General Chat

Goes to show PC has its good points as well.

Tess thank you for your reply, I do find it interesting when people live in other countries for a few years especially as children and then come back to the UK, funnily enough they always mention the cold and damp, and even gardens walls lololol :-D

Hayley, I had been living in Malaya (now Malaysia) from Arpil 1958. Leaving a country area in Oxfordshire, when I was nine and a half.
We came back to Birmingham, a crowded city., when I was twelve.
I found the noise and the pollution to be extraordinary, not to mention the cold.
But at least we had an aunt and uncle living nearby with their sons

Yes, we did have a lot of fruit in the UK at the time. But most of it home grown.
No mango, papaya, kiwi fruit, lychee or yam. Few pineapple, coconut or banana.
A shortage of garlic, and varies herbs and spices.
The fish and meat would have been different to that "back home"
Yes Maggie, olive oil did come in small bottles from the chemist for softening wax in the ear.



Perhaps I should add here that I am pleased to live in the UK, even with all the rain we have had recently.
I am not moaning about it, just saying at how difficult things were in the early '60's especially for newcomers.

When I first statred work we got ywo weeks annual leave (once you had worked a full year to qualify) plus eight bank holiday days.
On the other hand, it wasn't difficult to get a job. (as long as you were not fussy) No unemployment inthose days.

In 1969 my friend (born 1949) employed by a bank, was offered a chance to do some training in another town. This entailed staying away for a few days. As she was only 20 and the age of majority was 21, her bosses told her that she would have to get her parents permission with signature, so that she could go.

"But I'm married!" said my friend. "My parents don't have anything to do with it"
She was then told that her husband had to give his permission for her to go.

Thank goodness for progress.

Tess

.....another thing in the 60's - olive oil was only sold in little bottles in Boots - for putting in your ears!!!
Lard was used for frying.

...AND I didn't hear mention of bread/toast and dripping - surely a staple for the poor family at the turn of the century and during the war (yum)

hahahaha don't blame your mum Hayley think I would have felt the same aww............
.......but it was horrible at that time :-( the strikes and rubbish piling up. Horror stories of bodies in morturies being kept from burial and bed linen not been laundered in hospitals.
Definitely not looking forward to seeing those pictures again.

Hi Hayley...... yes equal wages was a bone of contention for years.

Of course with equality, equal opportunity should come too and it's only fair and right that Itsmytelly and your sister get paid the same rate for the job.

Mau the 70's clip it they shown so did bring back memories of the all the strikes, I remember the dustman strike went on for weeks, and we lived in 3 storyflats, at the back of the flats was an area where the dustbins were kept, my mum got some fed up with the overflowing rubbish she contacted the local news paper, a man turned to up from the paper the same afternoon and took some notes , amd informed my mother that he would send a photographer out the next day, upon his departure mum had a bath and washed her hair and set in it rollers, about 2 hours later the bloke turned up to take the photos mum was a bit disappointed as she wasnt dolled up and took him to the bin arear and stood to the side glaring whilst he took the pictures, sure enough the following week the story was in the paper I will never forget the scream and outraged as beside the story was the photo of all the mounted rubbish and my mother tatty skirt and blouse in her slippers no tights and her hair in rollers arms folded glaring......she was besides herself for months after :-|

All though and I will quote Itsmytelly " Hayley you are such a pampered Princess" and I love to be courted, I am so greatful for equality :-D Even now my mum comes out with comments ( Itsmytelly and my sister work together and do exactly the same job) " I bet he doesnt like it that **** gets the same money he does!" I was like what!!!!!

TessAka Bridget, may I ask as I am exremely nosey where abouts in the tropics did you live and how long for? :-D

Apart from the telly we didnt have HP my parents were very wary of it, but I do remember as a teenager even after 10 yrs after his death that all the bills were still in my dads name.

Furnishing was mostly, in our home,half old or new and H.P. was a popular way of paying to be able to get the latest style in furniture. When I was a teenager Hayley only a couple of friends were lucky enough to get a place at University. Often it was the case you had to have gone to a Grammar school to sit GSE exams @ O level & A level.
Most of my pals went straight out to work at 15yrs there were loads of jobs then......apprenticeships, office jobs,factories,hairdressing,stores etc.
Of course when the lads reached a certain age (18-21) they were called away to do two years National Service,so they had no option but to move away from home.The NS. I think came to an end in 1960 and being officially discharged in 1963.

I do recall tights coming into our shops in the early sixties Jane, and,
at first being quite expensive to buy. Agree nobody took a taxi home......it was bus or shanks pony lol

I suppose coming back to England in January 1961 from the Tropics would have been a bit of a shock Tess....and blooming cold! especially for the Immigrants,but we always had plenty of fruit and vege. here.
Interesting you mention women not being allowed to rent tv's. as this happened even in the seventies. A friend of ours wasn't allowed to purchase a music centre without her husband's signature on the document. They were both teachers......she being a headmistress!

Looking forward to next week when it'll be the Seventies.... :-D

Mau

My family returnd to England (from The Tropics), in January 1961. A big thing to notice was all the smoking chimneys (domestic and industrial).

The lack of leaves on trees, the drab and dark surroundings and the very short hours of daylight.

Immigrients from warm climes must have also faced all these rather unplesant things.

The t.v. programme just didn't have the money and the wherewithall to show all this.

In the early days, it would have been very difficult for them to get all the fruit and veg, that they had at home. I am not too sure when ginger (and not garlic!) was readily available. Especially in smaller towns.

As for young girls leaving home ... I do know of at least one sixteen yearold that did so (c1965) and would have done so myself aged 16 or 17, if I could have afforded the rent. In fact, looked at some, friend (who was a little younger me) was going to share. she offered to pay more than nhalf the rent as she earned more than I did.


Although I had strict parents, I was able to go to a dance at a Ballroom, I don't think that we had night clubs in my area at that tie.

One night a week people from 14 upwards could go. There was no alcohol sold on thoses nights.

The rooms available for rent, were rather basic, at least the cheaper end of the market were.
Immigrants were often turned away, it was legal to discriminate in those days.
The rooms/flats that they were able to rent were often the most humble.

Thank goodness things have changed so much. I remember when my mum wanted to rent a tv in 1961 she was told that her husband would have to sign the rental agreement, as they didn't rent to women. (again this was legal)'


Mini skirts "came-in" in my area in 1966. I was working by then so was able to buy some. I don't think that they used less material made them any cheaper though.


Tess

I think one or two things didn't ring true. Whilst there were short skirts, this was the time of change from nylons and suspenders to tights. At first a pair of tights was very expensive. There was also the saying that if a boy got passed the giggling strip (.i.e. the gap above the top of the nylon)...he was 'laughing'. I certainly don't remember anyone having short skirts with suspenders visible. Working with mostly men in the mid 60's there was in their conversation, a general misery about the loss of nylons.

I did go to a club from 1964 for a couple of years but you had to be a member.I had to be home for eleven on a Saturday.(We caught buses home, not taxis) There was live music,probably the equivalent of the Cavern as it was very small and pitch black. There were lights which only showed up anything white. It was so cramped that fire regulations mustn't have been at the top of the agenda.

I never knew anyone who left home, apart from me and I was nineteen. I would never have left if I had been happy at home. I had to give all my wage to my parents, some only gave board. I went to live at my friends house whilst she went off to college and her parents were supportive, which 45 years later I still appreciate. Shortly afterwards I got a flat , but I had to share the room with another girl. The room, which was basic but clean, cost £4 per week, two pound each. I earned £42 per month so I did manage to save a little.I also remember the little Belling electric cooker but we didn't have the luxury of a fridge. The flat was on the second floor of the landlords house where he lived with his wife. I think I was lucky to have a pleasant place compared with the one on the television. -jl

Good grief,Hayley, you've almost described our house in the late 70's/early 80's - except we had a horsehair sofa & 2 chairs from the 1930's!!!


..had to edit - I'm having a problem with my vowels tonight :-S

I can not remember the 60's but can remember the early 70's, the house looked too new and as Piglets Pal says would of had some older bits of furniture in the house, it looked very plastic,we didn't have fitted carpets till well pasted the mid 70's , we had a red and yellow carpet and the edge of the floor was painted black. We had a black pastic 3 piece sutie with orange cushions and it was pretty low to the floor, we still had an open coal fire till I was 5, we had a very dark heavy side board and drop side dinning table and also a glass display cabinet with a clock in the door , I think most of the furniture was hand me downs, I also curtains that was a hard fibre glass stuff .We did have a car.
Maybe they thought that the teenagers left home and went to Uni and lived in bedsits!!!!!
I would of loved to have been a teenager in the 60's all that fashion and wonderful music.

Think we pretty much agree no-one left home at 15yr makes you wonder where the researchers get their information from :-S

We started married life in a flat on second floor and didn't have our own front door. Went to launderette to wash and didn't know anyone who owned a fridge then.
One thing I did notice in the programme,which took me back, was the bed settee :-D ....saved me many a time when I'd missed the last bus home from the dance ;-)

OH used to go to the speedway at Wembley to watch the Wembley Lions.

Have just watched last nights episode - so many things wrong

As said before very few 15 year olds left home, in fact very few teenagers left home. Those that did were more often than not from more well to do families.

And I lived in conditions very much like those the Jamaican family lived in until I was 14 (in 1967). Tenement block, no bathroom and the toilet was just a corner of the kitchen bricked off with a door. The Jamaican family would have been sharing those appalling conditions with very poor white families and Irish immigrants.

The only other thing that they have really got wrong in every era is the total change of the entire household. Most homes in every era would have had a mixture of furniture and household goods from a mixture of eras.

In our flat we had a really ancient gas cooker, no fridge (again 14 when we first got our 2nd hand fridge), no washing machine (mum only died 12 years ago and never owned a washing machine in her life). All the beds were 2nd or more hand and many of the blankets were ex-army. All bedroom furniture was hand me down from other family/friends. And our sofa and arm chairs were pre-WW2.

But I was happy and did not know any different and all my friends pretty much lived in the same conditions. :-)

In the 60s we had a first floor flat in a large house, we didn't have our own front door though. Our friends were next door on the third floor and their 'kitchenette' well cooker and sink were on the landing. Our washing line was out of the kitchen window, it was on a loop attached to a high pole. we pegged the washing on then pulled the line round and as we did the washing went out into space. :-D

Rita, you have just jogged my fading memory and how could I forget Speedway racing! My pal and I used to go in Dublin in the 50's and would save up our pennies but I think it was a rider called Ronnie Moore who took our fancy. Our home team was ramshackle but when Ronnie arrived from England, he brought a whiff of glamour with him! lol When speedway racing paled, we took to going to fortune tellers. :-D :-D

We had a lot of free clubs around at that time. chuches r and The Slavtion Army ran them sports clubs for young people. there were also youth clubs run by the council. we playied darts and snooker and table tennis. we also had swiming pools that were quiet cheap and roller skating rinks and saturday morning pictures 3 pence to go in.
we also went for long walks. and met in a little cafe where we played the jute box. if you had the money someone always stuck a coin in.. we didnt have gangs like they have now..
so we were lucky in those times. I think the speedway was 2 shilling and 6 pence to go in that took some saving up to do that.

Thanks for reply Rita must have been difficult for some familes at that time.

Sorry Von missed you there.We probably didn't have the money to go clubbing.

Going out, so do hope no-one will think I'm ignoring them
Mau xx

I expected too much from the programme I suppose.? I had so looked forward to it. but it was like reading a fairy story

I did have a friend and she married and they had a two rooms in the top of a three story house they had to go down to the next floor to do the cooking and washing as the cooker(shared ) was on the landing and the sink as well.
I dont know whether they had a bathroom or not ? I cannot recall if they did?.It was called a halfway house as many homeless families lived in the house.

Good morning Maggie and Rita

Yes Maggie think my Bil would agree with you about the bedsit,in their early married life he and his wife lived in Brixton. He tells me they also shared a bathroom and their cooker was on the landing,has always sounded grim to me,but then it might have been the norm for a lot of folk living in the big cities.
Your landlord sounds a bit like creepy Rigsby from Rising Damp.

Rita... the girls were only living next door to their parents because it was a tv programme,shouldn't imagine they would choose to find a flat so near....unless somebody knows differently :-S

We went camping with our family too,enjoyable when sunny & dry but miserable when wet and find your tent's blown away :-0..

Mau