What was it like growing up in the 50’s/60’s?

[WhyBeDennyDifferent]

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic about my mum and have been pondering what her childhood was like growing up in the 50s/60s in Northern Ireland.
Would anyone care to share their experiences? Even just daft things like what sort of dinners you had, how far you had to walk to school etc. What was expected of you as a child? How did your parents bring you up?

I’m aware everyone’s experiences will vary, I was just looking for a general idea.

Thank you

Born 1953. Dad had a grocery, hardware and drapery shop. So we ate very well and every summer I was taken down the drapery shop to choose a new pair of 'sand shoes'! Because we lived in the country all the neighbours and us had large gardens, and it used to be very competitive amongst the men to see who grew the earliest/best vegetables. Dad cycled to the shop and came home every lunchtime for 'dinner'. Thursday was early closing day. We did have a car but he preferred the bike. Had a telephone with a shared 'party line' with the neighbours, who always seemed to be on the phone when you wanted to use it. Very cold bungalow - ice on the inside of the bedroom window and mould grew on the outside wall. Hideous, itchy chilblains. Geyzer in the bathroom for hot water. Complete freedom - tree climbing, walking miles. Dad rented a stretch of river for fishing, so we had regular picnics in the field by the river. Often went out for a walk with my parents after tea, when Dad, a great naturalist, taught me all the names of the wild flowers and birds and how to be really observant. I read voraciously, taken to Smiths regularly and bought books by my mum, and also took them out from the mobile library which came fortnightly. Mum didn't have a fridge or washing machine, just a 'copper' and a mangle in the shed and a cold larder for food. Laundry day was Monday without fail. Grandma paid for a cleaner, but that was because my Mum had had polio in the last polio epidemic, so she needed help with heavy cleaning. I walked about a mile and a half to primary school. We had a headteacher who used to encourage us to sit on his knee!!!!!!!! We didn't see anything wrong with that at the time, and I don't remember my parents commenting either!!! Mum cooked from scratch, as everyone did then, and my treat was a raspberry split ice-cream that Dad used to bring back from the shop every Friday, and my eldest brother always bought me a box of Smarties. I had a scooter and then a bike and would love cycling around the lanes. Our holiday was the same every year, a week in Somerset at my aunt's house and I loved the fact that I had my own special china with pink roses on it. One very special year we had a fishing holiday over in Western Ireland staying in a very delapidated large mansion. We were looked after by a lovely lady and my mum basically gave her all my clothes for her child when we left!!! I'm probably looking back with rose tinted spectacles, but it was a more equal society in England then. Several of us children at the local primary passed the eleven plus and went on to grammar school, about eight miles away. There was not the emphasis on possessions like there is now, we all seemed happy with the basics - whether you lived in the local council houses, rented privately or owned your own house the interiors and what they contained were pretty similar, from my memories.

I was born in 1963. We had a gas fire in the livingroom and diningroom but they weren't used much, and another one that only came on at Christmas. As others have said, we had ice on the insides of the windows.

I walked to school on my own from 5, and insisted on staying to dinner at school because my DM didn't make nice puddings. My DF went home for a cooked dinner every day at lunch time. Food was boring and restricted to mealtimes only; no snacks. Saturday dinner was cold meat and chips, or egg and chips, Sunday was roast, most other days was meat, potatoes and 2 veg. My mum is quite a fussy eater so the veg tended to be limited to peas, green beans, carrots, cauliflower and sprouts only.

DM made most of my clothes and when we weren't at school I was dressed either to match her or my DB. We wore school uniform in the winter, even though it wasn't compulsory like it is now. Always had Clarks shoes and both of us had wide feet, so it was a nightmare finding shoes to fit.

The kids at school said we were rich because we had a car, a telephone and a colour TV and we went abroad on holiday. The car only left the garage at weekends and mostly DF rode his scooter everywhere. The TV was rented and I can clearly remember the day we got the first colour one, watching the Black and White Minstrels on the two sets side by side. Parents did a house swap so we went to Holland on holidays but had to clear up before we left because the Dutch family came to ours. (Hated it; would never do it as an adult).

We also went to Butlins at Minehead several times, usually at Whitsun. Our summer holiday tended to be 3 weeks in a tent somewhere. My GPs came with us and I much preferred their trailer tent.

Speaking of holidays, does anyone remembered the plastic macs everyone had? Grandma always had the plastic tie on headsquare with it. Old people dressed in a particular way too. I was quite shocked to realise that the old lady I remember from my youngest childhood was the age I am now!

Born in 54 in Central London to a Jewish family. My mother was a teacher, my father a journalist and were relatively well off yet there never seemed to be any money. My father was a wealthy immigrant who had come to London to escape the nazis. The war still loomed over us all, but being Jewish it was not openly discussed. Much of my father’s family had been killed in concentration camps and my mother was still haunted by the fear of nazi invasion, both often had night terrors and I suspect my father would nowadays have been diagnosed as being Bipolar.

We were unusual in many ways. My parents both focused on a socialist agenda and consequently most of their income went towards various causes instead of the family. We shopped in charity shops and went without the obligatory music or dance lessons of our neighbours. Occasional influxes of money meant treats like new shoes but it was mainly make do and mend. As a family we protested for Nuclear Disarmament - ’Ban the Bloody Bomb’, Anti-Fascism and VSC. My siblings and I were well travelled, visiting communist countries and left wing events in Europe, we rarely saw a beach and it was never a ‘family holiday’ as described now but we found it exciting.

We rarely ate out except for a Chinese Meal at Christmas as our way of celebrating. Our family had ‘odd’ (read foreign) food like yogurt and rice. As children we would often travel across town in pairs without parents to the jewish shops for special occasions. We had a television and phone earlier than anyone we knew most likely due to my father’s job and connections but they were rarely used. The house was big, old and always cold but kept immaculately, being house proud was the norm and there was a constant rolling schedule of maintenance and cleaning, all without much mechanical help. My grandmother looked after us and lived in so my mother was able to work, my father was often abroad so repairs, gardening and decorating was done by the women, much to the shock of our neighbours.

London was a different place then and central zones were not solely for millionaires, we played in the street, took the bus or walked to school/swimming/the pictures alone. Reading and drawing were my main interests. Everywhere was grey and smokey, tube carriages opened and smoke billowed out, I started at 12. School dinners were proper meals made by the cook and proper puddings like Jam Roly Poly or Syrup Sponge. School was strict but not unpleasant and there was an emphasis on academic excellence, corporal punishment existed, it was the norm, I only remember the odd smack. My parents were loving but distant, quality time did not exist, there was a stiff upper lip mentality and children fitted in with the parents. I was very happy.

Some other things I remember...class sizes were large, there were 46 in my class when was 11, but there really wasn't any bad behaviour and we obeyed our teachers and got on with our work. No answering back!

However, when I was 6 there was one girl in our class who kept soiling herself and the teacher (female) would look down everyone's knickers to see who had made the smell...the trick was always to be behind the culprit in the line, thus avoiding investigation!

Boys did woodwork, girls did needlework. I made myself a dress entirely by hand (with French seams and a zip fastening!) at the age of 9.

Best books...

"Mallory Towers" of course
Ruby Ferguson's "Jill" series (I was a pony mad child)

and I was a Founder Member of the Puffin Club. How I loved the magazine sent through the post ever month.

Most babies were born at home but for some reason my sister was born in hospital, she came home in my DM's arms in the sidecar of our family motorbike. No carseats back then. We didn't have a car for years until my mother passed her test, she wanted a VW Beetle but my father banned it due to 'the Germans' and bought a Green mini instead. My mother painted a pink and orange flower on the roof and my father was furious! All 4 children and both parents would cram into that car, smoking constantly.

You asked about growing up in the 1950s and '60s.
One thing that strikes me is that as it changed from one era to the other, in about the mid 1960s, it was like a curtain going up to show an extraordinary and fabulous stage with all sorts of things going on. Maybe 'Sargeant Pepper' epitomises it, and 'Blowing in he Wind', and all the new clothes - no more having to dress like a middle aged woman when you hit 15. I think another poster said rightly that it was like going from black and white to colour.

I also know a lot of people whose grandparents had been poor, working class, but who through the chance to go to grammar schools, or who after the war had been given the chance to go to university, now had good professional jobs and good prospects in life.

But it was uneasy time too. None of the old was trusted anymore. As the awfulness of the Vietnam War was exposed, so it seemed everything had to change. The colonies began to drop away. In the 50s and early 60s some families were still birn or living in India, Africa or the far East.

As we can see though, some aspects that now seem good, simple and happy, for children anyway, were lost along with the coming of modern times.

By comparison of then and now, I would not really want to be a child right now, given that then I was not one of the children we now know about who experienced the absolute horror of abuse in an orphangage, for example. If I had been one of them, then I'd take my chance of being better off now.

FuzzyCustard That's the kind of life I wish I had lived. Sounds superb

millie there were a lot of downsides...The three day week, electricity on ration, unemployment. We didn't have a car until my mum passed her test at age 46, no flash holidays (childhood holidays to me mean cold and rainy mountains in Wales) being bullied at school (for years) and no one doing anything about it...

It's easy to over-romanticise these things with hindsight!

Born in '64, in a seaside town in North Yorkshire.

My dad worked with the RAF as a civilian so we had an MOD house which was very modern and had a massive garden. No heating though, just a coal fire.

Every house had a piano.

Holidays were a few days with my maternal grandparents each summer. Other than that we did day trips. Because of where we lived family used to often come and stay with us too so although we didn't live near them I used to see a lot of my cousins.

We learned to swim in an outdoor pool. There was also a massive one in Blackpool that we used to visit for the day when we stayed with my grandparents in Blackburn. All the ones I remember are long gone these days. We had a car, but only my dad could drive. Me and my brother walked to school pretty much from infants, it seemed like a long way but probably wasn't too bad really!

We had a twin tub washer, my nan still used a mangle. WE had a tv, but rarely watched it. The radio was normally on in our house and as my mum was very involved in local amdram and also the local folk club there were often get-togethers with friends and neighbours where music would be performed - see every house having a piano above!

Most people who had gardens grew veg, and lots of people had greenhouses too.

I was born in 68 - so many memories from posts above. I remember the bowl of dripping in the larder. The pressure cooker that was used to kill vegetables and also boil up terry nappies and tea towels!!! All the babies in the family were weaned on mashed up veg/potato and gravy. We had Saturday lunch from the chippy and we would fight to carry the warm parcel back home. Games in the street as there were hardly any cars. My childhood street often makes the local FB news now as it is so congested, ambulances and buses often get stuck!

When my mum and dad first bought their house in 1969, there was an outside loo under the front steps and we had a tin bath in the kitchen. Over the years my dad enclosed the loo (it was still freezing out there) and built an indoor bathroom. No heating upstairs, just a fire in the living room. They used to put a paraffin stove on the landing, the idea of which now gives me the horrors. You could generate your own electricity on the bri-nylon sheets though. We had a Rediffusion TV with a dial on the wall to change channels. It also had the radio channels. I remember Forces Favourites and Ed Stewpot. The only thing on during the day at the weekend for kids was Batman. Open University programmes on BBC2.

We also used to wander for miles and make camps. As a Girl Guide I was encouraged to carry my emergency tin, an old tobacco tin, with 2p for the phone, safety pins and a small bandage, kindling for starting a fire and a penknife! I can imagine the horror of taking fire starting equipment and a knife around with you - you'd get an ASBO

Forgot to mention going to the Clarks shop for new shoes and having your feet measured in the X-ray machine!

I remember waking to the sound of my father raking out the ashes from the coal boiler, which went out and cold over night. He would then light it to warm the kitchen and water. In the winter the insides of the windows were always frozen, and the net curtains would freeze to the windows. We had milk in little bottles at school, and this was put on the classroom boiler to warm in winter. Sometimes the milk was quite warm by the time we drank it at morning break. The tops used to come off because milk like water expands when frozen- I guess this was why it was put to warm up! Birds used to peck at the bottle tops in warmer weather, to get the cream. We did not have a local cinema, but the village hall had a film once a year to watch the earliest Disney films - Fantasia and Bambi. We had a volunteer fire brigade and a siren. When the firemen were called out by the siren, they ran up the street putting their clothes on as they ran. It was quite a hill up to the fire station!
I liked school dinners - I think we all did - we were hungry! It was normal to not ever feel full, and often be quite hungry- people eat less and there was not a lot of variety. We grew our own veg, but also had a green grocer and a butchers and a fish van call every week. We had roast beef or lamb quite often on a Sunday and then cold meat and mash on Monday and cottage pie with whatever was left later in the week. In summer there was salad. Us children grew cut and come again lettuce, but often the slugs got to them, despite putting ashes around the seedlings to deter them.
Mum had a twin tub washing machine- a new invention in the sixties, with a tub at one end and a spin dryer at the other. The machine was pulled out from under the work bench, filled with a mix water from the tap and heated ( I think it heated the water - I can’t remember exactly) - it smelt of hot rubber and soap. After the clothes were adjitated in the hot soapy water, they were pulled out with big wooden tongs, and put in the spinner. Eventually each item would be put through several lots of rinsing water in the tub and then spun. The spinner used to make a frightful noise and the machine would jiggle across the room and pull the hose of the taps, so you could not use both ends of the twin tub at once. We got an old TV (the sort with valves that had to warm up before you got a picture) rather later than other families. Ours did not work reliably, and often Dad ( an engineer) had to sit at the back of it trying to fix it! Chicken was expensive- one of the neighbours kept chickens and lovely fluffy chicks, so Mum called chicken ‘poulet’ so we did not know we were eating one of the offspring!

Something else that was part of these two decades, for the few lucky enough to experience it, was the thrill of long distance air travel. Everyone wore their best clothes for the journey. For men this would be a suit and for women a suit, or dress and jacket, handbag, and high heels. There were especially glamorous air hostesses wearing designer suits and stiletto heels who brought wonderful meals and drinks. Often a meal was followed by the bringing round of steaming flannels wrapped in tin foil. In the lavatory there would be delightful little packets of soaps and creams.

Oh yes the starter handle to start the car ! Being tied to my fathers chest in a blanket to be taken on his motor bike ( before getting a car) to go to hospital. Can you imagine that today?
We played out in the street (a trunk road) and in the fields at the back. I remember getting a bike - ( second or third hand) perhaps around age 8 or 9- and cycling for miles. My bike broke - something ceased- and I was literally miles from home, ( with my sister and school friend) and the local farmer ( a family friend) fixed it for me so I could get home. We were in trouble for bothering the farmer!

Not managed to read all the answers, but some shops still had ice cream freezers which were packed with dry ice, a delivery man came round with fresh dry ice. Then new fridges came in that plugged in.

When it was really hot we were sometimes allowed an ice lolly (never more than once every couple of weeksm it was a real treat, usually a Zoom (rocket shaped different coloured layers)

I grew up in the 60's. First home was me and my mum in one room with shared kitchen and bathroom. She was an unmarried mother. Later she got married though. The amount of freedom we had from a very early age in the middle of a city was amazing. We got ourselves to and from school from the age of 5, stopping off to play in the park on the way home. It was only a ten minute walk. We lived in a third floor one bedroomed flat with no bath or central heating. There was no washing machine, my mum did it all by hand. Adults slept in the sitting room. Baths were in the kitchen sink or at the public baths nearby. We played out all the time, loads of children of all ages played together. No one knew where we were. Meals were simple, home cooked. Meat and potatoes, stews, fish and chips. Lots of sugar on everything. We only had a car if my dad had a work van. Holidays were spent at relatives houses. We never ever went to a restaurant or had a takeaway. Never had or went to birthday parties in the 60's. We got one or two presents for birthdays. My mum didn't work and shopped for food most days. I got comics to read, I loved Twinkle and Mandy. I can remember it being really cold, and ice on the inside of the windows but I can remember that in the 80's too. My school was really rough and looking back at old class photos some of the children were so poorly dressed with shoes that were falling to bits. We didn't have to wear school uniform. Can't remember anyone ever being bullied or picked on for the way they were dressed though. They were harder times, but easier in so many ways. I'm glad I was a child then.

I remember the joy of getting my magazine, Diana, with a free ring on the front! Then I moved on to Jackie, as I got older.

Might have even been this one!

I was born 1963. Until the age of 5 , my family lived in a 2 room flat with no bath or toilet. I remember getting wash in the sink or a baby plastic bath. The outside toilets were used by lots of families and the paper was the shiny Izal sheets.
We moved to a council house when I was 5.
I remember walking to school ( one year in the dark as the clocks were not changed as an experiment)
I got sweets on Friday night and was allowed to watch TV later. The TV was rented. There were not many channels. The anthem was played at closedown.
Supermarkets came about when I was young too but my Mum did not take me a lot. You could get the shopping delivered ( only if you shopped on a certain day)
My Mum had a twin tub, a boiler ( like a giant pressure cooker) and a mangle.
She went to work at night in a factory.
Most nights I had to be in bed for 7pm.
I did go out and play with boys and girls that lived nearby. I was not aware of adult supervision. I had a scooter and a tricycle. I learned to bicycle on a friend ‘s brother’s bike.
If I was sick, lucozade was bought.
There were no quilts. The bedding was sheets, blankets, and bedspread. A hot water bottle was used if it was cold. First one was like a stoneware bottle , later had a rubber one. There was no heating , apart from electric fire in living room , and a paraffin heater in bathroom.
There were no snacks in the house. Mum got 3 packets of biscuits per week and once gone there was no more. Sometimes I would have a slice of bread with butter and sugar on it , or HP or tomato sauce. Fizzy drinks did not exist as far as I recall. I remember diluting juice and nesquick. At meal times we had a cup of tea with the meal. Everyone ate the same meal.
My Dad had a car.
Holidays were rare. Days out, or stay with relatives.
Shops were shut on Sunday. I remember going to church then visit both sets of grandparents afterwards.
My parents had a gramophone radiogram that was like a piece of furniture and they had parties where they would play music , drink , and sing.
At New Year, all the family would visit each other for big parties. Loads of kids, loads of adults.
At Easter I got a boiled egg to decorate and roll.
At Christmas, I got a sock with fruit and sweets in it. I did get other gifts.
The tree was artificial and the lights were a nightmare to work.
I do remember getting milk at school. School dinners were 2 courses.
There was school uniform. Shirts and ties for 5 year olds.

I was born in 1949. We had a telephone and a television but no bathroom or inside toilet. We all had a bath every day in a tin bath in the kitchen or in front of the fire if you were very lucky. My mother worked full-time and my father caught the train into London every day. Winters were cold with no central heating, meals followed a strict routine.
My family like many, many others suffered from the impact of the war. My sister was seven when my father came home to a child he didn’t know. My mother was used to managing everything and my father had severe health problems from his experiences. It was not a very happy home.

My family like many, many others suffered from the impact of the war. My sister was seven when my father came home to a child he didn’t know.

I think this is one of the biggest issues that post-war babies will never understand. DM was born in 1943. She was going on 3 when her father returned from war, and after a few days, she asked "When is that man going home?". They never had an easy relationship, which was aggravated by the birth of 2 boys in the next 3 years.

She also remembers rationing very clearly - until she was 10 - and is amazed that sweets are so freely available now, that my DC assume that there's always a bag of Haribo somewhere.

I was born in London in the 70s. We played out in the street unsupervised. Sweets were still a treat. I went to school, alone, on the tube when I was 8 once or twice a week. I was meant to go the route that didn't involve changing lines, but I often went the way that involved changing at Victoria, because the walk at the other end was shorter. When I went to secondary school, I picked my sister up from primary, but by then we were at schools we could was to from home. It goes without saying that this would never happen now! Net year, I am planning to let my DS (who will be 10/Y5) walk the 200 m to his village school by himself.

A treat meal was salmon, new potatoes and strawberries. We used to have it in the summer (end of exams, DF's birthday) because it was so seasonal, but now we could have it all year round.

From about 10 and older would go to the library by myself during he school holidays and spend all day there. Or swimming. No one seemed bothered that I was unsupervised.

We lived in a well off area. Most people had cars. No family had more than one. We had one TV and it was rented. The hire company started a very basic film channel in the early 80s, which means I have seen Gregory's Girl and Watership Down about 40 times each. I think there were only ever about 10 films! Then we over and didn't get a new TV. Parental aspirations of book reading rather than poverty though!

A little girl up the road and her father were drowned. No one ever talked about it. No acknowledgement was ever made to her mother and sister. Now there'd be coffee mornings and counselling .

I love this thread. So many memories of how it really was. And I hope that the MN posters who start goady threads about Baby Boomers being greedy and having it all and stealing from the following generation, read this whole thread to learn what it was really like!

Someone mentioned the Izal sort of lavatory paper which used to be everywhere. The paper in some public lavatories even had "City of Westminster" printed on it. How anyone imagined something so close to being waxed paper would work well for what it was intended to be used for is a mystery!

My sister went to a school where it served well as tracing paper for learning joined up writing with!

This thread has reminded me of long forgotten parts of my childhood, such as Sunny Stories magazine being a real treat! It was written by Enid Blyton and came out fortnightly, always keenly anticipated when I was about five or six.

When I was about seven I spent a lot of time in and out of hospital, quite a lonely experience, as visiting was only allowed at weekends and one afternoon through the week.

Mum used to send me Milly Molly Mandy postcards so that I would get one each day. I kept some of them myself, and when Mum died years later, I found some that she had kept too.
Dad used to make little cakes to bring in for me, a taste of home.
As we started to recover, there was a teacher and schoolroom, we read and made cross stitch tray cloths.