Different Times

Here's a little story I've mentioned to some people already but I keep forgetting to write down. My parents are of much the same age and were born and brought up only a couple of miles from each other on the north side of Birmingham but although she's still got traces of her brummie accent despite having lived in Hampshire for the best part of fifty years my dad hasn't and indeed I never remember him having much of one.

Dad looks out across the Severn at Bewdley on our trip

When we were on our trip to the Severn Valley Railway (which he used to use as a nipper) I idly mentioned this to him and he explained why.

We moved to Hampshire in 1962 because my dad had left Bristol Siddeley to go to a job in the scientific civil service at what was then NGTE Pyestock (it's now part of QuinetiQ). He said that when he started there he still had a strong brummie accent and he was taken to one side and it was quietly explained to him that if he wanted to get on in the civil service he needed to lose the accent.

So he did.

Different times huh?