Web Page  No 2154

3^rd May 2015

Top Picture: The press idea of a 1950’s Housewife. (my Mum never looked like this!)

Middle Picture: A Parnell single tub washer

Bottom Picture: An ideal home in the 1950’s

Did Mum have it easy?

For a woman the 1950’s could be described (thanks to Charles Dickens) as the best of times and the worst of times. The life of the average married woman was very different from that of today’s woman. This was the age of respectability and conformity and the stay at home mum. Very few women worked after getting married, some employers would insisted that when she married she had to leave so she stayed at home to raise the children and keep house. Even my mother, who held the post of Assistant Matron in a Children's Hospital had to leave when she married my father! At this time the man was considered the head of the household in all things; mortgages, legal documents, bank accounts and finances. Only the family allowance was paid directly to the women and then only after the second child. Should a woman find herself in a loveless or violent marriage, she was trapped because she had no money of her own to fund a divorce and she had no career.

It was common for women to go to college and onto university, especially working class women but most left school and went straight into work until they married. Secondary schools - even grammar schools - prepared girls for this life: lessons were given in cookery, household management, darning, sewing and even how to iron a shirt properly. Girls were trained to look after their husband, their children and the house.

The house itself was very different from that of today. There was no central heating; the downstairs rooms were heated by coal fires and then later, after the Clean Air Acts by coke or gas fires. Upstairs the heating was often provided by smelly paraffin stoves and electric fires. During the winter it was common for ice to form on the inside of the windows so the night-time routine was hot water bottles in the beds, then undressing downstairs in the warm.  Thick dressing gowns and slippers were essentials no fashion housecoats here. Every home had a coal hole or bunker from where the coal was taken by coal scuttle into the house as required.

In the kitchen, fridges, both electric and gas, were becoming more common although freezers were still unheard of. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that local shops – there being no supermarkets – started stocking basic frozen foods such as frozen peas and fish fingers. These were purchased and cooked straight away as most people could not store them. Many people, us included, had only the pantry with a cold stone or slate shelf, where butter, milk, cheese etc. was stored.

Food shopping was done on a daily basis as storing fresh food was difficult. The housewife would visit the local baker, the butcher, the fishmonger, the greengrocer and the grocer individually, carrying all her shopping home in a basket or in a pull-along trolley. She would pride herself on keeping within the weekly allowance that she would receive from her husband.

Monday was washing day in most households. No just popping the clothes into the machine and then the tumble drier for the 1950’s woman.  If you were lucky enough to have a washing machine, it would have a mangle on top. This machine had to be filled from the tap and after the clothes had been washed they were lifted out of the hot water with large wooden tongs, fed through the mangle and then dropped into a spin dryer. The whole kitchen would fill with steam as first the whites were washed and then the coloured clothes as the water cooled. There were no tumble driers so in the winter or when it rained, clothes were hung on clothes horses or airers around the fire or in the kitchen where it was warm. On other days clothes were pegged out to dry on clothes lines with wooden pegs and a careful eye kept on the sky in case there was a change in the weather. For those without a washing machine, it was the boiler on top of the stove that came into its own.

Most households had a vacuum cleaner, carpet sweeper and a cooker. Entertainment was provided by the wireless or gramophone television was yet to come in most households and when they did come on the scene most were rented, not owned.  All televisions showed only BBC programmes in black and white.

Clothes were often homemade, either sewn or knitted. Knitted items when outgrown were re-cycled by being unpicked and re-knitted into something else, many of us have memories of having wool wound round our hands and then taken off in a ball. When collars on shirts became frayed, they were unpicked, turned inside out and sewed back on. All buttons and zips from old clothes were saved for the button box. Socks and stockings were darned. Even sheets, when they became worn, were turned sides to middle.

Dinner would be on the table ready and waiting for the man of the house on his return from work. Housework and the care of children was considered woman’s work so the man would expect the house to be clean and tidy, meal ready, children fed and washed and his clothes all ready for the next day at work.

During the day there could be a succession of callers to the 1950’s house. These would include the rag and bone man who would buy your old clothes for a few pennies. There was the ‘pop man’ from whom you would buy Corona lemonade, dandelion and burdock, and cherryade and each week you would return your empty bottles when you bought your next weeks’ drinks.

Alcoholic drinks could be bought from the off-licence, often part of the local pub; again you would return the bottles in exchange for a few pence. The milk man came daily and delivered your milk to your doorstep. The local shops would also deliver your groceries, bread and meat, the delivery boys using bicycles to make their rounds, or bigger orders were delivered by the grocer himself in his little van. The dustbin men carried the old metal dustbins on their backs from the  back door to the cart and then returning them back, nothing was left at the kerbside for collection in those days.

For the 1950’s housewife there was no need to go the gym; her day-to-day jobs kept her physically active. She walked to the shops and took the children to school on foot; the housework was labour-intensive without today’s gadgets and there were no convenience foods or fast food outlets all food had to be cooked at home. Sweets and crisps (the only flavour available was ready salted) were treats rather than everyday foods.

The 1950’s housewife had been prepared both at school and at home for her role in life; she took pride in looking after her home and family to the best of her ability. However on the other side of the coin, she didn’t have a career outside the home and she had no income of her own, which left her dependent on her husband.

Best of times or worst of times? 

Bit of both it appears to me, in fact I can never remember my mother having a full time employment when I was growing up. Just one other thing I remember is that when I was at Junior school mother would send me off with a paper bag containing four biscuits for play time!!!

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Peter Writes:

Your article on cigarettes was very interesting.  When I was in my mid teens in the late 50s, I remember starting to smoke.  With         regard to the number of cigarettes in a packet, I remember that we  used to buy certain brands in packets of 2, ie; Wills Woodbines,     Players Weights and Domino, as     well as packets of 5. There was a sweet shop in Highbury Buildings, Carters, and they would open a packet of 10 weights and sell them singly.  Other brands that I      remember were Turf, Craven A, Kensitas, Wills Passing Clouds,   Black Sobrane and Consulate Menthol.  I am sure readers can thinkof several others. 

News and Views:

I expect that you have all seen that Keith harris (of Orville fame) has died but did you note that Bobbu Rydell was 73 this week?

On this day 3^rd May 1960-1965

On 03/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 03/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was US minimum wage rises to $1.15.

On 03/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 03/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 03/05/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was First office fax machine.

On 03/05/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.