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.

@EatsFartsAndLeaves

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.

I stayed with my grandma one summer in the 90s in between first/second year uni. I'd come home at 3am having been put clubbing and she always put the electric blanket on for me! Bliss

A fridge

Central heating

Jobs which don’t result in industrial disease

My gran and grandad lived every poor life’s in there early years both came from farming families where there fathers unfortunately both died young. But family rallied around they were able to keep both farms going. Until world war 2 were my grandad was sent to France. My gran took on her family farm she took over the mans work (her words) I’m so proud of her because in doing so when the farm was sold she was given enough money to buy a house, her own house no man no husband it was very out there at the time. Then she met my grandad at 35 he moved into her house after they married.
I always found it so strange because she did things so unconventional for the times but disliked my life style of going to work after children never being married. It makes me chuckle that she was so what would the neighbours say but really she couldn’t see how similar her life was to a future generation. She’s my inspiration lived independently until the age of 99, their a whole different generation which a few of us are lucky to know and have their stories to past down.

Slight tangent but, my gran was born 1900 and had a daughter in 1923 who died of bronchial pneumonia aged 2. They were too poor to be able to afford a doctor.

In 1950 my 5 year old dad also had bronchial pneumonia. This time the NHS took care of him and he lived. A PP asked about parents and hospitals and yes I believe he was whisked away and she was only allowed to see him for an hour once a fortnight 😢 in the big hospital in the nearest city.

Higher Education
Owning a home
Owning a car
Foreign travel (for fun not war service)
Professional career
All our technologies - they all lived to see 4 TV channels

I imagine a robot lawnmower would blow their minds? It blows my Dads mind never mind my grandparents.

3/4 were dead long before I was born. Both grandmothers worked, one (maternal) ran her own retail business and was domestically useless as her mother had run the house/raised my mother and uncle.
The other ironically was a domestic science teacher and could cook, sew, craft etc. My mother was raised to get an education and to work and my father constantly compared her to his domestic goddess mother (who had died when he was 13 so could do no wrong)

Freedom to grow up in my own country believing my own beliefs without the risk of being shot!!

My grandpa was Polish resistance, after the war he came to England as a refugee as it wasn't safe to go home.

Other than that probably a university education. My grandparents all worked hard and all had a reasonable minimal education.

My Grandad was so clever, he'd have loved a research position! He worked until well into his 70s because he loved it so much. He managed to make a really good career for himself in early wireless technology.

Education - my mum had to leave school at sixteen despite being really bright, so she was fanatical about it. My grandmother told me no one would marry a girl with inky fingers when I told her I was off to university.

Shoes - my grandad used to walk barefoot to school to 'save' them

A car - grandad again, he and his siblings used to stand near the road waiting for one to go by

Education and careers for women. My Nan left school at 14 (possibly earlier) and worked as a cook/laundry woman all her life. She was a clever and well read woman though, and I imagine nowadays would have gone to university and been quite successful.

She always maintained she was happy with her lot.

The gran who died first would have loved mobile phones. She died just a couple of years before they became a big thing.

I'm 65. My maternal grandma died of TB in 1931, my Dad's mum lived in a house without an inside tap and an outside lavatory. This is where my Dad grew up until he was 15 and by then he had started work. They then moved to a house with indoor water supply but outside lavatory. She didn't get an inside loo until the late 60s when my uncle bought a house.

My Dad (would have been 96 now) had to leave school at 14 because he didn't get into the Grammar school. He went for interview but when the Headmaster asked him to read from the red book he picked up a green one and read from it - fail! He didn't find out he was colour blind until he joined the RAF towards the end of the War. He was actually one of the most knowledgeable people I know, entirely self-educated. What a waste of talent due to lack of education and what a good job that this would not happen now.

My Grandad was so clever, he'd have loved a research position! He worked until well into his 70s because he loved it so much. He managed to make a really good career for himself in early wireless technology.
Sounds like my Dad. Because he was colour blind he couldn't be a pilot so became a wireless operator and later worked in the Met Office. He was always interested in technology until the day he died.

Dna testing. My nan never knew who her father was. She would have loved to know before she died.

I'd have to go back to my great grandparents for this to apply. Other than technology and perhaps speed of travel, I think my (wealthy) grandparents had a better quality of life than I do now. It's something I think about often, actually. I feel slightly guilty that I've let the side down but really, it's the fact that society has changed so immensely in a generation.

@HouseyHouse21

I'd have to go back to my great grandparents for this to apply. Other than technology and perhaps speed of travel, I think my (wealthy) grandparents had a better quality of life than I do now. It's something I think about often, actually. I feel slightly guilty that I've let the side down but really, it's the fact that society has changed so immensely in a generation.

Me too - my great grandparents were wealthy & well educated (including the women - I’m the 5th generation of women to go to university in my family). My mum was the first generation for as far back as we know not to have live in servants...

So the working classes now have indoor plumbing but the wealthy no longer have servants. I'd call that progress.

@CaptainMyCaptain

So the working classes now have indoor plumbing but the wealthy no longer have servants. I'd call that progress.

So would I, CaptainMyCaptain. I hope my comment didn’t sound otherwise! But when invited to consider the way my life differs from my grandparents/great grandparents, it’s honest for me to respond that they were fortunate enough to have comfortable, fulfilling lives that differ very little from mine. I don’t think we talk enough about class in Britain, and class is IMO the major factor in this conversation.

Fair enough. My ancestors were obviously very different to yours but I have known several people in RL whose parents and grand parents were of a 'higher class' than mine but find themselves in a similar position to me (or I find myself in a similar position to them) i.e. Graduates who own modest houses. A testament to the post war education system.