Revisit the 1950s and 60s.

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

29 thoughts on “Revisit the 1950s and 60s.”

      • 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

        Like

  3. 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

    Like

    Reply

  4. 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:-)

    Like

    Reply

  6. 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

    Like

    Reply

  8. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. 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!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. 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?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. 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!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • 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!!

      Like

      Reply

  13. Hello! I am curious as to the amount of clothing in a wardrobe for children in the 50s (or before clothing became disposable). How many pieces and what kind of pieces? I feel like this is collective knowledge that could help so many women who are “drowning in laundry” these days (me especially!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • What a great question! The main thing I remember is that winter and summer clothing were completely distinct. So once the warm weather had properly arrived, my mum would get all our summer things out of the trunks in the attic and see what still fitted us. Then the winter clothing was folded away into the trunks. You only had one good warm coat to see you through winter – not a selection of coats and jackets. My mum knitted all our cardigans and jumpers so we definitely didn’t have many each. Girls had a couple of warm skirts or pinafore dresses for winter and a best winter dress for church and any birthday parties.

      Like

      Reply

  14. Dear Kids of the 50s and 60s, I just found your blog, just as I was finishing up my own written story about my life in the 50s and 60s! I was looking to check the names of some of the remembered the songs on Children’s Favourites on the radio and I found you! The reason I started writing things down is because I now so regret never asking my grandparents or parents very much about their young lives, so I thought I’d have something my grandchildren can look at when they are a bit older. And perhaps, also to help me when I can no longer remember things so well. So thank you, I will keep dipping in!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment