My mother's side of the family were brummies. My Grandad warned me that thinking of using the brummie screwdriver meant you were going to break whatever you used it on. He has been right quite often.
That's one thing I do miss whenever I'm back visiting family in the Midlands, the total lack of industrial background noise, the hammering noise of presses and forgings, lathes turning, the sky at night red from the glow of giant furnaces etc. the silence these days is eerie compared to my youth when it was the hive of industrial activity. I don't miss the accompanying smog and industrial dirt everywhere.............its just a shadow of its former self.
