I remember “the good old days” very clearly and all the tales of my parents too. When I compare these memories to those of my contemporaries, they don’t differ that much. Post war Britain was a different world. We’ve all seen the emails about how we survived life in the 40s and 50s, with playgrounds without soft landings, or the go-karts without brakes, or the Witch’s Hat roundabouts in the parks, we had no idea they were dangerous; mostly they weren’t.
We grew up with tales of the war, poverty and deprivation of our elders, but we felt lucky; we had clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet and food on our tables (albeit severely rationed food as youngsters) and there were no bombs. We had free education, free health care, at least one cinema in every town, a local dance hall and free libraries.
Pre-school days
Our prams were huge and we were strapped into them and stuck outside in all weather, for fresh air, for hours on end. Prams were parked outside the small shops whilst mum bought the food; nobody stole babies in those days. Our nappies were towelling and sometimes quite rough, but we were changed on mum’s warm lap instead of a dresser.
One of my earliest memories is laying in my lead painted cot with my feet poking out the end. The blackout curtains were drawn, but I could see a shaft of lovely floating dust motes through a chink in the drapes. I felt so warm, cosy and safe.
As we grew older, we played in the streets until we were called in for dinner. No supervision and no toys as such, our imaginations invented our games. Hopscotch and “He” were favourites.
Primary school
I remember writing my name, in the ice, on the inside of the window in my bedroom. There was no such thing as heated bedrooms! And the clothes we wore; getting dressed with a vest, liberty bodice, woolly jumper and cardigan on top and a thin skirt and cotton knickers below. Socks were knee length and held up with elastic. Boots were wellies with two pairs of socks or sensible black lace up shoes. To complete the outfit, an ill-fitting, hand-me-down coat and I was ready to walk through snow, ice and rain to school. Boys had to wear short trousers until they were 12, so frozen legs that turned blue were the order of the day. However, our chests were well protected so we wouldn’t catch a cold! It was no good me having a scarf and gloves – I lost them all the time, as did all my friends.
.
The school playground was solid concrete; one end for boys and the other end for girls. We all ran around playing “Chase” to get warm, scraped knees were commonplace. School heating was supplied by a tiny coal fire in each classroom that kept the front of you warm whilst your back froze. But that same tiny coal fire at home toasted bread, crumpets and buns skewered on a long “toasting fork” and oh the flavour! I’m afraid electric toasters today can’t compare.
In the summer I had to shake out my clothes from the previous day, to dislodge the earwigs that crawled inside them overnight, before wearing those same clothes to school again. There were no washing machines in those days.
Leather sandals with a strap and a buckle had to be worn, as they let your feet breathe. Summer dresses that snagged and tore when you played in the park or the woods were also de rigour. Patches and pins were used a lot in those days. The weather was different too; it never rained during the long, hot summer school holidays.
Secondary school
School uniforms, heavy satchels and singing in the bus. Comparing homework done (or not done) and discussing what we wanted to be when we grew up. Elvis Presley was the heart throb for both boys and girls and I plastered my bedroom walls with pictures of my hero. The more fortunate kids had bikes or roller skates, but there were also “jacks”, “five stones”, “two balls” and marbles to play with.
Living the life
Ah yes the good old days, I remember them well. We had good honest food on the table, made from scratch. We learned how to knit, mend and make clothes. We helped mum in the kitchen with the prepping and cooking, as well as with all the other jobs around the house too. This was obligatory. We girls thought nothing of boiling kettles for tea or doing a bit of ironing at 7 years old. Climbing ladders to wash windows was what boys did when they didn’t have to help dad with the garden or mending things around the house. Polishing shoes seemed to be a nightly ritual.
There was no television, so we played board games together as a family after sitting down to eat together. We read books and newspapers, learned to do crosswords and talked to each other. However, we did have the radio, which was a great source of entertainment and we listened avidly to the weekly serials and music shows. We also drove our parents mad with Radio Luxembourg as we grew older.
Grown up
Out to work at 15 and paying towards our keep at home made us feel important and fortunate, because our parents had left school and were working by 13 or 14. Going to the pictures or the weekly dance was a real treat. Getting “dolled up to the nines” seemed to take hours, but we all did it, often to the amusement of our parents. Drainpipe trousers and quiffs for the boys; and flared skirts and page boy hair dos for the girls.
Getting married and settling down in a rented flat near the family and having babies came next and we all worked our socks off to “better” ourselves. We knew all about running a household, managing money and taking care of little ones, we’d been doing it for most of our lives, albeit with supervision when younger. If we ran into problems it was up to us to sort them out, our parents had no way of bailing us out.They would be there with advice, but that was all we got.
How life has changed
Health & Safety has entered our world and many of our favourite games are no longer allowed – not even conkers it seems. I find that sad. As we used to say “everything has a place and everything in its place” and I think this should also apply to the dreaded Health & Safety.
I also found it very sad when sports were dropped from some school curricula so as not to disappoint some of the less sporty children. Tearing around a sports field or swinging from the bars was a great way to use up excess energy and there were no fat children in the old days. There were no fast foods either come to that. Everyone is good at something, be it academia or sports, one learnt to accept ones limitations without tantrums, it was all part of growing up.
Not many children nowadays know about playing in the street, cricket, football, jacks, two-ball and knock down ginger. They have play groups, television, DVDs, game consoles, computers and mobile phones to play with, or use to text thousands of useless and meaningless messages to friends who they only seem to see at school.
Most are driven to school and don’t know the joys of playing in the fields or parks without their parents’ watchful eyes on them. These seem to have been superseded with “after school activities”. This is the price the kids of today have had to pay for the “unsafe” streets and playgrounds that exist now. Not that the after school activities are a bad thing, unless you’re a mother with never ending chauffeur duties.
I have to admit, I’m glad the modern day children are not cold, live life with ration books or have to grow up too soon. I’m glad they can study more and have the opportunity to see our world, learn about different cultures and forming their own opinions. It’s wonderful that so many make it into university, even though I’m sad they don’t have the freedom we had in many ways; but then they have other freedoms that we never dreamed of.
What an improved society we live in where so many people own their own house, car and furniture and can choose where to live and work. Where travel has become the norm for many and therefore they get to see and experience so much more than we did.
Yes, I remember the “good old days” but I wonder what this generation will fondly remember when they reach my age?
Brought to you by Meravista – the place where smart people search for Algarve property for sale.
The Good Old Days
by Sun’s Dragon
We grew up with tales of the war, poverty and deprivation of our elders, but we felt lucky; we had clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet and food on our tables (albeit severely rationed food as youngsters) and there were no bombs. We had free education, free health care, at least one cinema in every town, a local dance hall and free libraries.
Pre-school days
Our prams were huge and we were strapped into them and stuck outside in all weather, for fresh air, for hours on end. Prams were parked outside the small shops whilst mum bought the food; nobody stole babies in those days. Our nappies were towelling and sometimes quite rough, but we were changed on mum’s warm lap instead of a dresser.
One of my earliest memories is laying in my lead painted cot with my feet poking out the end. The blackout curtains were drawn, but I could see a shaft of lovely floating dust motes through a chink in the drapes. I felt so warm, cosy and safe.
As we grew older, we played in the streets until we were called in for dinner. No supervision and no toys as such, our imaginations invented our games. Hopscotch and “He” were favourites.
Primary school
I remember writing my name, in the ice, on the inside of the window in my bedroom. There was no such thing as heated bedrooms! And the clothes we wore; getting dressed with a vest, liberty bodice, woolly jumper and cardigan on top and a thin skirt and cotton knickers below. Socks were knee length and held up with elastic. Boots were wellies with two pairs of socks or sensible black lace up shoes. To complete the outfit, an ill-fitting, hand-me-down coat and I was ready to walk through snow, ice and rain to school. Boys had to wear short trousers until they were 12, so frozen legs that turned blue were the order of the day. However, our chests were well protected so we wouldn’t catch a cold! It was no good me having a scarf and gloves – I lost them all the time, as did all my friends.
.
The school playground was solid concrete; one end for boys and the other end for girls. We all ran around playing “Chase” to get warm, scraped knees were commonplace. School heating was supplied by a tiny coal fire in each classroom that kept the front of you warm whilst your back froze. But that same tiny coal fire at home toasted bread, crumpets and buns skewered on a long “toasting fork” and oh the flavour! I’m afraid electric toasters today can’t compare.
In the summer I had to shake out my clothes from the previous day, to dislodge the earwigs that crawled inside them overnight, before wearing those same clothes to school again. There were no washing machines in those days.
Leather sandals with a strap and a buckle had to be worn, as they let your feet breathe. Summer dresses that snagged and tore when you played in the park or the woods were also de rigour. Patches and pins were used a lot in those days. The weather was different too; it never rained during the long, hot summer school holidays.
Secondary school
School uniforms, heavy satchels and singing in the bus. Comparing homework done (or not done) and discussing what we wanted to be when we grew up. Elvis Presley was the heart throb for both boys and girls and I plastered my bedroom walls with pictures of my hero. The more fortunate kids had bikes or roller skates, but there were also “jacks”, “five stones”, “two balls” and marbles to play with.
Living the life
Ah yes the good old days, I remember them well. We had good honest food on the table, made from scratch. We learned how to knit, mend and make clothes. We helped mum in the kitchen with the prepping and cooking, as well as with all the other jobs around the house too. This was obligatory. We girls thought nothing of boiling kettles for tea or doing a bit of ironing at 7 years old. Climbing ladders to wash windows was what boys did when they didn’t have to help dad with the garden or mending things around the house. Polishing shoes seemed to be a nightly ritual.
There was no television, so we played board games together as a family after sitting down to eat together. We read books and newspapers, learned to do crosswords and talked to each other. However, we did have the radio, which was a great source of entertainment and we listened avidly to the weekly serials and music shows. We also drove our parents mad with Radio Luxembourg as we grew older.
Grown up
Out to work at 15 and paying towards our keep at home made us feel important and fortunate, because our parents had left school and were working by 13 or 14. Going to the pictures or the weekly dance was a real treat. Getting “dolled up to the nines” seemed to take hours, but we all did it, often to the amusement of our parents. Drainpipe trousers and quiffs for the boys; and flared skirts and page boy hair dos for the girls.
How life has changed
Health & Safety has entered our world and many of our favourite games are no longer allowed – not even conkers it seems. I find that sad. As we used to say “everything has a place and everything in its place” and I think this should also apply to the dreaded Health & Safety.
Not many children nowadays know about playing in the street, cricket, football, jacks, two-ball and knock down ginger. They have play groups, television, DVDs, game consoles, computers and mobile phones to play with, or use to text thousands of useless and meaningless messages to friends who they only seem to see at school.
Most are driven to school and don’t know the joys of playing in the fields or parks without their parents’ watchful eyes on them. These seem to have been superseded with “after school activities”. This is the price the kids of today have had to pay for the “unsafe” streets and playgrounds that exist now. Not that the after school activities are a bad thing, unless you’re a mother with never ending chauffeur duties.
I have to admit, I’m glad the modern day children are not cold, live life with ration books or have to grow up too soon. I’m glad they can study more and have the opportunity to see our world, learn about different cultures and forming their own opinions. It’s wonderful that so many make it into university, even though I’m sad they don’t have the freedom we had in many ways; but then they have other freedoms that we never dreamed of.
What an improved society we live in where so many people own their own house, car and furniture and can choose where to live and work. Where travel has become the norm for many and therefore they get to see and experience so much more than we did.
Yes, I remember the “good old days” but I wonder what this generation will fondly remember when they reach my age?
Brought to you by Meravista – the place where smart people search for Algarve property for sale.