Things most have now that we didn’t have

watermeadow

This thread just divides people into the Haves and the Have Nots according to class.

It’s not how you start but how you finish.
Mr P was able retire at 53 in 2003 and me one year later.

We weren't poor but we were working class. My mother worked full time and most families around us had a stay at home mother. My parents were buying our little house, they were the first to buy rather than rent in their families but money was very tight. They always paid cash and my father had a part time job at the weekend which was saved for big items. It's only when I look back that I appreciate how hard they worked and how little they had to show for it. Life was lived pretty much on a week to week existence. I remember going to a friends house in the early 60s and seeing how many tins of food they had in the pantry and being totally astounded at the sight. We only ever had a tin of salmon and a couple of other tins to make a quick pudding just in case someone arrived unexpectedly for tea!

Very true Sago

watermeadow

This thread just divides people into the Haves and the Have Nots according to class.

I hate to refer to anyone in terms of class.

I do not believe the class you were born into matters, a good education and upbringing creates social mobility.

As a said earlier in the thread, I was well provided for materially but raised by an aggressive Father and narcissistic Mother, my life was grim.

An indoor toilet and a bath can never compensate for love.

PollyEsther

I have and I don't understand.

I just bet you do.

watermeadow

This thread just divides people into the Haves and the Have Nots according to class.

Yes, if your Dad was a doctor rather than a dustman you would be bound to have had a different life growing up.
The same if you were born in 1948 or 1968.
Recollections will vary 😁

I have and I don't understand.

Daddima

Peacelilydilly

We didn't have a
Car
Washing machine
Shower
Central heating
Lots of clothes
Fast food

What we did have was
Lots of love
Feeling safe in our own country
Safe playing outside with your friends
Our own doctor where he knew all about you and you just went to the surgery and he saw you no appointment needed.
Home cooked food every night
Law and order

What we have lost
Our country and way of life
Respect for the police and law and order on our streets
Respect for our national monuments
Respect for our veterans

Feeling like a foreigner in your own country in some areas.

England especially London where I was born

I most certainly have not ‘lost my country and my way of life’.
Can you tell us what you can’t do now that you used to do in your old way of life, and how your way of life has changed?

Peacelillydilly 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Daddima have you lived in London in the last 20 years?! If so you would understand.

watermeadow

This thread just divides people into the Haves and the Have Nots according to class.

Not class -disposable income.
Which at our age is an indication of whether or not one has a private/occupational pension and how generous that is.

This thread just divides people into the Haves and the Have Nots according to class.

I grew up in a reasonably privileged home but without any love.

I was so jealous of a girl at primary school who went to the “ baths” once a week, she had a lovely mum and dad a dog called Tatty and a big brother.

They were such a loving family, I once went to tea at her house, her mum sent us to the launderette to do the washing, I thought it was so exciting.

My horrible mother only tolerated our friendship because they were good Catholics, her Uncle was a priest so that made up for the lack of a bathroom.

I wonder what our great grandchildren won't be able to live without that we live quite happily without because it's not been invented yet!

I didnt have my own bed until 18, when I left home to join RAF.
No central heating until around age 12
No colour TV until around 12
No car at home
No shower, just a bath to share water
Only pop with Sunday lunch - one glass
One pair of shoes
One coat
Sixpence spend per week
Mum had top loader machine with a mangle
Food saved for Dad was reheated over a pan of water with a plate on top to steam heat

Peacelilydilly

We didn't have a
Car
Washing machine
Shower
Central heating
Lots of clothes
Fast food

What we did have was
Lots of love
Feeling safe in our own country
Safe playing outside with your friends
Our own doctor where he knew all about you and you just went to the surgery and he saw you no appointment needed.
Home cooked food every night
Law and order

What we have lost
Our country and way of life
Respect for the police and law and order on our streets
Respect for our national monuments
Respect for our veterans

Feeling like a foreigner in your own country in some areas.

England especially London where I was born

I most certainly have not ‘lost my country and my way of life’.
Can you tell us what you can’t do now that you used to do in your old way of life, and how your way of life has changed?

Mother thought we had really arrived when we got a vacuum cleaner.

No fridges, washing machines, car, phone, central heating, showers , record player. or fitted carpets. And still on pay slot gas and electric meters. Awful furniture.

The above all arrived at our house from the late Fifties/ early Sixties onwards along with Man Made Fibres and North Sea Gas.

Sounds like something from The Flintstones.

But we did have a really good Tele and a tropical fish aquarium and a cat.

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.