Alfred Taberer was a printer of the old order: setting type by hand and working even in his 70s and beyond

On the front of the publication he produced for the organisation I was part of, it stated “Ten New Pence”.  It was 1983, decimalisation had been with us for twelve years – Decimal Day, 15th February. 1971.*

I had to smile.  I’m old enough to remember pounds, shillings, and pence.  That’s not ten new pence – it’s two shillings (2/-), and I would convert this new money backwards to find its true value!  (When you had to squeeze twelve pennies into five new pennies, and twenty shillings into a pound comprising 100 pennies rather than 240, many of us suspected someone was growing rich on the converting-up!)

I don’t do it very much now, but for many years, for smaller items, I’d do the backwards conversion.

It’s an example of an “anchor,” the result of arbitrary coherence, and these can have long-lasting effects.  (Perhaps it’s led to Frugal being my middle name!)

To know this is to have freedom.  To question why you do the things you do, why you buy this and not that, why you like this person but not that person, breaks the anchor chain, making it possible to meet new people, do new things, make choices which will transform your life.

And the most important word in all of this is the word question.

(Alfred never learnt to drive, but was transported by his sister in their Austin Metro.  In 1984 it became law to wear a seatbelt in the front of a car in the UK – Alfred refused and sat in the back.  In 1991 it became mandatory to wear seat belts in the rear – Alfred had been got.  My memories of Alfred and his sister Phyllis are fond ones.)