CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN THE 1930's,40's,50's,60's,70's& early 80's!!!.
First you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
The took aspirin,ate blue cheese dressing,tuna from a tin,and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
You had no child proof lids on medicine bottles,doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes,you had no helmets,not to mention,the risks of hitchhiking...As children you would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags.Riding in the back of a van-loose-was always great fun.
You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
You shared one soft drink with four friends,from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.You ate cakes,white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it but you weren't overweight because ...........YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING.You would leave home in the morning and play all day,as long as you were back in when the street lights came on,No one was able to reach you all day.And you were OK.
You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scrapsand then ride down the hill only to find out you forgot the brakes.After running into bushes a few times.
,you learned to solve the problem.
You did not have Playstation,Nintendo's,X-boxes,no video games at all,no 99 channels on cable,no video tape movies,no surround sound,no mobile phones,no text messaging,no personal computers,no Internet or Internet chat rooms..............YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them! You fell out of trees,got cut,broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. You played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt,and the worms did not live in us forever.You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen,you did not poke any eyes out.You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell,or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team.Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.Imagine that!The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law!.
This generation has produced some of the best risk takers and problem solvers and inventors yet.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovations and new ideas
You had freedom,failure,success and responsibility, and you learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!.And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
What do you think of this message?
Any truth in it?
You might want to share your views about this.
You had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it,tell it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS?
Richard
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Proud to have been from that generation - wouldn't trade it for the world - one of the best times to be alive, and I mean living a life not just coasting through it
I was a bad girl we would watch the gas lamp lighter turn the lights on then as soon as he dissapeared turn them off again .By golly gosh i am showing my age !!!!
When my Dad came out of the RN in the 50s we moved in with my Grandma (she had two cottages which Mum and Dad had converted into one big house). When we moved there the lighting was oil lamps or gas. Dad was over 6' tall and quite often when he came home he would knock the gas mantle with his head and break it. Either my brother, Iain, or I would be sent down to the village shop to buy another mantle (about 2d I think).
We had gas lamps at home i can remember my mother was so excited when we had electric installed it meant she could have an electric iron, but we couldnt' afford to have it upstairs so we still had candles for a while after .
Hope your ok Annec ,and your son take care love Dorothy xxx
think they cost us a hapney 1/2d, 1/4 of a 1p it would have if it was still in circulation when decimalization came in, that's if my memory is working proper.
I am a 30's baby I remember it all. A boy used to tease me so I pulled a sprout stump from my granddads garden and hit him with it. He went home with a black eye and a lump on his head. He didn't do it again. Imagine that happening to-day I would probably either been sued or knifed.
Wouldn't it be lovely to go back (knowing what we know now). We could avoid those things which brought us to the way we are now.
My childhood was in the 50s and I loved it - I felt safe and the only time I was anxious was when I was on the bus going to school and I realised that I had forgotten my plimsolls for PE (really scary).
I know that the children nowadays are loved as much as we were but I think they do not have the freedom that we had.
Seems I am a youngster on here (1953)! But I do remember the freedom, the playing out all day, the hope, disappointment, pride, competitiveness, friendship, caring, diplomacy, arguing, bridging, problem-solving and all of the other feelings and emotions we learned to use and/or deal with. Happy, happy days.
hi, another youngster (1958) i remember playing out all day, thinking it good to make a fire on the tip only to be in trouble as mum an dad could smell it on me, going to the shop with pennies for a mix, disgusting now but stirring cow poop and putting it in a hole in the tree, going to sunday school , do they still do that ? spending half the collection money on sweets lol. i had a wonderful carefree childhood, how things have changed, i did nothing but worry about my own and would certainly not advise any children to play out now, but saying that would they know how to, we didnt have electronic games and computers etc, i can even remember the day we got colour tv xx
As grateful as I am to the internet, it brought me you all, I also hate the fact that it destroys childhoods, & there are some really unpleasant people to be found on it
Oh to go back & be a child again & take my grandchildren just to show them how free & happy we were
Take your Grandchildren to Malta. It's like going back to the 50s and 60s.
I have been so many times to Malta but since being told I have COPD I have been afraid of the plane journey. It is true that it is like going back in time though.
I went with hubby about 8yrs ago, I loved it & would love to go back Annec but like you, dont fancy a plane journey with COPD,
We have friends who have been there recently & i,m grateful in a way I cant go back, as they have said it,s being ruined, the developers have their hands on it
My parents retired to Malta and when I first went out there 24 years ago they were about 25 years behind us with the old cars and 60s music but not anymore. Education and technology has changed Malta and the young Maltese are as up to date as we are. Have you seen all the fast sports cars there now . I always laugh at them cause apart from the coast road to Qwra there is nowhere to get enough speed up for them to be any fun.
I have not been back for 2 years because I am not sure about flying now but in am pretty sure that I will chance it and go again. My Dad is buried out there.
Agree to all that, SW. I hear that grandsons will stay up until the small hours, on their PS thingeys. But Nik is also into sailing and Conor has just returned from a Duke of Edinburgh whatever. So they aren't totally deprived. I hate to think what they might have been looking at - no knowledge wont harm -- love Annieseed x
I thoroughly enjoyed my childhood. I was loved by my parents. My dad worked a sixty hour week in a rubber factory but still somehow found time for us. Belted us as and when required (often in my case) but was always there when needed. Taught us to respect the ladies and protect the weak. Also taught us to treat people as we found them regardles of colour or social class.
Holidays were happy days. A week in a caravan at Skegness with fish and chips for dinner. Long summer days with my friends on our bikes, riding out and playing in fields of bluebells and buttercups and daisies.
If ever we saw a copper somebody would yell "Run!" We had never done anything wrong though. Such hapPy days. Kids miss so much now.
What happened Bobby to those long happy summer days?
Oh the memories. Starting a bonfire with my nan's magnifying glass to toast marshmallows. The witches hat, the big iron rocking horse with 20 or so kids on it. Littlies (aged 3 or so) in the middle and the big kids standing on the sides making it go really high. Happy days.
Elf and safety. Tv, computers, mobile phones and parents becoming overprotective. Shame that it happened but things don't stay the same. Would they be happy with the life we had?
I'm the baby (1955) I loved climbing trees ( not so keen on falling out) going fishing ( and falling in) in the local beck, squelching my way home with a jar of frogspawn ( was proud of that) . Helping my grandad in the garden and greenhouse and having bonfires in the garden. Feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs ( pecked every time ).
Eating gooseberries straight from the bush in my aunt's garden and apples from her trees.
I'm still here to tell the tale, would love to borrow the TARDIS and go back for a visit with my grandkids.
I was a 40's baby and enjoyed all of the above and I tried to make sure my 70's girls had as much freedom as I had. My girls now have boys and are constantly complaining about trying to get them off the computers and prising their mobiles from their hands. One of them has been found using his whilst showering. They will never know what they missed out on, it's a shame so much pressure on them nowadays to look good, keep up with the rest and do well in exams.
A sign of the times polly,but they are not the happy times that we enjoyed
I was born in the early 50's and that was the good old days good food, albeit some kids would not eat it theses day. stovies, liver, tripe and onions, sweetbreads. Discipline at home and at school. A clout about the ear from the local bobby for doing nowt. Play in the street knocking on doors and running away. Pinching apples off trees, never needed to wash them. One thing that is missing today and that is Respect. You would not dare to remain in your seat on the bus if someone older that you or disabled was standing. ,oh yes ann1 webb I think if you took todays kids in the TARDIS and take them back, we would soon see who had the better life, not the computer orientated children we have today.
I used to go to the local clay pits Decor and retrieve the pottery rejects that had been tipped there.They made nice birthday presents,and I still have some of the pieces that I kept for myself.
Reading your post brought back lots of memories. I was brought up in the 50s and I loved every minute of it - I think it was the happiest time of my life. I had complete faith in my mother and father - if anything went wrong then I knew that they would put it right.
The only thing Mum did wrong was go to hospital when I was about eight years old (my brother, Iain, was six) and when Dad went to fetch her home they brought home a baby!!! A blonde baby!!! Iain fell in love with his blonde sister but I had dark thoughts about her!!! I love her now though.
We lived in the house next to the Police House and we children played with the Policeman's children - it Police House had two cells and we used them when we played 'houses'. I am not joking - we even had curtains in them.
Having read all the comments above, we should all get together and have a book full of our childhood memories published.
I think that the saying 'everyone has a story to tell' is so true.
I'd like to think that everyone had as happy a childhood as I had.
My only regret Anne was that I had problems at grammar school with my school work.
I suffer from immediate short term memory loss,and although I could work the answers out in my head I could not remember how to write down the workings only the answers and I was forever being accused of cribbing.Other than that I was happy in myself
Funny you should say that about not being able to show the working out on paper, 1 of my grandsons has the same problem in maths, he can work the answer out and tell his teacher but he always says that he doesn't know how he worked it out, he just knew it
Hi ann.I only learnt how to overcome my obstacle four years ago..Your grandson is not alone. and I hope the teachers give him all the help they can and not belittle him like I was at school.
I don't think that's a bad idea for a book, social history at it's best. My dad was born in 1924 and he has some great recollections too. Be good because everyone comes from a different part of the country. Could have memories from every age group covering almost a hundred years of British life. Brilliant.
I was born in the 58 what I remember most was the freedom. I do believe the 70's fashion and music was the best ever. We had all that "make love not war", "peace man" and "flower power" we painted flowers on everything. We had the Bay city rollers, David Cassidy from the partridge family and lots more. O what lovely memories you stirred in me.
Same here, born '57, I got to enjoy some great bands in the '70's and went to see the Stones, Floyd, Zeppelin, Who plus others and my husband went to the Isle of Wight festival. Good times. Mini, midi, maxi, loons, scarves and platforms. Moggy Minors and Triumph Heralds, Sprites and Spitfires. Great!!
My first car was a Morris Minor (which I wrote off before I passed my test). 2nd one was a turquoise Mini Traveller. 3rd was a Triumph Vitesse convertable, my how fast it went (but that was after I passed my test).
I used to buy loons from a shop called Scythrop for 1.99 a pair. I had a favourite purple satin pair and pale blue ones with little yellow stars all over, I still think the shapes were very feminine, with multi coloured velvet jackets! My first car was a Triumph Herald. Broke down after a day and I couldn't afford to get it fixed.
My mum use to get lily of the valley and I think it was gardenia talc she had. There was a hair conditioner (Touch?) which you didn't have to wash out - I still used hers up to 10 years ago when she died. Avon probably still sell all these things from their catalogue.
Peeg I did some moodelling back in the sixties in Carnaby Street and Iwas offered what ever i liked at the end of the week and i took a thick elephant cord turquoise green suit with massive 23 inch flares.Grewat to wear in London but not back in Devon
Hi Gina I have got A Rolling Stones programme signed by all the original members from when they appeard in Torquay
And what a good vintage '58 produced! Me too copdber.
Do you remember the maxi coats - had to be worn with a mini though.... and the platforms. I had a maxi Afghan.... it started off white .... as you say copdber, memories have stirred!
Yeah, mine was suede too ... started off white, but marked so easily, I eventually went to a tanners and they dipped it for me .... I liked the coffee colour it turned out ....
Dunno about a tannery ..... but mine was cured the old fashioned way .... that way there is no stink .... and the dies used were also natural plant extracts ....
On Saturday I asked my Granddaughter if she played hopscotch at school she said no they didn't like you chalking on the playground A couple of years ago we went into my garden and I showed her how to play two balls on the wall she had never seen it played.
When I think of the freedom we had as children and the freedom my children had I think it is very sad.
Yep, strangely I was only talking to a friend a couple of days ago, really hot day, when suddenly remembered every town used to have a water font!
But guess we are now going along with technology by being able to keep in touch via
our PC's/ iPads / iPhones.
Oh yes it brings back happy memories, but I wonder if we can truly remember how tough it was for our parents,
Remembering the nightmare of 1964 when we were freezing and all snowed in. Attempting
walking back from the shops with Mother laden down carrying bags, father, from spring onwards, in the garden every night after work growing wonderful veg and fruit for his brood.
Our parents had it tough, perhaps the majority of us were children during these hard days.
Gosh I remember an old army coat on the bed with siblings 2 x top x 2 tail. No heating and scraping the ice off the inside of the windows. Gosh its no wonder some of us have iffy lungs. Everything was dried in front of the open fire. All that moisture. :0)
Your comments have brought us all together in that we were all happy in our own ways.We have all trodden the same path in our early years.Yes, there were times when we were frightened,times when we were sad,times when we cried,times when we laughed and we seemed to put them altogether to form a childhood happinness
Isn't it nice to know that all those years ago we all shared something that money cannot buy
and we are once again sharing our trials and tribulations once again albiet maybe a little bit differently
I was born in 1950 and my friends parents lived on a piece of land near our house in 2 caravans (the Mother was from fairground people).On this land my friends Father started what was probably one of the first scrapyards. Lots of war surplus vehicles like ambulances. We loved to play in them .I remember one day a load of red double decker buses coming and all being parked in a semi circle on a hill. What a site
We lived in Bolton then and when the fair came to town I would go with my friend and her Mother and get on all the rides free.
My Dad was a bricky and decided that he would build a house for us.A piece of land was duly bought about 7 miles away in a small town and he spent the next 3 years every week-end and light nights in summer building.My Mother ,sisters and I unloaded bricks from wagons carried slates up to the roof and did whatever we could to help.I remember hot summers and a neighbour bringing us out homemade lemonade and cake .
When the fair used to come to Barnstaple I used to work on the fair on a stall that you used to have to roll the ball down into the ducks mouth.I am still friends with various familly members of the Anderton and Rowlands fair after all these years.
1947 me we used to play on the bomb sites all round Tower bridge and under the bomb shelters at the Elifant and Castle. made scouters and go carts will ballbreaing wheels great memorys
Richard, this is so true the last fifty years has advanced, perhaps in many ways NOT for he best, but once started very hard to slow down. It's quite amazing we have been the generation which were allowed to be FREE! I have loved my life and would do it all again, except for smoking in my teens and twenty s. Audrey, Jersey.
I went to Jersey in 1976 with my boyfriend when I was 19. He had hair right down his back by the way. We lived on a farm called Le Coin at St Ouen potato picking for the summer. Almost finished me that first day, by the second morning I had to crawl because it hurt all over. I always wanted to go back but never have. Nice memories, only sparked when I saw your comment! Thanks.
Exactly what our lives were like in the early 1940's. Walking across rivers in our wellies, waiting for the mills to open their drains and let the mucky water out and racing across it before it got too deep. Picking Bluebells in the woods for our mums. Showing our relations our Whitsuntide clothes and getting money for it.
Putting coins on the railways lines and letting steam engines flatten them when they went over them. White bread spread with condensed milk or mucky fat and lots of salt.
Mum getting out the tin bath for bath-night. Being scared to go to the outside toilet after watching the Quatermass Experiment on television (we were one of the lucky ones, a television before most in our street so we always had a houseful.)
Walking to school with snow over our boots and sitting in the classroom in all our coats, hats etc. because there was no heating, the boiler had broken down again. Then walking home again in the afternoon to play out sledging.
We had such a happy childhood and so did our boys born in the 70's.
Mmm I was only thinking bout my childhood recently funnily enough, mum was born in 1937 my dad 1919 he liked em young his 3rd marriage , I was born 1966 we had street partys open front doors wiv those long coloured tassel thingys were always covered in mud after playing tonka toys pippa dolls and a faithfull jack russell called cindy who I wud dress in my clothes much to her annoyance my mum had me @ home coz they paid you to give birth @ home back then growing up in the 60s 70s was the best being a teenager in the 80s was awesome I feel soorry 4 kids now its not the same , I left home @ 16 never unemployed but I'm ill now first bit of rest I've had , we had it good I look back with a smile x
almost exactly like my parents, dad was born in 1920, mum was born in 1938
In 1943 I was 5 my dad took my mum to hospital, he came home with my little sister but not my mum didn't think it was much of a swap at the time, but we had a happy childhood with my nan. xxxx
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Oh that is so sad, my husband lost his dad when he was 5. Goodness knows what goes through little ones minds when this happens.
we were free those years, and as you say, go out all day and come back very much later, I had to report to my foster mother every 2hrs, but I still got a long way.
Wonderful memories. Bless you all. I was born in 1937 so most of my childhood was, I suppose, dominated by war. I knew no different so it didn't worry me! My Dad joined the army, even though he had been in the 1st world war. We had a lodger, Mr. Wilde. He was very kind to me and never once lost it!! I remember Dad coming home on leave and one time there was a raid. We were all huddled behind the settee and my Dad prayed. I've never forgotten that. I remember an old lady (well, she must have been all of 40) giving me her sweet coupons. What delight! I can't remember rain, I can remember the longest, slidiest slides ever that we made at school in the winter and the long, hot summers. And I never walked - always ran. Ah. Those were the days!
just another quick thought, i remember coming in an seeing a bottle of fizzy strawberry cream soda on the worktop, we knew dad had a good week we got fizzy pop, one bottle was a treat every so often, otherwise water from the tap, i see people in supermarkets buying it by the crate now, and wont drink tap water, xx
i was born in 1941 there were no strange viruses in the air like now, but i sometimes wonder why my parents decided to have a baby in the middle of a world war, maybe i was a mistake. foxcourt
totally right, remember bombed out buildings to explore no one worried always got home safe lived in Camberwell London can remember @ 8-9 going all the way to Battersee Park took about hour spent all day in funfair then going home again for dinner no worries no fears what seemed to be no perverts just safe fun great times & l was a girl mum & dad were never scared l wouldn,t get back
Memories.My uncle used to live in that far off land called London,he lived near Battersee Park.He used to drive the Royal Train and was held in high esteem in the neighbourhood ! I always wanted to visit him but it was always'too far to go all that way'
Just a little P.S. which just turned up in my In Box and which I think is appropriate here!
Harry is visiting his grandma. She complains about the high cost of living. "When I was a girl, you could go out with a shilling and come back home with a dozen eggs, two pints of milk, a pound of bacon, half a pound of tea and a fresh chicken."
"Yes," says Harry, "that's inflation for you."
"It's nothing to do with inflation," says grandma, "it's all those wretched CCTV cameras they have nowadays."
I was born in '57. One of my most vivid memories is when my brother, 4 years older, with his friends put me on the homemade go-cart at the top of a steep hill and pushed off. That hill looks just as steep now when I go past. Don't know how I survived!
Not that I used anyway. Crashed into a tree at the bottom and all they cared about was any damage. Made me promise not to tell. Funny what you remember when you start isn't it?
proud to be a girl (get me!) of the 50's Richard. Mum and Dad brought me home from a jewish hospital in Hampton Court (opposite the Palace) to a missen hut (?) where I slept in a drawer for a time. They were building the bungalow we eventually moved into. Those were the days! xxxxxx
Oh how I have loved reading your memories I am sat here with tears in my eyes I will explain why in a minute but please do not feel sorry for me.
I was born in 1946 to a very comfortably off family. I am the eldest of 5 children and I cannot remember ever going without anything, We had our own TV to watch the Coronation on, we had a car to go wherever we wanted and we had a holiday every year. I had riding, speech, music lessons. I went to Church on a Sunday. My mother was a school teacher and my father was an engineer and a ..........................BULLY..................... his word was law and if he said jump we didn't ask how high we didn't dare open our mouths. He even decided what I would do when I left school!
I do have some happy memories but just at this time I am having difficulty remembering them so thank you for sharing yours
Your comment sadly brings home the fact that, platitude or not, money doesn't necessarily equate with happiness, and although money helps keep the wolves from the door what matters most are the people we have around us, especially growing up. Sorry if that sounds too trite.
Hasn't this been a brilliant blog. Thank you, Richard. Still agree with pepsicoley that all these comments that have been generated by your post would lay the foundation for a great book. Thank you for stirring the memories anyway.
Ooooh!! I love this blog KingOTC !! my brothers and I were 50's baby boomers,we were in Germany in the 60's when England won the world cup, ran around in a gang and we had battles against the germankids gangs! must admit when I wasn't having ballet lessons I was a bit of a tomboy and we realy were wild and free! used to spend all day trying to catch eels and only decide to go home when starving! Thanks for this post I realy enjoyed it so much! xxx
Now I'm starting to think of all the sweeties we had, gob stoppers, penny toffees, sherbet dips, lucky bags, liquorice pipes and yes would you believe sweet cigarettes complete with a red end to give the impression it was lighting.
black jacks, fruit salad, pirate tobacco, floral gums an cherry lips, fry 5 centre bars, milktray in a bar, bar six, fizzy pips, and best of all if you had a pound you got 240 1d sweets xx
I was born in 58 and my fondest memories are when I used to spend my summer holidays at my mums friends farm (every day) I used to get there at 6 am and help muck out the horses and put them out in the fields and if any needed excising then I did that with pleasure written all over my face (no hat and no high vis either and sometimes without a saddle too) then lots of other jobs to help out with throughout the day and wow those huge doorstep bacon butties with a glass of milk (and loaded with real butter too) the days spent playing in the hay-fields making a circle in the hay and just laying down and making pictures with the clouds and then helping get the hay in and being paid something for doing it gosh it really was bliss and my mum never had to worry about me I even became a riding instructor because of these days and a hairdresser just so my plaits on my horses looked spot on (how silly is that) but these two jobs have stood me in good stead and ive not been out of work very often, The sweets I remember the best where the lollies in pastel colours that you dipped into a bag of sherbet that could be bought in any colour and flavor and mixed to just how you wanted it. Happy days and nights then, technology has come a long way since then and its all supposed to save us time ... if this is so then why are so many people rushing around and saying ive not got time ... the one thing that having copd has made me do is to slow down and re-smell the roses and see wildlife again.
I have similar memories of virtually living at the riding school. I had my own horse for a while, and whenever I catch that warm smell of horses I'm straight back 40 years, and I can recall the scent of the saddle soap I used to clean the tack on an evening. I often wonder about going to Riding for the Disabled just to test how my breathing would be.
In the 70s, I bought my first moped at the age of 16 and rode straight out on the road with no training or having to pass any test of any kind. These early mopeds were capable of doing 55/60 MPH and it could have ended in disaster but I'm still here arn't I.
Come to think of it my parents went grey at around the same time, Ha Ha.
few more ,green shield stamps, my yellow hotpants, listening to radio luxenburg, sindy and tressy dolls, jackie magazine, trying to tape top 20 off radio gram onto tape, slim phone, can still remember going to grannies outside toilet that had a parafin lamp in to stop it freezing, complete with izal toilet paper, writing on inside of frozen windows, omg feeling really old now lol xx
I have still got some tapes that I recorded willowgirl
Remember playing marbles.I got some new ones bought by a neighbour that had the coloured inserts. I was playing with a boy 1 year older than me. He was a poor loser and because he was losing decided he wasnt playing any more but he grabbed my new marbles instead of his old ones. Refusing to give them back I walloped him. He ran home crying and came back with his mother who held me while Jimmy hit me back. Out came my mother and after a heated argument they began fighting. A one legged man who lived nearby said it was the best entertainment he had seen for years. Needless to say Jimmy and I were best friends again the next day but the mothers didnt speak to each other for years. This was around 1950 Joyce
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oh happy days
