Did anyone grow up in the 50's? (and 30's and 40's if you are on here!)

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

I've been reading with great interest the thread on growing up in the 80's but wondered if there were any posters on that were brought up in the 50s and could explain what life was like then? Just very interested in what life was like around the country then and what attitudes were like before exploding into the 60's.

[florentina1]

One of my worst memories was being in hospital frequently and never having visitors. When I was nine I was in a bed opposite an isolation ward. It had a large glass window and in the cot was a baby about a year with burns all across it back and down its legs. They were scabbed over with big yellow scabs and it was tied by the arms to the cot on its front. I had nightmares about that for years.

[Roussette]

I was never told the facts of life either. Big failure on my Mum's part as my knowledge came about from losing my virginity in not pleasant circs.

I wasn't told about periods either.
I remember her going all red in the face making circles on my tummy with her finger and saying 'you might have a visitor'. I didn't have a clue what she was on about. When I had my first period at 10yo, I thought I was actually dying.
Appalling really....

[Babdoc]

Brings back a lot of memories for me,too. I was born in the 50’s in London, and I remember the last of the awful smogs that killed people before the Clean Air Act made people switch to smokeless fuel for their coal fires.
At my primary school, at home time, we all had to put our scarves over our nose and mouth to breathe through, then form a line holding onto the coat of the kid in front.
The teacher would lead us up the street, feeling the wall, and counting the gateways of houses, then post each child down the path of their house as we reached it. You couldn’t see two inches in front of your face - the fog was thick and yellow with sulphur from the coal smoke. My father had to walk 12 miles home from work as no buses were running.
We had vaccinations for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and smallpox (yes, there really was still smallpox! I had to be immunised at 5, as there had been a case in London and a resultant scare about possible spread), but there was nothing for measles, mumps, rubella or chicken pox, so I suffered all of them, as did most of my friends. It was grim, and meant a couple of weeks off school for each illness as you were in quarantine.
Houses were freezing, damp and draughty, only the living room was heated. There was only hot water for a bath once a week. Clothes were boiled in a gas fired copper, put through a mangle and pegged on a line - it took all day every Monday to do the washing.
I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to it - it seems like the Dark Ages, looking back now!

[CarolDanvers]

I am a seventies child but think my Mum thought we should have exactly the same childhood she did because the fifties childhood you are all describing are exactly the same as mine in the early seventies. No central heating, ice on the windows, black and white TV etc, home made clothes and jumpers etc, ice cream a big treat when we having a day out at the seaside. We lived in forces married quarters accommodation that had clearly been the same for decades no modernisation. I suppose the fifties were only 12 years previously. This is a very interesting thread.

[SlocombePooter]

Yes, I had weeks off for whooping cough!

Before my periods started Mum sent off for a free booklet from (I think?) Kotex, which explained about periods. I don't recall being told about sex. Some girls at secondary school told me and I was quite shocked! Mind you , we were taught by nuns so there was no information in lessons.

[Chottie]

I'm another child of the 50s.

My mother had a long difficult hospital birth with me and the next day the doctor came to see her and said that she would probably have a prolapse in later life (!). My mum decided to have my sister at home. My aunt and young cousin and I were in the house when she went into labour. When I heard the baby cry, I was the first one in the room and saw my sister before my mother :) The midwife left the afterbirth wrapped up in newspaper for my father to burn on the bonfire when he got home from work. The midwife did her rounds on a bicycle and would pop in to see my mum when she was passing.

I agree with all the comments about dentists, I had a tooth out at about 10 too, I can remember sitting in the dentist's chair with tears of pain running down my cheeks and being told not to make a fuss.......

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

Oh I so love reading all of these!!! I have to admit that whilst life was tougher than now in the sence of things like fridges/freezers/washing machines etc it feels life life was equally a lot nicer to grow up in than it is now. I to some extent wish that mobile phones and tablets etc just hadn't been invented. You are totally on call 24/7 and there is no let up. I also think it's a huge amount of stress. I can't say I look forward to what will come next eventually when the kids have grown up a bit more in 15/20 years. Keep them coming!

Also on another note what were your mothers and fathers like in regards to discipline etc were they far harsher?

[Roussette]

Yes, far harsher than I ever was with my DCs. I was scared of my Dad.

[Chottie]

I can remember sex education at school, I went to a convent too, and the sex education books were written by a nun. We were read the one about girls, but deemed not ready for the one about boys......

[SlocombePooter]

LOL Chottie!

[Chottie]

My father had spent the whole war on active service, BEF, Dunkirk, the liberation of Sicily etc, etc. He just wanted peace and calm in his life and he could never tell my sister or I off no matter how naughty we were.

My mum had to be the strict one, but my sister and I grew up in a home filled with love. We have both tried to provide the same sort of loving childhood for our own children.

[SlocombePooter]

I could usually make my Dad laugh, so it was pointless him giving me a telling off. Mind you, my two older brothers were really bad, so I was saintly in comparison!

[Greenteandchives]

Just remembered that there was a girl who joined our school late 1950s. She wore callipers and we were all desperate to be friends with her. Bear in mind this was when poliomyelitis was a real threat still. I remember going to her party and we all tried on the callipers. We all wanted them.
I remember children at school covered in Gentian Violet as a treatment for impetigo.

[Greenteandchives]

I remember hearing about sex from my best friend aged about 10. She told me that when a man and woman went to sleep the man’s willy would get bigger and come out and go into the woman’s thingy and make a baby.. Nobody knew a thing about it! She got this information from her sister’s biology book.

[Dowser]

Dad education ended at 13 when he went to the open air school with scarlet fever
He never got back to ordinary school
He was determined I was going to pass the 11 plus and I had to do tests every night leading up to it
Thankfully I passed and had an excellent free grammar school education

[Dowser]

I too wasn’t warned about periods
Nana told me it was as bad blood

[mumwon]

we lived in the city in a terraced house no bathroom loo in the back garden (but it did flush!) dm cooked on a coal fired cooker, we had a tin bath but there was also a bath house down the road & my big sister took us once a week there-it was lovely & warm & an "auntie" (neighbour) worked there so made sure we got the best cubicles (each bath was in a separate cubicle) they supplied strong smelling white soap & towels. We went to Sunday School (to give parents a rest ) where I don't remember much talk of religion but lots of round games to singing ("I took a letter to my love & on the way I dropped it now one of you has picked it up & put it in your pocket") blackberrying with another auntie & other children, going to a nearby neighbour who didn't have children & making jam tarts there to eat. Dad use to go to work by bicycle & the 2 weeks summer holiday we went to the seaside by train & stayed in a caravan (loo & bathroom on bloke) eat hardboiled eggs & tomatoes on the beach. Christmases were family events with cousins & aunties crammed into the house everywhere. dm cooking days before to prepare. the full skirts with net petticoats, having tight ponytails with elastic bands. Mum was strict & very conscious of us being "ladies"

[Buddywoo]

I grew up in the 50's. My first memories are travelling on the ship to Uganda when I was 3. My father had joined the Colonial Service and we went out to join him.

I had a wonderful early childhood there, beautiful climate and free and easy. When I was nine I was sent back to a very strict boarding school and didn't see my parents for 2 years. I flew out on my own at 11. It was a 24 hour trip with 3 stops. Then another 2 years without seeing them. I lived with my granparents in the school holidays

There was a lot more freedom for kids in those days, very little adult supervision and we got up to a lot of things that would now be considered very dangerous. Children were definitely seen and not heard and any adult's word was law.

[Dowser]

I loved mums home made steamed spotted dick and custard
Sadly she never made it often enough

[Dowser]

Dr whites sanitary towels 😱
Lillets and tampons came much later
Walking to the beach with half a gramophone on my shoulder...( massive transistor radio... my tranny) listening to the top twenty

[Greenteandchives]

My friend and I used to call on random neighbours who had babies and ask to take them out. Frequently we were entrusted infants in prams for the day.

[Greenteandchives]

I went to an all girls school from the age of 11. We used to laugh at the men who lurked around the fence with their willies out. It never occurred to us that this was all sorts of wrong.

[Roussette]

A crowd of us used to go up on the hill all day, just messing around, lighting sticks, hiding, setting trails etc. A man up there exposed himself to us and we were intrigued and started following him till he ran away!

(I'm not belittling what he did, it's just the way it was)

[user1471452691]

I grew up in the 50’s. We lived with my granny until she died and then moved to a smaller Victorian terraced house with an outside toilet and no bathroom. Until a bathroom was built on, we had our weekly baths in a tin bath in the kitchen filled by the kettle.
We had no fridge until I was about 8, so in the summer my mother scalded the milk and kept it in a jug standing in a shallow dish of water on the stone floor in the pantry, with a cloth over the top of the jug and the ends dipping in the water to keep it cool.
Our first television set was in a mahogany cabinet with doors and had to have a magnifying contraption fixed across the tiny screen for us to view it. It took ages to ‘warm up’!
I can remember my mother taking me to the clinic to be weighed and to be issued with a glass bottle of national health orange juice.
At my primary school in morning assembly, all the children had to hold up their clean handkerchief to show they had one. My mother sewed a pocket on to my regulation thick brown knickers to hold the handkerchief!
We grew all our own vegetables in an allotment and our main meal was at lunchtime. I even walked home from primary school for lunch. We never ate out, except for a rare treat of fish and chips.
Summer holidays were spent in rented holiday flats or seaside chalets which we travelled to by bus or train.

[Mumsie448]

Being forced to drink School Milk. I struggled with this; never finished and never got any playtime.
I still cant drink milk on its own now (Note, unless there has since been a revolution in their manufacture, paper straws are totally useless).
Very few people had fridges. We got ours when I was about 14, though I admit, we were one of the last to do so.
I was one of 44 children in my primary class (cant remember which year, but I remember noting this) Discipline was fine, because most teaching took place from the front.
We used to play in the road, and went away to Butlins on holiday.