Back in the days of tanners and bobs,
When Mothers had patience and Fathers had jobs.
When football team families wore hand me down shoes,
And T.V gave only two channels to chose.
Back in the days of three penny bits,
when schools employed nurses to search for your nits.
When snowballs were harmless; ice slides were permitted
and all of your jumpers were warm and hand knitted.
Back in the days of hot ginger beers,
when children remained so for more than six years.
When children respected what older folks said,
and pot was a thing you kept under your bed.
Back in the days of Listen with Mother,
when neighbours were friendly and talked to each other.
When cars were so rare you could play in the street.
When Doctors made house calls; Police walked the beat.
Back in the days of Milligan's Goons,
when butter was butter and songs all had tunes.
It was dumplings for dinner and trifle for tea,
and your annual break was a day by the sea.
Back in the days of Dixon's Dock Green,
Crackerjack pens and Lyons ice cream.
When children could freely wear National Health glasses,
and teachers all stood at the FRONT of their classes
Back in the days of rocking and reeling,
when mobiles were things that you hung from the ceiling.
When woodwork and pottery got taught in schools,
and everyone dreamed of a win on the pools.
Back in the days when I was a lad,
I can't help but smile for the fun that I had.
Hopscotch and roller skates; snowballs to lob.
Back in the days of tanners and bobs. 👫
My wife and I are both 66 and were reminiscing on the days when we were young and how the life , opportunity’s and freedoms we had then were so different from today.
We both agreed we have lived through the best times. I feel so sorry for the youth of today with all thats happening at the moment.
I also remember:
This was a typical weekly food ration for an adult:
Bacon & Ham 4 oz
Other meat value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops)
Butter 2 oz
Cheese 2 oz
Margarine 4 oz
Cooking fat 4 oz
Milk 3 pints
Sugar 8 oz
Preserves 1 lb every 2 months
Tea 2 oz
Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)
Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks
That was even if you could get it,unless you were well off.
Plus clothing coupons and petrol coupons,school dinners that were often lukewarm,freezing cold classrooms that had only a coke fired heater in the middle of a large classroom!
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-facts-about-clothes-rationing-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war
It wasn't all good in the good old days!
saxo1
Quote: Originally posted by Dave11 on 11/1/2022
My wife and I are both 66 and were reminiscing on the days when we were young and how the life , opportunity’s and freedoms we had then were so different from today.
We both agreed we have lived through the best times. I feel so sorry for the youth of today with all thats happening at the moment.
Yes I know what you mean Dave. In some ways things are a lot better today, yet in other ways a lot worse. We had a lot more freedom I think, always out and often quite a way from home and nobody worried unless we weren't back by dark. Absolutely no way to contact us anyway. I did things and went to places on my own or just with a school friend at under 10 years old that many 13 year olds wouldn't be allowed to do today. I don't think my 12 year old grandson has ever been off his estate on his own, yet I'd been to places 40 miles away on the train by his age. I used to go trainspotting at 8 years old with school-friends of the same age to a place in North London that involved a 1 mile walk, a 2 mile bus ride, then a 30 minute train journey. I can't imagine any 8 year olds being allowed to do that today, even though today they would probably have a mobile phone with them. My parents didn't even have a landline phone! I was by no means unusual, that sort of thing was commonplace back then.
Tbf not all of us had happy childhoods. We are all of our time though. Certainly I am glad that I was able to buy a house when they cost 2.5 times average annual income & not 10 times as now making house purchase impossible today for most young working people.
However I don’t think young folk look at the old with envy & resentment. I don’t think they think we have had the best of it & left them nothing. It is a popular meme but I really don’t think young folk think like that. They have no clue what being a teenager/20something was like in the 60s/70s. We may think the music was better in the 70s but probably most teenagers don’t.
When I drive my car & tow my caravan to UK & French destinations I have to accept that it is optimistic to think I will be doing this for even another 20yrs. Yes I am glad I can afford to do it but would I like my life over again ? Would I like to be a teenager just starting out now today with nothing like I did in the late 60s ? Absolutely I would.
Those were the days.
- free education and maintenance at University.
- 7 firm offers of jobs before I had graduated.
- Joined a fast track graduate scheme that leapfrogged many levels of employment.
- Property prices linked to a maximum of one salary earner's income.
- Final salary pensions provided by the employer from age 60
- Free bus pass
- Free TV licence ( until recently)
Quote: Originally posted by billy on 11/1/2022
Tbf not all of us had happy childhoods. We are all of our time though. Certainly I am glad that I was able to buy a house when they cost 2.5 times average annual income & not 10 times as now making house purchase impossible today for most young working people.
However I don’t think young folk look at the old with envy & resentment. I don’t think they think we have had the best of it & left them nothing. It is a popular meme but I really don’t think young folk think like that. They have no clue what being a teenager/20something was like in the 60s/70s. We may think the music was better in the 70s but probably most teenagers don’t.
When I drive my car & tow my caravan to UK & French destinations I have to accept that it is optimistic to think I will be doing this for even another 20yrs. Yes I am glad I can afford to do it but would I like my life over again ? Would I like to be a teenager just starting out now today with nothing like I did in the late 60s ? Absolutely I would.
Well I think I can say I did have a happy childhood, although far from a wealthy one. My parents were working class, my father was a van driver and my mother a housewife, yet we always got by. We lived in a privately rented house on just the one income, we always had 3 meals a day, and there was always a fire in the grate in wintertime. We had an old second-hand TV, sometimes had a car (when my dad managed to find an old banger) and we usually had a week away in the summer. There is no way you could do all that just on a van driver's money today. The rent alone would probably be more than a van driver would earn and there were no in-work benefits back then!
Today I have 7 grandchildren, 3 of whom are adults trying to make their way in the world. Unless things change drastically it is very unlikely any of them will own their own homes. I don't either, but I did for a few years in the 1970s until I hit a bad patch. Both my daughters are renting, and my son has recently moved into a shared-ownership property. I very much doubt either of my daughters will ever own property either.
It is funny how at the end whatever you have accumulated in life counts for not a lot when you get old enough to see through to the end of your life. I am happy enough with my life as it is now as it allows me to do what I want which is to go caravanning. I am not ambitious beyond that. I do not have a bucket list of things to do before I die.
It will all end sometime in the next 20odd yrs or sooner if I am not as lucky as I think I will be. It is an odd feeling. Not to be dwelt on unduly but something I think about now but never really thought of when I was younger.
Quote: Originally posted by billy on 11/1/2022
Continues reflective philosophical rant…
It is funny how at the end whatever you have accumulated in life counts for not a lot when you get old enough to see through to the end of your life. I am happy enough with my life as it is now as it allows me to do what I want which is to go caravanning. I am not ambitious beyond that. I do not have a bucket list of things to do before I die.
It will all end sometime in the next 20odd yrs or sooner if I am not as lucky as I think I will be. It is an odd feeling. Not to be dwelt on unduly but something I think about now but never really thought of when I was younger.
Yes it is an odd feeling Billy, and certainly not one to dwell on. Another odd feeling is knowing that I am the oldest surviving member of my family. The only family members I have apart from my younger sister, and a distant relation in Australia who is also younger than me, are those who are descended from me. That is a very strange feeling. Although I never saw it coming, even though it was almost inevitable, it's not something I ever thought about when I was younger. Now it's a fact.
I was brought up on a farm, my father being a cowman. So we always had a house, but you had to be nice to the boss or you lost your job and house.
I remember my father's heavy jacket with "Poacher's Pockets"
No such thing in those days as TV, just a battery operated radio (and you had a recharged accumulator delivered every few days) Gas lighting in downstairs rooms, nothing upstairs, needed a candle.
The loo was a little shed at the bottom of the garden and the bath hung on the back wall and was brought in Friday evening for family bath session, me first as the younger of two, then my brother, then we were sent to bed and parents got their bath.
No such thing as a car, relied on the bus, but the service was very good. Holiday was a day trip to Brighton.
My brother and I stood by the road side weekends selling flowers to an occasional motorist. Often they would ask very confidentially, "does your mother have any eggs for sale?". Go indoors and check and come out with a discreetly packed paper bag with 1/2 dozen eggs. They were strictly rationed in those days and we had our own chicken. It was not until I got somewhat older that it occurred to me, how could our half dozen chicken lay that many eggs? Ah yes, my Father's jacket, perhaps.
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 11/1/2022
There is no way you could do all that just on a van driver's money today. The rent alone would probably be more than a van driver would earn and there were no in-work benefits back then!
All those Happy times we had in those carefree
Days .
I think we had better values then
Cherished Friendship
Looked after our Friends And Neighbours then
Better Communities .
It's lovely to look back
And Treasure those Happy times .
Like the Songs says
Moved into a Council pre-fab, (all asbestos build), 2 beds, absolutely bloody freezing. A 60 watt bulb as a bed-warmer in the winter, just wait while it warmed up the local area, then move it around.
Hiding behind the settee when the "tally man" was due to call.
Shirts made by my mother.
Shoe soles repaired with upper leather from other shoes from the bin.
Christmas presents like Davey Crockett hats made by mother, guns made from bits of wood, and catapults from Hawthorn bushes.
Cocoa and sugar in a bag corner for a snack.
Bread, Marge and sugar for tea and supper.
Collecting coal from the wharfe on a lorry cart and dragging it 2 mile uphill to the house.
God, YES! Those were the days.
Life goes in circles, so you young-uns - watch out.
------------- Some days you are the dog,
some days you are the tree.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Back in the Day
via mobile 11/1/2022 at 10:17am
