Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Ches

And it was a wooden house. :eek:

cheerfulness4

Ches wrote: »

And it was a wooden house. :eek:

:rotfl::rotfl: You must have been trustworthy. My mum gave me such a smack for playing with a box of matches with my brother. I wasn't to be trusted.

meritaten

I used to hate 'Sing Something Simple' as the theme music was the cue to my being sent to bed! later, when nan had the telly, it was after the Black and White Minstrel show. I was born in 1954 and was in hospital until 1958, no radio there! and my nan had a TV but we had the radio. I remember shows like Whats my Line, Take your Pick with Micheal Miles and Juke Box Jury..............but can also remember programmes which featured Big Bands (Joe Loss) and Swing (Andrews sisters). and Elvis (whom mum couldn't stand) so they were probably radio. and THE NEWS was sacrosanct - as was the Saturday football scores!

jinny

Another thing I've observed nowadays is people snacking everywhere
On buses, in the street, anywhere.
We weren't allowed to snack much in between meals.
You would be told to wait for tea or that you had just had tea
An ice cream from the van that came around and sweets were strictly after meals. A bag of chips from the local chippy for supper on Fridays and eaten out of newspaper in the street sometimes but we didn't usually waste time when playing out because we had to go in when the street lamps went on in winter. Summer a bit later but we still had set bedtimes.
I think things were more in order then we had routine.
Some things are better now of course health wise
And children thankfully are heard and seen.
But I remember set routines for everything
And as another poster has said that suits me as an adult too.

When we stayed with grannie she had open fireplaces
In her bedrooms. They were lit early evening for bedtime
She had plenty coal
No central heating or fitted carpets so bedrooms were freezing.
The house was that draughty that's probably how we didn't die of carbon monoxide Poisoning!!!
We were trusted to lie in bed and watch the embers of the fire!!!!!

GreyQueen

I remember that we'd bike from the town my parents had moved to for the work back to the village where Nan and Grandad lived (15 miles EACH WAY and we did this until we kids were 9 and 11 when the folks got their first car). The ice-cream man was from a local dairy and I'd be sent out with a pudding basin and he'd scoop the most wonderful vanilla ice-cream straight into the bowl. Zero packaging then, no one had freezers, he'd need to time his arrival for teatime.

Yes, snacking was a no-no, although an exception was made for when you came in from school ravenously hungry and it was still a couple of hours until tea-time, then you'd be allowed a glass of milk and a couple of digestives. You very rarely saw chubby never mind obese children as recently as the 1970s, I feel so sad when I see the youngsters waddling like baby hippotamuses.

People had very little compared to now (and I'm 50 so hardly ancient). Partly because a lot of stuff simply hadn't been invented, and partly because what was out there was an unaffordable luxury to most people. I had a secondhand pushbike and a pair of Warwick Flyer rollerskates, the kind with the adjustable bit in the base so they grew with you. The toe-piece was burgundy leather with the brand name in gold loopy writing and laced like a sneaker, and could come off your foot. The heel piece would still be strapped on, so you'd have a spectacular fall if that happened. My kid bruv had this happen when being chased by bullies and ended up with a broken arm, poor wee lad.

Summers were punctuated with the cry Muuuuum! Where's the skate key?! This was a small flat hexagonal spanner to adjust the footplate of the skates. For some reason we only had one key for both skates, and it lived on a loop of binder twine, often hanging in the hall, but sometimes misplaced.

Happy days in many respects - my playground was several square miles of forest and commons, ponds, rivers, all of nature.

[Deleted User]

When the man roared out

" Once again we stop the mighty roar of London's traffic to bring you In Town Tonight"

I honestly thought that the traffic stopped and when he shouted out

"Carry on London" it all started up again .

The power of the radio over young minds was fantastic:):):)Uncle Mac on childrens hour with stories and when you were too little for school Listen with Mother which you duely listened to then lay down on the sofa for a sleeep afterwards while Mum listened to 'Womans Hour' I was an avid listener and probably heard all sorts of things that I shouldn't have done :):) But would never have dreamed of talking to my Mum about.
Grown-ups were around to feed you,make sure you cleaned your teeth with the round hard block of tooth powder in a tin, and stick you in the tin bath on Friday nights and scrub you with red Lifebouy soap. and if naughty tell you off, but they were a different breed to children in those days
Kids had their own world, and grown-ups had theirs.Children knew very little about what went on in the adult world at all.At 13 I can remember my Mum coming into my room and telling me that my brothers wife had just had a little girl in hospital.I thought Oh thats great I wonder I can get to go into hospital and get one as well I had been lots of times to their house and it never occured to me that she was fat or pregnant.This new born baby seemed to have just turned up at the hospital and they let her take it home. :):) How different than today .Children stayed children longer My brother never went into long trousers until he was 14.Then they were grey flannel things which I fell about laughing at, because he looked like a cut-down adult:):):).When he was 15 and at work as a messenger boy he had saved up to buy some Lee Cooper Jeans that had just started to become popular and my Dad went nuts and put them in the kitchen range and burnt them as he said 'No son of mine will be seen wearing hooligans clothes. big dramas at home but my Dads word was law.I think I was grown up and married and a mum myself before I ever bought a pair ,never wore them in front of my Dad though as I know he wouldn't of approved.Women wore skirts or dresses and men wore trousers ,just the generation he was I think.
My late Mum would no more of thought of going out even to the local shops without a hat and gloves on.She too was quite a different generation.Childhood was quite regulated really but I was quite happy with mine and knew my place in the great scheme of things.I think I was happy with my lot, as were most of my friends we were all in the same boat I suppose.Less money around in those days but it seemed a lot more love and care than today The elderly were respected for having gone through the depression and war and I wouldn't have dreamt of being rude to an older person.Mum would have clipped my ear in any case. Life was just simpler then for all of its drawbacks of illness,cold houses outside toilets and tin baths

jinny

Great memories everyone
I hope we aren't boring the young ones with our lovely memories
I think it's relevant today though because we are from the make do and mend generation.
My sons watch the snooker on TV and laugh when I tell them it used to be
In black and white. They had to tell viewers what ball had gone down the pockets!
I also can remember The tv cook Fanny Craddock and her poor hen pecked husband Johnny he always had a glass of whisky in his hand
Whilst Fanny cooked in full make up with huge false eyelashes
Wearing long satin evening gowns he he

alice-mary

Ah, GQ I remember those skates too! I can't bring myself to call them "roller-skates" as the blessed things rarely actually rolled.... at least 2 wheels seemed to be stuck on each skate at any one moment and weirdly, it never seemed to be the same 2 the next time! And the noise they used to make!!! Many hours of fun, pushing/dragging myself around on them (even going down the slide and on the swings in them...shhh, don't tell my Mum)! And yes, you could alter them to fit, until the wing-nut underneath (I think that was an "improvement" my dad made, so we didn't keep pestering him) went missing and the 2 pieces separated completely!
Happy memories :-)

Alice
xx

vhalla1478

Gosh, good morning, Everyone, we all do have so many memories in common, I had gas lighting when I was a child and a 'Yorkie' range, tin bath, candles to go to bed with, and a fire in my grandmother's room only if you were really ill!

JackieO - as for having babies; my mother tried to tell me the facts of life when I was 11 (she was a widow) and I was horribly embarrassed for her. Funnily enough, when I told my super-intelligent daughter when she was 5 (because she asked me) she looked me up and down and said 'you're joking'. However it must have gone in as she was talking to her grandmother a few weeks later and volunteered that she knew where babies came from, when her grandmother asked for more details, she said, ' you go to the hospital' - 'is that it', said grandma? 'No, of course not' came the withering reply, 'you have to take your knickers off first'!

And don't get me started on Elvis, he's still the love of my life!

Recipes later today, Folks, I'm late and the hairdresser is coming to cut my wild mane

Viv xx

vhalla1478

Forgot to say, no namby-pamby soft floors near the swings and roundabouts in the recreation area either!

Viv x