The chances are if you were born post 2000 the concept of hand me downs maybe somewhat lost on you. However as a child of the 70s or 80s you're more than likely to be well accustomed as to it's meaning unless of course you were born into a world of privilege. Let's face it if you fall into the latter camp you're highly unlikely to be reading this anyway, so...
This was a time where our version of Spotify would mean tuning into the Chart Show every Sunday on Radio 1 primed with our fingers over the radio to record our favourite tracks onto a cassette with the vein hope we'd also manage to not catch the DJ talking with an intro or outro. Yes ladies and gentleman this was music piracy on a grand scale which took place it the majority of households throughout the United Kingdom. Times were hard and before the advent of rechargeable batteries it wasn't uncommon to see people twirling a cassette on top of a pencil or biro just to conserve the battery life on something called a Walkman. If you think Apple EarPods are bad then you should have tried wearing two bits of foam attached by a sheet of thin metal which would easily bend out of shape with no hope of it ever returning to it's original composition.
With money scarce hand me downs were a common every day part of life. For those with older siblings, clothes and toys would be passed down to the next child. You were told to look after things because when your parents told you that you wouldn't be getting another one - they weren't joking. Lines of credit didn't come as they do now with credit card companies continually trying to get you to spend money you don't have or can't afford to pay back to buy goods you don't really need. Sure you could get something through the Littlewoods catalogue and someone would come and collect the money every week or so or maybe you could rent a TV or Radio but that was about it.
Hand me downs were an everyday part of life and maybe even a necessity to many people. I never had older brothers and sisters but that didn't mean I was immune. My action men came from two of my cousins. One set would come with hands and feet missing, the other in immaculate condition. It wasn't hard to work out which cousin would go on to join the RAF later on in life.
So why am I telling you all this? Well a hand me down is an article of some description. In this instance I want to take the opportunity to hand down to you the reader some of the many things I have learned over the years. Pieces of advice that I think will be of benefit to those reading. These may be snippets of psychology, general life advice and thoughts or quotes which may inspire you in the same way they did me. They might just help provide answers to some of the questions you might be asking yourself especially when you're going through tough times. If I can help just one person then the time will have been worth it. For years I've been writing notes in books and never known what to do with all of them. Hopefully this blog will provide the perfect outlet for them all. If something you read here proves of use then hand it down to someone else and encourage them to do the same. Maybe, just maybe in a world where everyone is evermore becoming self obsessed we can together start to make it a little nicer once more.
If you've got this far - thank you for reading it all. It means a lot. I hope what's to come will be of use to you.
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