Easier to be OS in the olden days?

meritaten

I was born in 1954, and up until I was 10 we lived in my grandparents house. then we were allocated a 3 bed semi by the council (which mum now owns).

I was in hospital from age 15mths to just over 4 (I have a pic of me in my hospital bed blowing out 4 candles on a birthday cake). I had TB. that was prevalent then and although the new antibiotics were effective in most cases - treatment was very slow. Parents were not allowed in the ward except at visiting hours - my parents visited EVERY night - but it was an hours journey each way and many of the kids had parents who could only visit at weekends. I still think it affected my relationship with them. when they took me back home I had forgotten everyone else (they weren't allowed to visit - not even grandparents), except the dog I am told!
Life in our village was like the war was still going on! 'Make do and Mend was the housewifes mantra! Waste was seen as shameful and a Womans place was in the Home! I think we got our first television set when I was about 7 or 8 so it would have been 1962/3 - one channel but, it did broaden peoples horizons a bit. the beeb were very keen on documentaries -especially of African women who were topless, for some strange reason. mum would get furious and mutter 'its disgusting, why do they always show this'?

my younger brother was born when I was 5 and it was a complete surprise to me! Pregnancy was a dirty word then - and the words 'in the family way' didn't mean anything to me..............and I just thought mum was fat!
I lived 30 seconds walk from school and after the first day mum never took me. I came home for lunch usually - a sandwich and a biscuit and glass of milk.
Food was very basic, though nan was a VERY good cook and baked beautifully. she taught me a lot - I wish she had taught mum! mum had a very limited repertoire!
Nan was a qualified seamstress - my aunt has her indenture papers from when she was an apprentice - but she bluddy hated sewing! she did have a 'treadle operated sewing machine' and she did cut out material and made me some lovely dresses. which my mum got sniffy about and insisted they were play/school clothes, and the shop bought ones were for 'best'.
Dad was a miner so we always had plenty of coal for fires - but, when only two rooms were heated ....................winters were freezing and the kitchen and bathroom were places you didn't want to linger in!
nans house had an indoor toilet, but Dad used to take me 'Down Home' every Saturday evening and their house had an outdoor toilet. you went out the back door, down very steep stone steps and the toilet was right under the kitchen. No light in there either! and they used newspaper too. believe me - I made sure I 'went' before I left home!

My Paternal grandparents had both died before mum and dad got married - so I never knew them, Down Home consisted of my Uncles and their Sister who had given up her 'position' in London to look after them. being very independent - she insisted on working, and made them do household chores which they groused about, all the time.
Times were tough but people didn't complain - they were just grateful that it wasn't as bad as 'during the war'. Which they talked about constantly. Honestly between everyday conversations and almost EVERY film the beeb showed was a 'War film' I felt as if I had lived it too!

as soon as my brother was born I was expected to help 'care' for him. and as soon as he could toddle I was expected to take him with me when playing with friends.
Mum and Nan never ever 'played' with me. they were always 'too busy' - I know they didn't have the labour saving devices we have now - but what the hell could keep two women busy in one house from morning till night?
I didn't think anything of it until I visited a classmates house one afternoon. I was gobsmacked that HIS mum not only fed us cake and nettle 'beer', but joined in our games! and when his dad came in he greeted everyone as if he had been gone for years! and had a hug and smile for me! lovely people, absolutely lovely. Mum was bluddy furious when I came home.........I made the mistake of telling her all about it! I got a slap round the face for drinking 'beer' and banned from playing with Mark and Michaela again.

CRANKY40

Sooo, may I ask a question please? When did the living on credit start? I don't mean getting your groceries on tick, I mean getting a credit card, using it to buy all sorts of stuff that you wouldn't be able to afford other wise and then having to work all hours to afford the repayments? I remember my mum paying for our three piece suite weekly (I was born in 1967) but at that point my parents wouldn't have borrowed money for non necessities. My dad is 72 and still doesn't have a credit card.

I'm wondering if that's the point that stay at home mums started having to go out to work to fund repayments of loans for goods that just hadn't been available before?

I also remember playing with the ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and trying to melt it. We did have a gas fire in the sitting room, but the clothes drier had first priority of a weekend and then my dad would open the windows to dry the condensation. Like Monna I was often cold and said that when I was grown up I would have the fire on as much as I wanted. Reality is fingerless gloves and a fleece jacket:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

There always used to be 'Hire Purchase' which allowed you to buy and have something but pay for it weekly over an agreed period of time. Up to the 1970s though if you were a woman your husband/father had to sign the agreement with the company as a guarantor that the weekly payments would be made, a woman couldn't sign for herself. There were also 'Tontines' where you paid in a certain amount each week on a regular basis until you had accumulated a certain amount which you could then spend in the shop, in our case it was the co-op. I remember for little things though the local shop would run 'a book' and record what was given out mostly cigarettes for the parents and then you settled up on payday and paid some or all of the debt off. People were more reliable in those days I guess and with that system if the debt got too much for the shopkeepers liking he would not let you have anything else until the debt was cleared.

Bathory

If there was any going back to those days people would adapt and cope though it will be real hard going on those that have not experienced life before mod cons like CH, mobile phones etc. I work with a few people who, no matter how cold it gets, will not under any circumstances put on a jumper and insist the rest of us roast in the office with constant full blast heating. They get very angry as well if windows are open and suggestions made to them on how to dress according to the weather.

Was going to add that under no way would I wash 21 pajamas every week but I'm not a parent and so each to their own. Maybe a good declutter would be an idea and a gradual cut down of so much washing.

[Deleted User]

Necessity is a good driver of change and if there was no heating no matter how they rage and rail, they'll have to put on a jumper or freeze. They won't like it of course but they'll soon come to the realisation that they'd look sillier NOT doing it than doing it! Despite the impression they give people aren't entirely stupid are they?

meritaten

Don't forget the 'Provident Checks'! Mum would never countenance these, but several of my friends mums would get them to get the 'school uniform' when we started secondary school 1965 ish.
I can also remember being at a friends for tea when the knocker went and my friend went to the door and said 'Mum isn't in - can you come back Friday'? when I knew full well she was in the kitchen!

You could also get items on 'Put by'. the shop would put by your goods, and you got them after you paid the full price by weekly instalments. many places did this.
and do people remember the 'penny policies'? my nan was a great believer in them - she had them on everyone! she told me that the one on me was for when I was 18 - I don't remember ever getting anything though - though perhaps she paid for my 18th birthday party with it.

DawnW

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

There always used to be 'Hire Purchase' which allowed you to buy and have something but pay for it weekly over an agreed period of time. Up to the 1970s though if you were a woman your husband/father had to sign the agreement with the company as a guarantor that the weekly payments would be made, a woman couldn't sign for herself. There were also 'Tontines' where you paid in a certain amount each week on a regular basis until you had accumulated a certain amount which you could then spend in the shop, in our case it was the co-op. I remember for little things though the local shop would run 'a book' and record what was given out mostly cigarettes for the parents and then you settled up on payday and paid some or all of the debt off. People were more reliable in those days I guess and with that system if the debt got too much for the shopkeepers liking he would not let you have anything else until the debt was cleared.

I remember those days, and am guessing that we are probably about the same age Mrs L. When I was first married I went to a shop to rent (remember that?) a TV, and was asked if I had a husband who could sign for me! Imagine that now! I was really shocked (only 19 at the time), both because this was so sexist and because I earned quite a bit more than my husband did and paid most of the bills! He would certainly have signed, but I decided to save up and buy a reconditioned one for cash instead.

I think that the main reason why 2 salaries instead of one are needed now is due to housing costs rather than debt as such. Renting and indeed buying houses was much cheaper before the Thatcher government started selling off the council houses. Conversely, 'stuff' was much more expensive, things like electrical goods, childrens clothes and shoes etc which are much cheaper now in comparison. And of course, fewer people expected to have, or needed, cars, only athletes went to the gym, and items such as ipads and phones didn't exist :rotfl:

meritaten

Dawn - we rented our tv - and by age 10 I was deemed old enough to catch the bus over the valley to the next town and pay the 'DER' money. (DER rented out tvs etc). mum thought it better value as the dam things were forever 'going wrong'! I took the little book and the silver coins I cant remember how much it was, I can remember there being a half crown and a silver sixpence and a thrupenny bit. she used to give me my bus fare (exact to the halfpenny) and dad would give me sixpence. most weeks I would windowshop and decide what I wanted to save up for and then buy it.

[Deleted User]

Certainly do Dawn, and renting a washing machine too! I'm a 1948er so can just remember rationing and the first time I saw a TV was a 9" one when the Queen had her coronation. It had a pink magnifying screen in front of it and so many adults were crammed into a tiny room to watch us kids got bored and hot and went outside to play instead.

When I got married the first time in 1972 you could buy a terraced house for £2,500 and that was considered expensive. When He Who Knows and I got together in 1975 after a divorce he'd just bought his first house which was a modern 2 bed terrace and that cost £8,500. We sold it 3 years later for £16,500 and bought a 3 bed semi for £24,000. The housing market just went up and up and up. Four years after that we bought a 4 bed detached for £39,250 which 12 years later was valued at £150,000 stupid and no one could afford them it was ridiculous. I was lucky to be able to stay at home with the girls, we could just manage on one salary but I'd have had to be earning more than I could actually earn to pay for full time child care anyway, no relatives available to have the kids, and that would have been with a child minder as there weren't so many day nurseries in the early 80s.

Folks are more resilient and made of stronger stuff than they realise though and IF we had to manage without the aids and gadgets we've become accustomed to having we'd do it, we wouldn't like it but we'd get on and do, not sit and wail I'm sure!!!

CRANKY40

Another thing I just remembered was how excited everyone was when the gas man came to empty the meter because you usually got some money back.