Nearly everyone's Mum was home when the kids got home from school
Nobody owned a purebred dog
You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny
Your Mother wore nylons that came in two pieces
All male teachers wore ties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels
You got your windscreen cleaned, oil checked and petrol served, without asking, all for free, every time..
Mum cooked every night and nearly every meal was meat and 3 Veg with a Roast on Sunday.
They threatened to keep children back a year if they failed the school year. .. . And they did!
No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles?
Playing cricket with no adults to help the children with the rules of the game
Bottles came from the corner shop without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger
And with all our progress, don't you wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?
When being sent to the headmaster's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.
As well as summers filled with bike rides, cricket, Hula Hoops, skating and visits to the pool, and bonfire nights with REAL firecrackers.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, 'Yes, I remember that'?
How many Of These Do You Remember?
Coca Cola in bottles.
Choo Choo Bars and Fags. (That word had no other meaning then.)
Home milk delivery before glass bottles (with tinfoil tops ) when the milkman filled your Billy.
LP's & 45 RPM records.
78 RPM records!
Adding Machines.
Do You Remember a Time When..
Decisions were made by going 'Eeny-meeny-miney-moe'?
'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching tadpoles could happily occupy an entire day?
It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'?
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'chickenpox'?
Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a shangai?
Playing War with pretend guns but "real" wooden swords.
Cigarette cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant being given half of one of mum's Bex tablets for a headache.
Lighting a whole row of Tom Thumbs and throwing them at your mate's feet, was the ultimate weapon.
If you can remember most or all of these, Then You Have Lived!!!!!!!
Yes. Many of them, but I would not have those days back at any price. Love being here, now. We live in much, much happier, healthier, more tolerant, accepting times. I watch my children and grand children and see their freedom and confidence. I hated the fifties. It was dominated by fear: of not fittingin, shaped by intolerance of difference, sexist, racist, homophobic times. Restrictions and limits and people knowing their place. I could go on...
But thank you for the list: funny, interesting, thought-provoking.
Hi katinka.....the 50s was not my favourite era either....it always seemed to be cold and not enough food to eat.
But I don't know if I agree that we live in more tolerant times now.....legally maybe...and I did have much more freedom than my grand daughter will have.
But we all have led different lives ....different experiences....so differing views.
I dont know maybe there was a difference between what boys and girls were expected to do. By eight I was expected to look after my five year old brother after school until mum came home, school holidays I would have to make sure he was washed and dressed get his breakfast, lunch do all the washing up and dusting and take him to the park so he could play usually accompanied by several of his friends.
Likewise we were on our own with dad..but he made sure we had plenty of play time...cricket and footy , albeit with a rolled up newspaper tied with one of the kids shoe laces for a football...still I would not swap it for anything.
School...we walked a mile every day..nowadays mums drive them...and we did get a mug of milk every morning at school.
OMG! I hadn't realized I'd been in trouble that long.
TV took 5mins to warm up, it also took 5mins to turn off. How many of you turned the TV off then spent the next 5mins watching the white dot until it disappeared?
I've bent down and picked a farthing out of the gutter. You must have lived in a well to do area Will if you were picking pennies up.
Used to take used pop bottles (Lowcock's) back for money.
A lot of the old sweets seem to have disappeared over the passing of time. 1d Arrow bars, Gob Stoppers, Sherbert Dabs, Barley Suger Sticks just to name a few.
We turned our push bikes into motorbikes by jamming lolly sticks into the bike spokes.
Made buggies out of a plank of wood and old pram wheels.
Most of my Saturday afternoon was spent winding up the gramophone up to listen to records.
The Milkman came round on a horse and cart, the Ice Cream Man on a three wheel bike, the Rag'n'bone Man used to give you something for your old clothes as well as metal.
omg lowcocks lemonade was a treat for us playing kerby in the street with the kids and even some of the parents ,, we would be there for hours until it got dark and the sky would be full of big bright stars,,, even they have changed now
Not real good here at the moment Mandy...although we are not in the suburbs so pretty safe... there is a gang of youths being dictated to by an older gang and they break into the homes at night , assault the residents and then steal their expensive cars.
Have had some incidents where they used a stolen car to bump into the rear of an expensive car and when the driver got out they beat him with a baseball bat before stealing his car.
Police trying but cannot get on top of it at present.
Then we had that lunatic who mowed down over 20 pedestrians last week...Killing 6.
And people try to tell me that we are living in a better world than when I grew up.
No we were in a poor area and did not have any of the niceties, still had a meat safe and copper for washing until 1957.
Now I know you are a well to do bloke...The Ice cream man...if we were lucky we would get a Donald Duck x29 ice pole, that is if dad had a spare penny.
Like you I could reminisce for hours...but I gues pretty soon I will have to grow up again and leave the memories behind...Thank GOD for the old photos.
Stay well mate
Will
We may be looking at it through rose tinted glasses but yes, those times seemed simpler and happier, especially the long summer holidays.
I think it's a very good thing that most children today, are not afraid of their parents but all the rest, I'd be happy to have back.
Thanks for the nostalgic stroll through less complicated times. It was a very pleasant accompaniment to breakfast.
We had the same over here, always on the lookout for discarded cigarette packets for "the game" quite often the nuns would confiscate them...never to be seen again..we thought they had their own game back at the convent.
The good old days,that brought back so many happy memories. Wish we could back to those times, we knew how to be children, and the we knew what a great family life was.😊 xxx Bernadette 😊
You are spot on Bernadette...I look at my grand children and cannot see them having the same. More is the pity.
Hi Burraboy, what a trip down memory lane. I have fond memories of all the children in the road playing together and bike rides out into the country with a picnic packed by everyone's mums. We'd be gone for hours and no one ever worried for our safety. In particular, I remember feeling sorry for a girl in my class. Her mother worked and this meant that they were poor. I'm very much in favour of women's lib and women leading the life that is right for them but I also remember the lovely, warm and secure feeling in knowing that Mum would always be at home whenever I needed her. There are many great things about life today, but I will always have fond memories of childhood in the 1960s/70s.
we know live inn a very sad world drugs have played a major role which was pure greed from the seller who has no idea or doesn't care the knock on effect it's had😞
Our latest act of stupidity here is to have testing kits available so the idiots can check if the drugs are okay to take...before they ingest them.
And people tell me this is a far better place than when I was a child.
The one thing I am impressed about today is... technology... Where would we be without the net..cell phone and medical science.
Still writing letters..posting and the telephone..things that we will need when the power (electricity) lets us down.
Will
Don't forget pens and inkwells. Or the stockings we girls had to wear. I blessed everyone when ball point pens came in and tights!
My ink pens always caused big blots and my stocking always came adrift from my suspenders and made big dents in my legs x
in reply to
G'day Cough
You have reminded me of my favourite past time...... the ink wells.
Dipping the nib in the ink...bending the pen and then flicking the ink over the girls...Boy, did I get a few caneings for that...It was times like this that I wished I was in a state school and not under the heels of the nuns...or penguins ..as we used to call them.
I spent most of my child hood on the beach...we lived in Port Melbourne the main sea port in Victoria and I used to swim all year...even during the winter.
Nowadays you have to check with the EPA as to whether you can swim or not..Pollutuon
Still great memories
Will
Did you ever swim at Bondi Beach? I love the lifeguards programme on the telly. x
in reply to
Visited there in 1964 drove a vw from Melbourne to Sydney to see my brother.
Never went into the water...after living by water for all my younger life I saw the bad rips along the beach...no lifeguards then... so opted for safety.
The TV show is very accurate and depicts life as it is today. Some pretty hairy things happen near water especially with the tourists who do not know the danger.
Will
in reply to
I would love to go to Bondi and see how many of the lifeguards I recognise It does seem a dangerous beach as they are always talking about rip tides. x
It is a dangerous stretch of water... and what makes Bondi bad is the amount of people who swim there. Imagine trying to see someone in danger in that crowd. But I have seen much worse..and the beaches do not have life guards.
Most of the older guards are still at Bondi and they are always grooming younger people.
I could not agree more Margaret...we are lucky..I would not like to be a youth in the present time. The world, sadly, is not the same place I grew up in.
We have Foxtel here, costs around $66 per month and we get to watch about 90 channels...still have Coronation street showing..GOD how old is that show??
I will not watch the USA shows, they just do not know how to make series, or movies.
You lot are by far the best producers of any shows in the world.
One of my favs is Endeavor... waiting for the new series to come out.
Also Pride and Prejudice...We watch it every year (over 2 nights) sadly I watched the 2 American copy shows but turned them off...very poor comparison.
When we lost Alan Rickman last year I was stunned...He is, or was, one of the most gifted artists. A great loss.
Is your "Box" the unit that records programes so you can watch them at your leisure? Or do you simply search for programes already put to air?.
I laughed at John (Past me best) when he talked about watching the dot for 5 minutes after he turned the Tele off. I had forgotten that. When we first bought a TV (In 1958) I remember the dot fading over several minutes and thought we had bought a "bodgy" TV.
Hi,. Yes this box records , plays back programmes you have missed within last 7 days ..There are several functions we don't use. We bought the box ,one off payment around the £100 ish.
But if you have BT phone package it's about a third to half price of what we paid.
I suppose we could adjust the settings , but to be honest with can't be bothered. It's used so little. We are also great fans of pride & Pred. .....Mr Darcy ( sex on legs ). Oooooh.
We are fans of some of the more staid old fashioned programme s, love history etc.The only soap we watch is EastEnders. That's because we lived down there some years ago .,hubby comes from N.London......It's a great laugh , who ever dreams up the story lines needs to see a trick cyclist (psychiatrist).
Your right about the little dot in the middle of the screen, and the TV presenters in full evening dress. They all sounded is if they had a mouth full of plums.
Mr Darcy ? No... Miss Elizabeth. Was shocked to see her in a movie with Blond hair, Susan said it was her natural colour. ( I am becoming frustrated with the spell check dropping the u from colour and other words)
I use so many of Mr Bennett's one liners I really enjoyed his character.
My fav series have been Spooks (I have the entire 9 seasons) must watch then again. Trouble was they kept killing off the characters.
The other was Judge John Deed.
I can even relate to the old movies... St Trinians Carry on....
Genevive to name a few and the WW2 movies...I have most of them.
Late pickng up on this interestng post, grew up in London during the war, good and bad times. Remember running out to pick up dropped pieces of coal after the coalman had delivered in i. The street, all helped. Freedom was probably the greatest advantage we had over today's children, even during the war we ran free. Climbed over bombed houses, collected shrapnel, took our dinner down the air raid shelter if the siren went at dinner time. Blast from a nearby explosion lifted me off my feet once as I was walking along. Mum was working in the factory, gran was "looking after us".
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It does seem a dangerous beach as they are always talking about rip tides. x
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