I'm rather chameleon like about it all.
I'm def working class stock. My dad was a copper and my Mum was a nurse.

My Dad died when I was a kid, and my Mum remarried when I was 18, to a wealthy guy who had 2 kids of his own.

So me and my brother, both with strictly comprehensive education became step siblings to two privately educated sloane rangers (my stepsister shortly afterwards got a first from Oxford, and ended up at a Japanese bank in the city earning 250k a year).

I shared a flat in Fulham with my stepbrother for 4 years, so my social life was wierd - one weekend out with my plumber / builder / despatch rider mates, getting into punchups in dodgy pubs in South London, the next weekend in a pengiun suit going to some posh birds 21st Birthday party at her parents 24 bedroom pile in Herefordshire with 100 hooray henries.

This all required a certain flexibility in both behaviour and speech.

I found it a useful education. I work in a job that brings me into contact with a whole lot of people, from stevedores loading ships, to members of the house of Lords, who in my professional capacity I am working with as an equal.

It's good to be able to drink from a hosepipe in the morning while trying to sort out why someone took a shit in the hold of a ship we're loading, then throw on a suit and chat to the CEO of a fortune 500 company after lunch.

All rather jolly, innit?
(username failed moderation, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 16:22, 19 replies)

Alright Liemallo-WAIT A MINUTE

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 16:26, closed)

Thank you for getting that out
of the way nice and early.
(username failed moderation, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 16:29, closed)

You're not fun enough to be Liemallow.

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 16:32, closed)

'I'm def working class stock. My dad was a copper and my Mum was a nurse.'
You seem to have no idea what working class means.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 19:39, closed)

All the nurses I've met have been as common as muck.
And very free with their biscuits.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 19:43, closed)

Yes, that may be the case,
but they are nurses; they have a degree, are salaried and have future financial security, and as such, can't really be described as working class.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 20:16, closed)

Bollocks. They work for a wage or for the profit of others, ipso facto they are working class. Even more so if they are both in state sector jobs.
The lumpenproletariat is a subset of the working class, not it's entirety.
It is arguable that modern policing and nursing with degree level entry may be aspirational middle class, but not of the presumed era of the OP's parents.
( da5id <YOUR SIG HERE>, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 23:05, closed)

"future financial security"
Are you familiar with the NHS?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 20 Mar 2014, 23:40, closed)

Yes, my Mum worked for them for her entire career.
She was never without a job, owns her own house, and is living a more than comfortable retirement. She's spent the best part of the last decade donniing a backpack, and buying a round the world ticket every year.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 0:37, closed)

Therefore, every single nurse ever must be the same, right?
Your mum sounds hot, though. Was she any good?
(showman, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 1:11, closed)

Old Skool NHS Employee
That the rest of us are still paying for... including those employed by private sector contracted providers who have to contend with year on year zero rises due to private equity investors maximising dividend returns ahead of private sales or public flotation.
( notmyrealname, Sat 22 Mar 2014, 17:35, closed)

She didn't have a degree
she qualified in the 1960s.

But there's a story there. She always regretted not going to university, and she decided a few years ago to do something about it. She's 72 this year, and this summer will graduate with a degree in English literature.
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 8:56, closed)

And then she dies, leaving you enough money to buy a 44,000l of saline?

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 9:42, closed)

Well, I was thinking about a Porsche, but
we're heading in the right direction.
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 11:16, closed)

I can very much relate to this post,
as your experience sounds rather similar to my own.

No doubt that the resultant "social flexibility" frequently comes in handy.
(showman, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 1:28, closed)

Don't leave us hanging:
Why *did* someone unload during loading? Couldn't they reach the poop deck in time?
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 7:39, closed)

They do it all the time.
It's quite a slog to climb out of the hold of a ship, walk down the gangway and find a toilet, so they just wander of into a dark corner and let it go.

We had a complaint once from a buyer of some goods in West Africa that a stevedore in Brazil had shit in the hold.

We asked him whether it might have been done by one of his guys over there, and he answered 'Not possible. Was wrapped in a Brazilian Newspaper'.
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 8:53, closed)

Ah, I see.
That's quite grim really, but Thankyou for enlightening me :)
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Fri 21 Mar 2014, 19:42, closed)

I only clicked the replies to find this out tbh.

( Slippery Mick &#8207;, Mon 24 Mar 2014, 12:36, closed)