Were Things Much Easier Before Metrication?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6074909/PETER-HITCHENS-signs-hastened-erosion-England.html

We buy our Beer by the pint, but our petrol by the Litre.

Our road signs are in miles, but we measure in Metres etc.

What difficulties did you find on the days of the change over?

Take the day when suddenly there was only 100 new pennies to the £1, when we once got 240 old pennies.

Remember those cheap little plastic money converters we carried about?

[dannyk13]

For those who never experienced imperial measurements metric is easier.

[maggiebee]

Was once told by a student that she had only studied in metric at school. When I asked her how tall she was she said 5'2"

[tamborine]

the only metric I cant grasp is measurements & its still yards, feet & inches for sewing

[Cloverjo]

I don't know what it was like to change from 240 pennies per pound to 100, as I was born that year.
The easiest way is what we're used to. If someone told me their baby weighed 3.5 kg at birth I'd have to think for a bit before knowing if that was a big one or not. Same with height, temperature, distance etc.

[Garaman]

I don't recall any real difficulties during the changeover, and much prefer our metric money.

I can't bear Peter Hitchens, but I do miss his brother.

[Mamyalynne]

I worked in a shop at the changeover to decimalisation, we had to have lessons so we could help customers - cannot count how many purses were handed to me with the words 'Take the right money love'.

Trouble was of course as you say most of the products we sold were by the yard or fraction thereof.

[kvalidir]

My Dad once tried to explain LSD to me ( the monetary system not the drug) and I was flabberghasted at how complicated it was not to mention all the coins had proper name and then a variety of nicknames just to make it even harder. Weird, but I quite like the idea of it. I measure in feet and inches weirdly for someone of my age because I helped my Dad a lot and he did but I can do metric for length and weight just as easily.

[jim360]

First they came for our Avoirdupois system, but I did not speak out, because I was not a nostalgic moron.

[Jackdaw33]

Whenever I am given my body weight in kg or the temperature in degrees Celsius I have to go through the laborious process of converting before I understand. Fortunately I can still remember the formulae.

[237SJ]

I don't really remember much about money pre metric but it seems much less complicated than pounds, shillings and pence. I tend to use a bit of both - cooking weights in metric, driving/walking distance in miles. I expect most people do the same.

[sanmac]

Oh yes, the old pound, shilling, and pence system...That's a far thing.

[dannyk13]

It was a twopenny ha'penny system.

[Jackdaw33]

I remember when the ten-bob note was replaced in 1969 by the ten-bob bit. It was known as a Wilson (PM) because it was two-faced and multi-sided.

[SparklyKid]

Motorway signs are in miles, but the blue signs every so often show how many kilometres you are from the start/end of the motorway, most odd.

[sanmac]

I remember that before metrification I found it much easier to run up and down the stairs of a double-decker bus:)

[baza]

jd, I remember the Harold, can't think of any names for other dismal currency. Why do cars do X number of miles to the gallon but fuel is sold by the litre ?

[whiskeryron]

I am ancient now but I well remember the amusement when I last did diy. I bought timber from local merchant which was 3 by 2 inches & sold in metric lengths.

[Peter Pedant]

// ‘Ark at ‘im. Call ‘isself a barman and don’t know what a pint is! Why, a pint’s the ‘alf of a quart and there’s four quarts to the gallon. “Ave to tach you the A, B, C, next.”

‘Never ‘eard of ’em,’ the barman said shortly. “Litre and half litre — that’s all we serve.’

Hitchens a critic then states: “..Orwell succeeds in depicting a sodden deracinated people who have been forcibly alienated from the familiar things that were near and dear to them.”

1984 and a critic

and look at that !
crazy PP spelling from Orwell ( 1948 ) - is he a mind reader or what ?

and "‘Never ‘eard of ’em,’" the exact 1948 equivalent of "Foo dat! what dat den? " we hear so often as a crushing one liner from lips of the average ABer who has his dander up and his crusing-one-liner-centre in his brain set at regular mark 6

[ yeah yeah I know - one AB wag is gonna quip - keen as moutar'
" 1984 when dat den ? or well I dunno - I reelly doan'!"]

[Peter Pedant]

I remember one ABer - now dead - bemoaning that one shop assistant had referred to 'wun punts' - he favoured one penny
I think it killed him

[RichardSlade]

The weirdest thing is that people still consider temperature in Centigrade when it's cold but Fahrenheit when it's hot.

"Brrr! It was minus two when I left for work this morning."
but
"Phew, what a scorcher! It was up in the nineties this afternoon."