50s thrift compared to now.

sock-knitter

i was born in 1970, and remembeer the long cold winters, ice on bedroom windows, no central heating, only coal fire in living room, mum cooked everything from scratch, and knitted our jumpers, and all clothes lasted longer with hems let down.
bath nights were wednesdays and sundays, clothes worn more than once before being washed. days out included trips to the local fields to pick strawberries. nobody in our road had a car, so we could play there with our friends

thriftwizard

One blast from the past I wouldn't wish on anybody - I woke up in the night remembering this! We had an outdoor two-holer (and the best rhubarb patch in Devon) which we used when the house was full, as my parents often had meetings etc. I can remember sitting out there, feeling a steady drip-drip-drip on the top of my head & thinking there must be a hole in the roof, until I wiped my hand across my face & it came away brownish-red... one of the brace of pheasants hanging up there was "leaking"...

My mother hated "dealing with" pheasants or indeed anything that wasn't vegetable, and she wasn't even too sure about home-grown lettuce which often contained rather more protein in the form of slugs than the average lettuce does today. She's a great fan of supermarket pre-packed & preferably pre-cooked meat & veg! But I'll deal with roadkilled pheasants & whole fish quite happily; not claiming any credit for this, we're just different!

dandy-candy

I was born in 1973 and went to an old fashioned "Young ladies" school that hadn't changed since the 1950's - including the staff! It was very strict and old fashioned, with the emphasis on hearty meals (stodge) and fresh air exercise. They had an outdoor pool which was a concrete kidney shape filled from the hose - no heating or filter. The teacher used to use a pond net to scoop out the dead bugs and leaves she could reach from the edge, and that wasn't many. From April to July we had to swim in it once a week and it was FREEZING - we had chattering teeth and our lips turned absolutely blue.
Lunches were traditional things like steak and kidney pie with very salty mash, sluggy salad and a steamed pudding to follow. I still love stodgy food (but without slugs!)
At home we wore hand me downs until they were so tight that they cut into you. Only knickers were fresh on everyday, everything else was worn until it was dirty (smelly didn't count) I was a teen before I realised that boys jeans and shirts button up a different side to girls - I alway wore my brothers cast offs, after my sister had finished with them. I can remember having 2 items of clothing that weren't hand me downs - a blue smocked dress that was bought when I was 9 and had to wear until 12, when I took it off at the end of the day the smocking had indented a pattern in my skin; and a baby blue jumper with a picture of a duck on it that I cried and cried for at C&A until my dad got it for me as an early birthday present.
One thing I find hard when I look back is that my mum was running up massive debts on credit cards and getting over drafts to spoil herself at this time - she wore designer clothes like Jaeger and Austin Reed, and was driving a Lotus. She sent us all to private schools so she could boast to friends about it but we were always the dirty/smelly kids in the class.
Our sofas at home had gone beyond threadbare, and if we had guests over she would carefully balance magazines on the arms and strategic points of the seats to hide where the fabric had ripped open and the foam was showing - she dreaded any guests picking up a mag to flick through!

PipneyJane

meritaten wrote: »

hollywood did put stars in young womens eyes and gave them some really stupid expectations of the way life SHOULD be! perhaps it started the breeding of discontent with ordinary life? You cant help feeling that the majority of youngsters today are starring in thier own movies - and ordinary life just doesnt measure up!

Got it in one. I think that's the real reason for today's consumerist society - everyone is trying to live up to some impossible ideal and feels let down when it doesn't happen. It's fed into us every time we switch on the TV. Even the soaps, which claim to deplict something similar to real life, have people living lifestyles that cost far more than the characters could really earn. Just think of the homes in East Enders. No market seller could ever match up.

My Dad (born 1915) used to call the television "the idiot box", and I think he had a point. He loved documentaries and historical dramas, but would not watch the television just for the sake of it. He couldn't understand the ritual people had of switching on the TV everytime they walked in their front door, then leaving it on even if it was showing rubbish. His attitude was if you wanted company, then switch on the radio because you can listen to it while you work.

PipneyJane

Who was it who mentioned e-coli and cattle dung? Yes, there was e-coli around in the 1950's, however the big difference was that people were taught to wash their hands. We were far more scrupulous about hygiene back then. I bet you never sat down to a meal without a wash and a clean up first.

In the 1950's, antibiotics were seen as miracle drugs and were widely available for the first time. However, the time before antibiotics was only 5-10 years in the past, so pretty much everyone knew someone who'd died because of a bacterial infection, or who suffered the complications such as rheumatic fever, scarlet fever or kidney failure due to glomerulonephritis (all complications of the immune response to a Strep B infection). The same goes for the mass vaccination programs that were introduced at the time for dyptheria, whooping cough, TB, etc. Yet another reason why cleanliness was so prized.

Justamum

dandy-candy wrote: »

One thing I find hard when I look back is that my mum was running up massive debts on credit cards and getting over drafts to spoil herself at this time - she wore designer clothes like Jaeger and Austin Reed, and was driving a Lotus. She sent us all to private schools so she could boast to friends about it but we were always the dirty/smelly kids in the class.

I remember when I was at primary school there was a family of children who were always in really tatty, dirty, smelly clothes. Everyone assumed they were poor. I saw their parents one day and they were beautifully dressed in designer clothes. I must have been about 8 or 9 at the time, but it's stuck with me all these years (I'm now nearly 49) and it just seemed so wrong to deprive your children of the basics whilst not going without yourself. I expect there are still parents like that around.

Justamum

PipneyJane wrote: »

My Dad (born 1915) used to call the television "the idiot box", and I think he had a point. He loved documentaries and historical dramas, but would not watch the television just for the sake of it. He couldn't understand the ritual people had of switching on the TV everytime they walked in their front door, then leaving it on even if it was showing rubbish. His attitude was if you wanted company, then switch on the radio because you can listen to it while you work.

I call it the Idiot Box too, and like your dad prefer the radio. It annoys me when I walk into the lounge and the tv is busy broadcasting to nobody!

katieowl_2

I had the dubious pleasure last week of telling an 'older' gentleman, that a phrase he'd just used to describe a collegue's very untidy walk in store cupboard had changed it's meaning since he's first heard it and that he REALLY mustn't use it any more!

The two young people present when he said it reeled visably, and I stepped with "Oooh Mr A you can't say that these days!!!! It doesn't mean what it did when we were young"

My grandmother used the same expression and one of my kids pulled me on using it a couple of years ago. I was worried that he'd be offended that I said anything, as in my horror it just slipped out! But fortunately he said after I'd gone he was glad someone had told him!

Kate

Memory_Girl

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

Depending on which part of the country you are in, one play/tv drama that springs to mind is "The Steamie" about a group of Glasgow women/their lives/troubles etc. A real eye opener and demonstrates the strength of this group of women - both physically and mentally.

You can check it out on the STV player - it is also tremendously funny, thats if you can understand the dialect.

I was the Stage Manager of a production of this (the writer was a mate too) - some of cast could remember being kids and having to help in the steamie.

BTW - best cast EVER!!! All "wimmin" (there's only one walk on male part) and they were the best, in fact I still call three of them "Aunty XX".

Mind you - during breaks in rehearsals they would tell stories to make you weep of Glasgow in the 50's - sounds like it was a hard life.

MG

Justamum

katieowl wrote: »

I had the dubious pleasure last week of telling an 'older' gentleman, that a phrase he'd just used to describe a collegue's very untidy walk in store cupboard had changed it's meaning since he's first heard it and that he REALLY mustn't use it any more!

The two young people present when he said it reeled visably, and I stepped with "Oooh Mr A you can't say that these days!!!! It doesn't mean what it did when we were young"

My grandmother used the same expression and one of my kids pulled me on using it a couple of years ago. I was worried that he'd be offended that I said anything, as in my horror it just slipped out! But fortunately he said after I'd gone he was glad someone had told him!

Kate

Now I'm intrigued!