Author Archives: kidsofthe50sand60s

Films.

Until I was 13 we lived in a tiny village. Trips to the cinema were occasional, very exciting treats. These happened when we were away on holiday and also in our nearby small town, five miles away, in a very small independent cinema in a converted chapel. The man who ran it used to get the big films of the time – a year or two after they’d been shown in the big towns. We didn’t mind waiting! Occasionally, when a really good family film came to our town we’d get in the car as a family and go and see it. I remember us going to see Swiss Family Robinson and the cinema was absolutely packed with people standing and sitting on windowsills. It was the same when Tom Jones arrived.

When I was a teenager, and we’d moved to the town, I would go weekly to the cinema with my friends. We didn’t mind what we saw! The most popular, of course, were the ones we’d read all about in magazines like the Bond films, Georgy Girl, Alfie and Ben Hur.

Cinemas in those days had just one screen, although many town (not ours!) had more than one cinema. There was always an A film, the one you went to see, plus a B film which was shown first. In the intermission the ice cream vendors walked down the aisles with their trays of drinks, tubs and choc ices. There were adverts played in the intermission. In my small home town the ads were stills promoting local businesses, particularly the coach company the cinema proprietor and projectionist drove for in the daytime. People were allowed to smoke in cinemas, and a huge proportion of the population smoked. 

Apparently, I was taken to see this when I was about two years old. I don’t remember the occasion!
My grandmother took me to see this in Cardiff when I was staying with her one summer. It’s set and filmed in Cardiff which is probably why she was keen to see it. I see now that it was a crime film so I was probably far too young to understand it.
Our little cinema was crammed for the showing of this in around 1964, a year or so after release.

For both Zulu and The Sound of Music, we took a day trip to Cardiff to see them when they were still new.

TV

Once we had television, in the early 60s, we could watch old films at home. In black and white and on a very small screen!

Who could have imagined that by the 1980’s most of us would have VHS recorders and would be renting videos? Or that we would race on from there through DVDs to streaming? Even more so, it would have been impossible back then to imagine being able to watch films and TV on pocket-sized gadgets. These gadgets are known to us as phones but they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the early phone of the 1950s, either in appearance or capabilities.

Images courtesy of Google Images. Facts double-checked through Wikipedia. I make every effort to avoid infringing copyright. However, if anyone objects to any of the content in my posts get in touch directly with me and it will be removed.

Words and phrases

Imagine that a time traveller popped up from the 50’s and 60’s who had somehow missed the decades between then and now. Rip Van Winkle – remember that story? Apart from the very obvious changes in buildings, shops, technology, instant communication etc etc, I think there are many words and phrases which would baffle them in conversation. Here is a very small selection.

Family

When I was starting my family in the early eighties, nobody had events called baby showers. I’m not sure when the idea first appeared here in Britain but it’s certainly massive now. When my children had a friend come to play or, when a bit older, had a friend come to stay the night, these were not called play-dates and sleepovers.

Music

Back in the 50’s and 60’s we had classical, jazz, blues, music from films and shows and rock and roll. In the early 60’s we saw the emergence of pop. Now there is a plethora of musical genres. Garage, hip hop, grime, dub, Indie … to name just a few!

Miscellaneous

The world of famous people has changed enormously, largely due to the new ease of communication. Some words which would bewilder a time traveller from the 50’s and 60’s are fashionista, paparazzi, celeb.

In the 1950s we had newspapers and some people had televisions. Now we have podcasts, sound bites, boxed sets, binge watching,

Back when I was a child ‘environment’ was a word we rarely heard and we never used expressions like ‘saving the planet’ or ‘good for the environment’, plant-based, eco friendly, flexitarian etc.

And finally . . .

Mindfulness, exfoliate, click and collect, chip and pin, glamping, fatbergs. And many, many more.

Note. This is my own work, written from my own memories and opinions. Credit to Wikipedia, Google, Google Images used for fact-checking. I make every effort to avoid infringing copyright. However, if anyone objects to my use of any particular image, please contact me and it will be removed.

Air Travel in the 60’s and 70’s

I was on a short flight to Dublin recently and it got me thinking about air travel when I was younger. I didn’t fly until the early 70s when I was in my 20’s. My earliest experience of an airport was in 1964. My cousin Tony got married that summer. I was their bridesmaid so it was very exciting for me. After the reception Tony and Jennifer got changed into their ‘going away outfits’, gathered up a case each and the whole wedding party drove out to Roose Airport near Cardiff. Everyone trooped out onto the tarmac near the plane and waved them off as they went up the steps and boarded the plane for their honeymoon in Jersey. I relate this tale because it’s so completely different to how things are now.

Pan-Am Air Hostesses in Uniform, 24th March 1969. Art Prints ...

Refreshments on the plane were the same for everyone. You were handed a platter of cold food of some sort and served with a drink which you chose yourself.

Flying in my 20’s, once to Malta and several times to Spain, was also very different to air travel now. Obviously, security is one of the main things which has changed. But as I flew to Dublin recently, I remembered that smoking was allowed on planes then. And so many people smoked! The air was thick with it! I seem to remember that you were seated I. The rear half of the plane if you smoked, in the front half if you didn’t. It made little difference as the whole plane ended up full of smoke. But at that time it was the same everywhere; in offices, cinemas, pubs, cafes, on buses and on trains.

Cabin crew were called air hostesses then (there were no male cabin crew) and it always seemed to me that they changed outfits several times on a flight. They started off, when greeting passengers, in a smart suit, a little hat, a jaunty scarf and matching gloves. At some point the hat scarf and gloves came off. Later, when they came round with food, they would have a uniform tabard/ apron. By the time the plane was landing they were back in the full kit as at the start.

How things have changed!

Pomp and Circumstance

The recent world wide coverage of the late Pope’s funeral and subsequent arrival of the new Pope reminded me of the times when big state occasions happened in the 50s/ early 60s and were, for the first time, televised.

I have covered this theme before so apologies to readers who have heard these tales before.

Starting with funerals, when Winston Churchill died in 1965. We’d had a television for about two years but many households in our village didn’t yet have TV. On Saturday January 30th his state funeral took place. TV was still in its infancy. Daytime TV was nonexistent apart from a few exceptions. So my mum asked a few villagers and their children to come and watch the whole proceedings at our house. In those days the TV picture was so weak you had to close the curtains when watching in daylight. What an occasion. Sad, but so exciting too. Curtains closed, TV on, a room full of neighbours plus cake!!

Earlier in the 1960s, before we had a TV, there were a few notable state occasions.

Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones in May 1960. Television hadn’t arrived in our village in 1960 so my mum’s friend arranged for our two families (mums and children, not the dads!) to go to a relative in the nearby town to watch the wedding.
The wedding of Katharine Worsley to the Duke of Kent in June 1961.
In April 1963 Princess Alexandra married Angus Ogilvy.

The funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965. We watched in black and white. Not many households had colour tv in ‘65.

Paying.

When I was a child I used to get a small amount of pocket money each week. I don’t recall how much exactly but I have a feeling that Mum and Nana, who lived with us, gave us a shilling each. We lived in a tiny village so there wasn’t anywhere to spend it unless we went to the local town or, occasionally to a big town a couple of hours away. We were encouraged to save for our summer holiday.By the time I was going to secondary school I was getting five shillings a week. I only ever handled coins when I was very young and then, later, 10 shilling , £1 and £5 notes. If I went to the village shop for my mum I had to put the amount on her account which was settled weekly.

The currency which was used in the 1950s and 60s.

At 18 I went to university and the rite of passage for that stage of life in those days was to open a bank account. My dad took me into his bank where our neighbour was bank manager and I came out a newly fledged account holder. It was so exciting when my first cheque book arrived with my name printed on every page. How grown up I felt!

There were no ATMs then so every Monday I went to the small bank on the campus and wrote out a cheque for £5. The bank clerk would hand me a £5 note which I tried to make last the week. My only expenses were drinks, snacks, stationery and bus fares. If I ever went into the city and bought myself something to wear or a new record (LP) I wrote a cheque.

How things have changed! Not just in how much things cost now but in the way we actually pay for them. Credit cards have been around a long time now and most people have been used to using a mixture of card and cash payments. However, since the COVID pandemic the use of cards has increased to the point where many people hardly use cash at all.

From card payments we have now progressed even further and people can pay in shops, cafes etc using watches or mobile phones. How strange that would look to a time traveller from the 1960’s!

Credit to Wikipedia and Google Images. If anyone objects the use of any images in this post contact me and it will be removed.

Jewellery

When I was a child men only ever wore a wristwatch and sometimes a signet ring. Rarely a wedding ring. Women, however, had a few more adornments. A married woman wore a wedding ring and an engagement ring. Wristwatches for women were dainty and pretty.

Most women in my childhood didn’t have pierced ears. When dressing up and going out they would sometimes wear a pair of clip on earrings. These were usually either diamanté or pearl.

Pearls (real or fake) and other beads were very popular as necklaces, mainly for occasions.

An item which is less often seen now is the brooch. Neither my mum nor my grandmothers ever left the house in a coat or a jacket without a brooch on the lapel. Even girls wore brooches on coats and they were a popular gift to buy for sisters, friends, mothers and grandmothers. I have a few brooches which were my mum’s and my grandmothers’ and also a few of mine from when I was a young girl – because young girls wore them too.

These were mine when I was a girl.
My grandmother loved this brooch and wore it a lot. It’s from the late 1950s.
Three very old brooches which my other grandmother gave me (she knew I loved old things with a story!). They had been in the family since Victorian times so were probably my great grandmother’s.

At one time one of us, probably me or my sister rather than my brother, had been given a brooch making kit as a present. Crafting kits were very popular back in the 50s! It was a kit for making brooches out of felt shapes and included a brooch pin to put on the back. We made my grandmother one and she proudly pinned it on the lapel of her coat and there it stayed for ages. We thought it was beautiful, it was probably awful!

On the subject of grandmothers, neither of mine ever left the house without a hat on. They were both born in the 1890s so were Victorian babies. Their hats always had a hatpin or two in them. I’ve looked hatpins up and I found that ‘They were a fashion necessity in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.’ In earlier times women always had long hair, not short and wore it piled up on top, never loose. The hat pin went into the fabric of the hat, through the pile of tied up hair and out the other side. This kept the hat in position and stopped it blowing away in a breeze. But they were also a form of jewellery as the head of the pin became more and more ornamented. They are now quite collectible, especially the ones with precious and semi-precious stones and pearls.

Pierced navels, lips, eyebrows etc were yet to come!

This is a personal blog and not a historical document. I check facts thoroughly but my posts are mostly my recollections. Credit to Google, Google Images and Wikipedia. I try to avoid infringing copyright but if anyone objects to an image being used please contact me and it will be removed.

Christmas in the 50s and 60s.

Merry Christmas to all who read this blog. Thank you all for stopping by. Here are some thoughts on how things have changed since I was a child.

Paper Chains

It seems to me that Christmas lights outside houses and in gardens get more popular every year. When I was a child the main focal point was the tree. How we loved helping to decorate it. I still have a few of the glass baubles from the 1950s which went on our tree every year. We also used to put holly and balloons up (not next to each other!). And then there were the paper chains which were pinned up in the ceiling and went from corner to corner. These paper chains would be carefully folded afterwards and saved for next year. You could also buy packs of coloured, gummed paper rectangles to make your own paper chains and we children loved doing that.

Christmas Day Post

There used to be a postal delivery on Christmas Day in Britain right up until 1960! It’s hard to imagine now. My grandfather was a rural postman with a round which covered a wide area of scattered farms and houses. Back in my dad’s childhood his father would be out all day on Christmas Day delivering cards. People used to send cards then to arrive on the day, like birthday cards. The family also went to chapel three times on Christmas Day so their Christmas dinner and present exchanging was always on Boxing Day.

Stockings

Children’s Christmas stockings were knitted ones. They now come in a huge variety of shapes, styles, sizes and materials. Ours were light brown woollen knee high stockings. A relative had knitted two pairs for my dad to wear under wellington boots when working outside. They were coarse and itchy so he never actually wore them and they were repurposed as Christmas stockings for his three children.

Circus on TV on Boxing Day

On Boxing Day there was always a circus on TV in the afternoon. We only had one channel when we first got a TV in 1961 so it was the circus or the circus! There wasn’t normally anything on TV in the daytime apart from the preschoolers’ Watch With Mother just after lunchtime. So watching television in the afternoon was a rare treat! TVs then gave out such a weak light that in order to see the picture in daylight you had to close the curtains.

Twelfth Night

The tree and decorations would be put up just before Christmas (not like now when they start appearing in November!) and it was considered extremely bad luck to take them down before the Twelfth Night, 6th January.

Father Christmas v Santa Claus

When I was little we never called him anything but Father Christmas. Now you rarely hear him referred to as that. I knew the name Santa Claus from Christmas songs on the radio but he was always Father Christmas then. I always preferred the pictures which showed him wearing a long hooded cloak. Other kids preferred the tunic, belt and knee boots image. It’s just down to personal preference.

Credit to Wikipedia and Google Images. If anyone objects to my use of a particular image please contact me and it will be removed.

Finding Things Out – Before The Internet

It crossed my mind recently that any time I want to know something I can reach for my phone, tablet or laptop. It wasn’t always so!

Humans are curious by nature. As infants we ask our parents endless questions. Next comes school and the teachers and the books on the shelves.

Parents

As toddlers, pre-schoolers and very young children, we assumed our parents knew the answer to everything. They could have told us anything and we’d have believed it. In fact, many adults have funny stories about being told daft things for fun – and believing every word.

Teachers

Once in school, children had another oracle to consult – the teacher. Up went the hand and “Please Sir/ Miss, how did……………?” and so on. Of course teachers didn’t know everything, any more then parents did, but very young children didn’t know that.

Atlases, dictionaries, encyclopaedias etc.

Once children became fluent readers, a whole new world opened up. Reference books were on hand in the classroom and most homes had a selection of books. A set of encyclopaedias was a popular thing to have. I know that’s how my grandfather collected his. These were often bought one at a time through a scheme, so I’ve been told. There would also be a Bible, a dictionary and often a world atlas. In many houses there would be a ‘Home Doctor’ book. I still have the two which were in my grandparents’ house. One is from the 1800s and the other from around 1920. They make fascinating reading!

Libraries

Libraries, particularly the reference sections, were a very important source of information. As an adult, and before the days of the Internet, I would make a note of anything I wished to find out more about and then take my list with me when I next had a chance to visit the local library.

Motoring Handbooks

For households with a car, and many didn’t when I was a child, the motoring handbook was a very useful travel guide. In the UK back in the 50s, we had the RAC and the AA. My dad favoured the RAC. With the membership the motorist got breakdown and rescue cover and every year received a new handbook. These held a wealth of information! There were road maps, of course, but also information on any town you were interested in, charts for calculating travelling distances and a full list of all registration letters so you could look up any car you spotted and find out which county it was from. We children had a lot of fun with that in the back of the car on holiday.

The Dawn of the Internet

This is a whole new era and not one I’m covering here. Now we walk around with ALL of the above reference material in our pockets. Children, even very young ones, are adept at looking things up on laptops in school and at home.

Finally, here are three of my own books from my childhood.

These are my own thoughts and memories, I am not attempting to write a history book!

The photographs are my own.

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!

Changes Part 2

I have had so many lovely comments responding to my Changes Since the 50s post. Thank you all! So I’ve decided to post another one. A simple list again, brief, no pictures. I hope it rings some bells.

Cars had no seat belts or reversing lights. They had three gears and you had to pull the choke out in order to start the engine – then remember to push it in again.

Most people smoked (80% of men and 40% of women in the early 1950s) and you could smoke anywhere. In cinemas, on trains and buses, in hospitals, cafes and restaurants.

Peaches, pineapples, salmon and cream came mostly in tins.

Nobody wore helmets when cycling.

Suitcases didn’t have wheels.

You answered the telephone with a greeting, your exchange and your number e.g. “Hello, Somewhereton 456”.

All children had ‘hobbies’.

Everyone wore vests, winter and summer.

The word vegetarian was rarely heard. Likewise vegan.

Most people did the football pools weekly.

You used encyclopaedias to look things up. A home set if you had one, in the library if not.