"respectable working class" is about right, though I suppose if labels have to be assigned we were more middle class by then. Grandparents left school at 12 to work in the mills; father left school at 16 to be an accountant, mother left at 18 to be a teacher; I went to univesity and became an accountant. (Grammar schools helped.)
I think the "respectable working classes" have blurred into a much enlarged middle class, especially with the decline of manufacturing. Even the lowest paid workers (the ones who would get more on the dole) have more in common with the higher paid people than with the lump left behind who expect and demand luxury in their idleness. (Note - This is a criticism of the Shannon Matthews' type parents, not the genuinely unemployed looking for work, of whom there are no doubt increasing numbers.)
Footballers had started hugging by the mid-60's I suppose - I remember recently seeing Bobby Charlton in a series of hugs after a goal, and being quite surprised - but this habit of rolling on the floor en masse is definitely more recent.
Of course, Falconer's Lure was 1957, Cricket Term was 1974 - maybe the Marlows' attitude had changed by then, as well as society's?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-01-12 02:21 am (UTC)I think the "respectable working classes" have blurred into a much enlarged middle class, especially with the decline of manufacturing. Even the lowest paid workers (the ones who would get more on the dole) have more in common with the higher paid people than with the lump left behind who expect and demand luxury in their idleness. (Note - This is a criticism of the Shannon Matthews' type parents, not the genuinely unemployed looking for work, of whom there are no doubt increasing numbers.)
Footballers had started hugging by the mid-60's I suppose - I remember recently seeing Bobby Charlton in a series of hugs after a goal, and being quite surprised - but this habit of rolling on the floor en masse is definitely more recent.
Of course, Falconer's Lure was 1957, Cricket Term was 1974 - maybe the Marlows' attitude had changed by then, as well as society's?