It growing up in the 1950s’
How about a nice cup of tea then before you dash off to catch your bus to work?
Surely you can hang about for 15 minutes while the kettle boils over the coal fire? No, wait a minute, you don’t build a fire first thing in the morning. Firstly, it’s a waste of coal heating an empty house and secondly, you haven’t got the time.
It might be a lot faster on the gas ring though, that’s if you have one. The kettles were big, black, cast iron models which lasted for years. This was a very long time before the fast boil, three kilowatt option was available.
It’s Sunday night and the children need their school dinner money for tomorrow. It’s either that or they have to stand in a separate queue for their free meal tickets.
But first you have to jump through several embarrassing hoops in order to get the free meal option.
The children find that a bit embarrassing, but it’s either that or go hungry.
Then to top it all the dinner ladies shout to them, “free meals this side” which adds insult to injury. I don’t know why they did that, the meals were exactly the same.
People didn’t have telephones to to order takeaways or taxis.
Ration coupons were needed to buy many goods in 1950s Britain.
A child of the 1950s – David Wood.
The price of a takeaway would have scared them to death. Taxis were for rich folk, that’s if you could actually find one. Buses were the main form of travel, cold and draughty things they were too.
Shoes were repaired time after time, most villages had at least two cobbler’s shops which were kept very busy.
Clothes were repaired, socks were darned, collars and cuffs were turned.
Jacket elbows and cuffs were adorned with leather patches. Clothes were handed down from sibling to sibling or even friend to friend.
Coal was delivered in hundredweight sacks by the coal man, he brought it and people paid for it there and then, no credit facilities with him I’m afraid.
Gas and electricity meters were mostly prepaid, no credit, no supply. Most meters were fed with pennies or shillings, nobody left lights on or doors open then.
No such thing as a food bank supplied by local churches or charities.
My parents asked the British Legion for help to buy us shoes for school. My dad had served in the army during the war.
But they wouldn’t help us because my dad didn’t drink at the club. It never seemed to occur to them that if he could afford to drink, he wouldn’t be asking for a charitable handout. Catch 22 I think.
I apologise to anyone who is feeling the effects of the present day economic measures, it’s not my intention to make light of your situation.
My sympathies are with you because we had it, but we didn’t know that we had it.
We just thought that it was part and parcel of living our lives and getting on with it. We didn’t even have the luxury of blaming a particular Government department, in fact they didn’t give out that much information back then.