1962? I Remember You!

2017 marks a significant milestone for Coinadrink.
On 2 February, we’ll be celebrating our 55^th birthday and even as we’ve been planning how we’ll celebrate and commemorate this auspicious event, my mind has been taking me back to the world as it was when first we opened for business.
Much as I’d like to think otherwise, the foundation of Coinadrink doesn’t quite make it into the list of 1962’s Top Ten events! We didn’t realise it at the time, but 1962 was an eventful year; one which would have an enduring impact on the world.
When we opened for business, Harold Macmillan was PM and according to him, ‘we’d never had it so good’. I suppose he had a point: inflation was low, at just 1.1% and pretty much everybody was in work. The average price of a house was £2,670 – although such a sum would have bought you something pretty impressive in Walsall – and the average wage was £799 a year. A pint of milk cost 1/4d (that’s 6.5p in ‘new’ money!) and a pint in the pub would set you back 2/4d, (11.5p).

At work, we were all talking about a brand new TV programme called Z Cars. Later in the year, the BBC gave us ‘Steptoe and Son’ for the first time, and ‘That Was The Week That Was, or ‘TW3’ for short, for the last time.
The most popular names for new-borns were David and Susan! I wonder how many ‘Davids’ and ‘Susans’ will be registered this year?
The best selling record of the year was Frank Ifield, yodelling ‘I Remember You.’ It was September before anybody had heard of a group of scruffs from Liverpool calling themselves The Beatles…
I’ve never been a superstitious man and I didn’t know it then, but on the very day we opened our doors eight of the nine planets were aligned, for first time in 400 years. I’m not sure what to make of that fact!
They say ‘the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’ and looking back, I’d have to agree. To a point…
So much has changed – but quality never goes out of style… Her Majesty The Queen still reigns over us, Levi’s were the nation’s favourite blue jeans in 1962 and they still are; The Rolling Stones got together in 1962 and they’re still going strong. What’s more, at Coinadrink, our commitment to customer service is at the heart of our business now, just as it was back then; and the same man is at the helm.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and all the people who have worked with me at Coinadrink through the years. Who knows what fate has in store for us in the years to come? I promise you, though, that whatever happens, there’ll always be something you can count on going forward – and that’s Coinadrink