Web Page  No 2248

25^th March 2016

Hi All

The next meeting is in The George at Noon on Thursday 7^th April. Both June Blitz and Peter Sexton have agreed to attend.

Will YOU be there?

This week we welcome another school friend into our midst, welcome  Susan Hamilton.

Top Picture: Typical magazine view of the 1950’s housewife

Second Picture: This was nearer the mark

Third Picture: The daily shop

Was this your mothers life?

The life of the average married woman in the 1950s and 60s was very different from that of today’s woman. This was the age of conformity. Very few women worked after getting married; some were not allowed to as employers would not engage married women, nursing was such a profession, you could not be a young married nurse. Most women stayed at home to raise the children and keep house. The man was considered the head of the household in all things; mortgages, legal documents, bank accounts. Only the family allowance was paid directly to the mother. Should a woman find herself in a loveless or violent marriage, she was trapped; she had no money of her own and no career.

It was unusual for women to go to university, especially working class women. 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. No central heating; the downstairs rooms were heated by coal fires and then later, after the Clean Air Acts by smokeless fuel or gas fires. Upstairs the heating was provided by paraffin stoves and electric fires. During the winter it was common for ice to form on the inside of the windows! Night-time routine was hot water bottles in the beds and undressing downstairs in the warm.  Thick dressing gowns and slippers were essentials. Every home had a coal bunker. The coal men would carry the bags of coal to the bunker, from where the coal was taken by scuttle into the house.

In the kitchen, fridges were becoming more common but freezers were unheard of. It wasn’t until the early 1960s that local started stocking basic frozen foods such as frozen peas and fish fingers. Many people had only the pantry with its slate or concrete cold shelf, where butter, milk, cheese etc. was stored.

Food shopping was done daily as storing fresh food was difficult. The housewife would visit the local baker, the butcher, the greengrocer and the grocer individually, carrying all her shopping home in baskets or in a pull-along trolley. Not many families had a car although some had motorbikes and the traffic was light. 

Monday was washing day in most households. No washing machine and tumble drier for the average 1950s woman.  If you were lucky enough to have a washing machine, it would be a twin-tub with mangle on top. This had to be filled from the tap. After the clothes had washed they were lifted out of the hot water with large wooden tongs, fed through the mangle and then dropped into the spin dryer. The whole kitchen would fill with steam as first the whites were washed and then the coloured clothes as the water cooled. In the winter or when it rained, clothes were hung on clothes horses around the fire or in the kitchen where it was warm. On dry days clothes were pegged out to dry on clothes lines with wooden pegs.

Most households had a vacuum cleaner and a cooker. Entertainment was provided by the radio (wireless) or gramophone, and more and more people were acquiring televisions. These, like telephones, were rented, not owned.  

Clothes were often homemade, sewn or knitted. Knitted items when outgrown were re-cycled by being unravelled and re-knitted into something else. 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.

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.

There was a succession of callers to the 1950s house. These would include the rag and bone man, who would buy your old clothes for a few pennies and mend your pots and pans when the bottoms went through. There was also the ‘pop man’ from whom you would buy lemonade, dandelion and burdock, each week you would return your empty bottles to him 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 – again he would take away the empty bottles to be washed and re-used. The local shops would also deliver your groceries, bread and meat, the delivery boys using bicycles to make their rounds or the shop keeper driving an old van. The dustbin men worked extremely hard, carrying the old metal dustbins on their backs from the householder’s back door to the cart and then returning them back.

For the 1950s 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 every day on foot; the housework she did was very labour-intensive without today’s gadgets and there were no convenience foods or fast food outlets. Sweets and crisps (the only flavour available was ready salted) were treats rather than everyday foods.

The 1950s housewife had been prepared both at school and at home for her role in life; she took pleasure and 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.

Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

Were you a Douglas Baby? See next week !

News and Views:

On this day 25^th  March 1960-1965

On 25/03/1960 the number one single was Running Bear - Johnny Preston 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. The big news story of the day was Venereal disease rising in teens.

On 25/03/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley 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 Explosion devastates Paris's Palais Bourbon.

On 22/03/1962 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 25/03/1963 the number one single was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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 25/03/1964 the number one single was Little Children - Billy J Kramer 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 25/03/1965 the number one single was The Last Time - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.