Archers thread #145: The glue that held the Aldridges together is gone. Will they fall apart? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Lillian and I both made the glue observation, so I thought that would be as good a way as any to kick off this new thread. We raced through the last one, for obvious reasons. This one may last until the funeral. Will Tamsin Greig find time to attend? I do hope so.

The poem Jennifer quoted in her journal is here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43775/rabbi-ben-ezra It's doubtful whether the last of Jennifer's life was the best, but she had plenty to contend with all the way through.

Over to you!

I'm quite certain Advanced on all these signs is an error. I see signs up sometimes giving 'Advanced Notice' of roadworks. I am a pedant to the end of my fingertips and I always spend the next few seconds fulminating and mentally wondering about the difference between Beginners' Notice and Advanced Notice. Yes, I am a delight to live with.

I'm glad it's not just me.

The discussion about life expectancy caught my eye. I tried doing a bit of simple actuarial modelling with the pre-pandemic UK mortality tables.

If you took 100 married couples where both male and female are typical 65 year olds, then by the age of 80, about half the marriages would be going, but you'd expect about 25 widows and 16 widowers (the rest, both spouses have died).

Over time that ratio (around 3 widows to 2 widowers) gradually rises (bear in mind the widowed population is all the time being added to by spousal deaths and subtracted from by widow(er)s dying), although it rises fairly slowly at first:

• at age 90, 27 widows and 16 widowers;
• by age 97, most of the original 200 people will have died, but you'd expect 8 widows and 4 widowers to be left.

(Ooh, I've just discovered you can do bullet points on Mumsnet).

Of course, historically husbands tend to be older than their wives so that will exaggerate the effect even more as husbands reach extreme old age before their wives.

(I've assumed that one person's death doesn't affect their spouse's chances of dying, which I know is not entirely true. For reference I used the qx and lx columns on 2017-2019 of the data here: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesunitedkingdomreferencetables).

Thank you, DDD, that's very interesting.

@NeverApologiseNeverExplain
Does anyone remember the scene in The Graduate (1968) where the self-important man at the party takes Benjamin aside to dispense career advice and says. "I have one word for you. Plastics"?
Of course. Thanks for the reminder.

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Sorry, I spend time in AIBU, where it sometimes seems that anyone over the age of 60 (esp. a MIL) must be suffering from dementia. As an over 60 myself, I get fed up of it.

And no, my abrupt reply is not an indication I’m in the early stages of dementia.

I know exactly what you mean, Mere. There's a thread running at the moment where a MIL has behaved oddly and at least two people have suggested dementia. Given her DIL has toddler children, the MIL may well only be in her 50s.

I agree. It gets tedious. A MIL might be 40, theoretically.
I'm sick of ageism and sexism.

Did we have plastic shopping bags in the 1970s? Must have done. I was in a tiny village in Spain in about 1980, rather struck by the plastic carrier bags on the washing lines - we were already using them with gay abandon and would never have dreamt of washing and reusing. But in the 50s you always took your string bag with you.

A supermarket was Kwiks, which was a no frills affair. I remember our first supermarket, about the size of one of today’s petrol station shops. But so special to be able to pick up your own stuff! Previously DM had groceries, bread, meat, milk all delivered by the respective tradesmen. She went shopping only for veg.

World's gone mad. Has it really, or is that the natural conlusion of anyone who has lived through 60 years of change?

Scotch tape is not another form of what I call sellotape though, it is a different thing altogether! Partially opaque, thicker, respoitionable 40 odd years ago the two were indistinguishable.

@MereDintofPandiculation , I haven't gone through 60 years of anything.

I have some Scotch tape and some Sellotape. They're pretty much the same. They're not particularly old, maybe 2 or 3 years. I go through lots of sticky tape.

If you'd like to see a classic 'early sign of dementia' post, have a look at this thread, page 1 about 9 or 10 posts in.

Yes, I agree with that. I don't think of booking done in advance being more evolved or superior to late booking!

It has changed so much though, in a relatively short space of time.

I reread the beginning of Notes From a Small Island recently. I read it in the 90s when it first came out and the beginning part Bryson describes getting off a ferry in the middle of night and his initially fruitless search for a hotel, using a phone box and directory.

None of that was unusual 20 or so years on. But reading that again another 20 or so years later and that world is unrecognisable.
Everything would be done with phones, online maps, hotel booking, reviews.

Whilst admittedly he would have had a better time of it with trip advisor and booking.com etc it still made me feel nostalgic.

But I actually think that's a reasonable hypothesis in that scenario.....

I have been away for a few days and this thread has taken a very strange turn…

A mere child! You have the delights of free bus travel to come. My Over 60s Oyster Card is one of the best things I've ever had.

The strange turn is probably my fault for musing about the BBC not mentioning brand names. Ah well. We were trying to fill this thread up fast so we might stand some chance of hitting a milestone @DadDadDad had pointed out, but I don't think we're going fast enough. No matter.

That's the one I had in mind. The OP makes it clear the MIL in question has been unreasonable and pigheaded all her life, though, so dementia seems unlikely.

My Over 60s Oyster Card is one of the best things I've ever had.

The first few times I used my Senior Railcard I felt ridiculously smug and delighted. (But train travel has become so miserable over the past year, I’ve used it much less than I’d anticipated.)

I cannot say I’ve ever heard this rite of passage mentioned on TA by anyone reaching 60 … But who uses the train in Ambridge? Ruairi, yes. No children travelling daily to a more distant school. No adults regularly visiting friends or relatives in another town. Oh, didn’t Blake escort Chelsea home by train after she ran away? Found my level.

It may be a London thing. The Freedom Pass is issued at state pension age. Mr Gasp has one now. Public transport in Ambridge is so limited that having free bus travel is probably of very little value.

Brad made his slightly improbable trek to Reading and back by train in the course of an evening to meet Paige after college. Whether he used a 16-25 Railcard for the purchase remains a mystery but it would have been the thrifty thing to do.

Oh yes - meant to add Brad but was distracted!

True about the apparent lack of public transport, aside from the school bus. It’s surprising that people like Lynda, Emma etc haven’t lobbied for more. Surely all the ungilded youth (at least) of Ambridge must rely on buses and trains to get them anywhere?