Yamagata ken,
I remember that a "Royal Enfield" 250cc four-stroke (£31/17/6) - after a "Pride & Clarke" two-stoke "Red Indian" (at £29/19/6, about the cheapest new bike on the market) was the unattainable object of desire. But as I never saw 31/- in one piece, never mind £31, it had to stay that way.........D.
Chugalug,
Well said ! Kipling (for generations derided by the fashionable as a mere scribbler of jingoist doggerel) rates just below Shakespeare in my book. I always remember the "Times" reference to him on the occasion of King George V's death (Kipling had died a few weeks previously): "The King is dead - and he has sent his trumpeter before him !"
Google: "Kipling___Chant Pagan", read the poem through, and get an idea of what many felt at the war end.....D.
Regards to you both, Danny.