50s/60s Britain and Now

[Joseph_Pestell]

2 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Murders were un heard of back when I was a nipper, 

 

You may not have been aware of them, but there were plenty. Until the recent rise in knife crime (nearly all related to drug traffic), murder rates were at record lows.

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

 

Getting a paper round – 12/6d a week.

 

Leaving school in July 1962 and starting  work as a clerk (runner) in a Barristers Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn - £5 per week.

 

You were well paid, I got a shilling a day for a paper round, half a crown for sunday with all the supplements. My first wage as an apprentice in 1965 was £2 18 shillings.

[Legend]

Buses that were the proper colour . Deep red or blue or green . Not the hideous purple/pink/turquoise things we have now

 

Smoking on the upper deck . As a little boy I loved the top deck, even though I've never smoked I must have inhaled a bucket full of tar!                             

 

I liked Johnsters description of the Bakelite telephone on the telephone table in the hall - thinking back why would you stick it out there!

 

And thinking back to TVs remember when they went on the blink and you had to call DER out , the guy appearing 2 or 3 days later - as a wee boy without telly seemed like an eternity . Modern tellies are a lot more reliable

 

And , of course , many people still didn't have fridges , so they had to go shopping every couple of days .

[Johann Marsbar]

7 hours ago, Kylestrome said:

Here's my list.

 

Things missed:

-

 

- Radio Caroline

 

David

 

Still going, 56 years later..........

http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html

Can get it here on the AM 648 frequency, (from the former BBC site at Orfordness, which could be said to be poetic justice..)  though the main channel is an album based format nowadays.

Try the Caroline Flashback online stream for the 50's-70's hits ! (Or this coming weekends "Caroline North" broadcasts in conjunction with Manx Radio)

[gordon s]

You’re pushing against an open door, so in no particular order.....

 

Trolley buses in London and Trams in Glasgow. The old brown ones with a separate compartment up front. No spitting signs in the trams.

 

Bread and dripping. Food of the Gods.

 

A sit up and beg Anglia with vacuum windscreen wipers that stopped when you put your foot down.

 

A Mini Cooper S that was state of the art, now outpaced by my wife’s Yaris.

 

1/2d return from Palmers Green return to KX.

 

1/3d to get into Spurs even though they had won the double.

 

Safe as houses to wander round London as a 10 year old.

 

5/- for a Twin Rover that got you everywhere.

 

The guy that came round our street every night with a hooked pole to turn on the gas street lights.

 

The coal man that came every other week or so. Coal came in bags and this big black faced guy (coal dirty) carried the bags through the house to the coal shed out back.

 

A paper round with the local sweet shop.

 

Kids in school with callipers and those of the Jewish faith having their own assembly in another room.

 

Sainbury’s in the High Street with their coloured tiles and bacon slicer.

 

The best smell in the world. Roads being tarred.

 

No traffic. Playing football in the street.

 

Playing football in the park with jumpers for goalposts, but checking for dog poo first. White was crumbly and OK, but the brown stuff was awful.

 

Press button A and B phones. Tapping the cradle rest for free phone calls.

 

Tardis Police Boxes plus Grey Ghost Velocettes.

 

......and there’s more. Dinner has arrived.....

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by gordon s

[cb900f]

Jubblies have been mentioned but I remember something very similar in shape but it was called firewater and dark red in colour.

 

 I don't think anyone has mentioned  the trolley, the basic get around used when you were 9 - 12yrs old.

 

My 1st bicycle at 11 yrs old for passing the 11 plus.

 

Life seemed simpler and a lot slower back then. People conversed face to face instead of using that techno wonder , the mobile phone.

 

Society is now far more selfish, ill disciplined (witness the ignoring of the lock down ), no morals or principles, no respect,  (witness the spitting by idiots ), greedy.

 

No doubt some one will have to disagree and no I am not looking through rose tinted glasses.

 

Pete

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Don't think it has been mentioned so far: the persistent message during our education that we must be prepared to put on a military uniform and serve as required at our nation's call. The physical discipline and physical fitness regimes for the boys were structured around this, and since the schools were co-ed it was very noticeable that the girls were treated very differently.

 

When we reached the age to ask our Headmaster why it was so, he told us that men under his command had been injured and killed because their schooling had let them down, specifically in respect of their moral, mental and physical development; and he had promised himself that if he was spared to make his planned career in education, no boy at a school he ran would leave inadequately prepared. Personally, I feel he did a great job. 

 

And on the 'unspoken' front. Because I was in a new town environment, there were regular child deaths from the then poorly understood and fatal leukaemia. Policy at the time was not to tell the children at school the cause, or even of the death. We got 'Sadly <insert deceased pupil name here> will not be returning to school'. This was the cause of considerable speculation among their fellow pupils, not least because the first two such deaths were of a girl and a boy who were often at the centre of whatever latest significant infraction of the rules had occurred. What had happened to them? Had they been took away to the much rumoured 'approved school' or something of that sort?  Quite recently at a funeral I encountered a former schoolmate who had been a near neighbour to one of the victims and still did not know what had happened over fifty years before...

 

As for proper buses, the winters were colder, but at least on a LC RT there was the lovely toasty bell housing of the Lanchester pre-selector gear (with its wondrous sound effects as a bonus) to melt out your feet. If you could get to it...

 

2 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

...I still remember the first Trident that buzzed us - I believe they had to alter the way these were flown as they were incredibly noisy...

Living under the De Hav's Hatfield circuit where each newly constructed Trident was test flown (and there were plenty of other noisy military and civilian DH products in that circuit too) lessons were interrupted as they roared, crashed and banged overhead, as hearing was impossible. And also Blue Streak rocket motor testing. I well recall a new geography teacher at the start of autumn term remarking on thunder from a completely clear blue sky. So she had to be educated...

 

 And a boy in my year lost his father in the Felthorpe 'deep stall' crash of a Trident out on test. We weren't told that at school either, but my Pa told me.

[gordon s]

....and there's more....

 

Taking the Metropolitan from Baker Street in the old compartment stock plus Sarah Siddons or equivalent up front. They rocketed through many of the stopping stations used  by other lines.

 

The island platform on the tube at Euston. Standard stock from the 20's on the Piccadilly and '38 stock on the Bakerloo. The new silver trains in the 60's.

 

Petrol at 4/10d a gallon. Paraffin at 2/-.

 

Bunking into London sheds with the nice railway guys turning a blind eye.

 

The arrival of scooters in the 60's and the freedom that mobility gave you.

 

York Road and the widened lines. Platform 16 at KX smelling of creosote from the platform on a hot summers evening.

 

Embassy records and Airfix kits in Woolworths.

 

Rock and roll. Six Five Special. Coffee bars and Juke Boxes.

 

Sunday school. Two way family favourites. Billy Cotton. The Navy Lark. The Goons. The arrival of Elvis and then The Beatles.

 

Spurs were really good.....

 

 

 

[Kylestrome]

25 minutes ago, gordon s said:

Two way family favourites. Billy Cotton. The Navy Lark. The Goons.

 

Sunday afternoon radio. 

 

Hancocks Half Hour, Beyond Our Ken, Around The Horne, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, The Clitheroe Kid are the other ones I can remember.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Kylestrome

[Steamport Southport]

11 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

 

Sunday afternoon radio. 

 

Hancocks Half Hour, Beyond Our Ken, Around The Horne, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, The Clitheroe Kid are the other ones I can remember.

 

Or an average day on Radio Four Extra....

 

Tonight: The Navy Lark and Dad's Army

Tuesday:  The Goon Show / Round The Horne

Wednesday:  Hancock's Half Hour

Thursday:  Frankie Howerd Show / I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again

Friday:   The Men From The Ministry

 

Plenty more on the iPlayer thing.

 

 

Jason

[hmrspaul]

Mention of Leukemia reminded me of our one death from that in our first or second year of grammar school, as mentioned. We did find out after the fact - just one boy in the class had been allowed into the secret and went to the hospital.

But earlier there had been polio. One of the kids down the street recovered from this, but it wasn't unusual to see others in calipers after surviving, and not all did.

 

I mentioned we were in the Heathrow catchment and one of the girls down our street, and later at the same grammar school and in my class, had her father killed in an aircrash on Christmas eve. He was an air engineer IIRC it was an empty positioning flight and they hit high wires. It was never really spoken of and I am still upset that a few months later we had to write a series of English essays based on the ideas of an air crash - based on Lord of the Flies although we didn't read the book.

 

A much nicer experience was the next door neighbours bringing home a baby - adopted. So carefully chosen as parents that when she grew up she looked more like her step mother than almost any biological mother/daughter I've ever seen.

 

Paul

 

[Kylestrome]

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Or an average day on Radio Four Extra....

 

Tonight: The Navy Lark and Dad's Army

Tuesday:  The Goon Show / Round The Horne

Wednesday:  Hancock's Half Hour

Thursday:  Frankie Howerd Show / I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again

Friday:   The Men From The Ministry

 

Plenty more on the iPlayer thing.

 

Jason

 

If you live in the UK ... 

[Ohmisterporter]

Family favourites and the Billy Cotton Band show.

 

Spangles.

 

Liquorice sticks that looked like a piece of twig.

[Steamport Southport]

20 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

 

If you live in the UK ... 

 

Look elsewhere. They are out there....

 

Obviously I won't link to anything. But I'm pretty sure most of it is now on YouTube.

 

 

 

Jason

[Guest]

Kylestrom

If you have an Apple device there is an app that has radio 4 extra....RADIO UK

[TheQ]

17 minutes ago, Ohmisterporter said:

Family favourites and the Billy Cotton Band show.

 

Spangles.

 

Liquorice sticks that looked like a piece of twig.

Forces favourites... 

 

Meat safe in the pantry ,

 

Home made " go carts " with pram wheels,  I still bear a scar on my right hand due to one of them. 

 

Blueys from relatives in the military,  mind you I was sending them in the early 90s.

[Guest]

I certainly miss NOT being a slave to an electronic device that wants/needs a dammed password for almost every action in life.

life was so much simpler when we were kids, and on the whole the world seemed better.

 

Colin

[PatB]

Whilst I can't remember the 60s (I can pinpoint my earliest memories as early 1970), a lot of the things mentioned in this thread are still familiar. 

 

Has anyone mentioned scampi? That strangely coloured and, apparently, reconstituted crustacean that appears to have gone extinct c1978. Given that it's never been filmed by Mr Attenborough, and, indeed, the only mainstream mention outside the food industry has been in Fingerbobs (not a reliable zoological reference, apparently), I remain sceptical of its existence. 

[Reorte]

6 minutes ago, PatB said:

Whilst I can't remember the 60s (I can pinpoint my earliest memories as early 1970), a lot of the things mentioned in this thread are still familiar. 

 

Has anyone mentioned scampi? That strangely coloured and, apparently, reconstituted crustacean that appears to have gone extinct c1978. Given that it's never been filmed by Mr Attenborough, and, indeed, the only mainstream mention outside the food industry has been in Fingerbobs (not a reliable zoological reference, apparently), I remain sceptical of its existence. 

Scampi was a treat when I was a child in the 80s.

 

Going for my one walk a day today I was reminded of some things I wish I could've seen from the 50s and 60s - walking past what's left of Gowhole Sidings. The turntable pit is still there but most of the rest is scrubby trees, with just the double track main line remaining (and all that passed on that was a 150, as far as I could tell through those trees).

[The Johnster]

5 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

based on Lord of the Flies although we didn't read the book.

 

We did; it was the set curriculum book in 4th form.  We were also shown the film in the assembly hall.  Then we were ordered to write an essay on the subject of what we thought was the societal message contained in the book, which was of course supposed to be that children revert to savagery when deprived of the wisdom and guidance of their elders and betters.  I wan't 'avin' any of that, and I rather liked writing essays, so I turned in one of my best ever explaining that the savagery of the marooned children was inevitable given that the wisdom and guidance of their elders and betters had been so lacking that they'd allowed a nuclear war to develop, which was what necessitated the boys' evacuation, during which they'd been wrecked and stranded on the island.  With that sort of example, what did you expect?

 

I was called into the headmaster's office and told that 'you'll never get anywhere with that attitude, boy'.  He was quite right, I never did!  Never stopped me continuing to have 'that attitude', though...

Edited April 7, 2020 by The Johnster

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, PatB said:

Whilst I can't remember the 60s (I can pinpoint my earliest memories as early 1970), a lot of the things mentioned in this thread are still familiar. 

 

Has anyone mentioned scampi? That strangely coloured and, apparently, reconstituted crustacean that appears to have gone extinct c1978. Given that it's never been filmed by Mr Attenborough, and, indeed, the only mainstream mention outside the food industry has been in Fingerbobs (not a reliable zoological reference, apparently), I remain sceptical of its existence. 

 

Scampi is still about. Usually found in pretentious restaurants run by "celebrity chefs" or in seaside resorts in places like the South West.

 

It is real.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scampi

 

But seafood in general fell out of fashion years ago. Now everyone seemingly eats nothing but chicken. I don't think many major cities and towns even have chippies anymore. It's all the big name chains or copies (often called something Fried Chicken but not Kentucky).

 

 

 

Jason

[eastglosmog]

6 hours ago, PatB said:

....................

Has anyone mentioned scampi? That strangely coloured and, apparently, reconstituted crustacean that appears to have gone extinct c1978. Given that it's never been filmed by Mr Attenborough, and, indeed, the only mainstream mention outside the food industry has been in Fingerbobs (not a reliable zoological reference, apparently), I remain sceptical of its existence. 

Scampi is still to be found in our local Coop frozen foods section. 

[unravelled]

Born in 1950, I remember being taken in the pram to get my free orange juice supply. I remember it as a thick syrupy liquid.

One thing which disappeared when I was young were shop made ice lollies. Our local bakery, Blenkoes, used to make  lollies in small glass moulds, but this just stopped. It was years later that I learned that new hygene regulations had banned them after some food poisoning deaths.

Paraffin stoves. A 5 gallon drum in the coal cellar, lugged out  to be refilled at a local shop, or later from the back of a lorry. Pink or Esso blue, only from esso blee doolers of course. Esso blue was heavily advertised

Scooters were for little kids. We rode them to infants school, but were assumed to have grown out of them by junior school. Only one boy made the mistake of taking ths scooter on the first day of junior school.

 

Just to add one thing I recognised a few days ago as not having changed in longer than my lifetime. 48 sheet  advertising posters are a real survivor, and I was trying to think of other things which have lasted so well almost unchanged. Of course the production technology has certainly changed. and there are more safety options available to the posters now. If it's not too much of  a stretch for the topic are there any similar long lasting things about?

 

[caradoc]

14 hours ago, cb900f said:

Society is now far more selfish, ill disciplined (witness the ignoring of the lock down ), no morals or principles, no respect,  (witness the spitting by idiots ), greedy.

 

No doubt some one will have to disagree and no I am not looking through rose tinted glasses.

 

Pete

 

I will have to disagree !!

 

There are selfish, idiotic and violent people around now, just as there have always been, although perhaps in our present age of instant mass communication their misdeeds are publicised far more than ever before. However, regarding respect in days gone, not much was shown towards ethnic minorities, gays, unmarried mothers, the Irish, travelling people.......the list goes on. IMHO that is one area in which society today, while certainly still nowhere near perfect, is immeasurably better.

 

Anyway, I still miss individual fruit pies at station buffets, along with BR tea the spotter's staple diet.......

 

[MJI]

5 minutes ago, caradoc said:

 

I will have to disagree !!

 

There are selfish, idiotic and violent people around now, just as there have always been, although perhaps in our present age of instant mass communication their misdeeds are publicised far more than ever before. However, regarding respect in days gone, not much was shown towards ethnic minorities, gays, unmarried mothers, the Irish, travelling people.......the list goes on. IMHO that is one area in which society today, while certainly still nowhere near perfect, is immeasurably better.

 

Anyway, I still miss individual fruit pies at station buffets, along with BR tea the spotter's staple diet.......

 

 

The apple pies often found in RMBs, I used to really like those.