Easier to be OS in the olden days?

kerri_gt

My mum was born in the late 40's - eldest of four. Her mum ended up on her own, with four children. Breakfast was often a boiled egg between the four kids, my gran had black tea to save using the milk. She had minimal 'national assistance' which she eeked out. When she died in her 60's she weighed less then 6 stone. So no, I don't think it was easier to be OS, I think people were OS because they had to be.

Many of us remember growing up in the 80's excess - when greed was seen as good.

I appreciate the choices we have now, the variety of foods and labour saving devices. I appreciate that some things are easier now, whilst at the same time they come with their own pressures - so many people (imo) seem obsessed with time, but bemoan they never have enough of it.

I would like to think there is a balance where we can be OS (or is it really just sensible?) without excess, but enjoy the options available to us that weren't in decade past. Perhaps its about taking lessons from the past and applying them to the now?

nursemaggie

Don't call Mrs LW a museum piece she's younger than me. I was born at the end of the war. I can remember rationing, it seemed just about everything. We ate what we got given. My dad brought the sweet ration for all of us in on a Saturday night after work. He worked 6 days a week then.

I know we struggled my mum often had only a "farthing" in her purse on Friday morning. Not many will remember farthings. I can remember mum's black and red purse being opened and shown the farthing as if it was yesterday.

We never went without if nothing else there was an egg for tea on Fridays because we had chickens. There are times I thought they were more trouble than they were worth when we had to chase them all over the estate. Little did I know them chickens paid for us a week at the seaside every year. Not many other kids got that.

Dad got paid on Friday night after the shops shut. My childhood was similar to Mrs LW. I did not get beaten with a stick. I got the hair brush sometimes. I can't remember which side hurt worse but I usually deserved it.

I never had to cook. Heaven forbid I might have found out my mother couldn't cook.

It must be harder now because you have a choice apart from the choice to stay at home with the kids. I just never got into the habit of having ready meals. Yuk I have tried them and they are horrible. I always cooked from scratch. I remember the day sweets came off ration. Me and the girl next door could not ride our bikes so our dads said we could have a shilling if we learned. We bought ourselves a whole 4oz of sherbert lemons and made ourselves sick. I have never touched them since. A shilling was a lot of money then we must have saved some. I only got 2 shilling for my paper round 7 years later.

Our bikes were really old prewar painted black handlebars and wheels as well because they were probably rusty underneath. Everyone else was the same.

My youngest used to put on clean jeans every day. I soon cured him of that by putting them back in the draw. There are only two pairs in the wash now if he spilled something.

He is only 20 but he can spot a bargain in the market at 50 paces. He will be OS. My daughter is OS but the middle one lives on take aways and meals out then they claim they are poor. They do not know what vegetables are.

meritaten

I have gone through hard times too - despite being born in the mid 1950s! in the meantime I have been through two miners strikes. and believe me the benefit money didn't go far! I used to thank my nan and her frugal ways, and she always had sage advice for me on how to ''stretch" that money. I think it made me appreciate how women coped in the war - I had to do the same thing during the strikes! it has made me an 'Oldstyler' - I hate waste, I like to recycle and Make do and Mend. The 'Throwaway and ReadyMeal' lifestyle is anathema to me. I have tried to pass that on to my kids - with 'some' success!
the only thing I DONT do is 'stockpile'. mum does - and currently has a dozen packets of DAZ in her cupboard - along with two dozen packs of sugar and 8 boxes of chocolate fingers!

Goldiegirl

Up until around the early 1970's being old style wasn't a lifestyle choice - there was no choice but to be old style - that's the way ordinary day to day life was.

I was born in 1960, and remember up until I was about 7, my dad had to get up at the crack of dawn to clear the grate from the previous night, and set fire for the new day, so they'd be a warm room for my mum and I to come down to.

We then got a gas fire, which made life a lot easier. But the rest of the house was still cold, and in freezing winter mornings, I'd grab my clothes, and run downstairs to dress in front of the fire. I'd have to hold my clothes up to the fire to warm them before I put them on.

My mum had a twin tub washing machine, but there was no way she'd have entertained me wearing clean pyjamas each night - it was one pair a week, and it's have never crossed my mind that I could have worn a different pair each night - I only had two pairs to start off with!

I was an only child, and always had new clothes, never hand me downs or second hand. This was unusual at the time.

However, we didn't have an inside toilet or a bathroom until 1973. I still remember having to go to the loo on a winters night, clutching a torch, and hoping the bogey man wasn't hiding in there!

Friday night was bath night - a tin bath in the kitchen. First I'd go in, then my mum's turn and then my dad's turn. Same water, just a top up of hot water for each new person.

Going back a further generation, my nan's washing day in the 1920's to 1930's was a Monday. My mum told me that my nan would be in a ferocious mood until the washing was done, and I'm not surprised with 6 kids and no hot running water.

These days, to be old style is a lifestyle choice, and you can pick and choose what elements you want to do.

I remember a happy childhood, but it must have been tough for the working class adults (especially women), to run a house with no 'help'.

It certainly wasn't easy to be old style back then - it was unremitting hard work, and I personally am grateful for all my 21st century comforts.

dingdongsaving

I'm loving reading all of these posts. My Gran shared so many stories of her childhood with me during our many hours at the jigsaw table as I grew up. Her life was a real contrast to my mum & dad's. Luckily I was able to cook dinner alongside her each night & see her thriftiness...lots of her tips are still money saving staples in our home today.

CRANKY40 wrote: »

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?

No relation to credit cards with us both working - we don't have any credit/debt bar the mortgage on our home.

We live very modestly, cook at home, shop carefully (and not just from 1 supermarket giant willy nilly) & the only loans we've ever had were our student ones which we both needed to be able to work in our fields but worked hard to clear asap.

The difference is that even with hubby & I earning above national average salary we both need to work to afford that mortgage. My mum & dad got their 1st newly built 3 bedroom bungalow with back and front garden & driveway for 2 cars for £14k...our 1st 2 up 2 down terrace with no outside space was £108k...& that was the cheapest property we viewed in the year we took to bite the bullet & buy! My mum & dad set up their mortgage over 25 years on his salary alone. We set ours up over 38 years maxed out on both of our incomes.

We've both moved on in terms of promotion/income now, & we moved house 4 years ago & now have 3 bedrooms & a garden/driveway etc., but property prices are ridiculous resulting in mortgage repayments being ridiculous.

We have friends who purchased 2 or 3 years after us when property prices were even higher & their mortgage for their "starter" home is almost £1000 a month. On a national average wage that requires a 2nd income to clear & leave money for home/life insurance, food, electricity/gas/oil, water, council tax...let alone "luxuries". Having a home that you own outright or via a mortgage is a luxury in our far from old school property era.

mardatha

I think that life is like being a hamster on a wheel. the faster you live, the faster you have to run to keep up and the harder it is to get off .
I don't want to go back to the old days but I like to know that I could if I had to, I know how to do it. I like to keep life calm and simple - I dont want tons of "stuff" because to me, "stuff" is a weight that holds me back. Is kind of hard to explain lol. But I like to think that I could walk away from everything and start again if I had to. That to me is freedom and I need that feeling. A huge mortgage and big house filled with "stuff" to me would be like an albatross weighing me down.
Well... I never said I was normal! :rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Crikey if MLW is a museum piec I feel like the ancient mariner I was born and brought up during rationing and most of the things posted here I remember well.

The gas man cometh brilliant, your Mum always got a handful of shillings back in rebate.The co-op divi was good as well.Our local co-op had tin money that was given in exchange when ever stuff was bought so you collected the 'co-op checks' up in small bags and I can remember playing with them as a little girl thinking it was toy money.but woe betide me if I lost any as they all had to be bagged up and taken for exchange for an amount to be written into the divi book every now and again.The local RACS co-op was a huge store in Lewisham, and once a year I was taken to be 'rigged out' with a winter navy nap coat that allowed for growth (being a skinny shrimp of a child I can never remember growing out of it) it was made out of a thick woolen navy blue material and had a hood lined with a tartan trim which my late Mum thought was nice, and I hated.

The sleeves always seemd to trail down to my knees.School uniform was a navy blue gymslip,3 white blouses, and 3 pairs of navy knickers with a pocket in them for a hanky (I never ever had a hanky in mine).I would have been mortified to have to fish a hanky out of my knickers I just sniffed :):)

School shoes were bought at the begining of September and had to last until the following July no matter how much you grew, a pair of plimsoles, and at Christmas a pair of slipper also checked with a red pompom on the toe.
I longed for a pair of black wellington boots like my friends all had, but my Mum for some reason thought wellies were not ladylike and were only worn by roadmenders, so no wellies for me In fact I have never owned a pair in my life

My late Father was a dispensing chemist and after he had sold the shop (over which I was born in the flat above,) he went to work for a company in London from around 1946 onwards so I don't think we were particularly hard up as such but there was very little availability to buy stuff in the shops anyway.

He decided to move the family to almost countryside from the Eastend of London because of the bombing, and we moved to Blackheath where he bought a barn of a house with 13 rooms.My mum hated the place as it was an Edwardian house and had very little heating only coal fires and a range in the kitchen.
Coal was also hard to come by after the war so only one fire was lit ,usually the range in the kitchen (this room was about 13 x 16 so quite large and we used it as a sitting room and the cooking was done in the adjoining scullery
We used all of the ground floor of the house to live in and the middle and top floor was left vacant for a long time. As children my two brothers and I used it to play in mostly.The rooms were also very large, and in the winter far too cold. Eventually when I was around 7 my Dad agreed to have some old ladies living upstairs and four little old ladies moved into the middle floor These ladies facinated me as to me they were really ancient.

One of them Mrs Sheperd still wore long skirts and told me tales of when she worked in a mill as a child in Lancashire and had to scuttle under the looms to pick up the fluff and rags at the age of 8 or 9 (my age.) She said she earned four shillings a week for this and it helped her Mum out as her Dad had been killed in the Great War.

I loved this old lady as she was very kind to me, and if I was poorly and Mum had to go shopping I would always be allowed to go upstairs to Mrs Sheperd and she would tuck me into her huge feather bed in her room and sit by the fire telling me tales of her life as a child before the Great war.I wasn't too sure at the time what a Great war was, but it sounded jolly interesting to a little girl.

One of the other old dears Mrs Jesmond lived in her room and it was full of newspaper and magazines she must have collected for years . Mum wasn't too keen on her as she said that she drank too much tonic wine I must admit she did pong a bit

We had a very large lady living on the top floor called Mrs Gandy who was interested in spiritulism, and always was trying to get my Mum to go to seances with her Mum wasn't keen on messing around with the unknown so she told her it was against her religion

I think my Dad had let these old ladies rent the rooms out just to fill them up and we used to have a lady almoner from the hospital arrive now and again to make sure they were all ok. By the time I was 12 they started to pass on until we only had one old dear left and she was carted off somewhere as she was getting a bit ga-ga and my Mum was worried that she might burn the house down around our ears as she was a smoker.

My Mum drilled into me almost from birth that you pay cash for everything and never have credit or borrow.Apart from my mortgage in 1971 I have stuck to that rule and that was paid off as soon as we could.

Mum had a horror of debt and when we lived in the east end lots of my friends parents used 'Uncles' to pawn stuff Mum dissaproved of that as well. Although she was very strict and insistant on politeness in her children (a steely look from Mum would quell any rebellious child) she was also the kindest person I have ever known and would help anyone if she could

She had very strict rules though, and eating up what was put in front of you was one of them. No fussy or pickyness allowed, cleanliness was her mantra and her net curtains were snowy white and starched and her step also snowy white and God help any child that made it mucky.Her letter box was polished brass (I know as it was one of my Saturday morning jobs)She had a collection of brasses that I had to polish (I would never ever have brass in my house when grown up and married I had spent too much of my childhood polishing the flipping stuff

Children helped with the chores my brothers chopped the firewood (from collected orange boxes from the local market on a Saturday night) my eldest brother also cleaned all the shoes,my Dad insisted we all had clean shoes.
Sunday morning was church unless you were ill or dying and Sunday afternoon was Sunday school and evensong at night.We were brought up to respect our elders, and adults were called Mr so & so or Mrs so & so never by their first name.

My Mum called the coal man,baker,milkman and dustmen by their surnames Mr Carter was the coalman,Mr Blissit was the baker Mr Peters was the milkman.The dustman was usually Mr Devonshire.She also called our grocer and fishmonger by their correct names. She was one for formality and 'courtesy costs nothing' was her mantra.
She was an amazing lady 5ft tall and thin as a rake, but so strong.She was the backbone of our family and when I was 16 she sadly died very suddenly and we were lost without her.My Dad adored his tiny little wife (although I think at times even he was a bit in awe of her).To her, her husband,children and home were the most important things in her life and she would have walked through fire for us all.
They just aren't made like that anymore I wonder what she would have thought of life today

nursemaggie

My sleeves still trail round my knees Jackie. I remember the coop divi it bought three pairs of shoes and three winter coats every September.

My first full time job was at the co-op in the offices. Twice a year there were queues right down the street for a week and we used to have to go and help out. These queues never got any shorter until late on Friday afternoon. Now why does the co-op not make that sort of money these days. You get stamps if you were lucky in only a few places. Mind you we bought everything from the co-op nearly. Your pram when you were born and they buried everyone at the end.

My mum would not have co-op milk she said the milkman watered it down and she would not have their bread it had to come from the baker. I used to have to go for that and I would nibble the crust on the way home.

I can still remember my mum's co-op number 246189 easy to remember.

Women's pay was not taken into consideration for Mortgages until the late 70s maybe the 80s.

My parents did not believe in borrowing not even for a mortgage. In my mothers eyes to borrow a penny even for a hour or two was a very wicked thing to do. It seemed to be in the same category as murder. I can remember if we ever went on a trip to the seaside, if anyone had no change for the toilet she would never accept the penny back because that would mean she had lent money. A cup of sugar that was different.

Everyone was called by their surname. She had this friend called Mrs Baker. They had been in hospital together once. They were friends for about 40 years until Mrs Baker died. I only ever remember her calling her by her first name once.

It never felt right calling everyone by their first names at work the last few years. I never felt the respect for a boss with first name. We knew first names my first matron was called Rosie. No one would have dared call her that apart from when we did the Christmas review. I sew hundreds of plastic roses on one of the male nurses jumpers for him to do a sketch and take his jacket off and say "Rosie grows on you."

Mint1955

Coop divi, green shield stamps, an orange box with a curtain for a bedside cabinet, being sent for mums cigarettes, then to the butcher for scraps and he used to draw a cartoon on the wrapper for us, nightly jobs were peeling the potatoes (every night) and cleaning the shoes, mangle in the garden, coal bunkers, rag and bone man, callers every week to the door for money like the milkman, football pools man and the provident insurance man, tv was kids programmes until the news and then what dad wanted on after that, wrestling every sat afternoon followed by the football scores so dad could check his football pools, clothes were changed when you came in from school and the other set lasted all week, one nightie a week, bath night and hair wash on Sunday, nit nurse, block of ice cream on a Sunday from the van, penny sweets, new outfit for Christmas a tin of sweets and an orange plus an album like Jackie and if lucky one toy, a week in Maldon was our holiday but we went everyday in the car as it was cheaper than staying away, spending money on holiday we could choose one ride at the fairground or one posh ice cream a day (hearts were new out that year).

duchy

Only the very rich bought TVs though -and it was considered better value to rent as the technology was still improving so every two years or so you'd be offered a newer set or keep the current one (with an adjustment in price). I think we used to pay DER monthly -every town had DER, Radio Rentals etc and you'd pop in to pay.

I remember my ex complaining I had sent my son to stay with him for the weekend with only one pair of (newly washed) PJ's . I It spoke volumes that whilst we were married he hadn't noticed I didn't give our son a clean pair daily mind you -showed just how often he worked late and missed bedtime completely. Until puberty kids don't sweat much and daily really isn't needed IMO.

We used to have a coal stove in our living room -but the bedrooms were freezing in winter so no need for TVs in bedrooms - and with three channels less argument about what channel to watch anyway

I do remember coming in from school the day we had central heating fitted and opening the front door and the heat hitting my face -instead of the usual rush through the chilly hall into the living room. The luxury of been able to read in my bedroom -and listen to my records in my bedroom on the portable record player without getting moaned at for my choice in music too I never did have a TV in my bedroom though- and never wanted one -I thought friends who had their own were spoiled and a bit antisocial and odd.

meritaten wrote: »

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.