Easier to be OS in the olden days?

[Deleted User]

When I was little I remember having a dolls house with homemade furniture and curtains made of scraps of material, I had a passed down doll and a dolls pram, a trike for riding outside, a few books (but I used the library from the age I was considered big enough to take myself to choose the books) , I had roller skates for a christmas present one year and there was always a bit of rope to skip with and a couple of rubber balls to play two ball against the wall. I had things like paints and colouring pencils and pocket money toys too like fivestones, jacks and a yoyo but the smaller things lived in a box in my room and the books were kept on a shelf up there too so no clutter downstairs, if I played with something downstairs I had to take it back up when I'd finished or it went in the dustbin, she really meant what she said my parent!

I think the organised housework was achieveable because most kids walked to school locally with an older child rather than being taken and it meant housewives could get cracking much earlier in the day and also we just didn't have the amount of posessions in our houses that we all have today. We certainly had lino not carpets and a couple of rugs that got put over the line and beaten with a beater so no need for a vacuum cleaner. Not so many ornaments and no traffic meant less dust and less to dust, not so many clothes meant less to be stored so rooms looked neat and tidy, only one pair of shoes that you were wearing and only one outdoor coat meant no coat rack in the hall to look cluttered either. Yes it was more physical cleaning the house and getting the washing done but it was all finished earlier because of the early start, then the shopping for the day would be got in and then if you didn't have someone coming home at lunchtime that gave you time to have a friend in or go to visit someone for a chat and a cup of tea. Mum usually sat and knitted while she chatted and so did most other folks who visited us but I don't remember mum ever going out on her own other than to shop or visit, not like we do, just get in the car or on the bus and go because we can, trips out were rare, but I don't think many folks minded that.

candlelight_2013

I don't think we had enough toys to make storage a problem.

We were 3 girls, so if a large present was bought we had to share it (not a good idea). I remember we had blackboard and easel, and like Lyn a doll's house. This was second hand but I loved it. I made curtains for it and papered the walls with left over wallpaper.

We always had books, pens and pencils, always a new pencil case and always a stationery set so we could write our thank you notes.

We were expected to keep our things in our bedroom, and bring them downstairs as and when, but all had to be cleared away by the evening.

Mum changed bed linen on a Monday, but otherwise she washed every day. Pants and socks were taken off each night and put into soak. She rinsed these the following morning together with anything else that needed washing.

We had lino on the floor too, for many years, with the odd rug and then progressed to the carpet square. The perimeter of the floor was stained in a dark wood colour and this was polished once a week. Windows were cleaned every other week, inside and out.

I know it sounds dreadful now, but we were shown the way to school on the first day by Mum and thereafter we went on our own. We would then come home at lunchtime and go back for the afternoon session. I can remember coming out of school at hometime, and I thought I saw Mum waiting for me. I waved and I felt so happy that she had come to meet me, but as I got closer realised it wasn't her. Can you imagine letting a 5 year old go to school on their own now?

Candlelightx

mardatha

I was the same candlelight, I had miles to walk to school when I was 5 and my mum only came the first day.

VJsmum

mardatha wrote: »

I was the same candlelight, I had miles to walk to school when I was 5 and my mum only came the first day.

I started school in September 1968, I was 4 going to be 5 in december. Mum took me the first day and after that I insisted i would go with the "much older" girl over the road. She was 6. The difference is, though, that back then there were hoards of us walking up and down that road (it was about a mile) - NOBODY was driven. Nowadays I live half a mile from the kids primary school and half a mile from the high school and i took them until they were in year 6 (so they were 10) although DD was always taken to primary school as DS was there and i wouldn't let her be in charge of him. But barely anyone else walked that road and there was a lot of traffic.

I am really enjoying this thread - thanks all

nursemaggie

No we definitely did not have enough toys to create a storage problem There was a storage cupboard in the living room, which mum called the kitchen, as it had built in cupboards with crockery and things like that. Our toys were kept in the bottom cupboard. we had to put things away after use even if we just left the room to go to the bathroom.

We did have a range in the living room. Mum baked in there. The tiny kitchen, mum called it a scullery, was just the gas cooker, a sink and the pantry off. No working surface at all. Mum always wanted a fridge but I don't remember there being room for one. The front room only had a fire in it on Christmas day and then only after dinner. We were not allowed to take toys in there. I remember it more for having a dark green sofa and chairs and the piano which I had to practice every day in the cold.

School I have been told about my first day, can't remember it though, I can remember the name of my first teacher and not any others apart from my last headmistress in my last secondary school.

Apparently my mum took me on my first morning, compulsory I think for you to be registered. I did not go until I was about 5 1/2 as there was no room for me. The boy next door was only a couple of months older than me but went to school a whole year earlier. I always felt the lack of that year. Like I never caught up.

Mum picked me up at lunch time and when it was time to go back she put her coat on and I asked where she was going. I told her I could do that on my own. She could see me practically all the way to the gate. She would not have been able to see me cross the road. Did not matter there was no traffic. It is a busy road now.

Your not allowed not to take them these days. By the time DS20 went to school I was expected to take him and not before I started work but during working hours. The same coming back. When he was in year six I got into trouble for not collecting him one afternoon when DD collected him. She was in her late twenties then and a teacher herself. Her school broke up earlier and she was home for Christmas. I actually had to take my bleep with me and take him to and from school.

The headmaster hit the roof because my bleep went off in the middle of a quite unnecessary meeting during school time.

candlelight_2013

I have just remembered we had the board games Ludo and Snakes and Ladders. Not very sophisticated probably to youngsters today, but we used to play board games on a Sunday afternoon.

Candlelightx

andygb

candlelight_2013 wrote: »

I have just remembered we had the board games Ludo and Snakes and Ladders. Not very sophisticated probably to youngsters today, but we used to play board games on a Sunday afternoon.

Candlelightx

We had Ludo and Snakes and Ladders as well. I also remember our parents introducing us to card games like Gin Rummy, Solo, Trumps, Pontoon (Black Jack) and Patience.
After I finished cards, I could sometimes spend hours making houses of cards on the floor - I was about seven or eight at the time.:D
We used to make bows and arrows (and Chinese arrows which you used to sling) and spears, and go carts. We also played football with a tennis ball in the school playgound.
We walked to school alone from the age of seven.
I think I made my first Airfix kit aged seven or eight - a 1/72 scale Spitfire in moulded light blue plastic - and when it was finished (minus paint) it looked considerably different to the one on the box lid:rotfl:
I can only remember going to a restaurant for the first time when I was about 14.
As others have pointed out, OS moneysaving nowadays is more difficult because of all the temptations you see around you, and the obsession with material goods.

Gigervamp

I remember having a few dolls. I had a Sindy, Tiny Tears, and my Godmothers daughter gave me her old Barbie when she stopped playing with dolls. Also, when I was a bit older, I had a Pippa doll.

I had a lovely dolls house that had leaded light windows and I used to make things for it that were completely the wrong scale, but I was working with what I had, eg a bath made from an old margarine tub and a table made from a toilet roll tube cut down and a circular piece of cardboard for the top.

As I got older, my parents bought me educational toys. I had a chemistry set, an electronics set and a microscope. I also had a perfume making set.

All the toys were kept in the bedroom and that's where I played, although I do remember drawing with my felt tipped pens downstairs. I always had art and craft stuff.

When I was 7 we moved to a quiet side street, so playing out took a lot of my time up, and by the time I was 9 or 10, my friends and I would get the bus to the next town and go to Saturday morning pictures, or get 2 buses and go to the big shopping centre in Croydon.

Bathory

The main games I liked were draughts and dominos. I also played for many hours on my spacehopper, was very upset when it finally popped on a sharp stone. I loved Spirograph as well and all the colourful felt tip pens that came with it. Unfortunately, I thought it was a good idea at the time to draw patterns all over the white wallpaper so it got confiscated !

At primary school coming up to Christmas we made snowmen out of toilet roll tubes and paper snowflakes for the windows.

I remember at the age of 13 getting my first perfume set - a tiny bottle of Charlie and matching dusting powder. It seemed very special then and so grown up, but today it just smells plain nasty on me.

meritaten

I said before that we were in 'rooms' with Nan and Grancher. and the behemoth of a sideboard? well, one side of it was filled with my toys (spoiled rotten - I had loads) plus some under my bed. and the dolls house lived in the bedroom too. I wonder where mum stored my doll pram (a small copy of the one I had as a baby). I really don't remember it being in the house.........maybe in the outhouse.

talking of all the things that got 'delivered' - our milk was still delivered by horse and cart when I was little! Hector was the horses name. a huge beast - no, I mean huge he was obviously part shire! when he retired he lived in a field which was on the route of my favourite walk. he was an 'ornery' git! much given to biting.
The 'ragman' still had a horse and cart too. and gave goldfish not cash!
then there were various 'travellers' - men with brown fake leather suitcases - it was always a delight seeing them throw open the lid and try to persuade nan that their wares were better than anyone elses .............they didn't have much success, lol. I used to like the one who did the shoebrushes and dusters - he used to give me tiny sample tins of polish! nan never bought dusters - she had an endless supply of old knickers and vests! but she did take pity on him sometimes and bought a small brush, I believe because he was disabled in the war - he lost an arm I think, and she felt so sorry for him. Gosh, I can even remember his name - it was Ken, the same as mums cousin.

Who else called?
Well there was the pools lady (littlewoods football pools not swimming pools). ALL the men I knew did them religiously - and god help you if you dared speak during the 'Results' on the radio! even as kids we knew what 'perm 8 from 10' meant! and all kids were promised the toys of their dreams 'when we come up on the pools'!
then there were 'insurance men'. nan loved her penny policies! had loads of them. with different companies.
then the 'Christmas club' - cant remember who ran that.
and it seemed that every week one neighbour or another would come 'collect for the funeral' - I honestly didn't realise it was funerals for different people, and cracked Grancher up when I innocently asked 'haven't they got enough money to bury him yet? they been collecting for ages'?
its a wonder people had any time to themselves - because besides all these...............neighbours would be forever popping round 'on the borrow til friday'!