Web Page  No 2232a

29th January 2016

Top Picture: School Milk

 Second Picture: 1950’s Radio

Third Picture: Packet of Omo

Before the main page, we must be coming up to another get together at The George as by then a lot of us will be passed the three score years and ten. Any prefernces on dates?

The joy of a 1950s childhood

Most of us who grew up in Fifties Britain will have his or her own indelible memories of their childhood, from the first taste of welfare orange juice to the birth of rock' n’ roll. The nation was recovering from the Second World War and the friendliness of wartime was still evident throughout the country.

Despite the difficulties of day-to-day living people had pride in their country and shared a common purpose in life. Families stayed together even though things were hard and everybody knew their neighbours.

Children waking up on Christmas morning in 1952 had experienced nothing but rationing all their lives. It was normal to go without the sweets, biscuits, crisps and fizzy drinks;  sweet rationing ended in February 1953so  the most prized thing in your Christmas stocking would have been a small bar of chocolate.

We didn’t get our first black and white television set until the late ­Fifties. But it didn’t matter if you had no TV because you could go out and. Buses and bicycles were the most popular modes of transport and in 1950 there were under two million cars in Britain, the most ­popular models included the Ford Prefect 100E and the Austin A35 saloon.

Many of us grew up in houses that were draughty in winter with curtains hung behind the door to reduce the draught and of course frost on the inside of bedroom windows was the norm!.

But life was not all doom and gloom. You grew up in a safer environment than we can ever imagine these days. Children were able to enjoy the freedom of outdoor life. They played lots of rough-and-tumble games, got dirty and fell out of trees. The purple stains of iodine were always evident on the grazed knees of boys in short trousers as were Elastoplasts. There was no such thing as health and safety or children’s rights. We were taught discipline at home and at school and ­corporal punishment was often administered for bad behaviour.

No one mugged old ladies and people felt that it was safe to walk the streets. There was very little vandalism and no graffiti. Telephone boxes were fully glazed and each contained a set of local telephone directories and a pay-box full of pennies.

Youngsters respected people in authority such as policemen, teachers, and park keepers, knowing that they would get a clip around the ear if they were caught misbehaving. Home life was different from today. Everyone seemed to have valve radio in their front room and there were clocks all around the house.

The kitchen was filled with products such as Omo washing powder and Robin starch and a whistle kettle was a permanent fixture on the kitchen stove. Most adults smoked and there were ashtrays in every room, even in the bedrooms.

We still managed to eat lots of wholesome food, which was always freshly cooked many of us didn’t have a fridge and Mum went shopping for ­groceries every day. Perishable foods were bought in small amounts – just enough to last a day.

Sunday was the day for a roast dinner and leftovers were made into stews and pies to eat later in the week. In 1950, 55 per cent of young children drank tea with their meals. Bread and beef dripping was standard fare but not for me! That was even worse than the daily spoonful of cod liver oil.

Boys and girls played together. In the playground girls practised handstands and cartwheels with their skirts tucked up under the elastic of their navy blue knickers, while the boys played conkers.

Do you remember Pathé News at the cinema? Going to the pictures was everyone’s favourite outing, with all those stiff-upper-lip British film stars such as John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More and Dirk Bogarde and war films such as The Dam Busters, epics such as Ben-Hur and comedies such as The Belles Of St Trinian’s. When the film ended everyone stood for the National Anthem and stayed until it finished playing.

For children there was the Saturday morning pictures. Every week, 200 to 300 unruly children would descend on a cinema for a couple of hours. It was controlled mayhem with the stalls and circle filled with children cheering for the goodies and booing the baddies. It introduced us to The Lone Ranger and Zorro and the slapstick comedy of Mr Pastry and Buster Keaton.

Old-fashioned sweetshops had high wooden counters jam-packed with boxes of ha’penny chews and other sweet delights. Remember Lucky Bags and frozen Jubblys and getting a sore tongue from sucking on gobstoppers, aniseed balls and Spangles? Then there were Smith’s crisps with the salt in a twist of blue paper and you always had to rummage around for it at the bottom of the bag. All your one-shilling-a-week pocket money would go on sweets and comics.

It was the decade of skiffle with Lonnie Donegan and of the start of rock' n’roll with Bill Haley, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. Cliff’s first hit Move It is credited as being the first rock'n’roll song produced outside the United States? Other British singers such as Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury and Adam Faith first came to fame in the ­Fifties. But while everyone now remembers rock'n’roll, in reality the record buyers were suckers for ­ballads and throughout the Fifties homegrown ballad singers had ­British girls swooning in the aisles .

It is hard to identify the Britain of today with how it was back then. The whole appearance of the country has changed. The war torn dilapidated houses, derelict land and bomb sites in town are now long gone.

There was something cosy about growing up then when most children retained their childish innocence to the age of 12 or 13 and maybe beyond. The stresses of adolescence and then adult life could wait. We were lucky.

Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 29th January 1960-1965

On this day 28th January 1960-1965.

On 28/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and 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 day was Call for higher police pay.

On 28/01/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley. 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. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 28/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & 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 28/01/1963 the number one single was Dance On - The Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Prime Minister (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 28/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24.

On 28/01/1965 the number one single was Go Now! - Moody Blues 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.