Web Page  No 2226

8^th January 2016

Top Picture: Sunday Tea in the 1950’s

 Second Picture: TV watching 1950’s

 Third Picture: Sunday Night at the London Palladium

Never on a Sunday

Not the famous 1960’s film but life at home when we were children. Does this ring a bell with any of you? ‘Mum can I go and call for xxxxx to play?’ ‘No dear you don’t go and call for people on a Sunday’, that would have been the conversation in many homes around the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, but life was very different then.

The Lords Day Observance Society and the Keep Sunday Special Campaign had great followings and hence a lot of power over the population, so let’s take a look at Sundays in the mid 1950’s. The only places you went out to on those Sundays was either church or Aunty and Uncle yyyy for tea, you never visited otherwise. A family walk along the seafront, a visit to a museum, or gallery a walk along the top of the hill (always in your Sunday Best of course) was normally the most excitement that you could expect to get that day.

The cinemas were all closed in the afternoon, evening performances only and often the local theatres were closed all day. There was no professional sport only amateur sport such as football, rugby, cricket or motor cycle scrambling or suchlike.

Even the local corner shop succumbed to the rules and was only open for a couple of hours normally over the midday period and the larger department stores did not open at all. Even the local pubs only opened during the special ‘Sunday Hours’. The only tradesmen that I remember that regularly worked on a Sunday were the ice cream men on their regular rounds. Sunday morning Car Boot Sales were something for the future

Sundays were the days for quiet days at home, especially in the winter or when it was raining. Our time would be spent with jigsaw puzzles, playing board games, listening to ‘Two Way Family Favourites’, the Billy Cotton Band Show, the comedy hour followed by ‘Movie Go Round’ and then ‘Pick of the Pops’ on the Light Programme. This all filled in the time until ‘Songs of Praise’ on TV followed by ‘Dr Finlay’s Casebook’ then ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ with ‘Beat the Clock’.

Sundays could be tedious especially if all you wanted to do was go out and play.

Sunday modes of dress was also very different. Men would not even consider going out without a suit or jacket, a tie and a hat, even to sit on the beach. Even the little boys wore suit coats and on 80+ degree days, in places with no air-conditioning, the men just sat there sweating. The women also wore their best dresses and shoes, hats and bags too, as did the little girls. At this time children, on a Sunday, were normally dressed as little adults, the teenager had not arrived yet!

There was always the other side of the coin, the much anticipated Sunday Roast Dinner. This was always the highlight of the week, roast beef or lamb (chicken was always too expensive then) roast potatoes and Yorkshire or suet pudding and fresh vegetables all followed by apple pie and custard, it still makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Then in the afternoon there was Sunday tea with sandwiches, cakes, tinned fruit and Ideal Milk and bread and butter, possibly in the winter crumpets toasted on the open fire. Then later in the evening, if you were lucky, left over cold meat sandwiches for supper.

Sunday could also be a real feast for some folks.

Then came the 60’s and most things changed and a way of life that had been the norm for years was lost. Looking back I think we had the best of both worlds

  Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

 Mary Writes:-

 I confess that I climbed trees, ran all over Farlington Marshes, paddled in the sea, loved scaling the chalkpits and I`m here to tell the tale. It didn`t do me any harm. It was all great fun, 

Maureen Writes:-

I have very fond memories of my Sundays'. Yes, we had to wear our Sunday clothing and for me that included best coat, hat and gloves and of course special shoes. Yes, we went to Sunday school at the Resurrection Church and then visited Grandma in Brecon Avenue, except on the first Sunday of the month when we would go to the Methodist Church for Church parade with the Brownies, Guides and Scouts.  Yes, we always had a roast dinner about 2.30pm except on the weekend that my mother gave my brother and I a Pound note to go to the butchers to buy the meat for Sunday (she thought we would get a joint of beef...... oh no!) we bought a £1 worth of lambs kidneys ......40 at 6p each. She gave Laurie of Marchments a piece of her mind for selling us all those kidneys but we had them every day that week in various guises.

 
Some Sundays in summer, we would have crab sandwiches for tea, in the winter we would toast bread by the fireside with lashings of butter but best of all was when Dad was home (not often as he was in the Royal Navy and in those days they served 18 month and 3 year commissions) but when he was home we would walk up Drayton Lane and over the hill through Stakes woods. We would learn all about the countryside from Father, a Dorset country lad and we would  stop and chat to the gypsy that occupied the corner of one of the fields.  Then onto the Fox and Hounds in Stakes Road, they had gardens for the fine weather and a family room for the colder evenings, then we would catch the last bus  at about 10pm to the top of the hill and walk back down Drayton Lane. Lovely memories.
 
NO, we were not allowed to call on our friends, we were not allowed to play in the street, we certainly were not allowed to scream and shout and make a public nuisance of ourselves and Yes I brought my children up with the same beliefs. Sundays were family days, quiet days, time to go to Church in your best clothes and we always took the children out for a walk on the Cornish Beaches and buy an ice cream on the way back to the car. Only difference was that Sunday lunch was usually a picnic so it became Sunday Dinner in our household.

News and Views:

On this day 8^th January 1960-1965

On 08/01/1960 the number one single was Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed but the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the week was New French franc introduced.

On 08/01/1961 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Russ Conway Show (ATV) 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 week was Decimal coinage introduced in Pakistan.

On 08/01/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 08/01/1963 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) 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 08/01/1964 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) 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.

 On 08/01/1965 the number one single was I Feel Fine - 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.