to be SHOCKED by something MIL told me about her childhood?

[SybilBeddows]

This was Derby in the 1930s, working class family (her dad was a builder), well-looked-after in general, they had a bathroom and were not neglected or living on the breadline.

They never brushed their teeth.
And their dad told them if they wanted to clean them they should get some soot from the chimney and do it with a finger, or if they didn't like the taste of soot they could use salt.

When she was 8 she saw an advert for toothbrushes and begged and begged her mum to get her one, and her mum finally gave in but she didn't know what to do with it.

I am

Not brushing teeth regularly and having a bath once a week was not entirely uncommon even in the 70s so yes I believe this story.

I'm shocked because it was only 70 years ago

The concentration camps were being liberated 75 years ago today. It was a very different time. We are so lucky to live now with hygiene and medical science as they are.

There must be people on MN who lived in houses without bathrooms into the 1970s. That's why Public Baths were called public baths and they were around into the 1980s.

Don't care that this is a zombie thread, people's memories is really interesting

longwayoff Mon 27-Jan-20 11:23:55
There must be people on MN who lived in houses without bathrooms into the 1970s. That's why Public Baths were called public baths and they were around into the 1980s.
......
I was a child in 1950s/60s and didn't know anyone without a bathroom but my mother grew up in a home without one. They had a tin bath :-). Also took cans of hot water up to their rooms to have a good wash in a bowl.