Things most have now that we didn’t have

Parents had NO
central heating
electric kettle
electric toaster
bottled water
electric toothbrush
phone
car
washing machine
family holiday. One item they did have was a vacuum cleaner, good old Hoover.
All applicable up to 1970s a gradual introduction of modern items but never had a car. Both died in 1980s
I married in 60s and didn't have a washing machine as I wanted an automatic as seen in the movies and had to save up quite a bit so it was a scrubbing board and a wringler until 1971. Also a dustpan and brush, no vacuum cleaner for a couple of years, again had to save for.
No wonder there wasn't an obesity crisis back then.

Everyone has listed electronics and technology but there has been a lot.of development in chemicals, too. Our mothers' generation would have had probably just one soap for washing clothes and dishes and scrubbing the floor . Now look at the variety of cleaning agents on the supermarket shelves. A different bottle for every kind of surface and half a dozen different concoctions to put in the washing machine.

And cosmetics!! There used to be just cold cream or a simple face cream. Now we have to choose according to skin type, skin age, time of day which part of the body or face it is to be applied to. Then there is an infinite choice of foundations......

Bras! They used to be simple designs in a few sizes. ....

I cannot remember not having a phone at home, one granny did, the other refused point blank to have one, despite being able to afford it.

If we needed to get a message to her quicker than a letter or waiting for her to ring us we would ring her neighbour.

I didn't have a car until I was 34.

Strange to say, a lot of the things people did not have "then" I grew up with.

A doctor's house had a phone. The blasted thing never stop ped ringing, and private phone calls had to be super short.

The doctor obviously had a car - various old bangers and their spark plugs were kept warm overnight on the cool end of the Rayburn, in winter, and an old blanket draped over the car's radiator.

We had two indoor toilets - but then we lived a spit and a stone throw from Shanks factory.

When I look at "now" I tend to focus more on what we have lost, than what we have gained.

No neighbours dropping in for a chat and coffee.

few children playing outdoors even in summer

no friendly next door dogs trotting into the garden to play

no letters delivered by post, and I can remember two daily deliveries Mon-Sat in Scotland, and three in Denmark, plus Sunday letters if the sender was willing to pay more to send the letter. Recommanded letters.

Dogs riding in the guard's van on the train, when we went to Troon for our holiday.

Policeman walking or cycling their beat.

Cows walking placidly down country roads accompanied by a dog and the famer, or his wife, or mother on the way to the farm for the afternoon milking.

Daddy pulling up the car to let a flock of sheep and their shepherd continue down a lane "Afternoon, Doctor!" " Afternoon, Mr Steward" "Get by, lass!" remark addressed by shepherd to sheep-dog.

I do wonder what our great-grandchildren will look back at in their old age and regret that they have lost.

"Don't recognise these descriptions"? Oh, I'd assumed everyone was poor?!

When I grew up (50s) we lived on different levels of one tall terraced house, we were in the basement, granny/grandad on the ground floor, and auntie/uncle/cousin higher up (not sure I ever went up there!). I think we only had gas lighting, as it always seemed very dark? And though there was an inside toilet, there was a tin bath (takes a lot of hot water to fill).

Mum and dad managed to get a house when I was about 4, that had electric light, and a stove which heated water. But - no double glazing (you could get icicles on the INside!) and I think the 'washing machine' was mostly manual (I recall operating the mangle as a treat?!). We never ever had a car, and when I was about 12 we finally got a TV (it had a meter on the back, you needed a few spare coins as the timer always ran out at the end of a show). Then I finally got to know what other kids were talking about!

We did have a long garden, dad grew a lot of veg, about his only relaxation as he worked 6 days and did terrible shifts.

I recall that awful winter, snowdrifts covered the country, mid-Dec 62 to the start of March 63. Everything froze, but we still plodded and trudged to school, nowadays they're closed if the teachers have to put on a jumper?!

Goodness knows how we all coped wiv ar mental elf . . . . .

Tenko's childhood sounds so like mine.

So interesting to read about other people's childhoods. LikeGG13 and pollyester they are not the memories I have of growing up in the 60's

As a child we didnt have a fridge, telephone or car. We didn't have central heating either. Oh the excitement when we got a phone(with a party line). Then even more so when we got a car. Dad would take us out at the weekend on runs.

When I was 14, my family moved from a big Victorian house in London: no bathroom, outside loo, single-glazed wooden sash windows, soot-making fireplace in every room, no central heating, one tap serving the whole house (cold water only), neighbours we knew and trusted (our front door key hung on a string behind the letterbox). We ended up in a "new town", in a small ticky-tacky box with a square of dirt at the back enclosed by chain-link fencing, among a herd of other shell-shocked incomers who didn't even want to know each other. But we did have a bathroom, an immersion heater producing running hot water and a tiny cupboard off the kitchen which housed a twin-tub washing machine and the dog's bed (he was not best pleased with his change of accommodation and proceeded to gnaw the plaster off all the walls). Ironically, our old house sold for almost a million smackers not long ago (and no, it hasn't been "done up", nor has the surrounding borough yet become gentrified).

And without power none will be of any use! So a good old fashioned camping gas might come in handy🤣🤣🤣

The biggest change of all is technology, mobile phones in particular, we always has cookers, appliances, cars. Not the instant communication we have now, so much now relies on that one device

For better or worse!

I was born in the late 1950s and I don’t recognise some of the childhoods mentioned upthread . In the 60s we had a washing machine, black and white tv. Radio , record player. Fridge with a freezer compartment, electric oven and a telephone . Our number was a place name and a 4 digit number .
Our first house didn’t have central heating as it was an old house but it was the first thing my dad did . Our first car was a Ford Anglia. Mum used to drop my dad off at the station and pick him up in the evening, taking us kids with her , bouncing around on the back seat as there were no seatbelts .

Fuse boxes (and plugs) that don't need rewiring.
Soft toilet paper

No car until I was 13
No central heating until I was 12
No telephone
No fridge until we moved into our own home aged 12
No shower
No carpets, just Lino and a rug
Dad on shift work as he was a policeman
Mum a great housewife, home made food, clothes always put herself last
No fear of playing out or catching the bus into town on my own aged 8
No new bike ever..

NotAGran55

We didn’t have a car until I was 13.

Far too young to be driving!

The word ‘respect’ is bandied about a lot now, but I don’t think there is much respect really.

As a child of the 50’s, you ‘respected’ your parents, older relatives and older people in general.

You certainly respected your teachers, policemen, vicars, doctors, bank managers, in fact most people in positions of authority.

Wasn’t aware of your ‘rights’, but it didn’t seem such an issue back then.

Life just seemed so much simpler.

What we don’t have now is twice weekly bin collections. We had one metal bin, kept in an outside cellar, and due to the collections, mentioned above, it was enough for the three of us. Of course we didn’t have all the packaging that we have now.
We don’t have twice daily mail delivery like we had in the fifties!
Like many others, I didn’t live in a house with an inside toilet, or bath until I was sixteen. We had a paraffin stove to heat each of the two rooms. The kitchen sink was for everything, and no hot water tap, just the kettle on the two ring gas cooker. When we left that house in 1964, though there were twenty four families in the four tenement block, there was only one car.
We’ve seen massive changes.

I notice only one person mentioned not having a television. As a child that was more noticeable to me than the labour saving devices that helped my DM with the housework.
Some things will also depend, not just on financial background, but how old the poster is. 1940s born grans would have a lot less than 1960s born grans.

In the 1950’s at junior school DH was asked what was the best thing he had in his house he replied electric lights! They had just been installed.
Our first house 1890 had the only lavatory down the garden, the council did put a bathroom onto the back of the house free of charge! Weren’t we lucky.

MawsRosie Thank you. I love that sketch. One of my favourite lines is "We used to have to get up half an hour before we went to bed."

Like GG13 and PollyEster, my childhood was unlike most of those described.

Oh dear, are we going down that road again?

share.google/E9is7TDFBvLtchWWn

Georgesgran my parents had pubs with restaurants, we had a car (as did both sets of grandparents). We had dishwashers, washing machines, fridges and freezers. My grandparents had fridges with little ice boxes, just big enough for ice ream and ice cubes, one had a washing machine, the other had a spin dryer.

All had televisions, radios and record players, we also had a tape recorder.

I had holidays each year with grandparents, sometimes both sets at the same time, sometimes separately as well as holidays with parents. Cannot remember not having fashionable clothes as well as a dreadfully strictly adhered to school uniform.

I remember meeting my parents outside Selfridges, Oxford Street most Thursdays after school, it was a short bus journey from my grammar school.

Weekends with paternal grandparents involved local stables and going up to Carnaby Street with Grandpa where he worked. I was allowed to visit Galts Toy Shop and Liberty’s on my own whilst there from the age of 8.

With my maternal Granny, we would go to visit Great Aunties and Uncles, spending time outside with second cousins.

My mother worked as did both of my grandmothers.

I guess as an only grandchild of only parents until I was 12 I was fortunate.

My mum, a widow, worked full time so we 3 were farmed out during school holidays and were latchkey kids in term time.
I hated being minded at some random child minder and determined to be a SAH mum for my 4.
Did they even notice! 😩

Just curious GG13 and PollyEster
In what ways were your childhoods so different?

I didn’t have an inside loo until we left a privately rented property for a council house. We had a coal fire in one room and I had a plug in electric heater in my bedroom, only for undressing/dressing. Dad worked a 6 day week - being out of the 12 hours most days. He did get a car, but could only take it to work on Saturdays. He wasn’t much of a gardener, so we relied on my Grandad for most of our vegetables. I can remember a sort of wash tub, operated manually for laundry, until Mum got one much the same as Witzend describes.

However, there were plenty of kids around and we’d be out from dawn to dusk in the school holidays.