Time for me to hoy my bit in now. When you get a bit long in the tooth you tend to reminisce, probably a bit too long and possibly on prices of things more than anything else. I'll put prices in old money and decimal in brackets.

My first recollection of prices was just after the war at the age of 10, I used to stay at my Nan's at the weekend and would go to the bakers around the corner for the weekend bread, small loaf 2 1/2 pence (1p), and large 4 1/2 pence.

Comics, Dandy, Beano and when a bit older Wizard, Rover, Hotspur and Adventure were all 2 pence. We lived in Gateshead then and my earliest recollection of tram fares were a halfpenny down to the bridge and another halfpenny to cross the river and go up to the Haymarket.

New small cars were well under £100 and I believe the Rolls Royce was £3,000. It was very rare in those days to see a foreign car and if you did it was a topic of conversation at school for days on end.

When I passed the 11+ in 1947 my new school blazer was 16 shillings and 2 shillings for the badge. In total 90p today.

I remember getting a paper round in 1948 to save up for Boy's Brigade camp in North Yorks. It took an hour in the mornings and the same evenings with the Chronicle and two journies on Sundays with two bags. That was 14 hours+ per week for ten shillings (50p)

There was a little corner shop on Alexandra Road near my Nan's run by an elderly Jewish couple we called the farthing shop. For those who only know decimal, a farthing was a quarter of an old penny i.e. almost 1000 to the pound. They used to do a little bag of kid's goodies for a farthing. A few sweets, a couple of marbles, a little puzzle, and a few carlings, like nuts in shells. Those poor souls must have had to sell 1000,s to make a living.

When I came home from National Service I bought my first car, 1937 Ford 8 with spoke wheels and the spare on the round back. It was £30 and immaculate. That was 1957 and petrol was 3 shillings and 10 pence (Just under 20p) Half a pint of ordinary beer was six pence (2 1/2 p) and best was 7 pence.

Property prices, my Dad bought our first house in Teviot street, Deckham in 1946 for £600 and sold it in 1949 for £900. We moved down to Tynemouth then and he bought a house in Hotspur St. for £1,200. Mam and Dad lived there until 1965 and he sold it for £18,000. They are now selling for just under £600,000 would you believe.