General Chat

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Hoping for a good response on this one, and is aimed at anyone who has lived through different eras - however you want to define the term 'era', e.g. 50s 60s 70s etc. * Is it possible to compare eras? * Do you think we are better off now in terms of quality of life or were things better at some other point in time? * Does nostalgia obscure our judgement somewhat? * Do you think at some point in the future, we will look back at now and think that things weren't as bad as we might make out at this present moment in time? OK, I know it's a Monday morning but the floor is yours!

Although I was a small child in the 50's I do remember the allegiance and respect that friends and neighbours had for each other. It was comforting and made the world seem a better place to grow up in. Maybe it was because there had been a war on, I don't know. There is probably a lot more to say about this subject, but at the moment I have'nt the time. May add more later. Jo.

I particularly remember the 50s and 60s as good times. Full employment, teenage years, and many other good things like respect for Authority etc. Today we take for granted a lot of the things which were not around then, TV, Cars, Computers, Microwaves, etc. A lot has changed but in many cases not for the better. It seems to me that as soon as something is working properly the Powers that Be want to tinker with it and end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This Era must surely be defined as the Time of Owning rather than the Time of Being.

Well said Lynda! We should all remember good times we've had in the past but also be thankful for what we have in the present and the fact that we've made it thus far! Ju x

Interesting thread Andy Childhood spanned the 60s and 70s but it's the latter I remember most. Occasionally I get very nostalgic, but on the whole I don't think the 70s were particularly happy or productive years. On a personal note I was a teenager full of angst and not enough dedication to study - boy would I do it differently now! More generally, the 70s were full of political strife and financial hardship. May I recommend the new BBC2 drama on Tuesday evenings, The Rotters Club, which seems to have summed it up pretty well. Each era means different things to different people according to how their life was at that time. We don't always look at the bigger picture. I try to live in the moment and to be a good person. My life isn't necessarily the way I imagined it and nor is the world, but I make a difference where I can and the rest I accept. Good Monday morning thought provoking stuff. Thanks! Daisy

Jim - have to agree with you. Also you worked and saved to buy things for your home. Remember when I first got a carpet square and my first fitted carpet - well it was a wonder it didn't wear out I looked at it that much! Young couples then did not expect to begin married life with all the conveniences which their parents may have had and which had taken them a lifetime to achieve. Ann

Hi Andy, I was a child in 1950s South London. It was full of bomb sites, and reconstruction sites. We still had ration books when I was very young, and people had to cope with shortages. Hardly anybody could afford to own a car (my family now own one each), and there were no supermarkets or shopping malls. We got the bus to the 'High Streets' of Peckham, Brixton or Walworth to do the everyday shopping and then had to struggle to carry heavy bags up to our 4th floor flat. We didn't have a fridge (we now have 3) or a TV (only monochrome and 2 channels) (we now own 5!) until I was 9, and the only means of recording media broadcasts was a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which not many could afford. Only the local butcher had a freezer (we now have 3). We ate fresh food because we had to and shopped every few days (we now shop once a month and stock up weekly on perishables). Until the new council estates were built in the 1950s, just up the road from our Edwardian flats, it was quite common for people not to have bathrooms in their homes, or to share them, or to use the public baths once a week. Laundry was mostly done by hand (I now have machines to do it). To my family, the new council flats up seemed rather 'posh', but my family weren't allowed to have one, despite our being cramped in a 2-bedroom flat and really needing separate bedrooms for my brother and I, as they were allocated to people on a strict points system, and there were others worse off for accommodation since the end of World War II, when many were housed in prefabricated bungalows or overcrowded, multi-occupancy Victorian/Edwardian houses. (We now live in a 4-bed, det. house with large rooms, 2 bathrooms and good-sized gardens.) London in the 1960s was a marvellousl place for a fun-loving teenager, and I remember those days with relish, as do many other Board users, according to postings I've seen, but my son and his friends seem to have just as much fun in London now. They're always emailing or texting each other - something my generation could never do. Like us, most people didn't even have a phone - it cost too much. Gradually, my life has improved and, like many others, my family and I became more prosperous through working hard, using our resources wisely and being able to weather the financial crises that hit everyone during the 1970s and 1980s, which were a struggle. Now, like many with similar beginnings, according to Goverment surveys I'm considered 'Middle Class' (a meaningless term, in my opinion), and have a very different lifestyle from the one I was born to. I see things happening around me now (anti-social behaviour, crime) that I don't like and changes to things I'd prefer to have stayed as they were (peace & quiet, uncrowded public transport), but for me, life is about as good as I've ever wanted it to be - and only health problems prevent me from fully enjoying it. So, in the main, I'd say that life is generally far better now than it was, but my son (roughly your age) is always moaning about not being able to afford a new car or to move out of the family home, and I can't say I'd want to be setting out on the property ladder or starting a family now! CB >|<

I remember putting this sort of question to my grandparents back in the early 90s, as part of a 6th form college project, and it ended up spawning a whole afternoons worth of conversation. The question was more to do with comparing the 30s with the present day and I tackled the question on a series of fronts. For instance, comparing the price of goods back then with now, take home wage, price of first house, crime, health, entertainment, you name it. Whilst they concluded that given the choice, life was better then, it was fascinating gaining an insight into how they thought. Hence, why I was interested in raising the question again to see what others thought.

Hi Andy, I was born in 1961 and I think through the generations there has always been a tendancy to look at the past through 'rose tinted glasses', and no doubt this will continue in future generations when they look back. In reality, living through 'the good old days', there were a lot of hardships and things that are best left in the past. However as the world changes, and we hear more about crime, drugs, and all the other bad things that are happening nowadays it's perhaps easier to look back and think the old days were better. Personally I think a lot of things changed toward the end of the 70's. Up until then most people in your neighbourhood tended to have the same standard of living as yourself, wether you were" the haves or the have nots', so were your neighbours and friends. We didn't have much, but then neither did those around us, so there wasn't the same jealousies or bullying amongst kids about who has designer gear and who hadn't. As a kid I could name everyone who lived in my street and had probably been in all of their houses at one time or another. I don't think my own kids could even tell you who lives accross the road from us now. I love to look back and remember the 'good old days' but as the world will continue to change, I reckon my kids will look back fondly on these days too. Christine

NO - each one stands alone. How can you compare the 'climate' of the 40's (war torn) to the affluence/debt-ridden 90's? I would comment though, so soon after Christmas, that our children are 'poor' as they have lost the sense of appreciation/pleasure that a simple toy can bring - they are deluged with material things! But some of them lack the most important thing - love and security........... Born in the forties

G'day Andy. I was born in the late 40s, but the 50s were really the times i remember most. I was born in Australia, so our culture slightly differed from other Countries, but only slightly. We lived in the back lanes of Richmond in Victoria. People in these area's were very freindy and called in at all times of the day and night. There was no such thing as a locked door, and folk came and went. We were grotty kids, but happy kids. We bathed in a wash trough, one child after the next. The girls played "jacks" and "hopscotch" and the boys played marbles. ( Cages, Bloodeyes,Tombolers,) were some i can remember. We also built our own Billy-carts, with pram wheels or ball bearing racers. On a saturday afternoon we would get 3 pence, for chores done, and go to the "flicks" or Picture Theatre if you like. Every Sunday we were taken to Church by our mother, and when we got home our dad would be sitting on the front Verandah ( Porch) with his mates, and having a few sherberts ( Beers.) while playing his guitar. Us kids would go and change into our playing clothes, and go down to the river and climb the trees. ( Cubby house.)We had a inner tube that we would float down the river, and the idea was to climb out on a branch over the river and jump into the inner tube, as it passed by underneath. If you got a bullseye, you got one lollie from each of your mates. If you missed the Inner tube, you gave a lollie. But i guess they dont do things like that anymore. With T.V and all the electrical and computerized fandangle things they have on the shelves these days, kids dont play in the streets anymore. But thats progress ( I think!!!!!! ) Tony Oz.

Andy, what a great thread. I really do hope you get loads of replies. I was born in December 1954, so have also lived through a few "eras". We all know things have changed tremendously. Some for the better, some for the worse. I personally think the world is a less safer place to live in nowadays. I can remember someone telling me when I was very young that the Bible says ( Man will get too clever for its own good.) That is not an exact quote bye the way. I may have the words mixed up. I have always felt this to be very true. I think many of us on here will be now thinking back and saying to their selves, "I cannot really answer this question Andy has asked us" because we will be all thinking of our own personal experiences of what life has dealt out to us over the years. Some that we had no control over, when we were young and some things that we did but wished we had not. Not forgetting the things that we wished we had done if only we were a little wiser. Yes, the 60's were totally different to the 50's. Just the same as the 70' 80's and so on were. Good God, just look at the state of the world now. I can remember three little girls being murdered in the Midlands where i originally come from.. Margeret Reynolds from Aston, Dianne Tift from Bloxwich and Christine Derby from Caldmore Green in Walsall. I must have been about 9years old. All murdered by the same beast, Raymond Morris. We were not allowed out for months on end. This is still happening now more often. Why has the laws not changed to deter it from happening. Then we had or teenage years. According to our family cirumstances, we took a gamble on what to do when the end of our schooling had finished. Some of us had no choice, even if we were clever. If we had a poor upbringing all we wanted to do was get a job, so to have money in our pockets to buy things that our parents could not afford. Eras do change. It is only natural as man gets cleverer. Is it for the best??? Well one does have to wonder. Sorry to have rambled on so much and probably not really touched the subject you really wanted to talk about. Just put it down to my age and hormones. Thats what everyone else sems to do just lately. LOL. Jenny.x

That's ok Jenny, the scope of my original question(s) was pretty much endless. Having been up to the west coast of Scotland for the last couple of years, I wonder how much life has changed up there over the years - especially in the most remote parts. Whenever I've been up there, I remember thinking that all around me seemed so far removed from life elsewhere in Britain that it did give the impression of a place where time stood still.

When I think back to my childhood in the 40s and 50s I remember how we all used to sit around the fire in the living room because it was the only warm place in the house. Now we have central heating, all rooms are used and children have their own TVs and games machines in their rooms so they probably spend less time with their parents. The attitude to money, borrowing and debt has changed such a lot too. My parents didn't have much money and wouldn't dream of having anything on hire purchase. My mother-in-law was very worried about us having a mortgage in the 60s and the amount we could borrow back then was based upon my husband's wages only. Most of us have credit/debit cards now which makes it easier to borrow and get into debt and it seems that once we have one credit card it becomes easier to get others. Heather

Andy, slightly off subject, but I know what you mean about time standing still up in the Highlands. I remember renting a cottage on Skye in the 90's and asking the woman about the key. She just laughed and said "We don't have one as we never have to lock the door" ! I've also been to places up there where you are asked to leave the entrance fee and help yourself to your change! But sadly even those places are changing as the 'modern' world encroaches on them. Things such as the Skye bridge and a lot more 'incomers' moving in have changed it. Christine

Christine, I can well believe it about not having to lock your door. I know of one relative who lives in a remote area (not in Scotland) and still doesn't bother locking the door and laughs whenever we automatically put the 'Crook-lock' on the car steering wheel whenever we visit. I went up to Kyle last September and got talking to one local about the Skye Bridge and was aghast that they don't have some kind of permit. So, anyone living in Kyleakin just over the bridge on Skye and needs to go shopping in Kyle on the mainland, has to pay roughly a fiver for the privilege to go there and back. Anyway I digress from the main subject.

Andy and Christine, You've given me an idea. David and I were wondering where we should move to when he retires in a few years. We'd love to be in a place 'where time has stood still' and get away from the ratrace we've always lived in. Not sure about the weather up in the North of Scotland, though! CB >|<

Have any of you ever been to the Black Country Museum or Beamish up in the North East? They are both fantastic, although I do prefer The Black Country Museum. I would really love to live in one of the old houses. Just two up and two down type. Ok it would have to be in the country with a little brook flowing though. Kettle on the big black range, socks and knickers drying there also. Candles etc. Not too sure about the outside loo bit, but could cope with the old tin bath in the front of the fire bit, as long as hubby was there to keep pouring the kettle of hot water in and scrub me back. Go to the shops on a daily basis for the days food. No curries or fancy foods to worry about. Up with the larks in a morning and flop into a very soft feather mattress with a big feather eiderdown on top, at around 9pm each night. Make my own bread, beer and wine. No children to worry about. Oh it would be just great. What a sad person I really must be. Jenny.x

Have they tried a reality tv series where 'celebrities' are forced to live for a fortnight as their ancestors may have done? I know they did that series (That'll teach them) where kids of today experienced a 1950s style education, and that was worth watching. Have been to Beamish before but not for some time.