What do you remember or what have you been told about The Olden Days???

I had two relatives who didn't get indoor bathrooms until the 1970s. One lived in a terrace house in South Wales and had an outside toilet in the back yard - the family used to bath in front of the fire in a tin bath. Yes really! The other lived in a back-to-back terrace house in Leeds and up until the 1970s, used a communal outside toilet shared between about 6 other families. Obviously there was no bath either. It seems hard to believe now In fact I remember an interviewer talking to Paul Burrell (Princess Diana's butler) about his upbringing, and he was brought up in similar circumstances. I remember the interviewer telling him quite frankly that he didn't believe him, but there were a lot of houses like that, particularly in industrial cities like Leeds and coalmining regions like South Wales, and probably other areas as well that I don't know about.

I gather it was possible in The Olden Days to post a letter or postcard in the morning saying "Coming for Tea at 4pm", and putting "1 Acacia Avenue, Local" as the address (ie, no town), and it would be delivered by the afternoon. Of course now you send an email Provided you can get a connection of course....

Well I'm so old, I lived in the "olden days"....

What do I remember - here's a brief selection:

buses that ran to time with a friendly conductor
ghastly school meals with tapioca most days for pudding
buying a bag of sweets on the way home from school that cost 1d (one old penny)
teachers in gowns for all lessons and us, pupils, in uniforms that had to be 100% correct or you were in trouble, including the regulation, heavy duty fabric green knickers!
being able to roam my home city at night as a teenager, oboe on my back in its case, and never feeling the slightest bit scared (something I cannot do now)
going to church in a hat because if I didn't, my grandmother wouldn't talk to me
being a teenager in the early 60s when everything seemed so exciting and suddenly so "liberated" and my mother going mad because I hitched my skirt above my knee!
walking or cycling to school because my parents couldn't afford to run a car, except on special days
living in a house without central heating, and hearing my father light the fires each morning in the lounge and, when I caught measles, being allowed the luxury of a fire in my bedroom
going to stay with my great-aunt who only had an outside toilet and no bathroom (yes, it did happen!)

...... and so much more. Was it all better then? I don't know - we certainly didn't have "Forums" to amuse us but I have to think, overall, the world did seem a slightly safer, better place. Now, where did I leave those rose-tinted spectacles?

Things I remember.

Bee Gees and John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever were all the rage.
Black and white television and then our first coloured TV which unfortunately got struck by lightning soon after it was brought home.
Red or orange leather couches were popular for halls of homes.
People wore bell bottom pants everywhere and tight t shirts.
Cars were box-shaped and had like red leather seats too.
People greeted each other everywhere you went
People were nicer to each other, nobody swore in public, knew how to return borrowed items and also lent their stuff freely.
Walking far out in the streets or lonely places and taking the bus without worrying you'll be harrassed.
The AB examiners were all men.

I remember using the outside loo at my grand-parents house in the 70s, not exactly the dark ages. There was a dairy up the road where you could buy clotted cream by the quarter (approximately yoghurt pot sized) - scooped out of a big tray with a yellow crust on top. We used to it off a spoon, a real treat! My uncle used to put a spoonful in his tea, calling it a 'dirty' cup of tea. There was a traditional larder in their kitchen as well.
(All in deepest darkest Devonshire, God's own county, well Exeter actually!)

Teachers at school thought nothing of rapping us with a ruler. I remember being one of a group of children who had to stand on our desks and the head teacher came round and gave us all a wallop on the leg. (Never did us any harm, youth of today, no respect, mutter....don't get me started!!)

At Christmas we all had just one main present from our parents and a few small ones from everyone else. Wooly hats and mittens were popular. We had no TV until I was about ten years old and we didn't leave it on all of the time. It took several minutes to warm up too! No one had fitted kitchens when I was young. They came in in the sixties and we didn't have one until the eighties!
When I was in music college I paid £4 a week in rent and that was quite high!
At primary school we had small bottles of milk at break time; one third of a pint bottles. They used to arrive early and were left out in the sun (In those days we had sun.) for several hours and we had to drink them warm and slightly tainted.
We all either walked to school or rode on bikes and we were far healthier for that.

Some things I've picked up on through talking to various relations -

My Nan grew up during WW2, and so knows what rationing was like, having a shelter in the garden etc. They lived in the country and so weren't evacuated but I think a family from London went to stay with them for a couple of months. Her brother was quite a few years older than her and was in the Army.

When my Granny was young, they lived in a little village near where we live now, and her father was the School Master. Their family lived in the school house, and kept pigs and chickens in the garden, which she remembers her father killing so that they could eat them.

When my dad was in primary school, they had to write on slate with a piece of chalk. By the time my mum started school, 5 years later, however, pencils and paper were being used.

I think compared to most people my age, I probably had quite an 'old-fashioned' up-bringing. I have always respected the older generations, it's never even crossed my mind to behave any other way. Every Sunday, we all get together and have a meal and my brother and I haven't ever eaten dinner infront of the television.

Oh, and woe betide you if your elbows are on the table...

I don't think I'd want it to have been any other way though.

Same

not everyone had a fridge.. so if milk went 'off' at home and curdled, you put it into muslin and let it drain to make your own cream cheese


really nice to hear that, Miss Ross and Choddy!
respect for a lot of things seems to have gone

how about preserving eggs in isinglass? or salting down runner beans, so that you could use them after their proper season?

remember when the driving licence was a little red book?

This is such a lovely thread! I find myself reading other people's posts and saying "yes, yes, I remember that too....." Oh dear, perhaps we are all getting older than we realise.

Let's hope others contribute to this too - it's fun looking back sometimes. I was only saying to a friend on Friday as we had a coffee in Tescos that my gran just wouldn't believe her eyes if she was in Tescos today. People talking on a phone in their pocket, paying by a piece of plastic, foodstuffs from all over the world, nobody talking to each other much or having the time of day to stop for a natter (except me and friend having coffee of course ).

She used to put on her hat and coat every morning (no working for her in those days) and go to the shops to get the food to prepare my grandad's lunch when he came home from work to eat same. My Mum would come home from school to join them (this was pre-WW2) as it was unthinkable for a wife not to be able to provide a solid, healthy cooked lunch for the husband and children.

I am not sure all change is for the best although, overall, I'm generally regarded as someone who quite likes it.

Keep the reminiscences coming - they're great!

Love the bit about all-male music examiners!

who remembers cars like the Ford Popular with only 3 forward gears?

What if you wanted to go backwards?

ok, so I should have said "three forward and reverse"

Our neighbours had a morris minor tourer. It had 4 forward gears and reverse, but there was no syncromesh between first and second gears.

We had milk in little bottles until a certain Mrs Thatcher took them away.

School Dinners were eaten with the teachers and I ended up on the headmasters table where he instsed I ate nicely. There were no canteen style dinners, but the delights of shepherds pie with soggy veg followed by jam roly-poly and custard. If you were lucky you were allowed to put jam on your semolina pudding.

If you turned the TV on early all you could see was the test card. I remember getting our first colour television. I was 6 at the time.

I remember it being safe to hare around the village on my bike at the age of 6 aslong as I stayed clear of the A10.

I could walk to school on my own from the age of 5 as the lollypop man helped me across the A10.

I would have garibaldi biscuits and a cup of tea when I came home from school and play in the garden.

We went blackberrying, and picked apples and plums of the municipal trees. We even climbed trees without anyone making a fuss.

Dad had a car because he was a rep, but to get to town we went by bus and bought out tickets off the conductor.

We did have an automatic washing machine, but it was normal to have a twin tub. My granny had a twin tub and on wash days we had to empty out the spinner and hang things on the line. If it was raining it all went on airers infront of her Rayburn Double Boiler.

The second house we moved to had solid fuel heating and we had two coal bunkers. If you climbed the coal bunker you could get up the apple tree that was loaded with fruit in the autumn. Nobody cared about us having a pond... none of this panic about children and water.

I remember the Winter of 1979. We used to go ice skating on Newnham Paddling Pool as it was frozen over, then build snowmen... proper snowmen and there was no cancelling school because of an inch of snow! The only time school was cancelled was when there had been snow drifts and the head of music still walked five miles in his wellie boots to try to get in.

Oh those were the days...

What lovely old memories you are bringing back. Here are some of mine (not in order) :

Sunday school anniversaries
Sunday school outings to Weymouth (Got lost on the beach and put in the lost children’s hut. When my mother found me she turned me over her knee and spanked me in front of everyone!)
Ration books and some sweets you could buy “without coupons”
Bulls’ eyes – bought by the quarter in a paper bag.
Moving to London and living with my grandmother in her built-just- after- the- war- prefab.
The Coronation – all that red white and blue and the street parties. I can still remember feeling sore after sitting on the floor watching the Coronation Service on a black and white TV - tiny screen in a sort of cupboard / cabinet. My uncle was the only one to have TV so it was quite a family gathering.
BBC Children’s hour at 5 o’clock with Uncle Mac – oh those stories!!
Toy Town and Larry the Lamb "‘Baaaaa Mister Maaayor sir”
Listen with Mother “Are you sitting comfortably – then I’ll begin.”
First day at Grammar school all spruced up in uniform (yes, even the green knickers) – and real leather satchel.
Going to school by red double decker – always upstairs
Then Cycling Proficiency test. and being allowed to cycle to school.
The pier and the tunnel under the Thames at Greenwich – the smell of the Thames.

I could go on for ever – such freedom to roam around and muck about. Were we the last generation of really free children?

Its Friday, Its five to five and its....

Crackerjack!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember:

The outrage when Walker's crisps went up to 5p a bag .

Helping my granny put her washing through the mangle.

The only type of branded kitchen/bathroom cleaner was Ajax - and it was not "frangipane and ginger" or "day lily and watermelon" scented

NHS specs - in pink, blue or clear plastic (had at least one pair of each over the years)

Everyone had a coal fire, and most of my friends' Dads were miners.

Exactly, but who presented it when you were a kid?

I straddled both Leslie Crowther and Ed Stupot Stewart.

sorry highly immature response but it made me giggle

I just wondered who was going to post crackerjack first!

Smith's crisps with a blue twist bag of salt?
television finishing with the Epilogue and the National Anthem?
gobstoppers
the blue book given out at the time of the Coronation?

I have real mixed feelings about the way 'things used to be'!

It was great to go to the park for the whole day on our bikes (shorts and no helmets) and play in the bushes and by the ponds if we wanted... and climbed trees without body-padding. We only went home when we got hungry.

I remember Basil Brush the first time round. And walking over a mile to school at 6years old.. and then all the way home for lunch then back again!

A comic was 2p and 5p-worth of sweets lasted a week! (Black jacks ..mmmmm) We went berry-picking at the side of the road and always ate home-made jams, chutney, cake etc etc. Mum had a twin-tub which used to rumble across the kitchen floor on its spin cycle and the smell of sun-dried sheets was heavenly.

BUT, and it's a big BUT,... I'm glad the things adults did to kids in those days are illegal now. I don't have fond memories of being thrashed "within an inch of my life" by someone four times bigger than me. I don't miss the bruises and the blinding headaches from being hit around the head. I certainly don't miss the excessive discipline "for my own good" and the degredation and abuse dished out without question because of the inadequacies and perversity of the adults around me and many other children. In those days everyone turned a blind eye.

It's very sad, but I wish-to-God there had been Childline when I was little.

Most clothes came in white, grey, or brown.

The only exception was home knitted fairisle jumpers, I had loads as my Gran was a very keen knitter!

Is sounds like your granny was a good knitter. Both "Nannys" (my father's mother and step-father's mother) were excellent knitters, and furnished my sister and me with the most beautiful jumpers and cardigans, my "Granny" was not. She could knit alright, but had the habit of changing the type of wool half way through so we'd have thick bits and thin bits. However the cardi she knitted me to wear at secondary school was lovely... my mother bought the wool!

They still do the crisps with a blue bag of salt.

Can also remember TV (and particularly the BBC) finishing with the National Anthem. And the days when BBC1's logo was a blue/yellow globe, and all ITV programmes were preceded by a logo/jingle telling you which company made the programme (who remembers the silver-coloured model of a man riding a horse placed on a turntable that Anglia used to have before their programmes?...)

Those were the days....

Yes, but it's not the TWIST bag now - that meant that the salt was sort of dampish, and you could lick it out of the screwed paper - it was great! I remember when crisps first came out - they were such a novelty!

And 3-D ice lollies, Mint Hits and POTATO PUFFS! I used to love them, they were on sale at school breaktimes (far preferable to the yucky milk!) - they still made those right up to the late 70s but then they seemed to disappear

We used to take a picnic and go out with our friends to the beach or along the cliffs (unfenced, with precipitous drop!) for whole days at a time - parents never worried about us at all - it was great!

In the 60s, the local beach was absolutely jam-packed with holidaymakers - we used to feel quite resentful, as it became quite difficult to find a space unless you got there really early - and of course it was 'our' beach! There was a whole string of Butlins hotels along the seafront, which were packed out all through the summer - they've all been demolished or turned into retirement homes now, and there's plenty of room on the beach even at the height of the holiday season.......

... with the hornpite from Handel's Watermusic playing too!

Eamon Andrews.....!

glad it wasn't just me!

Mars Bars at sixpence (that's six old pence) each.

Having no phone, no fridge and no tv.
Being told off for finding out the first name of a teacher.
Horrid little crinkly ruched swimsuits.


ps oh and some of us still knit !

Have heard of, but don't recall the twist bags. Even the current Salt 'n' Shake crisps, though they say 'Smith's', I don't believe actually are 'Smith's' crisps now, I believe they were taken over...



It was indeed jod. And after the rather abbreviated version of the Hornpipe Anglia used for their jingle, you would fully expect someone to announce 'And now, from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week...'

I remember I had to wear those awful thick green knickers at a school where we had to use them for PE indoors. One day the waist elastic snapped just before a lesson My worst nightmare came true!! (I think Mum had put a safety pin in my PE bag just in case.......)



One of my favourite programmes Does anyone remember 'Junior Showtime' and 'Opportunity Knocks' ?

A cousin of mine won Opportunity Knocks. We all went to her parents' house to watch her. Is anyone going to admit to listening to Waggoner's Walk on the radio? Actually that wasn't so long ago. Probably less than thirty years.

I have a photo of me aged about 5 on Skeggie beach in a home-knitted swimsuit , and my mum behind me is wearing a home-knitted bikini . Not sure if she or my grandma made them, both did lots of knitting.

I learnt to knit in the Brownies, and can still knit, but these days usually only do scarves or hats for Pip's dollies

My granny and grandad lived on an island so no electricity for them until well into the 1980's.
What I remember is

An outside toilet that was basically a bucket with a seat that had to be emptied when it began to get full.
Granny cooking on the range.
Water being fetched from the well to wash clothes with because the tap water (cold only) came off the hill and was brown from the peat.
Granny using the mangle to wring the washing and flat irons heated on the range to do the ironing.
No electricity meant no fridges, televisions etc.
The milk was delivered in a pail from the farm up the road.
Candles and tilly lamps for light.
Feeding lambs with grandad.
Going to the hill to fetch the peats which had been cut earlier in the year and being allowed to sit on top of them in the back of the trailer on the way home. I don't think that would be allowed anymore.
Packing about 15 of us into the car to go to the beach. This was pre seat belt wearing days.
spending all day in the woods with my friends.
walking to school and back without an adult from the age of 5. Everybody knew everybody else where I grew up so there was always an adult to chase us in the right direction if we started to stray.
Girls learnt to knit, sew and cook while the boys did wood work and metal work.
Navy knickers with elastic threaded through the top. I remember my cousin's knickers fall to the ground as she skipped in the playground.
Cream had to be ordered from the dairy days in advance of when you wanted it.

We used to have a set of flat irons when I was little. They were heated on the top of the aga and then popped into a metal case to keep the clothes clean.
No-one used paper tissues either. Cotton handkerchieves were washed and ironed to re-use.
The townsfolk had deliveries from the Corona man but we were too far away for that. The favourites were limeade and dandelion and burdock.
We used to make our own ginger beer and lemonade too, and something else that we called bee wine because the raisins in the jar used to rise up and sink down again and they looked like bees!

I still can knit. My younger sister taught me when she was 8. I remember when my grandma used to knit for us as well, but the only reason she stopped was because she stopped enjoying it, so it maybe doesn't count as an "olden days" thing.

Mrs Dale's Diary

remember all that.
Tilly lamps too!
and bread was delivered to your home by a man with a big basket full of loaves... wonderfully unhygienic! But we were less allergic then I am sure

I was brought up in the coal mining valleys of South Wales.

Someone's already mentioned hearing about having a bath in a tin bath in front of the fire. Well, I can actually remember it. I must have been 4 or 5 and we had a tin bath and I used to have a bath in front of the kitchen fire. The toilet was also outside, at the bottom of the garden.
I still have my ration book somewhere.
I can remember my mum using a mangle to wring out the washing, and taking the light bulb out of its socket and plugging the iron into it!!!!!!!!
The man next door was a miner and I remember him coming home in his work clothes, absolutely covered with coal dust.
We also had gas lights in our street and I remember the man coming round in the evenings and lighting them.
I also remember that everything was delivered to the house. No trailing miserably around supermarkets and lugging heavy bags home. No, my mum would go to the shops and drop off a list of what she wanted and then it was all delivered. The groceries, fruit and veg., meat, bread (we'd put a basket outside the front door and the bread man left the bread in it), milk (we had 2 milkmen, both called Jones!!). The dry cleaning was delivered when it was done, and the pop man used to come round on Thursdays. After it was all delivered my mum would send me round the shops to pay the bills.
I could go on for ever, this thread has revived so many memories of my childhood. I too can remember having so much more freedom to roam. From quite an early age I used to go on the bus on my own to Saturday morning orchestra, and in my mid teens I went to Cardiff on my own (an hour's journey in those days) to have my piano lessons at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

I can remember having just the gas fire, and in the winter rushing downstairs to get dressed in front of it.
You didn't linger in the bathroom either, before central heating
Having lino with rugs in the bedrooms, couldn't afford fitted carpets.
Power strikes, and school was just 2 days a week in the pre-fabs that they were going to pull down, but had a boiler to warm the room.
The little oil lamps at home when the power was off.
Crackerjack, Magpie, Trumpton and Camberwick Green.
Beverley.

Two of the few things I watched as a child!

Pogul's Wood?

Hector's House?

Tales by the Riverbank?

Oh - The Clangers. That was my fave.

Such good taste.
Bev

As late as 1991 I lived in a house with no central heating and just a gas fire. Occasionally my toothbrush would freeze!

That's student housing for you! Laundry was dropped off at the Laundrette, and for £3.00 they'd do a service wash and I'd pick it up on the way home in a black dustbin bag. It was before mobiles and we had no telephone so to contact anyone I had to go to the phone box... might explain why I got into college despite being really quite poorly. College was warm and had central heating. The phone box was also by the bus stop, once I'd made it there I might as well have gone into college so I did. I could always fade gently in the student common room or the library!

I also prefer my fruit and veg in brown paper bags than that plastic stuff.

Crackerjack, Blue Peter, Trumpton, Camberwick Green, Chigley, Noggin the Nog, The Clangers, Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine... I even remember Andy Pandy... just not the first time around.

And how could we forget "Ludwig"?

.....er..."Ludwig" who?

We didn't have an inside toilet until 1976. We didn't have a TV until 1972. No telephone until 1980 (remember when a phone box only had a 2p and 5p slot ?)
I'd rather not have the power strikes back though