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.

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.

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.

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.

Letter Writing – A Lost Art

I always loved writing letters. I wrote that in the past tense because it’s not something which happens much any more. Even I, who have loved writing and receiving letters all my life, now rely almost entirely on text message and email. The exception is greetings cards in which I will often enclose a hand-written message.

As a young child I exchanged regular letters with my grandparents who didn’t live close by and didn’t have phones. After Christmas or my birthday I would write thank you letters to relatives who hade sent presents. The thank you letters could be a bit of a chore when written to relatives I rarely saw! Whilst in secondary school I exchanged letters with a friend who had moved to another town and a primary school friend who went to a boarding school at 11 years old. I always saw my boarding school friend when she came home in the holidays and I’m convinced that our regular writing of letters through her boarding school years is the reason why we are still good friends to this day. We live nowhere near each other now and haven’t done for years but we still get together when we can. The vast number of letters exchanged during term times kept our primary school bond, forged when we were four years old, strong.

In the 60s when I was in secondary school, pen friends were very popular. They were arranged by the school. I imagine they used an agency of some sort. During my years in high school I had two pen friends in America and I loved swapping letters with them and comparing the music and fashions we liked and the ways in which we spent our leisure time. For a couple of years I was pen-pals with a French boy. Looking back, the French ones would probably have been arranged by our French teacher with a view to improving our French skills and their English ones. I was expected to write in French and he in English. Although these pairings, both French and American, were arranged by school the letters were done in our own time and not checked so it felt more like a friendship than an educational task. They were also optional. We were asked if we wanted to be hooked up with a pen friend.

As a young child I wrote on lined paper, soon graduating to unlined paper. The unlined pads always had a sheet of guide lines to put under the page you were writing on. Moving into my teen years I favoured coloured writing paper and matching envelopes – often blue Basildon Bond like the one below.

The pen friend letters were written on special lightweight airmail paper with lightweight envelopes carrying a border of red and blue.

I loved going to a stationery shop and choosing a new set of paper and envelopes. In my early twenties I favoured Churston Deckle in a shade of cream called (I think) ecru and also a brand called Three Candlesticks. Part of the pleasure of writing on quality letter paper was using a fountain pen rather than a biro.

I also had a beautiful red leather writing case bought for me as a gift. Writing cases looked like this inside and had a zip around three sides to stop everything falling out. I still have my grandfather’s which is just like this one.

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

Teatime Treats

When I was a child my mum baked every week. All mums did back in the 1950s and 60s. She used to make sponge cakes, fruit cakes, chocolate cakes, scones, fruit tarts and pies etc. If we had visitors coming it was always in the afternoon for tea. I don’t remember my parents ever having people as dinner guests in the evening. When guests came the thing to do at that time was to serve ‘shop cake’. It was as though home made cake was too ‘everyday’ and that you were making an effort to produce something a bit more special. This was possibly because ‘shop cake’ was more expensive then than home baking. Nowadays everyone really appreciates home baking and if someone is coming here I like to make a cake.

Of course, these are just my memories from the 1950s. Other people who lived through those times but in other areas might have had completely different experiences!

Paper doilies were very popular and were usually only bought for teatime with guests or for birthday cakes.

Mugs were not usual back in the 1950s and tea bags hadn’t even been invented. Cups and saucers and a teapot were the norm.

But for visitors there would be the better set of china brought out or even the set kept for very best. Everyone had a tea set in the dresser or china cupboard which rarely saw the light of day and had usually been given as a wedding present.

The following is what I remember of the shop cakes available back then where I lived. I know these types of cake all still exist but this post is to give a flavour of a what 1950s teatime spread might look like.

Battenberg which I used to call ‘window cake’ when I was small.

Angel cake

Dundee cake

Victoria Sponge. The sponges of the 1950s, home made or bought, would never have had fresh cream in them. There would be jam, butter icing or both. This is because most people didn’t have fridges in the 1950s.

Jam tarts. A box of six usually contained two with red jam (strawberry or raspberry flavour), two with purple jam (blackcurrant of blackberry) and two with yellow jam (apricot jam or lemon curd). The jams were more of a flavoured, coloured gel with no discernible seeds or pips. But I loved them!

Not one of my favourites but a popular teatime treat.

Ginger cake – which always had a lovely sticky top.

There would often be a plate of biscuits on offer too. We have a vast selection available now but these are two old faithfuls which I remember fondly from my childhood.

Credit to Google Images and Wikipedia. As always, I have endeavored not to infringe copyright. However, if anyone objects to my use of an image, please contact me and I will remove it.

Birthday Party Games

When I was a child birthday parties were small affairs and always held in the birthday child’s home with a handful of their schoolmates invited. We always had a birthday tea and a cake with candles on it and the rest of the time was filled with party games.

It’s interesting that some games we are very familiar with from childhood, appear in similar forms all over the world. Are there reasons why we play them which are are common to all people? A lot of these games have a different appearance due to the culture they’re from, but are constructed in the same fashion.

Blind Man’s Buff

A version of the game was played in Ancient Greece where it was called “copper mosquito.” The game is played by children in Bangladesh where it is known as Kamanchi meaning blind fly. One individual is blind-folded in order to catch or touch one of the others who run around repeating, “The blind flies are hovering fast! Catch whichever you can!” The game was played in the Tudor period, as there are references to its recreation by Henry VIII’s courtiers. It was also a popular parlour game in the Victorian Era. Whilst researching for this post I learned that the name of the game is now considered offensive by some and that the blindfolding of a child can be looked on as dangerous. So maybe it’s disappeared altogether?

Musical Chairs

The origins of the game’s name as “Trip to Jerusalem” is disputed. However, it is known to come from its German name Reise Nach Jerusalem (“The Journey to Jerusalem”). One theory suggests that the name was inspired by The Crusades wherein several heavy losses were incurred.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Pin the tail on the donkey is a game played by groups of children. The earliest version listed in a catalogue of American games compiled by the American Game Collectors Association in 1998, is dated 1899, and attributed to Charles Zimmerling. My mum used to draw the outline of a donkey on a piece of paper.

Pass the Parcel

Research tells me this is of British origin unlike Blind Man’s Buff which crops up in many cultures. Back in the 1950s the music was either played on a gramophone or on a piano. The parent operating the stop-start music kept a careful eye on the passing of the parcel to make sure everyone had a turn and to ensure that the birthday child was not the one to open the last layer which contained the prize. Back then it was something small like a chocolate bar.

Musical Statues

It seems that this game appears in various countries and has quite a long history. Some countries know it was Freeze Dance or Frozen Statues. Some homes had a parent who played the piano and some had a gramophone with a parent lifting the stylus – just like Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs.

Dead Lions/ Sleeping Tigers

A great game for calming children down at the end of a party! I can’t find any history on it so it’s perhaps a relatively new invention.

Spin the Bottle/ Plate

On a personal note, I absolutely hated forfeit games! At some of the bigger parties like village parties there was the dreaded (by me!) spin the plate/ bottle game. If the bottle finished its spin pointing to you or if you spun the plate and didn’t get back to your seat in the circle you had to do a forfeit. This usually involved having to sing a song, recite a poem or do something like hop around the room. My worst nightmare!!

Credit to Google Images and Wikipedia. As always, I have endeavoured not to infringe copyright. However, if anyone objects to my use of an image, please contact me and I will remove it.

Baby Things

Back in the 50s and 60s, prams and pushchairs were big, heavy and cumbersome. Prams didn’t fold up to go on buses or in cars. Pushchairs folded but were still bulky and heavy. The baby started off in a big, usually coach built pram and at a certain age graduated to a pushchair. There were no lightweight buggies. Families with cars bought a small rectangular soft-bodied thing known as a carry-cot which just sat on the back seat with the baby lying in it. There were no seatbelts in cars then and definitely nothing securing the carry-cot. There were no car seats for babies, toddlers and children. They were held in an adult’s arms until old enough to sit up and then just travelled unsecured in the back seat.

A friend was recalling recently that in the early 70s, it was difficult to buy prams because there was a shortage of steel.

The basic design of cots is still much the same but modern ones are much safer.

There were no disposable nappies. There still weren’t any when my children were born in the early 80s. Nappies were white towelling squares which were folded and pinned with special big safety pins called, appropriately enough, nappy pins. To add a waterproof outer layer a pair of thin rubber pants were pulled on over the nappy. These nappies needed to be boiled to keep them hygienic and white! When you consider that most households didn’t have washing machines or tumble driers the amount of work involved was enormous. I can remember pink and blue nappy pins ones like the ones in the photograph.

Many baby toys and toys for children were made of tin. There was no plastic. I remember my brother as a toddler cutting his leg on a toy made from tin. Also, the paints used on tin toys and on wooden cots were lead based and therefore toxic.

Very young children often wore reins like this when out with the family. I remember very clearly seeing children with walking reins on. They were leather and often pastel coloured with a picture on the front like these in the photograph. They were backed with a white fleecy fabric for comfort.

Baby bottles were made of glass and the teats were made of rubber.