Beautiful and beautifully talented young folks.

[John Gray]

I would never have expected Chris to be influenced by cute kids.
I would have thought he was more a kitten / puppy person...

[ChrisGreaves]

I would never have expected Chris to be influenced by cute kids.
I would have thought he was more a kitten / puppy person...

Knock it off, John, or I'll reverberate to my first childhood and ...
(Yes! That's my Sunnybank tie!)
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Beautiful and beautifully talented young folks.

The music's not bad, either!
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

Reverberate?

[ChrisGreaves]

Reverberate?

:gotcha:
You were expecting "revert"?
But we are talking about singing here, Hans, and if I play my cards right I'll be able to segue into Reverberation Theory in Diplomacy!
Cheers, Chris

[RonH]

Good find, Chris.
Reminds me of my choir boy days at a very young age. Have to admit that the occasional very small tips were a big attraction

[ChrisGreaves]

...very small tips were a big attraction

tips?
Tips!??!!!
I *never* stole from the collection plate.
We got paid 1d per service and 1/2p per choir rehearsal, so a little over (takes off socks) 6s6p per annum. Paid after Harvest Festival IIRC.
Mind you, those were early 1950s shillings in the UK.
My weekly "spends" were 3d.
Cheers, Chris

[RonH]

That was when money was money

[BobH]

In that era 5 USD exchanged for one GBP. I never understood that given Lend Lease and all that. Because I'm American and ignorant, I cannot suss out how Chris' 3 pence weekly compared to my weekly dime. And, Mr. G., whilst you are about educating me, please explain how the letter 'd' came to represent the penny. The 8 generations of removal from Northamptonshire have separated me from much of the Mother Tongue.

[stuck]

'd' = denarii

[ChrisGreaves]

I cannot suss out how Chris' 3 pence weekly compared to my weekly dime.

Apart from the time separation, as a nine-year old, threepence - my weekly "spends" - was the price of an ice-cream cornet ("cone") in 1955, so I could buy myself an ice-cream, and then sulk for 167.5 hours until payday.

A "wafer" was thruppence, too. Two thin biscuits sandwiching a slab of ice-cream".

Now remember, we still had rationing in Lancashire until about that time, a factor that was, I think, part of my parents decision to emigrate to Western Australia.When we reached Southern Cross, my spends jumped immediately to 2/6d, a factor of ten times over the period May 23rd to June 17th.
In Southern Cross one shilling was a night out at the movies - 10d for admission and 2d for a little Wriggleys Chewing Gum (4 small lozenges).

Last time I looked at Foodland here in Bonavista, a four-litre (~ one gallon) tub of plain ice-cream as north of $11.50.
Mind you, that's $cad. ...
Cheers, Chris

[Jay Freedman]

Last time I looked at Foodland here in Bonavista, a four-litre (~ one gallon) tub of plain ice-cream as north of $11.50.
Mind you, that's $cad. ...

Here in the land of shrinkflation, the former half-gallon (64 ounce or 1.9 L) tub of ice-cream has imploded to only 48 ounces (1.42 L). For the "passable" brands, that tub costs $USD 3.50. If I could find one, the equivalent 4-litre tub would cost $USD 9.86, exchangeable for $CAD 13.35 (perhaps a bit less for reduced packaging).

[GeoffW]

When we reached Southern Cross, my spends jumped immediately to 2/6d, a factor of ten times over the period May 23rd to June 17th.

Actually, not ten times. One pound Sterling bought you about three Australian pounds. So a tad over a three times increase. Still quite extravagant of you.

[ChrisGreaves]

Actually, not ten times. One pound Sterling bought you about three Australian pounds. So a tad over a three times increase. Still quite extravagant of you.

Correct. 2/6 was 30 pence, numerically ten times the 3 pence I received in the UK. I was ten years old at the time, so ten had a magical ring to it for a young nipper in a hot place.
I recall that when my Uncle (Richard, not Bob) sent me a five-pound P.O. for Christmas it became £5 6s 6d in the Bank of NSW, so at that time 1.25% currency conversion rate.
I don't think my folks were smart enough to calculate a new cost-of-living; that would be tricky. In the UK a leg of lamb was costly, but in Southern Cross Vic Rakich slaughtered the sheep whose wool-producing days were coming to and end, so mutton was cheap in Sid Carlson's butcher shop. In SX Mum and Dad might have a sherry twice a week because wine was so cheap, but I'd never seen or heard of them doing that in the post-war UK.

2s 6d was a trip to the movies, a comic, and six penny sticks, for a ten year old in 1956.
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

I were a 10-year old a bit earlier than OMG. I remember that a quarter (one-fourth USD) would get me into one double feature (usually westerns) that included a serial episode and at least 3 cartoons in the morning and yet another with the same offerings in the afternoon and still leave enough to purchase a box of popcorn at one or the other. Shank's mare provided transportation from home to theater and back, ca. 1952.

No to learn what 'denarii' means . . .

OK, so denarii refers to a Roman small silver coin. How does that get us to 'penny?'

[John Gray]

Now to learn what 'denarii' means . . .
OK, so denarii refers to a Roman small silver coin. How does that get us to 'penny?'

Penny (Latin name: Penurious) was the name of the lady who did the minting of the coins...

[ChrisGreaves]

OK, so denarii refers to a Roman small silver coin. How does that get us to 'penny?'

Roman alcoholics had a favorite challenge “Are you still into denial?" Which challenge grew to be corrupted into “Are you still into de Nile”, which (river) was usually entered by one of the main creeks that trickled through the delta, hence “Are you still into de delta”, and since the Greeks already knew about the letter delta, we obtained “Are you still into the peninsula-that-juts-into-the-sea?”, the sea being the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Now this family of phrases was growing way out of character and so efforts were made to shorten what was supposed to be a pithy joke – and had become an encumbrance – into something firm without muddying, as it were, the waters. So we came to “Are you still into the pen–sea?”
Hence Pence
HTH
Cheers, Chris

[stuck]

...OK, so denarii refers to a Roman small silver coin. How does that get us to 'penny?'

Try searching, you'll get various answers, here's a couple:
    https://www.chards.co.uk/guides/the-pen ... guide=1577
    https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numis ... te%20penny

Ken