The Olden Days!

[Brightonrosie]

prior to my training, I was a nursing auxillary and it was our job to scrub the metal bed pans .We had to cook porridge and boiled eggs in the ward kitchen and live in fear of the matron should we dare to eat some. Visiting time was for an hour a day and when the doctors did their rounds we could not be seen on the ward and had to hide in the sluice.
Child wise, knoocking down slate off the roofs to play hopscotch on the pavement, picking buttercups and daisies in the fields, taking the pop bottles back to the shop to collect a sixpence. pressing button A and B in the phone box and knwing everyone in our street but none ventured into another's house you just talked over the fence. Taking the 11 plus !! Oohhhh i could go on and on. (Rosie 52years old born 1957)

 

[tfmd]

I have read all this thread and it's so great to hear of all your memories..

I remember crisps being 2 1/2p
I also remember the game with two balls, sometimes I remember parts of the rhymes we used to sing..
We used to have the rag and bone man and we also used to have a cockle van (he sold other fish also) coming round on a Saturday morning, he used to ring a bell and we used to have a bag of cockles with salt and vinegar.

We used to play out all the time and only go in for meals and then when it started getting dark..

We had an outside loo and coal house when I was small and then we had an extension built and an inside bathroom and loo....Before that we used to have a bath in front of the fire in a tin bath!!

We walked most places as my Dad had the car and he was in work all day..My Mum ever drove and we certainly couldn't afford to have 2 cars!

I remember seeing 'big' girls walking past our house all dressed up in the Bay City Roller gear! hahahahahaha

 

[avisk]

We lived in a small crescent of 10 houses. My sister bumped into someone the other day who had lived in the same crescent - he said to his wife "they were the posh family in our street". My sister was astonished - we had no money, no car, no television, no foreign holidays.

Ah - but we had a piano - and that, apparently, made us "posh"!!

 

[judimac]

Lordy lordy! What have I started! Oh the memories you have all brought back to me! Ok here are a few more!

Tucking your hankie up your knicker leg!
Getting cheeses with a rind on! (I loved the rind!)
Having your feet x-rayed in your shoes in Lewis's
There being a potato famine in the early 60's and having tinned spaghetti at lunchtime at school.
Pledging to go without a hot waterbottle till Xmas eve! And scraping the frost off the inside of the bedroom window!

 

[Brightonrosie]

and getting out of bed (after getting dressed under the covers) and stepping onto cold tiled, not carpetted floors

 

[Scarlet Daisy]

I had ice on the inside of my bedroom window too (no central heating and we lived on a cliff, with my window facing the sea!).

The thing is, I sort of miss the wonderful contrasts we experienced in those days - being really cold until the bed warmed up, and then feeling so happy to be all cosy. Having not much TV to choose from but then watching something good and REALLY thinking it was brilliant. Lighting the coal fire (after scraping it through) and waiting ages for it to get burning well - but then totally appreciating the warmth as it finally blazed. Having to walk home from school in the freezing rain but then having a big bowl of hot soup, served up by your Mum.

My kids have had more things than I had and they've been far more cosseted but because of that they have been robbed of experiencing simple pleasures. Plus, it is much more exciting to get things like toys etc. when you have actually experienced NOT getting them. I only really got toys on my birthday and at Christmas, for instance, whereas my kids seemed to be in the pound shop, or toy shop, every week. The thing is, I LOVED my Sindy doll and got so much joy from playing with her...My kids got bored with their purchases after about three hours.

I feel very fortunate to have had a childhood full of contrasts, simplicity and freedom.

 

[Brightonrosie]

I had ice on the inside of my bedroom window too (no central heating and we lived on a cliff, with my window facing the sea!).

The thing is, I sort of miss the wonderful contrasts we experienced in those days - being really cold until the bed warmed up, and then feeling so happy to be all cosy. Having not much TV to choose from but then watching something good and REALLY thinking it was brilliant. Lighting the coal fire (after scraping it through) and waiting ages for it to get burning well - but then totally appreciating the warmth as it finally blazed. Having to walk home from school in the freezing rain but then having a big bowl of hot soup, served up by your Mum.

My kids have had more things than I had and they've been far more cosseted but because of that they have been robbed of experiencing simple pleasures. Plus, it is much more exciting to get things like toys etc. when you have actually experienced NOT getting them. I only really got toys on my birthday and at Christmas, for instance, whereas my kids seemed to be in the pound shop, or toy shop, every week. The thing is, I LOVED my Sindy doll and got so much joy from playing with her...My kids got bored with their purchases after about three hours.

I feel very fortunate to have had a childhood full of contrasts, simplicity and freedom.

Beautifully put, totally agree xx

 

[avisk]

We had freezing bedrooms too, until one Christmas we made our own electric blankets! This would have been in the early 60s, when they were a rarity.

Dad saw an advert in a newspaper for a kit which came with all the cables and the connections - you had to buy your own blankets.

We sat on the floor one Christmas Eve with the blanket spread out, then we positioned the cable in loops up and down half the blanket, then folded it over and stitched along the lines of the cable to keep it in place. Then the connectors and the plug were added.

There were no controls - it was either plugged in or it wasn't. Dad used to come and check after we had gone to bed to make sure we had remembered to unplug it.

Gosh, you can just imagine what the health and safety brigade would make of something like that these days! And to be honest, I don't think they were really very safe, although we never had any problems with them.

Oh the bliss of it! Getting into a cosy bed - cosy all over, not just in one place like with a hot water bottle. I have been addicted to cold bedrooms and warm beds ever since!

 

[judimac]

That's not to bad I suppose - but will it is taste like it did when we were children I wonder!!!!

Yes it does! We always used to have sandwich spread sandwichs on picnics when I was little. Only have the full fat one, the lite one isn't the same! (I can't be trusted with it however as I can eat it with a spoon straight out of the jar )