The one I found strange was a 'cloth yard' which is 37 inches

Most of the land around me now is given over to wheat and barley and it is still sold in bushell weight. So, it's not an extinct weight, as one might think.

The one I found strange was a 'cloth yard' which is 37 inches. Probably measured that way to allow for shrinkage. I did a boat roof and side zip in window panels for a guy in Herculite once and I told him that you first make it a big larger because with using herculite you have to allow for shrinkage of one inch in every yard. I made it that way and the guys says when he first puts in on that he wants it made a bit tighter. I tell him that when that boat sits in the sun for a couple of days it will shrink down and if I make it smaller now it won't snap down anymore. Sure enough when I made it smaller like he wants, it fits perfect, but a couple of days in the sun and now it's too small and I have to add webbing straps with fasteners to fasten it down properly. The materal to do the job which he paid for, cost just under $1,500.00. I did the 50 hours of work that it took me for free because he was a friend. A stupid friend now that I think back on it or maybe it was me that was the stupid one.

In Ontario most farms are measured in acres but in the west were farms are much larger it's sections and parts of a section. Same for in the States.

640 acres to a section, 320 to a half section,160 to a quarter section 80 to a half quarter section and 40 acres to a quarter quarter section. So now you know when they mean when they say I'm working out in the back 40. A section is also 1 mile by 1 mile. There is no fixed number of acres per side because an acre does not have to be square as long as it 43,560 square feet.

My late father in law, Ron, was a great bloke, who went straight from school at 14 to work in a brewery and I remember once the the Beatles record....  Being for the benefit of Mr Kite, was playing on the radio and one of the lines mentioned a Hogshead, so he asked me did I know what a Hogshead was? Well I hadn't a clue and he told me it was a barrel with 64 gallons of booze in it and a Firkin had nine pints. (to tell you the truth I'd forgot, so I just had to confirm it before posting)

Tom, in your first post you have a flag as 25 sq ft. Over here paving stones are known as flags, you flag a driveway for instance. Is that a term used in America and Pete, what about Canada?

Not like flag. We pave drive ways in ashphalt or lay interlocking bricks in driveways. In the west they use cement to do their driveways

Pissed, Is that the right word for drunk? It certainly is.... you go on the piss, or go out for a piss-up and get pissed. Or alternatively you could get bladdered, legless, arse'oled, tanked up, shit faced or fuck-faced, to mention a few. English is such a rich language, don't you think?

You left out tight Major. In a sentence, he came to work and he was still tight from the night before.

I grew up on a diet of jam and chip butties (sandwiches) with a break for some cornflakes. When we get talking of the methods our mother's used back in those post war years, there are some real funny stories. Thing is, they had a very important job to do, raise kids with sod all. My mother used to whisk up a raw egg in a glass of milk and I had to drink it. Once you'd got the first bit down there was no going back, as the egg was like some giant DNA strand, which dragged the rest of the gelatenous mess with it. Once the eggy slime had disappeared her face would light up. 

And they say the average kilt has 9 yards of cloth in it.  That's because it was also used a a blanket coat

Shula and the Major must have been rich kids because they got hamburger and corn flakes. As a kid we got Virginia Opossum with cabbage and for a treat mother would sometimes leave the fur on.

Every Friday night at my Legion during dinner they sell meat draw tickets. The tickets cost 10 bucks but for that there are 20 different draws and each giving a prize. Friday I was lucky again and won 4kgs of lean ground beef on the first draw and a 4kg roast of beef on one later. The dinner cost is 8 bucks and Friday they had breaded veal parmesan with noodles and sauce and sweet corn on the cob, caesar salad and French bread. For dessert, blue berry pie with ice cream topped with whipped cream. 

If it wasn't for the legion Friday night dinners us veterans would probably all starve. lol

You will notice I said Virginia Opossum. The reason being they are not native to here but are from Virginia and since they seemed to like it here have decided to stay. They are cute to look at until they open their mouths.

If it wasn't for the legion Friday night dinners us veterans would probably all starve. lol 

Starve! If it wasn't for the legion you might still be able to get into last month's pants.

Possums are delightful little critters.  They are North America's only marsupial and they don't carry rabies.

Post-war America became the land of the rich for sure.  Both of my parents grew up during the depression.  The result was as interesting as it was irritating for some of us growing up in the 50's.  The depression impressed frugality on my mother to the point that the roll of paper towels in the kitchen was for show only.  You used dishrags that could be laundered.  For my father, it was three things on the plate.  There had to be a meat, a potato and a vegetable.  We had to eat beans and cornbread once a week just to remind us of how blessed we were.  Breakfast had to be bacon, eggs and toast.  I remember my mom getting up very early so she could cook such a breakfast before he went off to work.  Mom's frugality drove me nuts.  She washed tin foil to be used again and again.  She never used Saran wrap; we had washable plastic bowl covers.  I didn't realize how useful all that was until I had to run my own house!

I grew up in a grove, or avenue as most would know it. I've revisited it twice over the years but my last visit, literally only a month ago, as we were passing, it at the time, came as quite a shock really, as I never quite realised it was so small. How seven people lived in it I don't know. I drove down to the bottom and looked the only home I knew until I was 23 and I would have loved to have gone inside. Looking back through an adult's eyes you recall all of the names of your neighbours, house by house. I realise what good, honest people they all were, as they were the WW2 generation and the me me generation was still on it's way when we were kids. Over the years where I am now we've had a few people standing outside looking at our home and it's the same story, they told us they grew up in my house. One woman was visiting from Australia and hadn't seen the place in 60 year and that was a good 15 years ago. I asked her what it was like then and she said..... bloody freezing! I told her nothing much had changed.

And when that chest collapsed into your stomach Tom, did you manage to get one last look at your best mate before he was eclipsed forever?

Tom, Jack Griffin is the invisible man.

Maybe it pertains to the habit of dealing in Guineas, A pound was worth twenty shillings but a Guinea is worth 21 shillings. The Guinea coin was originally made of gold and was worth one pound, but as it was made of gold from the Guinea and as the price of gold fluctuated, it rose and fell, so it was eventually set at 21 shillings. Even though the Guinea does not exist anymore it is still traditionally used in various fields, most notably horse racing, where race horses are still sold in Guineas. Some art work at auctions is still sold in Guineas. Two of the classic horse races here are still known as the 1000 and 2000 Guineas. I suspect the troy ounce has a similar history.

Tom, Jack Griffin is the invisible man.

The Invisible Man is my favourite H G Wells novel. Forget the Holywood film versions, the best and most faithful to the book is the BBC series from 1984.