Thread: How the tide turns

Remember the days (bet you do!) when banks put the financial welfare of their clients first ? - You know, farmer would work out his next year's budget, present it to the local Bank Manager...who would tweak/question/advise till they arrived at figures he knew the farmer could servic. Then the loan/overdraft would go ahead.

The guiding principle was to keep the farmer afloat, pay his debts and make a profit for his future.

Today, the bank's shareholders interests are paramount, the bottom line being the potential 'fire-sale' Return On Investment (for them) when the farmer defaults. Not 'If'.

Wonder how many lifetimes you'll need to see that idea again !

Glen I'm always interested in hearing how it was all those years ago. Sadly I don't take the time to ask "how it was" because I'm usually to busy.

Thanks for sharing though. We often can't really work out where we are going if we don't understand the past. I can't imagine when I'm double my age and I casually mention we used to order landy parts, or reply to a forum during lunch via an IPad.

It's always ironic when we hear Gerry Harvey bleating about how unfair the GST free value on imported goods is affecting his buisness.

This is the same guy who's stores sent many local electronics and furnature stores to the wall because they couldn't compete with his discounts. The same guy who complains about weekend penalty rates and gives his mostly casual workforce the lowest pay and hours he can get away with.

There has been nothing stopping him setting up an internet presence supplying out of Asia and reaping the GST exemption also. However IMHO he's very much missed the boat on that or would still be more expensive than other internet vendors. After there's all the race horses he has to support so he needs the money.

On the other part of the thread. Buying Arnott's bikkys from the bulk metal tin by the ounce or pound and lollies always bought by the penny that came out of large confectionary jars on the counter! Weston's Wagon Wheels that seemed about the same size as your head.

Yep, remember all that Glen.
You might also remember that we would struggle home from town carrying the groceries in large brown paper bags and dilly bags. Remember those ?
Also on the farm house floor we had lino and our mats were the large pumpkin bags.
On sundays there were always a crowd for lunch around the table. We couldn't afford to waste the tank water on flower beds so on Sunday's Nan would decorate the house with red gum tips when they were in season.
Looked and smelt beaut. When there were no gum tips she would have small vases with overflowing Pigface.
Pop used to sit at the head of the table in a large chair that Nan had built for him in 1905, I have that chair today and I am about to restore it for the third time.
I still prefer lino and have it on my floors.
Dont mind packed earth either if its remote.

Sigh.

For those that dont know what pigface is I have downloaded a couple of pics.
The large pod thingy stores water, this is the Inland variety, us kids used to suck on them in summer, wasn't real tasty but it would quench yer thirst.
I mentioned the pumpkin bags, these were used on show days by adults in the bag hopping races.
When we were small we would hop in the smaller hession bean bag untill we could handle the big pumkin bag.
Entertainment was different in those days and was enjoyed by folk of all ages.

Yeah, Gerry Harvey "poor bugger me".

A large Mitre Ten store in a local shopping centre shut the doors and had a clearing auction sale. The proprietors were wingeing about the nearby Bunnings sending them broke. I thought " Yeah, just what Mitre 10's did in the 60's and 70's to the mum and dad hardware stores."

You can't help but notice in small and medium towns and cities in the USA that where there is a Walmart or K Mart shopping complex on the outskirts, that the old CBD is virtually derelict. People select their favoured shops with their feet and their wallets.

I am not country but city,(Brisbane) and can still remember the "Allen & Starks" now Myers, as well as Finney's (David Jones) and queuing for hours to get 6 hot donuts from the only donut machine in Qld. (put in for the US servicemen in WW11)coming home with shopping bags loaded on the tram,and my father buying a brand new Standard Vanguard sedan in 1949 right hand colunm change, Gawd, I'm old.

A trip to Toowoomba was a major undertaking,and doing a primary school (grade 8) trip to Warwick to watch weat grow but also discovering what a girl had under her blouse

But thinking about all the medical advances since then makes me proud to have grown up during those years of discovery,the jet age,space travel,and the digital age.

rant over


Yeah! Brian,that is exactly what happened at Caboolture,council gave permission for a large shopping centre at Morayfield and within a year Caboolture CBD was dead.

As a kid I remember milk delivered in 600ml glass bottles, the local milko was keenly awaited some mornings until Coles and Woolworth stated to sell milk. Fresh bread delivered to a large alloy tin at the front door also keenly awaited and killed off by the same mob.
I guess in time there will be a marketing opportunity to capture yuppie Y geneers who are happy to pay for something new and be waited on.