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

I remember our Co-op number! I also remember unpacking the delivery and ticking things off in a little book.
Girls always had pink party dresses, with a big gathered skirt and huge bow at the back. I remember trying not to stretch my short white cotton socks over the heel too much, it was better when we got some made with nylon. In colder weather, longer socks had to be held up with elastic garters.
In the school playground, girls and boys were separated. The girls played chasing and games like fairies and witches and British bulldog. We used to form a row, with our arms on each other's shoulders and walk round chanting, “who wants to play.... fairies and WITches..” and those who wanted to would hang on to the row. There would be crazes for different activities, like beads, with every girl having a little tin and swapping and comparing; or cards you got with bubblegum. I wasn't allowed to have that, but ,of course I did, from the huge sweet shop near the school. I collected Beatles cards and later, the Man from UNCLE.
We all started wearing mini skirts and shift dresses and were most insistent on our half inch heels! One summer we all had hippy bells round our necks and psychedelic patterns on our clothes.
I went from Bunty to Diana to Fab 208, which was full of pop stars. I used to listen to pirate radio on my transistor: Radio Caroline and Radio London. I was so upset when they closed them down.

Caught up again with this lovely thread and a PP has just reminded me of the toasting fork! My DGPs still used one each morning even at the beginning of the 80s and I remember sitting in their parlour (their house and ways of living still reminiscent of a lot of the stories on here even then), of a morning if I had stayed overnight, toasting bread over the open fire. My bed there was made up of sheets and heavy blankets and it felt so wonderfully different to my own duvet at home and I loved sleeping there! They eventually moved into a warden aided flat with all the mod cons but we all missed the big house where my DF had grown up in the 50s & 60s

Paraffin heater in the hall. Lovely cosy smell but probably not totally up to today's H&S specs

I collected bubblegum cards via swaps because I wasn't allowed to buy it (it would twist round your insides and you would DIE ). Had a complete set of Land Of The Giants, swapped lots of Tarzan's but kept the best ones, likewise my Batman ones and had a complete set of rather gory Battlecards commemorating WWII. Sold them on eBay a while back and got quite a princely sum

Born 1956 in East London. Lots of these memories are so familiar. Lived on 2 floors of a huge 4 story house and other family members on other floors. House was always full of smoke from 5 smokers so paintwork was brown. My mum used to wash our nets weekly and the water would be dark brown. Our toilet was in what had been the pantry in a corner of the kitchen but at least it was inside. We had a coal hole on the street and the coalman would throw the coal in. If you didn't put newspaper under the door all the dust would go flying up the passage.
Treats: meeting my dad from the bus stop on Friday and going to the sweetshop to choose sweets, train to Leigh on Sea cockle sheds and the seaside, trip with my more wealthy aunt to Lyons Corner House at Marble Arch for egg mayonnaise -I can still taste it!
School huge , Victorian with outside toilets. Lovely but strict teachers, being milk monitor so you could get an extra bottle if there was any going spare. Walking on my own despite crossing a major road on a bus route. Lots of freedom, going to museums with my cousin on the bus at 8 or 9.
Pie and mash shop with marble tables and benches. My mum loved it, I didn't.
My mum knowing every shop keeper and stall holder and chatting to them all taking an age to do the shopping. Sheer excitement on the day your favourite comic came out. June & Schoolfriend as mine.
Cold always cold despite a real fire and paraffin heaters everywhere.
I could go on but I'll stop there

enterthedragon Mum taught us all how to read and write before we started school Yes my mum did that, and we didn't start school until after we were 5.
Coop number 24568.
Another game I remember involved tying old stockings or elastic in a long circle. A child at either end stood with it around their ankles and one in the middle did elaborate moves while chanting rhymes like skipping rhymes.
When I was fourteen I had a Saturday job in a newsagent. It was very busy and everyone would buy cigarettes, matches, papers, sweets, groceries etc.There was no fancy till or calculator, you had to add everything up in your head and work out change. Fast. My mental arithmetic is razor sharp to this day because of that job.

I loved my comics. We got Beano and Dandy, then later Jackie and Mandy. We also swapped them, which meant I could read Beezer and Topper, Bunty and Marilyn. When Thunderbirds started on telly there was a Lady Penelope magazine.

Which reminds me:

Lady Penelope
Fell down the lavatory
Who did she send for?
Thunderbird Four.

We had a paraffin heater in our bedroom, sister and I were four and seven! Told to be very careful not to knock it over as " that'll set the bedroom on fire..." Luckily we never did!

I too remember Lyon's Corner House, Marble Arch. My aunt used to work near there, and during the school holidays my mum and I would meet her from work and go there for afternoon tea. The bread was cut really thin and spread with butter, not marge, which was a real treat as butter rationing was still in place.

FakeMews I was just about to mention French skipping. We used to buy a pack of multicoloured elastic bands and spend hours knotting them together to make the 'skipping rope' .

I also had Bunty comic - my grandpa came for tea every Thursday and gave me 6d, which I'd take straight over the road to the newsagents for my comic. Beano and Dandy were only 3d but I didn't really like those.

I've really enjoyed reading this thread; it's jogged my memory of so many things I'd forgotten. As many others have said, we had very little money and few possessions, but as children we weren't bothered. Without constant advertising and devices telling us what we were missing, we were content with what we had. And the most important thing we had was freedom to be children, freedom to play outside unsupervised, freedom to let our imaginations run wild as we built dens and make-believe worlds. Other than the odd game of cards or board game of an evening, parents didn't 'play' with their children or organise their activities, it was up to us to amuse ourselves.

parents didn't 'play' with their children or organise their activities
Yes I have no memory of my parents ever doing anything with us. No after school activities, no organised play dates or outings.

We did go on holiday once a year to stay with relatives or later in a caravan. Until we had a car it was by bus, then when we had a car it was filled with the blue fug of my father's cigarettes.

This thread actually has me in tears, it is so evocative of my childhood. I was born in 1953 and lost my parents recently so this is a real nostalgia fest for me, not that I always had a hugely happy time and there were many hardships but life certainly was less complex and very much less comfortable too. I occasionally talk to my adult children about my early life and they can’t actually picture it. Outside toilets, freezing cold bedrooms, parents sleeping on fold down couch as there was no bedroom for them, very few clothes and The occasional ice cream or sweets was really a treat.

The smoking everywhere including cinemas and the top deck of busses, it is so alien to the generation below.

Thank you to everyone who’s contributed. A social history class right here.

Fab 208! What a throwback. I presume it was connected to Radio Luxembourg which was 208m on the dial.

Another huge difference from nowadays - the lack of packaging of produce. The baker would wrap your loaf in a flimsy bit of paper and vegetables were all bought loose. My mum would put newspaper in the bottom of her shopping basket before going to the greengrocers. She'd get the potatoes first, which were tipped straight into her basket, then other root veg, working up to the more delicate stuff which she didn't want to get squashed. The only time you got a paper bag was if you bought something like cherries (my favourite summer treat!)

Occasionally we were allowed a bottle of Corona fizzy drink which, once empty, was returned to the shop and you got 3d back. I don't see why we can't still do this, and reuse bottles rather than recycle.

Just wanted to say thank you again! I got way more replies and detail than I expected and it’s given me a much better idea of my mums childhood.
Thank you so much for sharing your memories

How lovely that you were one of the singers for the BBC school music programmes Emily! I am sure it never occurred to us that someone like you was really there!

I too find I am remembering more and more from this thread.
I used to get Judy and could hardly wait each Tuesday when it was delivered. Before that when I was about eight a friend's older sister leant me a high stack of her old Bunty's which made a wonderful bottomless pit of stories to follow.

Everyone must remember the sweets! I was thinking of Sherbet Pips,
Pineapple Cubes, Chocolate Eclairs, Pear Drops which tasted like nail varnish remover smells, some orange twizly ones with a strong taste, little pink pigs heads I would out on a plate in my doll's house to look like a feast (probably seen in Robin Hood), Sherbet Fountains with liquorice straws, Aniseed ballas and seeing how long you could keep them going for without chomping, till you got to the little seed in the middle.

How many of you had a great many dental fillings, like I did! Far more than children now. Was it those sweets ( which were really only bought about once a week) or dentists getting NHS money per tooth filled, I wonder?

I remember Lions Corner House, one near Trafalgar Square I think. I agree with others how was nice it was to go there.

It was great fun TooManyMiles. We had a school reunion a few years ago and those of us who had been in the choir (now aged 65+) could still sing some of the songs!
Yes, lots of dental fillings. Mostly unecessary I suspect. We used to have a bar of chocolate on Sunday and that was it.

The music programmes I remember from primary school were great fun, a real highlight in quite a bleak time, my favourite was "Music and Movement" when we became trees waving in the wind or flowers following the sun! I must have sung along with you Emily!

Oh! I loved Lyons Corner House too, we usually went to the Leicester Square or Strand for tea and cake.

Fab 208! It was indeed related to Radio Luxembourg.

Best friend used to get it and I got Jackie on a Thursday and we’d swap.

Best day of the week. Magazine day, TOTP and mum used to get her order delivered from the Coop so we’d have banana sandwiches and Ski yoghurts for tea.

When we went on holiday it was always by train and bus. The trunk was packed a couple of weeks before (I can still smell it) and collected by Southern Railways in advance. We also used to go and buy our tickets a few weeks before and I had a dog’s ticket for my doll. We got the train to Brighton and then the bus to Worthing or Lancing, where we stayed in a tiny caravan (5 of us in a 12’ caravan iirc). It seemed to rain a lot, but we had to swim every day in wrinkly nylon costumes (not wool fortunately). There was always a fancy dress competition and my mother made costumes out of crepe paper. Fish and chips was a huge treat only allowed on holiday as my mother thought it was common (there is a whole other thread there). 😀

I was a post war baby, born in west London in the blizzards of '47, Dad had to scour the streets for coal which was in short supply that winter. It was a home birth, as that was the norm for that time, although my brother was born in hospital 6 years later.
I can identify with all the responses so far - so I'll try not to repeat them all!
We were reasonably comfortably off, Dad had quite a good job, but the post-war years were still pretty frugal - there was still rationing for some food-stuffs, I think sweets were still on ration until 53-54.
Mum was a good home-maker and an excellent dress-maker - all my clothes were home made until the early 60s, her sewing machine was always on the go - worn flannelette sheets would be turned sides to middle when they got really thin, along with the collars and cuffs on Dad's shirts. And all jumpers and cardies were hand-knitted, many were the times I would have to stand with my hands apart while she unravelled an old jumper and rewound the wool on them!
I saw mention of liberty bodices - hateful things with rubber buttons that were so difficult to do up, but necessary to keep you warm in winter!
Such cold winters with ice on the inside, but a roaring coal fire in the sitting room in front of which we'd toast crumpets on a Sunday afternoon. Mum would call drawing up the fire with newspaper a "lilly-low", and I would watch the glowing coals fascinated, imagining fairy castles.
Playing out in summer, until tea time, in the streets - so much freedom then, denied the children of today. Taking ourselves off on the buses or tube train from a young age - I used to take the tube to Richmond, to fish in the tow-path stream for tiddlers from the age of about 8, and when my brother was old enough (about 6) taking him too - he managed to fall in...
The packs of dogs which roamed the streets - owners let them out in the morning and they joined up with all their pals to run free - only going home for meal time - and white dog poo everywhere!
Shops were all independents - butchers, bakers, greengrocers and fishmongers. I would be sent out from the age of about 7 to get some veg or bread from the very local shops - across a main road, but very few cars around then.
Our first TV was bought to watch the Coronation in '53, and half the street crowded in our front room to watch it.
I also remember the awful Smog of '52-53 - should have gone to Brownies but couldn't see my hand in front of my face so didn't go.
I remember the pink pig-bin at the end of our street for food scraps - this was a hang-over from the war when no food went to waste, it went to feed the pigs. Also, the white bands painted round the tree trunks lining the road - used during the blackouts during the war, when no street lighting was allowed.
Empire Day on May 24th when we all went to school dressed in red, white and blue and danced in the playground.
So many memories! The past seems like a golden time, but we still had our worries then, and life is far more comfortable now, although I have reservations about the speed of technology and where it will lead.

Oh yes the fillings. Had it confirmed that it was dentists being paid per filling - disgraceful!
Sweets were a weekend treat. I remember all those Toomany plus sweet cigarettes and coconut tobacco , Mojos, blackjacks, fruit salad, milk bottles and many more.
Oh yes lining your shopping bag with paper so the spuds could go straight in, still used to land up with a muddy bag!

It's a shame this is in Chat - it should be in Classics!

I was just going to say the same thing. Classics, Mumsnet?

I have just sent a request to MNHQ to see if we can make this lovely thread a Classics one