Eating in the 1950s ...much less choice, but we were healthier

*Who

Oh yes, I remember the beautiful frost patterns on the insie of my bedroom window. We had a hot water bottle, the rest of the bed was icy cold.

Our bathroom was heated by a Valor oil heater, which was standing in the bathroom, so dangerous now I think about it, with children around.

I remember Mum putting some newspaper across the fire to draw it, to get it going well.

We had a Vesta curry every Saturday for a treat in the late 1960's. Mum used to add some tinned meat to make it go further but, otherwise, it was one box between four people. I thought it was lovely.

Sunday lunch was, alternately, roast half shoulder of lamb and roast chicken with roast potatoes and vegetables, followed by either Birds trifle, Jaffa cakes, Lyons coffeee cake in a box or tinned mandarins with tinned evaporated milk.

We knew how to live in those days.

My mother was a good cook and baker and was willing to try new things. We had a few Vesta curries but she made curry as well. Her soup was legendary. Treats were grapes and melon! There was always “ordinary” fruit in the bowl for between meals.

Remember Goblin tinned steak & kidney puddings? Disgusting! Slimey, chewy suet pastry filled with very chewy meaty chunks of some kind of description although I doubt it conformed to the words on the side of the tin......

Yes seacliff I remember using newspaper to 'draw' the fire. It's a wonder any of us survived really.

Mucky fat on fresh white bread was often our Sunday tea/supper I still buy it occasionally !! We ate vesta curries and chowmein loved the crispy noodles . Does anyone remember tins of Tom piper Irish stew they were lovely . Soda pop I remember coming home from school and setting and drawing fire with shovel and newspaper which often caught fire we never worried about it did we .?

I remember being desperate to try a burger in the Wimpy Bar when I was about 14, but wasn’t allowed! We “ate out” once in a blue moon, partly due to cost, but mostly because there just wasn’t anywhere!

Age 7 my dad taught me how to lay, light and draw up a fire as I was the first one home everyday, no firegard of course. Mum decided we would become trendy and try a Vesta meals once a week. Dad complained that there wasn't enough on his plate, I loved them especially the crispy noodles. In his later years dad loved nothing better than an Oriental takeaway or a spicy curry.
We have far more choice of healthy foods today, fresh foods are affordable all year round today. OK they may have travelled many food miles but you can pick up salad leaves, toms in the winter months at no great expense.
I think this post should have read "but were we healthier?"

I too used to use a sheet of newspaper which I placed over the 'blower' (a sheet of metal with a handle on) to draw the fire and one time it was the News of the World and I was that absorbed in reading some salacious piece that the paper caught and went up in flames☺! I was 11 at the time and it was my job to make the fire as I was first home from school and my parents were at work. Different times indeed but fond, amusing memories nevertheless.

Sorry time lapse and crossed post with hula hoop and sparkly

Vesta Chicken Supereme in the 60s and who remembers Junket - loved it.

My mum was a wonderful cook, especially with cakes and pastry. She use to make cream horns, eclairs and the most wonderful cakes and biscuits. Porridge Oe toast for breakfast, school meals a snack of bread and butter when you came home from school and then a high tea. . I use to love her ham and split pea soup ate with loads of bread and butter.and butter. Hot milky drink before before bed with a piece of cake.

Yes agreed sparkly - I wish I could edit and amend the title.

We had a coal hole outside the front door. The coalman came around with his horse and cart. He would heft a sack up the path and tip the coal down the shute into the front of the cellar. I can remember that smell.

I was always a bit spooked if I went down the cellar steps. I could see under the floor boards, very dark and dirt, and lots of spiders webs.

I used to love Vesta curry. I remember me and my ex husband having them. They were a bit of a faff as, if I remember rightly you had to measure the water in the packet the meat concoction came out of, had to stir it until it boiled.......and that was a convenience meal.....not like the 'ting' meals now!

Sarahellenwhitley - My Mum worked in a British Restaurant. I remember being taken there after Nursery one day. The building it was in is still standing it is no a Baptist Church.

A little tin of condensed milk was a huge treat! We really did think our Vesta curry night was exotic!
Tinned salmon salad, followed by tinned peaches and ‘cream’ (Carnation) was also a meal for when we had visitors. They, and we, always seemed to enjoy it.
Ham was a rare treat but always tasted good, unlike most ham nowadays. Cake was usually homemade and much enjoyed.
Everyday tea often was toast topped with either beans, egg, spaghetti hoops, tomatoes or mushrooms.

I can remember carnation milk Vesta ready meals and Mum's junket &jelly whip for afters

Cream with Christmas pudding was tinned sterilised Nestle cream, which we loved as it was such a rare treat. Carnation with tinned fruit was the usual dessert.

Can remember the Vesta curries. One thing I think I would find different would be the portion size compared to what is expected nowadays. Vestas would fill a teaplate now. Wasn't actually keen on them. We have too large portions now. I have a spaghetti portion dispenser with holes for 1 and 2 portions. Was given this as wedding present 1966. Now the forr 2 portions would be nearer what we expect for 1 person though still on the small size. Food has become too plentiful over the years so we eat more. It was breakfast, dinner then teatime with a glass of milk piece of toast for supper. Sweets were once a week treat. No cans of fizzy drinks, smoothie, crisps for snacking on between meals. It's not down to lack of exercise that makes us fat, its what and how much we eat. Thermal dynamics!

My Mum was a very plain cook, nothing even vaguely 'foreign' ever crossed our threshold! She worked full time so had little time for baking but she made lovely pastry and her speciality was always apple pie.

On weekdays breakfast was cornflakes or toast & marmalade, or porridge in the winter, made with Scotts oats (not instant) and drizzled with golden syrup. I still like it that way. Lunch might be a sandwich or scrambled eggs on toast, and dinner was leftovers on Monday, sausage & mash on Tuesday, stew or casserole on Wednesday & Saturday, and fish on Friday. We never had 'chippie' fish& chips, Mum didn't like it, she always cooked her own.

Sundays was always a full Sunday roast (chicken, lamb or pork - Mum wasn't keen on beef. My grandparents lived with us and Granddad insisted on a cooked breakfast and roast dinner every Sunday with all the trimmings and a proper afters. Mum seemed to spend all day Sunday in the kitchen!

We always had a few apples and bananas in a fruit bowl, but fizzy drinks and crisps were only bought at Christmas. Sweets were a weekend only treat! The nearest we ever got to 'eating out' was a bag of chips at the seaside. One Christmas my friend's Mum took us both to see the lights in Oxford Street followed by ice creams at Lyons Corner House, my Mum was shocked that she would take children our age (about 9) to a 'posh' restaurant!

One of my aunties worked at a Lyons tearoom & bakery. She visited us every couple of months and always brought me a Meringue Animal. They were the most beautifully modelled and decorated meringue confections filled with whipped cream and jam, and I have never seen anything like them since. They were delicious too, and I always looked forward to her visits. Does anyone else remember those?

Our house never had central heating, just an open coal fire in the living room and very small gas fires in the bedrooms. No heating in the bathroom. In the winter we all had hot water bottles. There were no carpets anywhere, just lino and lots of rugs that my Mum made using the latch-hook method. I loved the coal fire we had. Granddad taught me how to lay it up and light it and it was always my job to clear the ashes and blacklead it on a Saturday morning. We always made toast on the fire using long wire toasting forks (didn't have a grill or a toaster) and I used to sit with my Granddad and look for faces and shapes in the burning coals. The downside was having to carry buckets of coal up three flights of stairs! So many happy memories.....

I was born in 1955 & was brought up on Carnation (evaporated milk), I still love the taste. Breakfast was porridge/cereal/egg butty/toast. I only ever drank milk in tea & coffee (can't stand the taste of it on cereals).

We grew a lot of our own fruit & veg. I had School Dinners at Primary School, cooked on the premises, small school but delicious food. Mum baked cakes & biscuits, she was a good cook & could be quite adventurous. I remember Vesta curries. Angel Delight or fruit & Carnation especially on a Sunday when Tea in the Winter was always in front of the fire, quite often toast made in front of the fire.

I remember ice on the inside of the windows, baths in front of the Rayburn in the Kitchen & an outside loo. I was a skinny child & a very slim teenager, sweets were a treat, the only crisps were Smiths with the little blue twist of salt. Fish & Chips was a rare treat. Were we healthier? Maybe, medical advances are I believe the reason life expectancy has risen as well as better housing & safer working practices. Looking at the younger generation & their lifestyle I wonder how good their health will be in their 60s/70s/80s. My Mum is 89 & apart from increasing mobility problems she is very healthy & only takes medication for neuralgia

Does anyone remember being given a spoonful of Virol each day?

Legs, that reminded me, we had Instant Whip , similar to Angel Delight. I loved banana flavour. Mum made fish cakes with lots of mashed potato and just a little fish.

We were on the go all day long, I'm sure we were more active than today's children. Indoors we'd be reading books. We didn't have a TV until about 1958, and of course the children's programmes weren't on for long each day. Rest of the time we played out on the street and bomb sites. Hardly any cars in our road.

My Fenland Uncle used to serve a huge Yorkshire pudding with gravy as a first course to full us up. Then we'd get the meat and veg. I know this was common in a lot of country areas.