Pay as you go childhood

Pay as you go childhood (True Story)

Memory Blast — 50p & Pound Coins ?

50p in the back of the TV so you could watch TV. £1 if you wanted the video recorder as well. That was the system. Pay as you go childhood. Electricity by coin.

And is it just me who remembers the robberies — usually a parent or a dodgy uncle — breaking the rental box off the back of the TV and stealing the money. Gone. Just like that.

Then you’d notice a relative suddenly “paying in” 50p or £1, conveniently. Because it wasn’t just for electricity — it was paying the rental too, in comes the debt collector (more trauma).

Then came the Dodgy Video Van — the pirate tapes. Enter if you dare. Four films for £10. Not a lot of food in the house, but always a current movie. 1980s classics on VHS and Betamax.

After that, the key meter on the wall. The key looked like an early USB stick. You took it to the shop — the back of the electrical shop — handed over pound coins, and they loaded the meter for the week. That was your electricity. TV and lights if you were lucky. Not if you weren’t.

Meters in the hallway. Hearing the money drop. Choosing electricity rather than food. Or food rather than electricity. Vice versa. That was the reality.

Children today joke about phones — we had coin meters deciding our nights. That was child abuse.

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