Easier to be OS in the olden days?

Bathory

I remember a very odd object living in the bike shed that mum inherited from my grandmother's wash days - a dolly peg. Being a kid at the time I never could fathom out how it was used as it was so bulky.

[Deleted User]

our toys were uncomplicated. Roller skates that strapped onto shoes, two balls on a wall, a short skipping rope and a great long one for communal skipping. Marbles in the gutter (called ollies) bags of bottle tops from the pub. Chalk and a stone to play hopscotch. The boys had rifles made from a piece of wood, a home made cart from an orange box. Jacks using stones. Rounders was a great communal game, loved it. There would always be a couple of mums keeping an eye on everyone and we played out every day, when the chores were done

Does anyone remember the wash houses? The queues for the polio vaccine. No television then an old lady got one, a small black and white one in a brown case. She put rows of seats in her room and handed round a bag of sweets and the children came to watch andy pandy and the wooden tops. There were so many kind people about.

The segregated junior school where boys and girls were taught apart and we thrived on it. The stone steps in school and the coal fire in the classroom, with a crate of frozen bottles of milk in front of it. When snow fell then we made treacherous ice slides in the playground and we played conkers in autumn

Breakfast was always porridge, we walked home for lunch, always simple cheap nourishing food. I could make fish and chips from scratch for 9 of us, using one chip pan, I think I was 12 but I was a very sensible child and I could make rolled breast of mutton by then too, using a sharp knife. Tea was always sandwiches. We used the same plate all through the meal eg soup followed by potatoes and sour milk, when money was very very tight. The sour milk was from unpasturised milk and was like kefir so no wonder I grew up healthy

We all got measles and I remember helping mum to look after the little ones in a dark room. We grew up knowing how to nurse each other

Christmas was the usual tangerine and some chocolate coins in a stocking and presents were like cardboard dressing dolls and cardboard sweet shops. Christmas lunch was a chicken

Life was uncomplicated for us children but was a daily struggle for the grown ups. We children were like sponges and learnt how to survive on very little. So now I have stuff and I cocoon myself, all psychological now. I grew up on nothing and knew scrimping all my young life and then again in the 70s and 80s with 3 young children. My parents had nothing on credit, except a twin tub on hp and because of learning that at a young age, I have never been in debt, apart from mortgage and a car loan

Mortgage rate up to 15%, one salary and suddenly a 3 day week. Cash out every month and straight into envelopes. It was very very hard buying our house but one day it became ours and not the banks and now we reap our rewards and I surround myself with stuff, not ornaments, stuff that I can give to our children and grandchildren when times get tough for them

Caterina

I am fascinated by these stories, as I was born in Rome in 1957 to fairly well off parents, we always lived in apartments with every mod con available at the time. But I remember going with my mum to the local laundrette as washing machines were not something people had in their homes, until I was at least 6 or 7.

My gran had a Neapolitan woman called Maria who came in to do the laundry by hand in the sink.

In spite of being rather well off from both sides of the family, I know there was no waste. They had all gone through the war and suffered great hunger. My Aunt tells me how they cried for hunger when they were little and once my gran took so much pity on them that she used up all the weekly ration of "vegetina" (a sort of gruel) at once because they begged her, at least once, to fill their tummies. God knows how they managed afterwards. Even well off people were starving, because Rome was full of the nazis at the time, after the fascists, the terrible actions of Mussolini, who brought so much destruction to my beautiful country. The nazis requisitioned everything, if you did not let it go they'd shoot you, so money did not do you much good, as there just wasn't any food to buy.

My father's family fared much better because they lived in a small town in Sardinia and owned land, so there was a lot more to eat, and the nazis weren't so interested in inland Sardinia and left them relatively in peace.

But I remember when I was little, in my paternal Gran's farm, the farmer and his family lived in a handmade one storey house, they had sheep and the wife would use the sheeps wool to spin and weave and knit, they were almost 100% self sufficient! They had no electricity or gas, but acres and acres of woodland for firewood, and sheep fat for lamps. I remember the older son, once, saying that all they bought was salt and matches, but otherwise they had everything on the land. They were happy in their own way and the farmer and his wife lived to a very ripe old age. Hard work, healthy living and no fripperies I suppose. I regret that my father sold them the farm after my gran died as I wanted to live there myself. But it was not meant to be.

My father was always a stickler for saving water, coming from a place where water was scarce in the summer, so I have inherited this trait from him, I am always mindful of water waste and get irritated inside when I see someone run a tap to waste.

All this makes me realise that even better off people in the olden days were more frugal and conserved their resources in a much wiser way. I am glad I have inherited these traits and picked them up unconsciously in my childhood, because they served me well in older years. I was never, and never will be, as financially well off as my parents were, but I have a wealth of skills and resourcefulness that I have inherited from them and from my grannies and aunties.

One thing that nobody has mentioned in this thread is peak oil! The way we are going, it might be once again necessary to live in a less technologically minded society. So we OSers are one step ahead already.

115K

I vaguely remember how cold it seemed back then, When I was about 4 or 5 I remember how freezing cold our flat was and I had chilblains. I certainly prefer having double glazing, insulated lofts and a warmer home.:D

A few years ago I was chatting to some women much older than me and they were saying they would never want to go back to the old days as they remember that in winter they had ice on the inside of their bedroom windows. They used to fill up empty milk bottles with hot water and take them into bed with them. Sounds quite dangerous now!

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.

I went to quite an old fashioned secondary school and I remember being taught about hire purchase.

lessonlearned

I was born in 1951. Reading these posts has been a real trip down memory lane.

I agree with you all, being OS was just something everyone did. We all lived that way. I was an only child until I was 11 so we probably had more money than our neighbours but even so nothing was ever wasted. Mending and making do was just what you did.

Some of my school friends were wealthy, their fathers were doctors or lawyers but even so there was never any waste in their houses, they were just as thrifty as everyone else. It's just the way everyone lived. Perhaps it was due to the after effects of the war but also there just wasn't the proliferation of consumer goods anyway, no large supermarkets and no cheap imports.

Re credit cards. I think they were introduced sometime in the 60's and then went mainstream in the 70's. I first got one in 1975.

Were those days better or worse. For adults it was certainly a hard slog and I certainly don't miss being cold half the time and I do enjoy the variety of food that is available now. Food was boring, especially in our case because mum hated cooking but that's another story.

I think children had much better lives back then in some ways. Our childhoods may have been a bit Spartan and some parents were probably far too strict (smacking was seen as being perfectly acceptable:eek:) but we had far more freedom than children today.

I often feel sorry for today's children, cooped up in four walls, never allowed to play outside without adult supervision. We used to roam all over the place. We would be out all day only coming home for meals and then back out again. The games we played were cyclical and followed the seasons and completely free. We didn't need money to keep us amused. We didn't have the endless pressure at school either. Yes we were encouraged to do our best and do well but there wasn't this constant emphasis on exams and qualifications.

I think children have a rough deal these days, in spite of all their material possessions they lives are much poorer than ours were.

Going back to the pjs. I agree unless children have had a little accident or been ill then a daily change is not necessary. I think sometimes it's just too easy to fling stuff into the washing machine. Teenagers are shockers for wearing something for a couple of hours and then thinking it needs to be washed. I refused point blank to do this when my boys were teenagers. I just picked stuff up off their floors (another story:rotfl:) and folded them up and put them back in their wardrobes. They never knew the difference.:D

Keep it simple, less washing, less stuff, less clutter, less work.;)

lessonlearned

Caterina - my mother was Belgian and my maternal grandparents were quite well off too. But just like your family, the Nazis just took what they wanted so money was no protection, you still went hungry because there was no food.

Yes you are right about peak oil too. We might all be in for a real shock one of these days. I can remember the oils shocks of the 70's - just awful. No power for up to,12 hours a day, the three day weeks etc.

Have we become soft, could we live such Spartan lives if we had to. Yes I'm sure we could adapt but I have to confess I do rather like my creature comforts.

I think we do need to think about how we would cope if (when??) the lights go out.

[Deleted User]

Peak Oil is a whole other ball game CATTIE. I've been standing watching the world at a distance for decades now, became aware of Peak Oil in the 1970s and found the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales the first year it was in existence. I know there is great controversy among academics and business men and women as to the validity of Peak Oil but without oil, every aspect of life would change. Our entire society is oil oriented from the cars we drive to the fuel we power them with to plastic bags we casually throw away from the shops to the packaging on the food we buy ready made, to the crops that are artificially grown using oil based fertilisers to all the pharmaceutical drugs we rely on to cure us from the excesses that we consume due to the former things. Without oil and oil products our world would be medieval and very very hard. A peasant life would be the best we could hope for and hope to be able to grow enough food with the animal manure on the land to struggle from season to season. If we contracted a disease, developed a condition of a medical nature herbal cures or homeopathy would be all that was available to help so life expectancy would be very much shorter than it is now. Not a terribly bright prospect to look forward to is it?

[Deleted User]

Money really seemed like money back then ,a sixpence burned a hole in your pocket for ages and the amount of time pondering what to spend it on was enormous. I only ever had a half a crown once a year when an aunt came to stay. That 2/6d felt like a fortune to me, and I didn't want to 'break ' into it

Pennies salvaged from pop bottles 4d if you found a cider bottle. beer bottles were only 1 or 2d.but 3d bought you a palm toffee bar (my favorite was banana split) it stuck to your teeth like glue but tasted divine . Now and again if you had enough pennies Spangles 3d (Old Englishe ones were dearer 4d) and if broke, then a packet of Polo's were 2d.I well remember farthings four for a 1d, they had a tiny wren on one side.But you could buy four blackjacks or fruit salad for a penny then

When farthings became obsolete, my eldest brother John made me a bracelet with 48 of them on, a whole shillingsworth.He said I'd always have money around me .Bless him he sadly passed away 13 years ago now last Tuesday and I still have my farthing bracelet in my jewelery box all these years later

Times were simpler then and although there were no end of shortages for almost everything you had to queue all the time I never felt deprived or hard up.Everyone was virtually in the same boat, your friends at school wore the same clothes and recycled jumpers were quite normal My late Mum always had a pair of needles in her hand when she sat down.

We only had the wireless for entertainment and when my eldest brother John started courting (now there is an old fashioned word:):):)) he would bring his young lady several times a week to our house and Mum would get out the Ludo board or cards and we would all sit around the table playing cards or ludo.They were never under any circumstannces allowed to not be in the big kitchen where we used to sit and I can't imagine to hoo ha if my brother would have even suggested that his young lady would stay the night at our house with him :)They were saving up tokens from Kensita cigarette to get things for their home.I used to count up the coupons and put them intto rubber bands in piles and I remember them getting an Ironing board with one lot, which I thought rather boring as if it had been me I'd have got a bike

We had no t.v. as my Dad dissaproved of it,to him sitting and staring at a box in the corner of the room was a waste of time whereas a radio you could be doing something else at the same time whilst listening 'The devil makes work for idle hands 'and none of us were allowed idle hands unless we were reading that was OK.

Rationing went on for ever it seemed and My late Mum said that although we won the war the other side were better off than us. I was going on 12 when rationing finished and remember my Mum bursting into tears and throwing the ration books up in the air . About the only time I ever saw her cry. How she managed to bring three kids up I'll never know She had been bombed out twice ,the second time she was dug out from the cupboard under the stairs clutching her kids and her beloved wireless all intact she had her priorites right I think. Her legacy to me wasn't money it was a strong sense of right and wrong an ability to make a meal out of almost anything and a just 'Get on with it attitude' which she had in abundance

We only went on holiday to relations, or they came to stay with us. Both my parents were Scots so the long trek up to Scotland on the SMT bus from Victoria coach station was an excitement itself. We left at 4.00p.m. from London on the Sunday afternoon and with various changes of coaches and increasingly smaller buses always arrived at my Auntie Lizzies in Brechin by 4.00.p.m.on Monday afternoon

We slept on the coach going up to Edinburgh and there was a tiny toilet at the back of the coach.The driver would hand our a blanket from the boot when it got to around 8.00 so you were snuggled down listening to the hum of the wheels taking you from one end of the counrty to the other. Mum always had food wrapped up in the greaseproof paper that bread came in (nothing was wasted)and just the thought of eating a sandwich or soda scone on a coach was exciting as we were never normally allowed to eat unless we sat at a table,and never ever in the street:):):)

I loved my childhood and the sense of security my parents provided We may not have had Ipods or fancy clothes or shoes but I was never frightened,lonely or unloved.

If you felt poorly then my steely -strict Mum became the sofest,kindest lady in the world and when I had scarlet fever as a child I can remember her sitting by my bed wiping my very hot head with a cloth impregnated with 4711 cologne and singing to me songs that her Mum sang to her.The smell of lavender brings those memories back, she also had it on a stick which was lovely when you head was splitting.

The whole family was her world to her. I also inherited her need for a decent store cupboard and all through my married life having a store cupboard has save our skins lots of times when things got tough. apparently at the onset of hostilities my Mum scoured the shops for any herbs or spices she could find

Very sensible as well, as she realised that things might go on for a long time.She also bought up as many packets of seeds as she could. To her if you had an onion,a potato and a bit of cheese you could feed your family something tasty at least.I think she cornered the market in sardines and pilchards.My store cupbords carry pichards,sardines etc and I have a pretty good stash of herbs and spices as well

candlelight_2013

My Mum used to have a small store cupboard, nothing like mine is today. In it would be a tin of red salmon, tin of fruit, and a tin of Carnation milk or Nestles cream amongst other items. In those days we always called it Nestles not Nestlee, as it is now. These were in store in case wee had unexpected visitors. She was a bit of a snob and would never have pink salmon We always had bread in anyway, because we were a family of 5, so if there wasn't much else we could always have bread and jam.

My Mum never understood why I preferred tuna to tinned salmon. When I first married she thought it was because I couldn't afford salmon, but when I tried to explain I preferred tuna she just couldn't understand.

Mum worked for the Co-op for years, and the first store she worked in had the long wooden counters either side of the store and there would be several chairs dotted around for the older ladies to sit.

Tea, dried fruit and sugar were all weighed into bags, some were blue, I suppose there must have been other colours as well, so you could tell the difference. There was this enormous bacon slicer which looked like an instrument of torture, and to be honest the trip to the Co-op was an experience. Later, after Mum left i always had to go on a Saturday morning for the milk checks, but do you know I cannot for the life of me remember her check number.

As everyone has said, I wouldn't like to go back to those days, but I could most certainly live like that again if I had to. The only thing is I am a bit too old to be cold now

Candlelightx

[Deleted User]

There was a world of difference if you had anywhere to grow veg and keep a few hens. We had only tiny back yard and a dad who earned his money by repairing certain items. No-one had any money after christmas and I remember such poverty during those months. There was a woman who bought best cod for her cats, I used to do her errands and made a few pence. We were lucky to have scraps of bacon bits. The area I lived in was so very poor, everton in liverpool, terraced houses. Anyone who had a spare room took in a lodger and paddys market was heaving with people rooting through the second hand clothing, much of which was flea infested. I do not know how my parents managed but we were all clean and well cared for.

Does anyone remember playing on bomb sites? Broken biscuits? The local priest coming round with his hand out, to a family that had hardly anything? neopolitan ice cream bars that could be cut into a lot of slices? a mesh thing that you could put scraps of soap in for washing up, nothing was wasted. It must have been so hard for my mother, her background was a well off family and boarding school. The nazis took everything.