General Chat

Seems to have taken a diffrent direction. What were your childhoods like?

Hear Hear Lynda tho in times gone by i think Victorian would have been nice that's if you had a little money of course!!!

Sounds like you had a nice time when you were young (er). There must have been some bad things that arn't around today. I hear some people say that people are looking through `rose-tinted glasses`, when they desribe the good old days. What benefits are there that wern't around when you were a child?

I'm with Lynda and Chrissy, looking back they were lovelysafe days, did'nt have my own phone, tv or computer like the kids do today but I had my own bow and arrow like geronimo! Loved playing cowboy and indians, cops and robbers making go-karts out of old pram wheels, the kids of today would hate it, would'nt they? Lynda

oh dear, had my reply,ready in my head,only to find its a near copy of lynda's...the 50s will always be special,as thats when i was born,and brought up in south wales,by my granparents,we had a smallholding,chickens,pigs,a couple of dozen sheep.we were in a tiny village,on mountainside,overlooking the valley's,it was sooo peaceful,and very picturesque.doors were always open to friends and neighbours,my nan would sell them fresh eggs,fruit,and vegetables,and she was known for miles for her bread baking.we were surrounded by woodlands,so i would be out with my friends,from early morning,until we got really hungry.as we were so high up,we could see the steam trains going through the valleys,and the view at night,with all the valley lit up was breathtaking,money cant buy that,i stayed until the late 60s,but visit as often as i can...cos thats where my heart is,and ime sad now! bryan.

I've always looked upon the Georgian eran as quite an intresting time to live, if your well off. Over the top clothes, grand houses, meals that lasted for hours. My earliest proven ancestor was a wigmaker and employed others at his shop, so i always imagine him to have fancy wig on and all that.

Daniel, Child safety is always paramount and in the fifties you didn't have or hear of the terrible things that go on today,as was said earlier children could play safely and we were never bored and had HOBBIES not heard of much these days . Chrissy. x

Could it be that communication (such as T.V etc) was not as good at it was back then, and that in fact criminal activity did go on as it much as it does today, but it was just not reported?

I agree with all of you about the 50s and 60s i grew up in that time and another thing to add if ever i was naughty and i was pocket money stoped for a week and my mums hand round the backs of my legs i grew up to respect everyone. i would not like to be a child growing up now Margaret

Hi Daniel 40s to 70s although thier was a war on my early childhood was good used to get a clip from my mum nearly every day when i got home from school because i would either have the arse ripped out of my trousers or wet feet as there was a ford across the road and loads of trees to climb, and as i got older into the 50s & 60s and up to the 70s life was harder than it is now but life was slower people helped each other, now everyone seem to be in such a hurry, except this one redeeming thing we have the pouter. David

I reckon that the problems today, regarding the majority of crime are mainly because of two things: 1) Bad parenting 2) Justice System is a joke frankly Agree?

daniel,i dont think we had much crime,apart from the odd bit of poaching...in villages like ours,the police station was the bobbies house lol,just with a small plaque outside. lynda,i will look around the boot sales for a ..time machine..if i find one,i will post on here,see how many of us fancy going back...would be interesting,cos thinking of my gran dad,he was always in terrible pain,and its obvious now,that he had bowel,testicular,prostrate cancer..not sure which,as he never complained,just winced,every so often. the 50s must have been a good decade...it had all us lol. bryan.

Speak for yourself, ha ha

Hi Daniel I was born in 1966 (the year England won the world cup !! ) So I grew up remembering the late 70's and 80's. In the early days We had no central heating. After One cold night my glass of water had ice on the top of it by the morning ! There were little or no diet foods, no one blinked an eyelid using fat (lard) in cooking. Yogurts were full fat.Take away was mainly fish & chips.We had no microwave, no dishwasher and only had a colour telly when I was about 11. No automatic washing machine, mum had a twin tub with spin dryer.or it was a visit to the launderette. We had no sky tv, no channels 4 & 5.(when I was small)no playstation or x box. we did have a tv game which was two paddles knocking a ball accross the screen ! I played over the park till dusk, especially that long hot summer of 1976. no one bothered me, it was safe to play out in the street. There were bad things that happened but as said before, we only found out of certain things on the 10 oclock news or the newspaper. There were no mobile phones. 9 year old girls mainly were still acting & dressing, like 9 year old girls, not like 15 year olds. I was 16 in 1982 & loved the music. life seemed easy then but then again it was....I was a kid & was shielded from worry. Elaine x

Daniel When I was a child I didn't know any different, whereas now I can make comparisons. I'm not sure things were safer then, when I grew up the Krays were around, the Moors murderers were around, but I wasn't aware of them. We had to make our own amusements, but there were plenty of children in the close I grew up in to play with. Because it was a close, and there was hardly any traffic (I don't recall anyone owning a car when I was younger) it was quite safe to play in the road. If you got hurt, you went to the nearest house and whoever's mum was there would sort you out. Very simple things, like walking down to feed the horses at the riding school, or going blackberrying, were amusing to us. I think children now (and I work in a primary school, so this is based on what I see) have a very short attention span and too much stimulation. Helen

In 1947, when I was 4 and my sister 8, my father, who had stayed on in the army, was posted to Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Yes – where all the trouble is now). Can you imagine what it must have been like for my mother? Father had gone in advance, so she had to deal with packing up the house and getting us ready to travel to what was then considered one of the less healthy parts of the planet. We were inoculated against everything that you could be inoculated against and then shipped of to Africa on the P&O Steamship Elmanzora. I was 11 when we came back (apart from some leaves which I hated) and it was the most wonderful place you can imagine to be a kid in. School was from 8am ‘till 1pm because it was too hot in the afternoon. WE were allowed a freedom that can only be imagined by today’s children. We used to walk 3 miles to the beach and get a lift or catch a bus home. We strolled down to the local market where the native women with their babies strapped to their back would peel oranges (these had thin tough skins) so that we could drink the juice. We had mango trees, banana trees and a cashew tree in our garden and a big lawn at the back. No mowers to cut the grass so that was done by prisoners from the jail using razor sharp machetes and guarded by soldiers with no ammunition in their rifles. There is lots more but. Of course, I suffered horribly when we came back to England where some things were still “on ration” and everyone was so gloomy like the weather. Bob

daniel its not just bad parenting that the kids are like they are today. the government in the 80's stopped the cane or slipper in the schools and conscription was also stopped,if they had not stopped both those then there would be less crime today. the teachers and other adults were respected so the slipper /cane were rarely used.Conscription made men out of boys and a lot of the lads that went in army/navy/air force actually stopped in longer than the 3 yrs they had to do,they made it their careers.if i was naughty and we were outside the local policeman used to give me a clip round the ear then i would get another off my mother when she was told what i had done.no pocket money unless you ran errands for older people or you worked in the house.not like the kids nowadays where kids get at least a fiver to go out of the parents way.I enjoyed growing up in the 50's even though we had very little money I wouldn't like to be young now.(57yrs old). sue

I personally believe the cane should only be used in exceptional circumstances as it would open up so much human rights blah blah stuff in schools, costing the tax payer thousands. Conscription. The army says they wouldn't want yobs in the barracks and that today they would be bad for the British army's image. If i were in charge, conscription would only be forced upon people, male and female, over 18, not in a job or education that were just living on the dole making no effort to improve themselves. After a year, let them go, give them say, 6 months to get their act together. If not, back again. Just my opinion.

Imagine all the victorian wierdo teachers who beat the kids. Awful.

Hi, Daniel, What an interesting thread you've started . I read the boards everyday and know the names of the contributors quite well. How nice to read about their childhoods and my experiences were very similar to most of them ,having been born in 1940 . The 50s were my favourite years, footloose and fancyfree ,rock and roll , not a lot of money but a love of life and a very good and stable up-bringing with the usual discipline. I can feel my halo slipping because,hand on heart , I can honestly say I never . ever, back-chatted my mother and when I had my own babies she was full of sound advice which was never flawed and I wish now that I had shown MORE appreciation than I think I did. Keep up with your threads Daniel, you are one interesting young man and I'll bet your parents are very proud of you ! All the best son.........Joyce