50s thrift compared to now.

DundeeDoll

I know meritaten amazing one thinks of surviving neonates as quite a new technology-driven thing. I'm led to believ my unc was a 2pounder. I will check. He was fighting fit till he broke his leg playing footie and they bound it so tight he nearly lost it to gangrene. Never down for long, He transferred to golf.

meritaten

yes - medical science tends to take the credit for surviving preemies wholly to itself - but unless the baby is a battler and the CARE is there........??? who knows?

monnagran

I was a teenager throughout the fifties - although I'm not sure that the term had been invented then. Mostly I think we were still treated as children in many ways. The reason why people get gooey eyed over the fifties is that it was so much better than what had gone before. Anyone who had survived the war, blackout, bombs, rationing, austerity found that the fifties brought them the touches of comfort and glamour that they had craved and been denied for so long. OK, so it was all far removed from life today but it was better than anyone had been used to.

My Nan had been a tailoress, (heaven help anyone who called her a dressmaker!) and my Mum was brilliant at sewing so we were always well dressed even if those dresses were made out of some Auntie's skirt or my Dad's cricket flannels - he was not too pleased when he came home from the army and discovered that his sporting gear was now a smart coat and matching skirt for me. But I was thrilled when I had my first 'bought' clothes which was my grammar school uniform.

Although we had much more freedom as children we were also quite under our parents' thumb for much longer than today. We were officially children until we left home. Perhaps that is why people tended to get married earlier, it was the only way to get away from home.

I also trained as a teacher in the fifties and my goodness how different that is today. We had none of the resources that seem so necessary now. It was just us, about 45 children, some books, pencils and crayons, paint and plasticine. Even the sheets of paper we could use were severely rationed. It was hard work but the children survived and somehow we taught most of them to be pretty literate and numerate and we had a bit of fun along the way.

Everyone appeared to work harder. My father worked a five and a half day week and had only two weeks holiday a year. If Christmas day fell at the weekend it was hard luck, there were no extra days given in lieu, and Christmas Day and Boxing Day was all he ever got off, no Christmas Eve or New Years Day. But no-one was ever off work with stress.

Divorce was spoken of in hushed whispers, it was a terrible social disgrace. Perhaps marriage is taken too lightly these days but I remember friends of my parents living lives of quiet desperation because there was no way out of an awful relationship.

All in all, like every other generation, we had some things worse and some things better. I guess life will always be like that.

anguk

mumps wrote: »

I don't think there is or was a golden age, sometimes you just get lucky and sometimes you don't.

I agree with that. My OH has spent loads of time in hospital over the years and we've come across many doctors and nurses both good and bad. His renal and dialysis nurses are absolutely fantastic, friendly, caring and very good but I do think that's to do with the fact that they see each patient at least three times a week so they know them very well.

One of the worst nurses we've come across was a night staff, my OH was staggering around the corridor because he was in so much pain and just couldn't get comfortable and he didn't want to disturb the other men in his ward. The nurse snapped at him and ordered him to go back to bed because "you've just got trapped wind". The next day they found out he had a ruptured appendix, septicaemia and peritonitis! He was very quickly transferred to another hospital, operated on and spent a week on life support in intensive care. So much for trapped wind! :eek: