Did anyone grow up in the 50's? (and 30's and 40's if you are on here!)

Kitten that sounds awesome!

When I was 12-13 (forget exactly) a friend & I were able to hire ponies for a “day ride” which was a regular thing - we went off ON OUR OWN all day.

Around UXBRIDGE!!!

Imagine children being allowed to do that now

(I can’t remember if we had to get parents’ written permission, but they certainly weren’t involved in the arrangements.)

I often wonder how I survived my childhood compared with today I.e.Elf and Safety 😳

Life was far better IMHO, but things change, some for the better some not.

How did we cope without the internet ? 😎

I love this thread

I walked or cycled to primary school every day. Must have been a couple of miles at least. We went across the estate, past the big house, sweeping grass meadows, carp pond, ornamental bridge, huge wrought iron gates, lime avenue. No one's allowed to go that way now, you have to go round.
It fostered my love of the countryside, I was absorbing it without realising.
I was in Scotland in a country school. 3 classrooms. 7 in my class. Very good education, still reciting tables in P7.
We did interpretation every week in P7. Study text and asked questions on such exciting things as describing an armchair, how to make a cup of tea. So boring but probably good for your english.
Nit nurse etc as mentioned before. Don't think the dentist, who came in a surgery caravan round the schools, was as bad as those mentioned above.
I find I pine for the quiet life there was then. An hour of kids tv, if that. Didn't see the newspapers much, delivered by postie I think. Had to amuse yourself. Funny, I can only picture the sunny days except for 1962, the snowy winter, 7 foot snow drifts. River frozen over (we kids of course had to walk over it!). Can't imagine what we thought about with such a quiet life.

I was born early 50's, I remember spending hours outside playing in the fields or by the river with friends and when I was 7 being allowed to cycle around the lanes to a nearby village with my younger sisters and a friend for a picnic. My parents never knew where we were, you were just told to be home by X time for dinner (not lunch!) or tea and off you went!
I remember Peyton Place being on the television and mum's friends coming in to watch while we were banned from the room- heaven knows what it was about (and my dad turning the TV off if there were people kissing, let alone anything more!) Mum took us to see Ryan's Daughter at the cinema and dragged us out at the love scene under the trees 😳😀
Walking alone a mile across the fields to school from the age of 6, before then I went on the back of my dad's moped, walked home for lunch every day.
My mum scraping my long hair up into a ponytail, so tight it hurt and drying my hair in front of the fire - no hairdryer in our house.
Little money, home cooking for everything, never had ready meals.
Sex education was zero, given the Kotex leaflet and that was that. I thought you bled permanently- my sister thought it was a one-off event.....
It all seems very uncomplicated and innocent looking back.

I was a baby when the fifties started. Lots of the same memories as others. Horrible dentists, playing outside, tiny black and white TV, squares of chocolate etc.
Also my mum (who worked full-time) scrubbing my father's white shirts to get rid of the soot from the trains he took to London every day. Toothpaste in a round tin, gentian violet, cod liver oil. The freezing outside loo and the tin bath in which we all had a bath every day. The pattern on the ceiling from oil stoves, which frightened me.
My school was very arty-farty and we did lots of dance, pottery and painting. My mother made all out clothes and created fabulous costumes for me from leftover scraps of fabric.
Sadly in our house lots of tension and unhappiness. My father never recovered from the PTSD of his wartime experiences and six years apart had badly fractured the family.

Another 50's baby checking in.

So many of the posts resonate with me.

My penny worth is that the vast majority of men wore hats or caps.

I remember, at about the age of 5, being with my father & he met a friend & the friend raised his hat to me. I felt 10 feet tall!!

I can still picture it & remember his name.

Just remembered that chicken was a luxury!

Sunday roast was generally beef or lamb, & we'd have rissoles or shepherd's pie with the leftovers on Mondays, minced with crusts of bread through my mum's spong mincer screwed to the kitchen table

Great post nil !

Sorry for typos. Blame my failing eyesight.

I was born near the end of WW2 so spent my schooldays in the 50s
All the other posters have already described living in the 50s so really got nothing much more to add as I experienced the same.
Things that stand out for me were hearing of the death of King George VI when I was at school this had a great effect on me because it was only then I realised that death comes to us all!.I remember my mother complaining because all radio programmes that day were cancelled and solemn music played instead.There was no TV so y mother, who did not go to work at that time relied not on the radio to relieve what she called the boredom of housework.The coronation the following year I remember very well.We all got the day off school and I watched the service on my grandparent's brand new TV which my uncle had bought them.My grandma had most of her neighbours in th watch it and revelled in being the first in her street to have television.The H shaped ariel on the chimney was a status symbol then as it announced you had a telly.
I walked to school, which was about five minutes away from our house from my second day there, my mother took me first day.I was the oldest child and when my younger siblings started I was responsible for taking them and bringing them home safely.
I have a memory of sugar coming off the ration making sweets freely available.Every child under the age of five was entitled to a free pint of milk a day, our doorstep was crowded with milk bottles delivered daily by the milkman.We lived next door to a corner shop and every Sunday my mother would buy ice cream from there as no fridges or freezers.We were only allowed if we ate our Sunday dinner which was always roast beef ad Yorkshire pudding with vegetables all home cooked no meals out.
When we were ill the doctor paid a home visit.If this was winter we were brought downstairs to lie on the settee by the open coal fire as no central heating then and the bedrooms were freezing and only used for sleeping in, with old coats piled ontop of the bed in winter.Baths were once a week as the fire had to be "banked up'" to get hot water from the boiler which was behind the fireplace.In the summer it made the house stifling hot when it was weekly bath night.On none bath days washed with water heated in the kettle.
All other things have all been described on here.I left school in 1960 and started work fur weeks later.I was unusual in this as most of the others started their first job the Monday after leaving school but I wanted to be a nurse and had already had a place in a local hospital as a nursing cadet but the next intake was four weeks after I had left school so my parents had to keep me for another four weeks.My wage the was £3.50 a weekend I had to give it all to my mother. She would give me my bus fare to work and back.I got free meals while training.My mother was not as hard as I thought she was though, she would keep some of my wage back and if I wanted e.g new clothes she would give me the money most of which she had saved from my wages.Within reason of course!
I must say I enjoyed my 50s childhood.The 60s were better though.

I remember the clarks x ray machine for shoes ... eek
I remember the penny a ride on the rag and bone mans cart
We had no central heating until I was 21. I had an electric hot water bottle when I went to bed and it was bliss when I was upgraded to an electric under blanket which had to be switched off before getting into bed

When I was 4 ... 1956 dad bought a car off the vicar for £5
If you draw a box with 4 wheels attached that was our car
Ford prefect
The indicators were orange arrows that came out of the slits in each side of the car
Parents got a phone in when I was 17... we had a shared line for years

Anybody remember pig bins at the corner of each road for food waste. Not that there was much, in those days you had to eat what was put in front of you.

When I was taken to a pub or we had s family gathering... children were often served cider
We had a stone earthenware bottle to put it in

Every new ( built in 1950) council house had a well outside and a pump inside
I couldn’t work out why.., as we had a sink with taos and hot and cold running water
Perhsos it was for the next war 😱

ooops wrong thread!

is that something from June?

Oh yes MrsFezziwig the Clarks X Ray machine that you put your foot in your new shoes into, to check that they fitted. It showed a weird green outline.,
I’ll stop now.

Was anyone else tortured by having their hair in rags? It was agonising, but resulted in long corkscrew curls by morning. Oh the relief when my Mum gave up on making me look cute.

Gosh yes the divi number was imprinted in my brain!

When my DD was born in 1973 we were given Mackeson in the evening

Our local grocer was a co-op. My mum sent me there on an emergency errand once when I was really little & was astounded later that I’d given her divi number - she didn’t think I knew it!

I just remembered running endless errands to the corner shop, with a note. The bill got settled later. The butter was cut from a block, and I seem to remember solid sugar in blue paper.

MrsFezziwig
at the relevant point of the birthday tea I used to have to run round to the newsagents & he would open up just to hand over the cake which he was storing in the shop freezer (fortunately they lived above the shop), then I would run home with it

Lovely story

People in general were very obliging then!