Changes Part 3

Here’s another quick-fire, no photos list of things which have changed since the 1950s and 60s.

Please note, these are taken from my own recollections. I endeavour to check facts and statistics before including them but this is a fun blog not a history book!

A cooked main meal was usually followed by a cooked pudding.

Before TV arrived, board games and card games were extremely popular family activities especially on winter evenings. We children loved playing games like Happy Families, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders. As a family we mostly played Cluedo and Monopoly.

A school uniform always included a hat – a cap or a beret with a school badge on it. Secondary school pupils all carried leather satchels. Sports wear was carried in a duffel bag. Primary schools didn’t have uniforms. Some private schools were the exception to this.

Swearing, even mild swearing, never appeared on the radio, on TV or (as far as I know), in books. In fact I didn’t even hear the ‘f’ word (which was passed around in whispered tones!) or the word shit until I started secondary school. At home we weren’t allowed to say bum we had to say bottom.

TV presenters, newsreaders etc never had regional accents.

People didn’t run or walk to keep fit. They walked to get places, they ran to catch things like buses, runaway balls or mischievous children!

A bar of soap was used for all personal hygiene. There were no shower gels or body washes. Neither was there any hair conditioner until the mid 60s. On the same subject, I rarely came across showers, except in school changing rooms, until the late 60s.

I hope this has triggered some memories!

15 thoughts on “Changes Part 3

  1. I remember when Monopoly was new. We had a family reunion at Christmas that year with aunts, uncles and cousins from all around the country. It was a memorable Christmas except for one thing: a Monopoly set had been purchased for one of the children but the uncles got to it first and we never got near it.

    Instead, we were told to play Snakes and Ladders. Hardly in the same league as Monopoly but, there it was.

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  2. trousers were not worn by housewives. Aprons were worn over dresses/skirts. In the winter fur-lined bootees kept feet and ankles warm outside (cold knees were usual!) at the beginning of the 1960’s women still wore stockings and either ‘corsets’ or a suspenders belt to hold them up, as tights were not available.
    Dustbin men came into the back garden and hoisted the galvanised bin onto their shoulders to take and empty before bringing back. Sunday tea was a tin of fruit with carnation milk, bread and butter and home baked cake.

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  3. Much of this sure takes me back:) We often had pudding or canned fruits for dessert. And the tub in my childhood home had no shower. I often washed my hair in the bathroom sink if I didn’t need a full bath. Our shampoo of choice was Halo, and I remember in high school when they came out with hair conditioner; it was called “creme rinse.”

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