I was a child in the 1950s, a teenager in the 1960s. This blog is for those who lived through those times and want to reminisce, those who are interested in the period and even any who are obliged to research those decades for a project and want to hear what it was really like from one who lived through them.
My aim is not to hanker back to the ‘olden days’ and preach about how life was better. I don’t want to make people sad. I want to put a smile on a few faces as we remember things like Andy Pandy, Chad Valley toys, wearing hand-knitted jumpers, having a bath just once a week, traveling in cars with no seat belts, getting a Hotspur, Princess or Twinkle comic once a week and not having a clue what garlic, red peppers or Camembert looked like.
Travel back with me and smile, laugh or share your memories.
Check out my earlier posts on Toys and Games, TV and Radio.
https://kidsofthe50sand60s.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/toys-and-games/?share=press-this&nb=1
https://kidsofthe50sand60s.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/toys-and-games/?share=press-this&nb=1
Childhood Memories of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. 
Love it M xxx
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Thanks T! New post added today. Check it out when you have a minute! M x
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Hi… just wondering if you’re a fairly new blogger? Diane
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Yes! Does it show that much? I’ve been making it up as I go along, really, until a few days ago when I started blogging101. I have a lot to learn! Thank you for your interest! Meryl
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It doesn’t show in your writing at all.. it’s great… I just noticed that there are no tags or categories under your post. I wondered if you were doing them. When I started that’s one thing I didn’t know the importance of… If you have questions that I can help you will feel free to ask… and there is a wordpress forum of course also to ask questions. I found I mind boggling when I started… Diane
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No, I haven’t got into tags and categories at all! Thanks for your kind offer of help, it would be much appreciated! At present I’m simply recording my memories because I like writing. I need to read some more work by other bloggers to get some ideas on layout, technique etc. until this week, I didn’t know about the reader and I had never heard of tags. As you say, it’s mind-boggling at first!
Meryl
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Wonderful trip down memory lane! I was born in 1965 but my sisters 10 and 5 years older than me definitely wore those dresses. I dont recall a time without a dishwasher, washer dryer, and my mother sewed on an electric sewing machine. We also had colour TV not black and white. We lived in the suburbs of Toronto. I do recall cod liver oil, calamine lotion on my chicken pox and rubber golashes you would where with your shoes inside for winter snowsuits were one piece and you had to lie down to get them on! I am looking forward to following your blog. Wonderful! Kathleen:-)
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Thanks for the lovely comments! I’m very new and learning as I go along. So long as I put smiles on a few faces, it will have been worth writing! Meryl
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Memories of the past puts a smile on my face…Great post Meryl
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Hi, Meryl,
I don’t see a contact form on your blog, so I hope it’s okay to contact you here. I am featuring my review of your short story collection Peace on my blog on 9/11/19. I have a photo of your cover, but I’d like to personalize the post with a couple of additional photos. If you have any you’d like me to feature, you can send them to elizabeth.gauffreau@comcast.net. If not, I’ll post the review as is.
Liz
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Hi Liz
That is really sweet of you! I’ll think about what I can send you tomorrow. I will also look at my settings and make sure people can contact me if they wish to.
Meryl
Meryl
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Thanks, Meryl!
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Hello Meryl,
Your blog is a labour of love! I was led to it from looking at references to Princess Magazine of the early ’60’s. As was your experience, I awaited the weekly comic with much anticipation. I’m just a couple of years younger than you, grew up in the East Midlands with a Welsh father (from Penarth) and a Finnish mother. We emigrated to Canada shortly after I failed the eleven-plus. (I’m that girl struggling at the blackboard!) I was up late devouring your blog and need to return to savour it all and possibly comment further. Much of what I have read so far brought a keen sense of loss, wistful smiles, wide grins, and gasps of recognition. Thank you.
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Thank you so much Helena! Comments like this make blogging so rewarding. I keep thinking I’ll run out of topics but I haven’t so far. Coincidentally, my mum was from Penarth too. Meryl
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Thank you, Meryl. Penarth is a lovely town. I was there visiting only just two years ago. Coincidentally, I was born in Nottingham, the city where you attended university! I would enjoy a post on the infamous “school dinners” of the 1950/60’s junior school. My apologies if I’ve missed this, but I haven’t seen one on your blog. The memories cause shudders, although I was able to walk home for lunch on most days. I don’t know if your experience in a rural Welsh school was at all similar. I’ve taken a glance at the current online menu of my Beeston junior school and it’s a far cry from what we were presented with, once again reflecting food choices, availability, and knowledge that just wasn’t available at the time. You’ve described how much broader our tastes and menus are now.
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Hi Helena
A great friend of mine from my Nottingham years lived in Beeston – another coincidence. Doing a post on school dinners is a great idea! Were the school meals any better in Canada? Meryl
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Hi Meryl, Wow, another coincidence! I don’t imagine the school dinners for kids of that age in Canada were all that more inspiring at the time. However, my experience is here is limited because the first school I attended in Canada (middle school/junior high) did not provide dinners. We all brought a bagged lunch from home. I do think that British school dinners of the early 60’s were in a league of their own!
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Hi Ladies. I was born in the ’50s and loved reading The Happy Days in Princess magazine. Living in Srilanka it took us a few weeks to get the current copies. I was looking to see if anyone had bound copies for sale and I was led to this site. This is for my grand daughter. Any idea where I can get one?
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Hi. Here in the UK, EBay is usually a good place to look for old things. The annuals are probably easier to come by than the paper comics. Good luck in your search!
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Thank you. Will definitely check. I still have some of my Annuals. My daughters read them and now my grand daughter.
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Hi. So pleased to have stumbled across this site. I was born in 1953, so perfect for me. With reference to your piece on Smoking Then and Now, the smoking sets that you refer to were known as Smoker’s Outfits. They did indeed contain all the items you mention, made out of chocolate which, from memory, tasted horrible. I can’t recall the name of the maker, but it was something obscure rather than the usual Cadburys, Rowntrees, etc. My dad managed a sweet shop through the 50s and early 60s, so in our house confectionery was always plentiful!
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What a lovely, positive comment! Smoker’s Outfits! I’d forgotten that’s what they were called. I too remember that the chocolate they were made from wasn’t very nice. And that shredded tobacco stuff wasn’t chocolate (as far as I can remember) and tasted even worse – whatever it was made of! But the sets did make us feel grown up, didn’t they? So non-PC now!!
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Oh yes, we felt very ‘cool’ puffing on our chocolate cigar! While writing this, I was also reminded of liquorice pipes, with red hundreds and thousands on the end to represent the ‘glow’. Another item to add to the non-pc list!
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I loved those pipes – because I love liquorice. Didn’t turn me into a pipe-smoker!
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