What do you remember- seems impossible now

[brennan1]

1 What about waiting in anticipation each week for the Bunty, Judy and School friend comics 'ooh the excitement'
2. Listening to Radio Luxenburg late on Sunday night  to hear Elvis, Little Richard  etc with ear pressed close to radio so that parents could not hear, as such artists were deemed demonic
3.Watching the Almo Cogan show on the only TV that was owned by the wealthiest member of a village of 17 houses and allowed all to attend, checking out  the number of times she changed her dress
4. Student nurses spending hours in the sluice cleaning metal bedpans with a brush and folding swabs and bandages which were packed into drums to be sent for autoclaving (sterilisation)
5. Arriving home from school soaked to the skin, having walked 3 miles, (very few car owning families and no rural buses then) being greeted by a lovely Mam, a  big coal fire in the range and the delightful smell of a stew for dinner

Were most things better then ? (apart from the experiences of student nurses) I believe so, or is this just the nostalgic ravings of an ageing  person who has not moved with the times ?

Brennan1 




   
 

[jaybelnz]

Without wanting to be controversial, and I do understand why, but I think that a lot has been lost without stay-at-home mums!   

At the same time, I can see where some kids can fare much better in day care - in terms of loving care and safety!   Don't shoot me please!!   

Jeanne

[fifer1947]

Not shooting you Jeanne I more or less agree.    

Difficulty was always with mens wages being so low post war that women had to work (at a pittance compared to men!) to keep a roof over heads and food on the table, though a lot did part-time so they were there for children coming out of school. 

My mum was divorced so we were pretty much brought up by my gran as mum worked full-time as a nurse from I was about 7.  I didn't miss out on mum not being there because my gran was a great substitute.  She never locked her doors until after the war .......... the war changed a lot of things for the worse!

I think it's a combination of factors, working mums being just one of them, loss of community/family childcare due to wholesale rebuilding of areas in cities in the 60/70's, families split over the country for work etc., less involvement with neighbours and much less community spirit.  There's a sort of selfishness or greed crept in post 80's which has added to that, to produce the society we have today.

I would not like to be raising a family nowadays that's for sure!   

[Deb D]

'Way back when (I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, before? - it was in the early 70s!)  I wanted to be a vet.  However at that time, female vets weren't allowed to operate unless there was a male vet in attendance, ... and obviously, female vets weren't allowed to have their own practise 

[nort]

I have also mentioned this somewhere on here before.In the mid 1960s when i was about 8yr old we moved house using a horse and cart,the furniture was tied on with ropes.I can't remember how many times we went back and forth but it was only a short distance away.People didn't have as much 'stuff' to shift then but it still seems funny to me now.

Steve

[mrs.tenacious]

The lovely sound of the clickety-clack of the typewriter keys, and the "ping" of the carriage return lever 

This always make me smile: http://youtu.be/g2LJ1i7222c

[mike175]

I remember a window cleaner with his ladder and bucket on a handcart, and another on a bicycle with the ladder on a little sidecar

And I expect someone's already mentioned the Milkman and Coalman with their horse and cart

Mike

[bennett]

Washday before my Mum had a washing machine.
She was up early,to start the fire going to boil the water in the copper.
We had a wash house at the bottom of the garden.
In would go all the whites,then she would have to take them out and run them under the cold water tap
in a huge sink.
Then out would come the Reckitts blue bag to be added to the rinsing water.
Then put through the MANGLE,it was huge.
The washing was hung out on the line,blowing in the wind,and spotless.
I always had snow white socks,compared to other kids in the street who had dirty grey ones.
My dear Mum worked hard in those days.

[Pebbles Kernow]

I was trying to explain to my children about some old family friends and their version of colour TV.

It was a black and white TV with a see through but coloured plastic cover over the screen. For some reason their cover was orange at the top graduating down to clear at the bottom. They were using this right up until their deaths in the late 1980's.