It was Himself who discovered this bundle. His head and hands buried beneath the floorboards as he scouted for any further unwanted issues. He tossed it towards me and returned to his 'below board' position.
A gentle turning of pages revealed the frontispiece with the cost of the newspaper only being 7p, however the stories felt very familiar. Taxes going up, prices rocketing, unemployment etc etc. However the biggest difference was an advertisement for smoking. A full spreadsheet sized one.
For a princely sum of 45 pence you could get your grubby little fingers on a packet of 12 KING SIZE cigarettes. I looked up the company and in 1976, this company was at it's height with it eventually being hobbled first by taxes, then health sensibilities, finally being absorbed by an American company and fading away.
Another full page advert was for a car - I looked up it's number plate on the MoT checker and it reported that yes this was indeed the car in the photo but it also informed me that it had a red livery.
There was a 'pocket cartoon' - which has a woman asking a bloke whether ' kissing was a health hazard' as well as a simple weather report stating that it was a cloudy and rainy December - yup - some things never change........
To purchase the current version of this paper is £1.70.
The Fiat was sold for £1500 at the time, I have looked up car and classic car type websites and the same model can command a price between double and 12 (yes TWELVE) times the original cost. wow.
Definitely treasure!
ReplyDeleteit is! or was, it was also a victim of that awful spray can of glue, I did try and rescue what I could, however some of the pages are now glued together. sigh
DeleteSuch an interesting find. Always great to discover such glimpses into the past.
ReplyDeleteI agree :) it also triggered a conversation of what we were doing at that time, how old we were, what schools, countries, pets etc - that was fun too
DeleteInteresting & some things change, and others don't. I have been following along, but can't always comment, though I think I'm slowly working things out now. Take care & hugs from an uber hot down under.
ReplyDeleteThat is what we thought - how things were still the same, yet different. Keep cool
DeleteThat paper is almost 50 years old..... it made me think where I was back then.... hard to believe it was such a long time ago. Yes indeed, the right classic car is worth a mint today! x
ReplyDeleteYes, that is what we did, worked out what we were doing then. I was also staggered at how much some of those old Fiats were going for - the most expensive was £19000 plus!
DeleteI love finding old newspapers, such a fascinating insight into real life back in the day. xxx
ReplyDelete