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Population Considerations
Life expectancy (at birth) was 68 years.
Babies dying
in the first year of their life were three times the current level.
An unmarried couple living together was rare.
Despite many couples choosing not to get married nowadays, divorce is at least
five times more common now.
Britain And The World
The red on the world map was
proudly showing the British Empire. Britain owned the Empire and had won the
war, and was therefore superior. Hoardings with the slogan “Britain leads the
world in … ” were commonplace.
Large-scale immigration from the Empire had not yet started. When coloured
immigration started, they were regarded as dirty and inferior. Discrimination
was openly practiced.
Germany had not been forgiven for the war. Russia was now a new enemy.
British goods were superior. The Far East had not yet become an industrial
threat to British industry.
The Common Market had not yet been formed.
Wealth
Decimal currency was introduced
in 1971. Before that, there were 240 old pennies in a pound.
In Britain in 1950, real incomes roughly half of that in 1990.
Couples had larger families and most lived in two bedroom flats or houses.
More women were housewives.
Wages were paid weekly in cash, normally on a Friday.
Few people had bank accounts. There were no credit cards. Hire purchase and “Providence
Cheques” were available.
There were many more second hand shops and pawnbrokers.
You could sell old clothes, newspapers and scrap metal to “Rag And Bone”
shops.
Christmas stockings contained an orange and an apple.
Food
There were no supermarkets.
There were far more corner shops, but there was no self-service. As many items
were not pre-packed, they required weighing or counting.
Food shopping was a daily event in the absence of home refrigerators. All shops
closed by six o’clock. Sunday shopping was severely restricted by law.
There were still the remnants of wartime rationing.
There was a daily delivery service of bread, milk, and newspapers available. The
“Corona” lemonade man called weekly.
In the absence of butter and margarine, dripping (animal fat) was commonly used
on bread.
Cooking was by gas with a coin meter.
Fish and chip shops were the only fast food outlets.
Cleaning And Heating
There was no hot running water
or central heating. Heating was by coal fire. In the winter, it was common to
have fog and smog. In later years, coal was replaced by coke and paraffin.
Daily bathing was in the sink with cold water. On Sundays, it was in a tin bath
with hot water in the sitting room.
The coalman made weekly visits.
Deodorants and antiperspirants were not generally used.
Washday was a big event in the absence of washing machines and laundrettes.
Mangles were used to squeeze water out of the washing. There were washhouses
where you could do hand washing.
People cleaned their path and the pavement in front of the house daily.
Houseflies in towns were dramatically more common than now. Sticky strips would
be hung from the ceiling to kill them.
Education
There were no Comprehensive
schools. Senior school were either the better Grammar schools or (for the great
majority) Secondary Modern with pupil selection by the “11 Plus” exam in the
last year at junior school.
The schools were smaller and there were many more of them. School class sizes
were over 40 pupils. The Grammar schools had the luxury of class sizes of about
34 pupils. It was normal to leave school without any academic qualifications at
15 years of age, the minimum school leaving age, except for Grammar schools
where it was normal to leave at the age of 16 after taking G.C.E. “O” Level
exams.
Corporal punishment was normal, even in infant schools.
Children should be seen and not heard. Empty vessels make the most noise.
Home Entertainment
The only electrical device in
most homes was the radio. There were very few English-speaking radio stations
and the playing of records was severely restricted. It was a golden age for
radio with some excellent serials (Dan Dare etc.) and comedies.
Half the homes in Britain had a television by 1956. The screen size was about 23
cm. Colour television did not arrive until much later. There was only one TV
channel (BBC1). There were no daytime programs until the afternoon when children’s
programs started. Evening programs finished early.
Wind-up gramophones using fragile “78” records were normal. Records were
expensive by today’s standards. Rock and Roll had not arrived.
Leisure And Entertainment
There were no bingo halls.
Lyons teashops were in every high street, where you could spend hours
socialising over one cup of tea.
Family holidays were a day trip to the seaside. If you were lucky, there was
possibly a “Works Outing” and a “Workingmen’s Club Outing”.
There were many more cinemas and you had to queue to get in for the cheap seats.
The presentation was usually two films. From memory, the films were mainly
westerns and war films. The National Anthem was played at the end of the last
show. There was a stampede to get out of the cinema before it started.
Saturday morning cinema for children was a big event.
It was the very tail end of the Music Hall era.
Play Areas
Street lighting was by gas
lamps. In the absence of much traffic, it was much safer to play in the street.
Neighbours kept an eye on kids in the street. You did not give them any cheek.
They would report any wrongdoings to your parents and you would be punished.
There was a rubbish dump, the canal, the canal feeder, and several wartime
bombsites that were used for play.
Transport
There were very few privately
owned cars. In my street of 100 houses, there were about six cars.
Trolley buses and trams were the norm. Most trains were steam powered.
Canal traffic was dramatically higher than it is now.
Keeping In Contact
There were very few home
telephones.
Letter writing was far more common.
Urgent news, such as a death in the extended family, was sent by telegram.
Drugs
Society did not have a drug
problem.
Crime
There was crime.
There were gangs of troublesome teenagers.
There was capital punishment.
Conscription
Conscription was still in force
for intake of teenagers into the Armed Forces.
Gender Roles
Male and female roles had
changed very little from Victorian times.
The man was the breadwinner whose word was law. He did not play a big part in
the raising of children apart from enforcing and maintaining discipline. A woman’s
place was in the scullery (kitchen).
There was no sex equality in the workplace.
Social Standing
The police, doctors, teachers,
“toffs”, and royalty were very highly respected.
If you were working class, you were proud of it, but you knew your place in the
social order.
Irish And Welsh Nationalism
There were very rare acts of
minor sabotage by extremists who were regarded as lunatics.
The modern Irish Troubles did not begin until the 1960’s.
The Good Old Days
In whatever era you grow up,
childhood should be the happiest days of your life. With age, people often look
back through rose tinted glasses. I remember my upbringing as the bad old days
that should have been relegated to the history books. As society is progressing
in material wealth, I see with sadness, that the same mistakes of bad parenting
are still being passed from one generation to the next.
Stating the Obvious
I have found compiling this
section difficult, as so much of it must seem blindingly obvious to anyone of my
generation. I suspect that if these notes are to have any interest, it will be
to the next generation.
These notes were originally very brief and written following attending a
self-realisation course. As the notes have grown in size, boredom has seriously
set in.
I would welcome any contributions to this section.