50s thrift compared to now.

lilac_lady

I think I read so much in the 50s from the age of 5 because life in the books was better than the austerity in Britain. When I read the Chalet School books, I never dreamed that one day I'd be able to visit Switzerland and Austria (among other countries, including America and Russia).

jeanniefaethecarse

Ah but in Little Women they had Hannah to "wash and iron" for them, so don't feel guilty!

One of the main things I've noticed about the 50's is the lack of general stuff and material possessions compared to now. I had aunties of early 1900's vintage whose homes had very little in them beyond a few "good" pieces of furniture, and whose kitchens had barely any cooking paraphernalia in them. Aunties of the 50's era had many more things, and we children, growing up in the 70's received far more in the way of presents at Christmas compared, say, to my Mum and Dad.
I live in a flat that was last rewired in the early 70's. It's quite telling to look at the number of plug-points that were thought necessary then. Two doubles in the kitchen, one single in each bedroom, and two singles in the living room and "best" room. Nothing like the number of points we use today. (I use a lot of power strips )
Alcohol as well, although this obviously differs from family to family, but there seems to be so much more bought now, even compared to when I first set up home in the 80's. My dad used to get a can of McEwan's export (13p from Wm. Lows in the early 70's) once a week. Mum barely drank at all except on high days and holidays, and some of the older aunties were completely teetotal and had taken "the pledge"!
Thrift wise, as many others have said, a lot more making do and mending. Mum used to make us hairbands from our old tights. Jumble sales (sadly) seem to have died out in our area, home made medicines for minor complaints instead of over the counter-my sister was dosed with vinegar for years for chesty coughs, we had a pinch of bicarb for indigestion, and stewed fruit to keep us regular! Very few tumble dryers! Children used to appear at school with yellow scorch marks on their jumpers because they-the jumpers, not the children- had been dried too close to the fire, and horrible horrible paraffin heaters.
I don't know if anyone else found this, but people seemed to know how to do practical things far more than we do now. Woodwork, car mechanic-ing, that type of thing, far more than we do now. I remember my dad keeping our old Renault 16 alive for years!
I'm afraid this is a bit 70's thrift, because that was my growing up era, but it did stem from a mum and dad who hit their 20's in the 50's and was susceptible to the marketing that went on then.
To add to the "good books to read" ideas, I really enjoyed and have read, and re-read over the years the actress Molly Weir's autobiography-primarily her first book "Shoes were for Sunday" about growing up in Springburn, Glasgow at the start of the 20th Century. Again, not 50's but I hope no one minds.

kezlou

Ahem my grandmother (who i grew up/ lived with) used the term glory hole and it certainly wasn't for a cubby hole as in the naval term!

I think its a bit harsh to say to just blame the younger generation for being too consumerist, it is purely what we have grown up with. After all wherever you walk there are posters everywhere advertising the latest thing and it was the same in the 70's and 80's. Most of the marketing campaigns are headed by people who are in they 50's and 60's trying to sell us goods. But people are changing and not buying as much stuff, but at the same time we have never had to live through anything like we are now.

A lot of people think its strange, but here where i live, life didn't advance as quick as others in terms of phones etc
When my Grandfather was having a heart attack we had to run to the payphone and dial 999. I think on our estate only 2 people had phone in their homes and that was in 1988/89.
When we moved house in 1990/1991we still didn't have one. Think we got ours in 1993.

It was common at that time to see people moving house with a horse and cart on my estate. I know we did!!! Yes Steptoe and son eat your heart out! In the nineties and still it happened, whilst i had armed with my dolls pram with stuff piled high.

Almost everyone on my estate was poor so it didn't matter, but people were out cleaning constantly. Before the gas fire was fitted, everyone used to go to the corner shop to buy coal and i would be sent to the pub with my uncle(who i used to class as my brother) to get fags / baccy and a couple of bottles of brown for my parents. One time my parents had to get the social involved to get coal as the whole estate had run out. Not good, no central heating, just wrapped up. Oops sorry i meant to grandparents. My partners hate it when the kids are at school as the heating goes off , he says he has to go outside for a warm!

Not sure if anyone else has one of these, but do anyone remember having van which used to drive around the streets selling bread, milk etc

We had a few one for veg, one for video's and one for general shopping. Daft thing is they still come around now, the guy who runs it, make a small fortune, apparently his granddad started it.

newroadahead

kezlou wrote: »

Not sure if anyone else has one of these, but do anyone remember having van which used to drive around the streets selling bread, milk etc

We had a few one for veg, one for video's and one for general shopping. Daft thing is they still come around now, the guy who runs it, make a small fortune, apparently his granddad started it.

Hi Kezlou

I have a memory from the 70's and my nan lived in a village. They used to have the butcher and baker come round in vans and a chap had an old bus he had decked out to sell all the tins etc.

There used to only be one bus a week to the local town. Mind you gran dad worked on a farm and they kept animals next to the house ranging from pigs to chickens.:)

The local pub stocked some emergency items and that was about it .

But they were happy and there was more of a sense of community.


NRA x

Hermia

kezlou wrote: »

I think its a bit harsh to say to just blame the younger generation for being too consumerist, it is purely what we have grown up with. After all wherever you walk there are posters everywhere advertising the latest thing and it was the same in the 70's and 80's.

My mum grew up in the 50s and one thing she often points out is that advertising for luxury goods was not aimed at ordinary working class people then. She loved fashion and would borrow all her friend's fashion and film star mags. Yet, she said she would have struggled to name many fashion designers or posh cosmetic brands at the time. She says it shocks her when she flicks through teen magazines or magazines that appear to be aimed at working class women and find that they are raving about £500 handbags and £20 lipsticks. These magazines absolutely put out the idea that to be seen as successful you should have these things. If 1950s magazines had constantly told people they absolutely had to have x, y and z I don't see why the youngsters of that time would have been any different to us.

Listening to my mum's tales of growing up in a very poor family in the 1950s has made me realise how daft all those rose-tinted images of the 1950s family are. I am quite happy in the modern world!

Hermia

sb44 wrote: »

However, some may remember it being like this.....

If you add rats and giant spiders (they lived in a dreadful house near a canal) to the scene that is pretty much what my mum's childhood was like!

What really strikes me about my family's history from that time is that the women lost out on so many opportunities. My gran was hugely clever and talented, yet she spent her days doing endless housework. As an ordinary woman she could never have gone to university. She always said she wished she had been born later. My mum was the same. She was one of the brighest in her school, but she had to go to cooking/sewing/housework lessons whilst the boys did academic stuff.

anguk

jeanniefaethecarse wrote: »

Alcohol as well, although this obviously differs from family to family, but there seems to be so much more bought now, even compared to when I first set up home in the 80's. My dad used to get a can of McEwan's export (13p from Wm. Lows in the early 70's) once a week. Mum barely drank at all except on high days and holidays, and some of the older aunties were completely teetotal and had taken "the pledge"!

Alcohol back then seemed to be something that women only had when they went for a night out, there didn't seem to be as much drinking in the home. I don't know of anyone who would have wine with their dinner or a few glasses in the evening to wind down, women mainly just seemed to drink as social thing. Men would often pop down the pub or working mens club but not women so much.

I remember my Grandma telling me that she'd never ordered a drink for herself in her life, it was scandalous for a woman to go to the bar and it was scandalous for a woman to walk into a pub by herself! Statistics certainly seem to show that alcohol is much more of a problem for women now than it was 20-30 years ago.

Justamum

auntymabel wrote: »

I loved the Chalet School books but only read a few of them.

The first time I ever heard of these books was the other day on this thread. Today I've been helping to clear out some (well a lot) of the books from the school library to make way for some new ones, and came across one of them - it's one of the ones being evicted!

jeanniefaethecarse wrote: »

I don't know if anyone else found this, but people seemed to know how to do practical things far more than we do now. Woodwork, car mechanic-ing, that type of thing, far more than we do now. I remember my dad keeping our old Renault 16 alive for years!

My sister and I had home-made clothes all the time while we were growing up. My mum is so good at sewing she even made my wedding dress!

My dad always seemed to be underneath our car, but he was also very handy at other things - he put central heating in a couple of the houses we lived in, re-wired one house, did all the decorating etc.

mummygems

In the 80s we had a fruit/veg etc van come around to where we lived then. I loved that van and sometimes can still recall the smell of the inside.

culpepper

we used to have a box full of 1950s electrical plugs,all with circular prongs,not rectangular like todays.
There were some unused light bulbs with screw threads too which mum sold to the hardware store owner as he said they were like gold dust(everywhere had gone over to the bayonet fitting).
My parents always removed the plugs from broken electricals because almost everything that you bought new, had no plug at all.