How poor were you?

Chilblains itched like mad!

I lived with my mother and grandparents in a rented terraced house. There was no bathroom, only an outside toilet and no heating except a coal fire in the living room. In the early days there was no electricity upstairs. That was put in when the house had to be rewired and having light upstairs seemed like a miracle. Looking back I suppose we must have just managed to make ends meet. We were certainly not as poor as some of the people on here. Most of my friends lived on the new council estate and their houses were luxurious by comparison. I never thought of them as being better off than us. Just different. I think I envied them more for being allowed to play in the street. We lived on a main road so that was out of the question.

I would have been perceived as 'middle class' as my dad had trained as a teacher when demobbed from RAF after the war. But mum and dad lived with her parents until they died (young). Nevertheless, make do and mend was order of the day. One coal fire to keep us warm, slacked down every night and revived every morning. No tv until I was 7. No car until I was 8 and then it was an old banger. We never went hungry but homemade soup and potatoes was a frequent dinner. As was boiled beef and carrots, macaroni cheese and the old favourite, toad in the hole. Cheap ingredients that were able to be expanded.

Clothes were usually hand me downs from older cousins in England, who were comfortably off. But we did always have shoes bought in Clarks, after having our feet x-rayed!

I had a happy childhood because unlike so many of you in the sad stories posted above, I was lucky to be very much loved. All of the above was just normal life.

Our expectations of life changed dramatically after we lived in Canada for a year. My dad did a teaching exchange. The standard of living was so much higher. We got used to multi channel TV, central heating and a large car. And the wonderful but scary invention of the 'supermarket' which didn't exist here.

When we returned home in 1960 my mum went out to work and we had central heating installed. What a dramatic change!

My memories of real austerity were when we had our first babies: twins! I left work and we had to struggle on DH salary of £1000 a year. Inflation was at 25%. I remember the humiliation of having to leave food out of my basket at the checkout because there wasn't enough to pay for it. The washing machine ( essential with all those terry nappies to be washed every day) was third hand and broke down on a regular basis to be fixed for another few washes by the wonderful Mr P.

Oh yes! Happy days! Again I query our title of the 'privileged generation'.

sad to read some peoples experiences, I'm grateful we weren't so badly off,always lived in a house with a Bath at least and had good food cooked by my stay at home mother,not well off by any means but we did OK.I wonder why though when people had such hard times they want to return to those days,the "good old days" were certianly not GOOD for many,The cry during the brexit camaign was they wanted their country back....is THIS the country they mean? If so can me and mmine opt out,life is far better for the majority now than it was then....although its certainly heading back that way with this government.

I think we were quite hard up. My parents were buying their house so there wasn't much spare cash, although my mother did a bit of child minding to bring in some extra. We had a week by the sea every year but no TV, no car, only a coal fire and my mother used to take me to the station to collect coal in my old pram. Not much to spend on food but with rationing there still wasn't much to buy. We didn't have a fridge till I was about 11. By that time we had given up on coal and the whole house was heated with paraffin stoves.

When we got married in 1970 we moved into a little Edwardian cottage. No central heating, no bathroom, no hot water, outside loo, tin bath in front of the fire (lovely and warm!) and a copper in the tiny kitchen. We had a second hand washing machine that used to rip DH's shirts to bits. By the time we moved on four years later it had a bathroom, hot water and central heating!

60s childhood for me, in South Wales. Were we poor? Probably, but not so poor as some. There was no central heating, no indoor toilet, a rudimentary telly. Plenty of coal though , which was placed on the pavement and had to be taken through the house to the coal cwtch at the back. We had a bathroom tacked on to the back of the kitchen.

There were loads of kids in the neighbourhood and we played out on the mountains all the time. We picked Wimberries and played in the filthy river. I had the impression that everyone was the same. Very few people had cars.

Yes to the chilblains!

I have read this thread after having a strange thought earlier this evening.
When I was born it was in a private Nursing Home. I said to my DCs that I was born in a Nursing Home and they wondered why I would be born in an old folks care home!
I think I was quite privileged in that I was at private fee paying school and also at a private fee paying college.
My grandparents were born into good circumstances, I have visited their homes.
My parents had their house before I was born. I was born 5 years after they married. We and most of our relatives had cars. There was only one other car in this street. As I grew up other cars appeared but the owners and dads of families never seemed to take the household out for day trips. My dad would say they have cars but they don't have a few gallons of petrol to take the children to the coast (about 30 miles) We were always going day trips depending on dad's work patterns.
This evening yet again I watched a car use our driveway to turn rather than go to the corner 70 feet away to turn or even be really daring and drive round the block! It appears that there are even more cars in the street but now they don't even have the petrol to get to the corner.
Poverty can be relative. I had a lot as a child. I was later a working single parent but I was never so skint that I could not drive to the corner to turn my car about. In fact I did that so that I could give my parents a wave as I drive to the corner and another wave as I came back down the street.
All the children of today may have electronic things we could not even dream of but the richness of my life was in the parents who cared so much for me.
SPF

I was born in 1954 but my mother was unmarried, a great crime those days, we lived in with my granny and she looked after me while mother worked so we were not by any means well off but we got by. I too remember ice on my bedroom windows and frozen pipes. I wore my liberty bodice until I was a teenager and started wearing a bra. I had good dinners that were very basic as my gran had been in service and made such as mince and dumplings and lots of stew, we had this at lunchtime and a basic tea in the evenings such as sugar on bread or meat paste. Weekends we had a small roast that had to last until the Tuesday at least.
The garden was full of veg and I loved to pick salads in the summer and help weed the cabbages. However my gran was abusive and spoiled what would have been a reasonable childhood, my mother too would beat me if I misbehaved. I know now that this was the way in those days but it has made me find it difficult to trust people.

My parents bought our very small semi (bathroom downstairs, toilet separate outside) just pre WW2 with a 100% mortgage from the Council. The Council was still offering mortgages when my DB bought his house in the early 1960s.

It wasn't a council house (friends lived in council houses which in fact were bigger) but privately built.

I think we must have been what is now termed 'Just about Managing'.
My mother worked part-time from when I was little which must have helped. Dad used to work on Saturday mornings too and had two ports of call on his way home - a quick pint in the pub (his weekly treat) and a visit to the market to stock up on fruit and veg which he brought home in the basket on the front of his bike. Sometimes he would bring a paper bag of large mushrooms home - a real treat!
We all had bikes and got around on our bikes or caught the frequent buses.

I mentioned this thread to a friend who remembered that, as a child, when he had chilblains his mother would cover them with brown paper and then very closely wave a red hit poker slowly over them. It cured the itch apparently!

He then said, "And that is how I became a man my friend". It's how he tells 'em!

I don't think all children were beaten and I feel so sorry for anyone who was.
I never had a smack as a child.
I was either a good child or they were very tolerant (or I never got caught!).

Of course, by 1957 we'd never had it so good according to Harold Macmillan

We moved to a brand new council house when I was 4 which meant we had an indoor bathroom but I remember my nannas house at the same time with an outside toilet and a tin bath. We had a coal fire in the living room and a paraffin heater in the kitchen, a man came round the door and sold us the paraffin every week. There was ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and freezing cold Lino on the bedroom floors, when I was a teenager we had carpet a real luxury. My mother had a twin tub washing machine and she would stand to do the washing and I helped my nanna do the washing in the back yard in a boiler with a lit fire underneath and a mangle. My dad was always in work but did a variety of jobs and as a treat he would take me to the corner shop on a Friday when he got his wages and I had a bar of five boys chocolate or a raspberry ruffle bar ( anybody remember those?) . My grandfather worked in the steel works and had more money and and we had nice presents from my grandparents at birthdays and Christmas because of that but I remember my dad made toys for us. We rented a television from Rediffusion and I had my first holiday to Weymouth when I was 11 and my dad saved and bought a car when I was 12. Before that it took an hour and 2 buses to visit my other Nana I remember standing freezing cold at the bus stop because there was always a gap before the second bus came. We always had enough food but not many treats although we sometimes had tinned peaches and ideal milk for Saturday tea which I loved but you always had to eat two pieces of bread and butter before you were allowed it. I walked to school by myself from age 7 a 20 minute walk four times a day because you came home for dinner. My grandchildren are 7 they don't go to the end of the road by themselves. At 9 or 10 me and my cousin would play out all day and nobody worried about us we would be miles away. I remember being very independent as a child . My mother had mental health issues and was often angry my father was very placid and instilled in me a love of reading his books were his one luxury and birthday money was always encouraged to be spent on books you could get a hard back book for half a crown . Some of my childhood was not good but most of your friends families were the same it was all normal as far as we were concerned.

I remember queuing to use the public telephone and if you walked passed one and it was ringing you answered it. If they asked you to go and tell mrs smith at number 3 such n such road, and tell her that they'd ring back in 15 minutes with news you'd do it! Remember the greasy mark left by my dad on the back of the chair from his brylcreamed head. Almost everyone smoked, even our G.P! Being given syrup of figs every Sunday. (What on earth was that about I wouldn't think we'd be constipated with all that fresh veg) playing two balls against a wall. I was really good and can still remember all the rhymes we sang. You just never see this anymore.

TwiceAsNice I was only saying the other day that my son who is now 41 used to be off on his bike with his friends for hours when he was junior school age. My grandson aged 8 lives less than 5 minutes walk from a play area with no roads to cross but has never been there without an adult. I do understand why though.

I thought I was poor, but I now look back and see photos of the time and TV programmes and I was most certainly wasn't
I went to a private convent school, lived in a 5 bedroom house ( though a bit shabby compared to some of my friends. We always had a fabulous Christmas with plenty of food & presents.
The reason most likely was I always had hand me down clothes ( I loved it as I had far more clothes than my two older sisters). Some of my friends were only children so had more expensive presents (I had 3 siblings ). As it was normal in those days, my mum made food go a long way and things like that.
I am annoyed with mysely of how naive I was, it's a shame my parents never showed me how the poor were really deprived with no toilets of hot water, basic requirements for living. I am thankful that people in this country don't have to live like that and get basic provisions etc.
To make up for this, I am hoping to help the homeless, when I retire next year.

I think a lot of us were poor, but we only realise it now when we compare what we have with what we had.

We were just to young to realise it.

Three days before Christmas 1946 I was born in a rented flat in east London, my mother was 46 years old and I had four brothers and a sister. I was a twin and at three weeks old my twin sister was so poorly my mum sent for the nurse who agreed to ask the doctor to call. He didn't come until the evening and by then my sister had pneumonia and died. We moved to a council house when I was five, coal fire in the living room coal stove in the dining room luxury. We never seemed poor partly because my older brothers worked and handed all their wages to mum, we went on holiday each year my dad put a pound away each week for that, we always went to a b&b in Ramsgate, when we went in at night we each took a candle up to bed from the table by the door there was no electricity and once in our rooms dad lit the gas lights.
We had to leave the house after breakfast and not come back till evening, so lots of days were spent in a shelter while it rained outside but we always had new colouring books and pencils, when we could go on the beach dad would get hot meat pies from Rooks. (half a one each, half an apple each and a big urn of tea and bring it onto the beach for lunch, my parents never had any lunch. and I realise now they couldn't afford it. We always had coal because my brother used to get it from the river where the barges dropped it, to supplement the coal/coke mixture my mum bought from the coal man. My brothers also used to shoot rabbits and pigeons at Temple Mills which is the Olympic Stadium now so we had pigeon A LOT! My mother used to pluck and gut everything herself, we had pigeon pie, pigeon stew, roast pigeon and once I even had pigeon in my school lunch box. I never eat pigeon now!!!

I lived in the East End of London,in the 1950's, and grew up in a Victorian house with an outside toilet, and no heating or hot water system - just one coal fire in the living room. My Dad installed a bath in the boxroom which we filled with a pail of water from an electrically heated tank next to the bath. We were probably considered rich in that we had a bath, albeit one that had to be filled manually, and the water ran out of the plughole and down the drain outside. My parents never had a holiday, and money was so tight; I remember my mother sobbing when she lost her purse one day as that was it - there was no money tucked away anywhere else to buy food. My children were amazed when I told them that we had no car, no phone, no fridge, freezer, washing machine or TV, and I wore the cast off clothes of a older relative for many years. However, as everyone else lived the same kind of life and I was well fed, well dressed (thanks to my cousin) and looked after, I never did feel any sense of deprivation. 'What you've never had' etc. What it has done for me is made me so grateful and pleased with everything I have had since; as a Baby Boomer I know that my lucky and blessed generation had a life that represented the zenith of the 20th Century, and our good fortune will likely never be seen again for any following generations.

I was born Christmas 1943 living in rooms in a divided Georgian town house in London, we were all poor but because a war was on it was accepted. My father did not return until about 1946 he not only was away fighting but when he returned looked after German submariner POWs at Nuneham Courtenay preserving the film evidence for the war trials. Lighting was gas and the complete terrace opposite was bombed ruins, we had enough to eat, clothing was on ration so we all had to make do. In the appalling winter of 1946, if you could make it to the Battersea Gasworks you could carry away a cwt of coke, no cars no petrol, so my Mum borrowed a big old pram, we walked there and good on her we waited hours in the huge queue and she and I pushed that coke back. She worked too my nan looked after me and cousin Ann when she returned from her early morning job. Because of her good management by 1948 we had a car and had holidays at holiday camps, the Brightling Sea one on the Isle of Wight is still there. Clothing had to be utilised fully with Liberty Bidices under dresses, cross your body woollen scarves over your coats to keep you warm, a hot brick wrapped in your bed. Yes everyone was hard up but like today there are women now who are good managers. We were rather a skinny lot but fit. Hope I have not bored. Happy Christmas everyone

Although we had the tin bath and the outside toilet (at one stage the earth closet with two holes for sitting on), ice on the inside of the windows (and chilblains to go with them), and very few luxuries, I didn't think I was poor then and don't now. Everyone I knew was at the same level, apart from two "rich" friends, the teacher's daughter and one who lived in a detached house with its own grounds. They were both subject to so many rules and restrictions that didn't apply to the rest of us that we urchins pitied them! We could all run in a pack, climbing trees and roaming the countryside till it got dark and our mothers called us in (I always charged through the door before the second call as my mother had the loudest, most piercing shout in the neighbourhood ). I never wanted for the essentials, and we had an annual holiday at a B & B in Blackpool or Morecambe. We had plenty of good food and a new outfit at Whitsuntide. An endless supply of books from the library and toys at Christmas. I remember one very poor family in our village who my mum used to help out. Six or seven children and dad was known to be a drinker. When he died their mum remarried and things improved for them overnight.

Totally poor! 1947 Born in Leeds but moved to London when I was 7 as my dad was a Londoner. Me memory is that my mum didn't want to move away from her family .... But we went.

To a vile 2 bed council house (from a pleasant 3 bed council house)

I can't say we were 'working class' since my father rarely worked apart from as a professional gambler!!!!

So basically we had very little as children. A rather miserable childhood. Christmas with a satsuma and chocolate & nuts in an old army sock was a real treat.

I'm saying no more about it ...... Apart from what doesn't kill you really does make you stronger!!! Both my sister and I passed the 11+ got places into the best grammar school in the area, received excellent educations, university etc and on to successful careers.

I am now the most extravagant person in the world and love spending my hard earned money!!!

I found nothing enjoyable about being cold hungry no toys & constant wet feet since my shoes let in water!!!

But congratulations to my dear mother who somehow managed and lived until she was 96!!! She deserved more.

God Bless everyone

In 1948 my dad was a local chemist and optician and mum worked for him and was a qualified chiropodist. We lived downstairs in my godmother's mother's house and every night I had to go up to say goodnight to "Auntie Morris". When the owner of the Chemist died, we moved into the house adjoining the shop. We were comfortably off, never lacked for anything. In fact, the first time I experienced poverty was after my first marriage, when ex wwouldn't hold down a job and was a hopeless gambler and my situation hasn't ever really improved because of DH's serious ill-health.

A couple of recent posts have mentioned getting coal from the river bank and gasworks. Of course coal was all important when we had just the one fire to keep us warm. When my dad was a miner ours was plentiful, tipped into the shared backyards free from the local pit, then it had to be shovelled into the coal sheds. The fittest would do this for the retired folk. When my dad left the pit I used to go with him to scrape sea coal from the beach with tools he'd made from an old broom handle. We'd to sort through it for stones, dry it out, and pack it into newspaper cones. Then you'd be sitting by the fire getting those corned beef legs when a red hot mussel shell would skim past your ear like a bullet

I think we as children had much more in common with our grandparents than we do with our own offspring.

I grew up in a new three bedroomed council house in the fifties. We had a coal fire in the living room. The rest of the house was arctic in the winter. Dad was a civil servant so we weren't poor. Mum stayed at home. Dad grew all our vegetables, and mum was a good cook. She knitted our sweaters, hats and socks. Our social life was all around the church. There was a morning service, and Sunday school in the afternoon. Then Brownies one evening a week. When I reached sixteen I stopped going to church. I'd had my fill of it. I knew plenty of poor children. My friend was one of nine children. Her dad was away at sea, and her mum was hopeless. She didn't clean the house or cook for the kids. I don't know how they survived, but I think the eldest became a doctor.

Not much left for anybody after the war was there? I get so cross when young people now moan about things and talk as if all we have just dropped into our laps. Not only was our country bombed to bits and there was a huge lack of everything but we were paying back war loans from America and helping Germany get back on her feet.

To hear young people talk now you would think that living in filth is their only option at times, we lived in a Peckham slum and my gran and all the other neighbours cleaned their door steps and pavement outside their homes every day (not Sundays) and homes were shabby and cold, my own kids woke up to indoor ice in the 80's. They had coats on the bed and hand me downs, life was hard.

What saved so many of us was libraries where we could better ourselves, make our own entertainment and learn how to do things that needed doing. It breaks my heart to think of libraries closing. Radio was (and is) fabulous and often better than the telly, people were more musical and generally talented I think.

I don't miss chilblains, or hand me downs or the aunts shouting 'we've come slumming' when they visited........but I miss the markets and the way that people just got on with things. All this bloody counselling to support people through trivial crises, when did that become normal?

There were lots of people in the same boat but we were all facing forward then and trying to improve, and by and large we did.