Web Page No 2582

18th May 2019

1st Picture. A typical School Desk

2nd Picture. Hospital Rounds in a Portsmouth Hospital in the 1950’s

3rd Picture. Southern Television outside broadcast unit

4th Picture. Measles warning poster

When we were born!

How different the ordinary things of life were when we were born and also during the time when we were growing up. Here are a just a few points that you may have missed or forgotten about.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, two million women were still employed in domestic service and the average wages was still only 25p a week.

In the late Forties, the typical male manual labourer in Britain was entitled to just one week's paid holiday a year plus the usual Bank Holidays.

In the decade following the end of the Second World War, more than 70% of British workers were employed in manual labour and at that then the average UK annual salary for a man was just over £100.

In the 1950s, there were estimated to be 1.5million women in Britain working as either secretaries, typists or some other form of office work.

It took several years after the peace that it became the norm in Britain to work a five day week rather than six; and the low average rates of unemployment (around 3%) did not include the majority of women, who were considered "economically inactive".

The numbers of mothers in full time employment has tripled since 1951.

Memories of childhood have a tendency to become dappled. Across the years, the coldest of washing arrangements are injected with the warm tickle of nostalgia. Then, one in 20 babies were born out of wedlock, compared with four in 10 today. There was a single BBC TV channel until ITV began broadcasting in 1955 and sugar was still rationed, while only one in six households had regular use of a car.

In 1952, a report found that 89% of teachers agreed that corporal punishment should be retained. Schools retained a tradition of localism, setting their own agenda, their own standards and own curriculum. Now a days the national curriculum and testing are laid down centrally. What is taught now is far more tightly prescribed.

An increased awareness of equal opportunities has ceased girls' exclusion from sciences and boys from cookery. Educational technology in the 1950’s meant listening to a special schools radio broadcast. The proportion of children staying on in full-time education has also doubled. In the 1950’s, the majority of pupils left school at 15; now they stay until 18.

Modern children are taller but also fatter than their 1950’s counterparts, despite the fact that they eat 20% less. Today at least half of all children fail to achieve the recommended one hour's exercise a day, 40% of children travel to school by car, while games and team sports are slipping off the curriculum in many schools.

Infant mortality has fallen by a remarkable 79% in the past 50 years. In the 1950’s it would have been exceptionally rare for a premature baby to survive whilst nowadays 7% of babies are born premature, the majority of whom flourish. But by far the greatest advance in reducing deaths and serious illnesses in children has been the development of vaccination, Polio was a terror every summer for parents, now they have hardly heard of it. Measles and whooping cough, too, have been practically wiped out."

In the 50s, inpatient care for children was at the bare minimum. It was normal practice for children to be nursed on adult wards, parents were allowed to visit once a week, and patients were expected to remain in bed for a long period of convalescence. Nowadays, children benefit from play and educational facilities, and the average length of stay for a child patient is two days.

There has been a huge extension in restrictions on children's behaviour since the 50s, resulting in fewer children being killed on the roads. But children are no longer allowed the opportunity to learn from their own experiences as we did. Meeting up with their friends, and engaging in what is a very important part of childhood - getting into mischief and making mistakes for us were the normal way of life.

With minimal access to television, no computers and no mobile phones, children of the 50s were reduced to actually talking to one another and using their imaginations.

In 1951 people were still reeling from the war. Parents were older because they had deferred marriage or children during the war. They were less affluent and even if they had money there weren't the products to spend it on. But by 1959, the mood had changed, as more investment was made in industry and manufacturers began to target children specifically, making cheap, mass market plastic toys.

There was a huge emphasis on reassurance during the 50s as adults attempted to convince children - and themselves - that war wouldn't come again.

So were they the good old days? All I can say is that I might not have been so aware of the world around me in the 1960’s but I really enjoyed growing up in that decade.

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 18^th May 1960-1965

On 18/05/1960 the number one single was Cathys Clown by the 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 18/05/1961 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 Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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.

On 18/05/1962 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 18/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Liberal 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 18/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers 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.

 On 18/05/1965 the number one single was King of the Road - Roger Miller 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.