Life

Radio review: Snapshot from a bygone era

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann

Nuala McCann is an Irish News columnist and writes a weekly radio review.

Nuala McCann
Nuala McCann Nuala McCann

The Passage of Time Radio 4

Money Box: The Death of Retirement Radio 4

This was a snapshot of another time before televisions and toilets and even bins.

Ruby and Kathleen from Derry featured on Omnibus - The Passage of Time chatting about shared experiences and friendships down through the years.

Those were the days of tight communities where everyone knew everyone else.

There was a story about how one woman's father had a carbine battery on his bike. He came home and took it off and set it on the ground. But it dripped acid, went down into the pipe, went along and blew their toilet up.

Everyone had an outside toilet back then - and theirs had to be rebuilt.

When it was, the family got one with a lid that lifted up - a rare jewel in the world of planks with a hole cut in.

``My husband was a wean in arms but he said: 'I remember people queuing up to look at my mother's new toilet.'''

It was easy chat about tough times before the bin service, never mind the National Health Service.

Ever seen a bin man with a big shire horse trying for a three-point turn?

There was a little nostalgia for times past: "Too many cars on the road, not enough children out playing," they sighed.

Will you ever be able to retire? Two million UK pensioners survive on minimum state pensions which work out at around £160 a week for a single person.

Money Box presenter Paul Lewis said a baby boy born in 2016 can expect to live to the age of 90 and a girl to 93.

So who is going to pay for those retirement years?

It made for sober listening if you want to cruise along on the SS Golden Oldie and not the rented pedalo.

The advice was a little late for many of us ....Pay 12.5 per cent into pension fund for at least 40 years.

And if you're a new parent, the message was quite blunt ....start putting pension money away for your new baby right now.