Norman Wisdom

[PeterSF]

Completely off-topic, but as threads develop they tend to diverge a lot due to references by posters (eg the war, following my Sir Norman Wisdom film clip post):
Regarding Coutts Bank - my first job after grammar school was as a cashier at Barclays (I hated it. The best thing I did was to go to college to study what was the "coming thing" back then, computers). I don't know if my observations are correct, or my assumptions were shared by others in the banking industry, but there seemed to be an element of class structure pertaining to what bank you were a customer of. At the top of the mainstream banks I would say that would be Lloyds, followed by Barclays, then Midland, and NatWest (formerly National Westminster), and lastly Co-op Bank.
Then there was Coutts. I think one or more of my bank managers may have instructed me that it wasn't necessary to go through the usual checks of verifying with their branch that they had sufficient funds to cover a cheque they wanted to cash, as long as they had identification. The cheques themselves were very understated, with "Olde English" (for want of a better term) font, usually on a bone or parchment coloured background. The customer was invariably well dressed and self assured. This was in "the provinces", and there probably wasn't a local Coutts branch they could go to, so they picked the nearest thing. I don't know how it was in London.
Back in those days, you had to have a reference of sorts even to open an account at Barclays, so I imagined Coutts customers were virtually members of the aristocracy, and/or were extremely well off. At any rate, none of their cheques bounced.

Now I live in the U.S. where you can open a bank account if you have a pulse. Of course then you get gouged with fees for using other banks' cashpoint machines, and anything else they can think of, but that's another story.

[mikeart]

balmy Southern climate

You must be joking, I only remember two days of sun this summer as for the banking elite as an employee of Coutts, and armed with the coveted cheque book, one could shop with the knowledge that on producing said cheque book, shop staff would be fawning over you, I had great fun as a young man, in saying "thanks me olde cocker" when paying by cheque

[SepticTone]

I went to university in 1969.

I am from Burnley, & therefore had never heard of a current (cheque) account, as I was & am Working Class. We only had cash.

Consequently, as I had received this mysterious bit of paper from the government saying 'pay me about £3000', I was told I needed a current account into which to pay it. I was clever in those days, so I went into a bank (NatWest) on campus. (Another first for me). They made me a current account & gave me a cheque book & a gift of a fluffy toy & a clipboard with NatWest printed on it. I had to pay the university about half of the year's grant money for my course fees & accommodation. I understand the system's rather different now, but nm.

The rest was apparently for books, food, beer, spirits, beer, drugs, going to Rock Concerts, emergency beer, & for buying nice-looking girls extra beer, & sometimes a Brandy & Babycham if they hadn't had enough beer or drugs for them to come up to my room immediately.

Worked out fine. I liked the idea. It was cool. Much Better than being at school.

After 3 years of this (plus one year when I had to live in Paris as an Assistant de Langues, where they paid me even more beer & drugs & paying for girls' drinks money, I graduated. (2.1 in English & Modern Languages, btw.)

In late1973 when I left university I was £80 overdrawn. Somebody gave me a cheque for £50, so I went to the Natwest in Lancaster to pay it in, & requested the £50 in cash, please, as I was skint but had good prospects?

The clerk (presumably not a Graduate), took my cheque & chequebook, credited the £50, then in front of everyone else there, ripped my chequebook in half & said; 'A bank isn't a charity, you know, Scruffy Hippy! Come back when you've got the £30 you owe us.'

I've never forgotten that to this day.

He's probably just retired on a £5million pension. Or hopefully, died in agony in squalor many years ago. I fecking hate bankers. (Present company excepted, of course).