50s thrift compared to now.

Justamum

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

I have never understood the fashion for wooden flooring!

We've got wooden floors in our rented house. I suppose they might be a bit better if they were nice laminated floors, but these are just bare floorboards with gaps between them which they couldn't be bothered putting carpet on. It's cold.

BitterAndTwisted

Glory Holes: surely most houses have a cupboard under the stairs, don't they? Well, that's always been a Glory Hole to me and shall always remains so.

About the advent of antibiotics, before them nearly every single home used that red carbolic soap for hands-washing. It was either that or Lifebouy in our house. We washed our hands before touching any food or when coming in from outside. One uncle of mine acquired some vile infection as a child and had to have an arm amputated. Another result was that one leg was about a foot shorter than the other and he wore a built-up shoe. Poor Man. As children we were accustomed to it so thought nothing much about it. His prosthesis was commonly known as Marmaduke for obvious reasons. It was quite common to encounter people with missing limbs or deformities as a result of war or disease. There were a couple of children in my Infant School who wore calipers as a result of contracting polio. Thank the Lord that's not common here now. Kids often died from things like Scarlet Fever or even Measles.

Who's Mum used to rip down knitted garments and re-knit them again? We were made to sit for what seemed like ages with our arms stretched out while she would wind the skeins around them. My own mother would knit things that should never have been made from wool. I once had a matching outfit of jumper, skirt and knickers in a sort of Fair-Isle pattern. I refused point-blank to wear those natty knickers again after the first time because the wool was too rough and gave me the most awful chafing round the legs.

The very best clothes were ever had when we were little were the ones my German granny sent over to us for Christmas. In an age when girls always wore skirts or dresses with short ankle-socks even in winter, never ever trousers, my sister and I had warm, long knitted stockings with little suspenders which were attached with buttons to a sort of liberty bodice thing . Worn with knickers with long legs on them (what were they called) we were as warm as toast on the long walks to and from school. And sweet brown velvet pinafore-dresses when only wealthy people could afford velvet. I have no idea how my Oma afforded them. And funny knitted hats that looked a bit like helmets with a pom-pom on the back.

And only having apples in the winter because imported fruit was unaffordable. Citrus fruits were only ever a special treat for Christmas and maybe if we were very lucky, a banana on high days and holidays. Those only ever came round if money was hidden away from my Dad so he couldn't spend it in the Sergeants Mess.

Being chucked out of the house in all weathers, so we wouldn't get "under my Mother's feet" so she could get on with the exhausting round of housework and cooking. Sunday afternoons after lunch were sacrosanct when she took her once a week afternoon nap. If we came in and made a racket to disturb her there would be hell to pay.

A spanked backside were very common and if we were caught misbehaving, even by neighbours, we would all expect to get a skelping there and then.

culpepper

1960/70s not 50s we had metered electricity and gas that were coin in the slot.
Mum would have to check the purse before she used the water heater or the gas fire and if there wasn't a coin for the meter we were sent across to the shops to see if they would change a larger amount down without our having bought anything.
Mum often said oh good money for the meter if she got the right change when shopping.
If there was no money anyway, we just didn't use the power.
Running a bath was a bit hit and miss as it would cut-out back to cold water if the meter ran out.
No heating except for the living room so everyone would sit in there to keep warm.
In the 60s it was a coal fire and we got a gas fire in about 1971 when one of the people mum cleaned for was replacing their out moded old fire for a new one and offered the older model to mum.
We had quite a few hand me ons from mums cleaning clients. When I was a teen I had a swimming costume,underwear and tracksuit top courtesy of the bigger teens in the house she worked at.
The underwear was no different than the jumble sale undies I usually got and was always washed first.
The swimming costume was well received as it was a replacement for one mum had worn as a teen (in about 1940)and given me to wear since I was 10(with the straps knotted to make it the right size).
We used to have one pair of shoes each and wore our school plimpsoles or wellingtons the rest of the time. My poor brother grew like a reed,long and thin and his feet got so big that mum cut the end of his cheap plastic sandals that she had got us ,to tide us over until school hols were over when she would buy each of us the sensible and much more expensive school shoes.
Dad would sometimes mend shoes using Aryldyte(epoxy glue) using a big tin and tube he had bought in the distant past. The cobbler often couldn't mend them anyway as they weren't leather and would split away rather than wear and were completely unstitch-able.
Mum wasn't really crafty or a needlewoman and her cooking skills were very basic, Im not sure if that was unusual back then . She had been a single woman till she was 35 and I think didn't really learn the frugal ways of her mum or sisters.

mrsmortenharket

PixieDust wrote: »

You would if you had pet ferrets

Oh wow, ferrets!

I can understand wooden flooring if it's decent & also if you have pets.

I have a cat but she doesn't shed much fur.


I remember having a 50p meter for the gad & a tv with a coin thing attached to it. Many a time the tv would go off half way through a decent programme.

We didn't have a phone will I was 18 (I'm 37) We also never had a video player. I think my mother has a 2nd hand dvd player now.

All my jumpers were knitted. I longed for a shop bought one. And it was rare that I got new clothes.

Today we live in such a consumerist throw away society.

lilac_lady

In the 50s, I lived abroad in the Chalet School world of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. For my holidays I went to America and became one of Louisa Alcott's Little Women.

LittleMissAspie

Angel_Jenny wrote: »

I'm 25 and had no idea it had a dirty meaning!

I'm 34 and had no idea it had an innocent meaning :shocked:

THIRZAH

lilac_lady wrote: »

In the 50s, I lived abroad in the Chalet School world of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. For my holidays I went to America and became one of Louisa Alcott's Little Women.

I used to love the Chalet school books. If you've still got any some of them are really collectable now

newroadahead

Reading back through this thread has bought back some memories.

I was born in the 60's into a "forces family" and moved from base to base until I was 11 when I was sent to boarding school (my mum had died when I was 10).
I remember having uniform at school and mufti consisted of 1 skirt, One pair trousers, three blouses. This was supposed to help not to show those that came from less well off backgrounds!!

I always remember one year being bought a radio with a single earphone which I used to love sitting under the blankets to listen to Radio Luxemburg. I remember buying my daughter a CD player years later and thinking that my wonderful gift would have been laughed at by this generation and she would probably have asked where the rest of it was:eek::eek:

I remember as a little girl going to jumble sales with my mum and sister and poor dad sitting on a Saturday night with his hands in front of him whilst mum undid all the knitted garments she had bought that day:rotfl:


I also remember many a weekend spent with my nanny who taught all of the cousins to play cards, we used to have such fun and some weekends nan would let us play for money (pennies that she provided) and we could keep the winnings!!!

My dad remarried when I was in my teens and my SM was a different character to my mum. She liked the "Nice" things in life no matter what the cost....
I have learnt the hard way that money doesn't buy happiness and now I find delight when I get a bargain, be it on the whoopsie counter or at a boot sale. (Wish I had learnt the lesson early so then I wouldnt be on a long DMP:eek:, but hindsight is a great thing)

Happily my daughter seems to be careful with money as is her BF.

Justamum

newroadahead wrote: »

I always remember one year being bought a radio with a single earphone which I used to love sitting under the blankets to listen to Radio Luxemburg. I remember buying my daughter a CD player years later and thinking that my wonderful gift would have been laughed at by this generation and she would probably have asked where the rest of it was:eek::eek:

For my 10th birthday in 1973 I got a transistor radio (Panasonic or I think National Panasonic then) and I treasured it and used it for years until I was well into my 20s. The workings got damp and stopped working so I had to get another one but I didn't want to change it until I absolutely had to. I was hooked on the radio from then on though, and used to listen to Radio Luxembourg too. We could pick up RTE Radio 2 as well, and I was always amazed at the request shows where people would often request a record to be played for someone who had just had a baby - very often numbering the teens or twenties (and nobody thought 'strewth'!) I remember those single ear headphones too. I had one which our kitten chewed into pieces!

katieowl_2

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

I'm 34 and had no idea it had an innocent meaning :shocked:

Well I only heard of the naughty meaning two or so years ago...it was after we moved here, so no more than three. I'd consider myself to be reasonably well informed about most naughty things, but obviously as a straight female this missed my radar entirely!!! My kids all knew - 19, 22 and 25, I shall have to ask where they heard this? My granny had always used the phrase with the original meaning, and she was the most puritanical woman I've ever encountered, she threw mum out of her house one day for saying bl**dy and my Mum was about 50 at the time!!! I was fairly appalled to be enlightened.

It really does wonder if there is anything else that one says regularly that people are having a little giggle about when you've gone?

Kate