What you have which your grandparents couldn't have dreamed of....

[Something4theweekend1]

I read a lot of memoirs from the early half of the 20th Century. In a weird way it always helps when I get lifestyle envy! But I do think of what I have, both materially and lifestyle, that my grandparents would have considered absolute luxury in their childhoods. For context, paternal grandparents born 1920, 1924. Welsh mining family. Maternal grandparents born 1930 and 1932, Northern factory workers. Off top of my head....

• A profession where I sit in an office warm and dry. Health and safety legislation that wouldn't see me dead of lung disease at 46 (my G Grandad), or deaf in my late 30's (my grandad).
• Hot running water which would have been a godsend when not spending an hour an evening heating water for a bath you could barely fit into (pit workers)
• An inside Loo. Something my gran didn't have until she was married.
• Vaccinations. My grandads sister died of measles at 3 years old.
• Easy accsess to communication. Not spending 3 years in the army with only intermittent letters to let you know if (my grandad) was still alive.
• Privacy. My Gran was one of 10 (!) and when she was born they had 2 rooms above a shop. They later moved to a 3 bed house (when I think no.7 was born) and thought it the height of achievement.
• Education. All 4 of my grandparents where out of education by 14
• Wine! Even when I was growing up in the 80's wine was considered the preserve of the rich by my grandparents!

There's loads, loads more but I won't go on all night! It just helps me sometimes to get into perspective that my lifestyle, just 2-3 generations ago, would have been considered luxurious.

This is a very humbling thread, isn't it? We have so much that makes our lives easier.
It's actually helped me understand my mother's bemusement at me not needing to go home to cook for my husband when I visit.

Central heating, a car, a washing machine, a fridge, a TV, a foreign holiday, a supermarket, the opportunity for higher education, the telephone, carpets.

My grandmother would have loved Wikipedia she loved all kind of general knowledge. Looooved any nature related knowledge (animals, volcanoes.......), different cultures and costumes, different religions, art, travelling..... so much!

My DH’s gran had her baby in the outside loo down the garden and carried it in a bucket! Still attached back to the house!!
Hard as Nails! but clearly not ideal.
All of our Grandparents would have been amazed at our standard of living and even my parents born in the late 30’s saw huge changes in lifestyles cars and holidays from their younger married life.
I think the biggest changes would be education and career choices we have especially women. Both my mum and her mum worked but they did not have the chance for higher education. My maternal grandmother worked in a lace factory and I can still remember the noise going to fetch her home the odd time we visited on a work day.

Furnishing your first house with furniture from recently deceased family members too, rather than from IKEA. And having a full dinner service on the dresser for best but rarely using it.

Freedom. My gran was stuck in a shit marriage but leaving wasn't the done thing in her early years.

Maternity care free at the point of delivery.
Not my grandparents, but a great aunt, lost a full term baby because they couldn’t afford a c section. There was an episode of Call The Midwife that covered this.

To be fair BikeRunSki I nearly lost a baby at 36.3 because of a totally incompetent midwife provided by a free at point of delivery service. My grandmother survived because she could afford a dr and paid one. And over her lifetime probably paid far less than me, albeit directly.

A career, and a divorce.

Not sure she wanted either, she seemed to be very content in her life. But if she had wanted them neither would have been easy.

My Grandad now 98
A house not a couple of rooms
Indoor loo
Electric lights
School beyond 12
NHS

Many many more

I think one of grandmothers would be amazed by a microwave. She cooked on an open fire. And of course, the contraceptive pill would have made such a difference to their lives.

Both my grandmothers were ambitious women, and would, I think, have loved the career opportunities and financial independence that is possible today.

My grandfather was always interested in new technology and made the most of every opportunity right up to his death. He was an ardent supporter of women’s rights and made personal sacrifices to ensure each of his dds were educated to 3rd level at a time when many didn’t go to secondary school. I think he would be disappointed at the limitations we still face. He would love smart phones though!

This is a strange thread-are the posters on this thread really old? My grandparents were born in 1903 and 1906 but they absolutely did have central heating, washing machines etc in their lifetimes!

My grandparents were mostly born around 1900, although one was quite a bit older. One set definitely never had central heating or an indoor bathroom in their lifetime. Strangely those were the wealthier ones. The poorer ones had an indoor bathroom from about the 1930s onwards, and central heating for the last couple of years of their lives (1980s).

I think they'd be well impressed with my modern car. The fuel economy, the power steering, the windscreen wipers and lights that switch themselves on. It would be science fiction stuff to them.

None of my grandparents drove.
My maternal grandparents were Catholic, I think they used the rhythm method slightly ineffectively. My paternal grandad went abroad with the army but none of them ever went abroad for leisure. I spent 6 months living abroad in my late teens. We buried my last grandparent a couple of weeks before I went, but advanced dementia meant she didn't know my plans.
Parents! My kids have grandparents and on their dad's side, great-grandparents. I'm part of the first generation in my family to have this (on both sides). The only one that lived into me being in double figures was the grandmother with dementia she lived with for over a decade.
My dad is 70 and the first home he lived in was a block of flats with communal toilets. He's come a long way!

Mobile phone, indoor loo, a bathroom, cars, an automatic washing machine, a dryer, a dishwasher.

I have a degree and a postgrad.

ChiaraRimini, my grandparents lived in houses that were over 200 years old when they lived in them. There were probably a lot of technical challenges standing in the way of installing central heating in a thatched cottage or a Georgian house in rural Ireland.

My grandparents- one set never saw the internet, and would have loved the ease of communication. They'd come from India and family were scattered across the globe. My granddad had a fine stamp collection because of it though.

From the point of view of the 1920s - if antibiotics had been available one would have grown up with her mother who died of an ear infection who died when my grandma was 2.

My remaining grandma, who is 90, is fairly up to date really. She's on Facebook, uses a computer and has a Kindle. The debate is out as to what she'll have next!

Most people left school at 13 or 14 when she was young, it was only those considered really intelligent who studied A- levels and beyond. Both her parents worked as they owned a shop.

My grandparents were all born in the mid 1890s, so the last 5-6 years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

I had 3 grandparents alive when I was born and they would’ve been in their 50s themselves.
My dads parents never spoke about their childhoods , mums mum didn’t either.
People weren’t so loose lipped then.
I think they would be over awed at the internet, technology.
Heck, I am even.
My grandparents did not drive but some of their children did.
They’d be astonished to see how many cars are on what were fairly quiet town roads now and buses going round half empty and how many people get taxis.
They walked a lot more than we do.
Astonishingly we say we are going for a walk..whereas they just walked to get their shopping.

Indoor bathrooms. My dads parents were in their 50s when they made a bedroom into a bathroom. The bath was under the kitchen table.

None of them flew anywhere. All holidays were in the uk
Mums mum didn’t go far at all.
So they’d be surprised at how easily it is to book a holiday and fly somewhere warm in about half a day.
Actually dads parents and us went on a holiday to San Sebastián in northern Spain by train. I was 5 at the time so don’t remember too much about it, except it was tiny little town..probably huge now.
That was in 1957
It probably took forever to get there and we never did it again.

They didn’t have a telephone and look at us now, literally..a gadget you can see and speak to one another on.

Music festivals. They were just starting as I was growing up

It was a different world and I’m starting to feel like dinosaur in this one.

My granny died two years ago, but she never owned a mobile. Owned a lineline and TV. Never had a computer, never accessed the internet. Thought I was very clever for being able to turn a computer on. No WiFi at her house either, just a small TV with a Freeview box and an Ariel. Miss her so much. Could probably learn a lot from her simple lifestyle

An indoor toilet.
An education pass 15
A small family

One thing that did make me laugh was dh saying that if his younger self saw us and our cans of Dr Pepper, he'd have assumed we'd bought them from a guy after they'd fallen of the back of a lorry.

I was thinking that @ChiaraRimini ,my Maternal grandparents were born in 1910 and 1912 they absolutely had electricity and washing machines ,a TV inside bathrooms etc in fact my Grandmother had her own shop and managed to put three children through private school sadly my Grandad died at 41 due to congenital heart disease
Paternal grandparents born in 1909 and 1917 also had all of the above .

2xboys my maternal grandfather died in WW2 at about the age of 46. He fought in WW1 but was a 'key worker' during WW2. He died of a stroke or heart attack. It has emerged in our family we all suffer from blood pressure issues. My Dm is under a consultant who is doing research on hereditary bp issues. When she told her about her Dad dying young, the consultant asked why he hadn't seen a doctor if he was not feeling right. Dm just replied 'because it would have cost 2/6.' The consultant looked abashed. If he had lived Grandma would have not have had to go into service and Dm would have had a better childhood.

My Grandad did know there was a heart issue as he failed the medical for the armed forces during WW2 ,it has since emerged that my mum and her brother's have Hemochromatosis which was inherited from their parents ,so possibly this was related to the heart disease ?

@x2boys

I was thinking that *@ChiaraRimini* ,my Maternal grandparents were born in 1910 and 1912 they absolutely had electricity and washing machines ,a TV inside bathrooms etc in fact my Grandmother had her own shop and managed to put three children through private school sadly my Grandad died at 41 due to congenital heart disease Paternal grandparents born in 1909 and 1917 also had all of the above .

I think it depends where in the country/ what class you are. My great grandad mining cottage (owed by the mine) which my grandad grew up in in the 30s most definitely did not have central heating! A lot of people bought their first TV to watch the queens coronation which was 1954? So conceivable that a lot of grandparents, and indeed my mother, grew up without a TV. I had an aunt and a couple of school friends in the 80's who didn't have a landline phone.

Electric dish washing machine

Avocado and smoked salmon on toast

No need for a husband, no carpets, all my own teeth in my 40s.

Grandpa was right about electric blankets though, they’re bloody marvellous and I got them because I remembered how nice it was to get into a warm bed at Grandma and Grandpa’s house when I was a kid.